Many NYC residents are relieved that NYC2012 has been put out of its miserable existence. If they had won, then every single city need -- whether education, health care, housing or transportation -- would become secondary to the games.

We can only hope that Mayor Bloomberg sticks to his word that 2012 will be the ONLY time for a NYC Olympic Bid. New Yorkers have tired of misrepresentations and platitudes masquerading as bad real estate projects. Whether it was the stadium on Manhattan's West Side, the Ratner Arena in Brooklyn or for other venues, the Olympic bid was used as a stalking horse for bad development and bad public policy.

It is too early to tell if the stadium is 100% dead. Will it completely kill the Olympic Bid? How about Hudson Yards (the 24 million square feet of skyscrapers they want to plunk down in Clinton/Hell's Kitchen? How will Silver's decision yesterday impact other bad development schemes throughout the city (i.e., Brooklyn and Harlem)?

Take one thing at a time. We celebrate today ... cautiously. The world still has bad people around.

It seems odd that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, with whom we have had differences on his record on tenant protections, is the one person who had the moral fortitude to stand-up and say this was wrong.

The Bloomberg administration's plans to develop Manhattan's West Side are like a classic Ponzi scheme. The deception is not only in the Doctoroff junk bonds (which even Wall Street investment banks are avoiding), but also in the idea that the schemes have meaningful opposition.

Behind residents' backs, West Side elected officials are promoting the Chelsea/Clinton neighborhoods as a sea of skyscrapers. Despite their public protests, none of these elected officials really oppose the Mayor's plans.

We are saddened to report the passing of our dear friend and neighbor Richard Kussmaul on Monday, October 25th.

Richard was born in 1935 and raised in Duncan Falls, Ohio, the youngest of 3 sons. It was New York City, however, that was to be his true home. On a family trip to New York, Richard at the mere age of 5, fell in love with the City and swore then and there, that he would always live there. His dream would be postponed until he graduated Ohio University in 1960, served 4 years in the United States Navy (stationed in Honolulu as a medic), and completed his own 1 year "Grand Tour of Europe." He arrived in New York City in the mid to late sixties and took up residence in the East Village. During Richard’s first few years in his adopted city, he worked for Luther Green, a landscape architect -- one of Richard’s plum jobs was to landscape one of Matisse’s grandson’s penthouse. Richard spun his love for and enormous talent in design, color and nature into a 20 plus year career in the flower business; retiring eventually in 1994 from Dennis Flowers.