Matt Frassica

BigApps and transparency

Matt — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:25:04 +0000

Today on Next American City I have a piece on Mayor Bloomberg’s NYC BigApps competition, whose winners were announced earlier this month. The competition selected the best app to take advantage of a new mine of government data, with a $5,000 prize and lunch with the mayor up for grabs. But there was more at stake than rent money and a fancy meal – BigApps, like Washington, D.C.’s Apps for Democracy, signals the city’s intention to make municipal information more transparent and accessible. The winning entries were transportation apps, but good government groups hope that opening up government data will improve officials’ accountability in the long run. For that reason, the administration’s resistance to efforts in the City Council to make city data available automatically has raised some concerns about Bloomberg’s commitment to transparency – as has the administration’s refusal to make public the traffic report on the Broadway closures and the NYT’s recent stories on the manipulation of crime data. You can read the story here.

Bankrolling transportation reform

Matt — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:19:39 +0000

My profile of financier and transportation reformer Mark Gorton appears in this week’s New York Observer, you can read it here. Gorton’s been profiled before, mostly for his financial wizardry (the quantitative hedge fund he founded needed trades so fast none of the electronic brokerages he worked with could satisfy him, so he started his own), but this piece focuses on the role he has played in the recent massive changes to New York City’s street design – notably the blocking off of Broadway in Times Square to traffic. Gorton’s non-profit runs Streetsblog, probably the best and most influential source for opinionated news on transportation issues in New York and D.C.

Study: Subprime Loans Went to Minority-Heavy Neighborhoods

Matt — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:55:04 +0000

Residents of largely non-white neighborhoods in New York City were far more likely to receive a subprime loan than those in largely white neighborhoods, regardless of the borrower’s race, according to a new study from NYU’s Furman Center.

The study, which controlled for differences in income and loan amounts, found that African-American borrowers living in neighborhoods with the lowest share of non-white residents had a 24 percent chance of receiving a subprime loan. That number increased to 38 percent if the borrower lived in a neighborhood with the highest share of non-white residents. More>

East Villagers, Unite! Documentary on Ending Poverty Rich in Critiques

Matt — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:46:37 +0000

It wasn’t all doom and gloom at Friday’s premiere of “The End of Poverty?” at Village East Cinemas. The film, which traces the origins of global poverty back to the Age of Exploration, offers a reason for hope: things might soon get so bad that the impoverished will rise up in armed rebellion.

The documentary, narrated by Martin Sheen, argues that economic imperialism is the cause of widespread poverty in the Southern Hemisphere. According to the film, international economic policymakers at the IMF and World Bank ransom the natural resources of poorer countries, using coercive loans and crushing debt. At the same time, “structural violence” left over from colonialism has rendered these nations helpless, passive witnesses to their own despoliation. More>

Splendor in the Glass: Shards in the Carpet at NYPL Party

Matt — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:00:30 +0000

The New York Public Library’s Young Lions benefit party Monday night got off to an innocuous start. Library donors in their 20s and 30s gathered under the glass dome of the Bartos Forum in the main branch at 42nd Street, avoiding the dance floor while the DJ spun hits from their youth (Whitney Houston, etc.).

The night was optimistically titled “A Bright Future,” and a giant inflatable light bulb suspended from the dome’s peak reinforced the theme. More>

Designer Jacobs Lauded by Pratt as Trustee is Carried Out on Stretcher

Matt — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:57:46 +0000

“For me, a legend is someone I look up to and I respect and admire, and I guess I’m not there yet for myself,” said designer Marc Jacobs humbly on Thursday, Oct. 29, at the Pratt Institute Legends award benefit, where he was one of the evening’s honorees.

“Just because they give me this prize doesn’t mean I am one,” added Mr. Jacobs, who wore black leather boots with white socks, a red tartan kilt, a white dress shirt open at the collar and a black sport jacket with roped shoulders. More>

Ross Douthat: I Oppose Gay Marriage But I Don’t Want To Talk About It

Matt — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:36:32 +0000

Ross Douthat, conservative op-ed columnist for the New York Times, was made visibly uncomfortable for a moment while onstage last night at the New School’s Tishman auditorium. Having sailed through a discussion titled “Meet the Neo-Cons: They’re Young, They’re Bright, They Tilt to the Right” alongside his friend and co-author Reihan Salam (Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Save the Working Class and Save the American Dream), moderated by Marco Roth of n+1 magazine, Mr. Douthat became suddenly fidgety when asked to respond to a question from the audience on gay marriage. More>

At n+1 Panel, the Cat Got Douthat’s Tongue on Topic of Gay Marriage

Matt — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:27:57 +0000

Ross Douthat, conservative op-ed columnist for the New York Times, was made visibly uncomfortable for a moment while onstage last night at the New School’s Tishman auditorium. Having sailed through a discussion titled “Meet the Neo-Cons: They’re Young, They’re Bright, They Tilt to the Right” alongside his friend and co-author Reihan Salam (Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Save the Working Class and Save the American Dream), moderated by Marco Roth of n+1 magazine, Mr. Douthat became suddenly fidgety when asked to respond to a question from the audience on gay marriage. More>

At Wild Things Premiere, We Could Eat Celebs Up, We Love Them So!

Matt — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:25:15 +0000

“Since I was a kid, I’ve been hoping that I could get kids on my side, because they’re the coolest and smartest,” said Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the New York premiere of Spike Jonze’s movie version of the Maurice Sendak children’s classic Where the Wild Things Are, held at Alice Tully Hall on Tuesday Oct. 15. “They know better than all of us.”

Ms. O was speaking about recording the film’s soundtrack with a chorus of children. But she could just as easily have been talking about Warner Brothers’ hopes for the film, which went on to do very well in its opening weekend. More>

The New York Film Festival Opens Quietly at Alice Tully with Alain Resnais’ Wild Grass

Matt — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 03:01:20 +0000

“It’s like prom night didn’t happen this year,” said documentarian Aviva Kempner (Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg) on Friday, September 25, standing in the lobby of Alice Tully Hall, where the New York Film Festival was celebrating its opening night. She was disappointed at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s decision to move the party from its traditional home at beleaguered restaurant Tavern on the Green.

Psychologist Eva Fogelman agreed, disapproving of “the level of dress.” Dr. Fogelman, a specialist in Holocaust survivors who wore a black sequined frock, pointed out that formerly this premiere social event for New York’s cinephiles was a black-tie affair. More>