Politics

• Gov. Paterson is close to picking a developer to revive the Queens Aqueduct (Crain's)

• There's a new social services data initiative in the city's Human Resources Administration (Government Technology)

• Brooklyn cyclist becomes first to ride all the city's bike paths (City Room)

• "What Does Government 2.0 Mean to You?" (O'Reilly Radar)

• Fans of LivingSocial can now get deals on restaurants and leisure activities in New York (WebNewser)

• New poll on congestion tolling versus a gas tax hike (Streetsblog)

In his 2009 State of the City address back in January, Mayor Michael Bloomberg outlined plans to create thousands of new jobs and bolster the city's workforce.

The following month, on Feb. 18, he announced a series of 11 initiatives specifically targeting job creation and entrepreneurship.

One of those was to create "incubators" for startup businesses: "To help entrepreneurs launch new start-up companies, the City is partnering with academic institutions, property management companies and commercial landlords to establish high-quality, ready-to-use office space that comes with basic business services and administrative support."

Earlier today, Mr. Bloomberg welcomed 27 new businesses to the first such hub, the 160 Varick Street Incubator, for which the city negotiated a three-year lease between Trinity Real Estate and the Polytechnic Institute of New York University.

From the press release the mayor's office sent out this afternoon:

The businesses represent a cross-section of promising start-ups, including a green retrofitting company, a global fund management firm for feature film production and distribution, a digital forensics and data recovery product developer, an electronic fixed-income brokerage, and an online company that will help patients make informed healthcare decisions. More than 300 start-up companies have applied to lease space at the incubator, which is now fully subscribed and will be expanded this fall to offer space to another 15 start-up companies.

...

The 16,000-square foot incubator now offers high-quality, ready-to-use office space that comes with basic business services and administrative support. NYU-Poly is providing mentoring services, business seminars and networking opportunities for tenants, who can sublease space starting at $200 per person per month for six months with an option to renew. In addition, up to 2,000 desks are available at discounted rates starting at $180 per desk through City partnerships with the Coalition of Office Space Providers and the Office Business Center Association of New York.

The full list of tenants is below:

• Brooklyn Museum adds specialized gallery tours for visitors with smart phones (New York Post)

• The tiniest green roofs in NYC (City Room)

• Highlights from Transportation Alternatives' District 25 Council candidates debate (Streetsblog)

• Funding the M.T.A. (2nd Ave. Sagas)

• Check out the Web/futurist film We Live in Public this weekend at I.F.C. (A VC)

Flickr via edans

Andrew Rasiej.

In our new series, we send our questionnaire about the future of New York City to notable New Yorkers and post their responses. To start off, we spoke to Andrew Rasiej, the founder of Personal Democracy Forum and our partner in the New York Future Initiative.

What are some of the biggest challenges facing New York City right now?

To compete and remain relevant in the 21st century with other major cities around the world is its biggest challenge. Updating its antiquated infrastructure, continuing to attract talented citizens, connecting them to each other and the world, investing in new industries, becoming green, and creating a new generation of enlightened political leadership. These are just a few examples where we are woefully behind other cities.

Can you suggest a few innovative, outside-of-the-box ideas for improving daily life in this city?

Here are a few:

Flickr via Ed Yourdon

• Public co-working is on the move in New York.

• The Daily News took an in-depth look at the cycling/pedestrian/driver debate.

• Baratunde Thurston talked about the future of...

• Ground broke on the East River Waterfront Esplanade.

• Urban backyard farming is taking hold in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn.

• Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey talks New York City.

• The future of the hyperlocal

• There's a new Web site that tracks city candidates' positions on transit issues.

• We caught up with Janette Sadik-Khan at a bike-sharing demo in Union Square.

• Steve Cohen says it's time to find funds for city infrastructure.

via tacandidatesurvey.org

Cy Vance.

We blogged the other day about the series of City Council candidate debates Transportation Alternatives is hosting in the coming weeks.

Now the alt-transit advocacy organization has launched a new Web site that provides information on where candidates in all city political races stand on transportation issues, including congestion pricing, Bus Rapid Transit, cycling, traffic crime and public space.

The site is called Transportation Alternatives Candidate Survey 2009, and the information it contains is based on surveys given to candidates with different questions targeting specific races and districts. Seventy-three candidates have responded so far, including those in the mayoral, public advocate, comptroller, borough president, Manhattan district attorney and City Council races.

Here's how it works: Users can plug in their addresses to bring up a list of candidates running in their district. Click on the results and you'll get detailed candidate biographies and the survey responses, which are pretty thorough as well.

For instance, curious about Manhattan D.A. candidate Cy Vance's legal philosophy in regard to the prosecution and prevention of vehicular crimes?

NYCEDC

More future-of-the-New-York-City-waterfront news: City and state officials broke ground this morning on phase one of the East River Waterfront Esplanade in Lower Manhattan.

The $148 million project, which is being built by the New York City Economic Development Corporation and stretches about two miles from the Battery Maritime Building to Pier 35, will create new open space along the East River waterfront, as well as more than 400 construction-related jobs. It's being funded with $138 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and $9.7 million from federal and New York state transportation funds.

UPDATE: Azi Paybarah reports:

“This design, without any question, is as innovating and exciting as the High Line,” said Amanda Burden, chair of the city planning commission. She said it “will not only be an attraction citywide, globally, it will also provide incredible amenities” such as “bar stools on the railing” and “bleacher seating” so you can get “right down to water level.”

When a reporter asked about delays that previously stalled the groundbreaking on this project, Robert Lieber, the deputy mayor for economic development, said, "this is an enormously complicated project” and “it’s better to measure twice and cut once” and “make sure you have the right design in place before you go forward.”

Read the press release, with more details about the project and quotes from elected officials, after the jump:

• Read about the schools, parks and organizations getting $21 million in stimulus money (Daily News)

• Check out car-free Times Square's new and improved seating arrangements (Gothamist)

• On local food in NYC... (Huffington Post)

• The Jets are Tweeting (Crain's)

• NY State Senate Office of the CIO's blog has a new home (nysenate.gov)

• Techies facing off in softball (nextNY)

When we last checked in on the city's Gov 2.0 movement, the tech community was talking about rallying around Mayor Bloomberg's Big Apps contest, which will open up certain city data sets for programmers to create Web applications out of.

The first step of the contest, which is being administered by the NYC Economic Development Corporation, is a request for expressions of interest to determine what data the city decides to release:

Respondents to this RFEI are requested to submit written descriptions of City-related data they would like to see made public. These descriptions should provide as much detail as possible about the type and level of data desired. In addition, respondents are requested to describe how they envision the data being used in software applications that provide a useful service to City residents, visitors and government. The information gathered from this RFEI will be used to help the City decide how to prioritize the release of City data to the public in a format easily utilized by application developers. City data will be released or reformatted in connection with a related software application competition where contestants will develop applications that make it easier to live, work and play in New York City.

To help people navigate this process, a few members of the OpenGovNYC meetup will be hosting BigAppsDevCamp the next two Saturdays, Aug. 15 and 22.

Topics covered will include: