Bridge and Tunnel Club
bridgeandtunnelclub is about everything NY which is not Manhattan.
Long live the outer boroughs.
Musings about Park Slope.
« July 2006 | Main | September 2006 »
August 31, 2006
August 30, 2006
SAS Business Intellegence
SAS BI: administering statistics about money and inventory.
See also Business Intellegence SAS user group.
August 29, 2006
New York channel
The Coruscation New York channel:
NY, Queens", CT, NJ, VT.
old NY Wiki 2003 January - 2005 October
old old NY Wiki 2003 January - 2004 January.
August 28, 2006
Echelon in Long Island City
Echelon LIC; hype at the developers group. Subway adverts.
Update: picture gallery from LICNYC.
[Via curbed]
August 27, 2006
Toothpaste for dinner
Comics by Toothpaste for dinner.
August 26, 2006
BART Rage
BART Rage, group of BART
riders in the SF Bay area.
August 25, 2006
NY BMWCCA
August 24, 2006
Urban Digs
Another consumer guide to NY real estate: urbandigs
August 23, 2006
Ryan McGinley
In 1999, Ryan McGinley, then a graphic design major at
Parsons School of Visual Arts in New York, sent his
50-page home-cooked book of urban idyllic photographs
The Kids Are Alright, which he had produced on
his desktop computer, to 100 magazine editors and artists
he admired.
From NYT, The Virus Underground, Clive Thompson, 2004 Feb 08.
At the time, fashion photography was ending its infatuation
with gritty photography. Decaying beauty, as found in
moody images of slouchy, stoned, skinny girls by artists
such as David Sims, Glen Luchford, Mario Sorrenti and
Corinne Day, were being wiped off magazine pages in
favor of buoyant stylized shots of pretty Brazilian girls
with party-ready bodies and supernaturally white teeth.
-- ArtNet.
Many photos look very after in the Muriel's Wedding sense.
Not confused with Ryan McGinness.
After a long and lonely struggle for cool-kid status,
the meatpacking district is finally attracting modish artists:
The poppy painter Ryan McGinness has bought a
one-bedroom condo at 350 West 14th Street for $814,000.
Get your Gummo on !
August 22, 2006
Golf 1,2,3,4,5: Rabbit
Five generations of VW Rabbit, Golf, Golf, Golf and Rabbit.
Ten inches longer, 1000 pounds heavier, and twice as powerful.
August 21, 2006
Audi s3, Orange
August 20, 2006
Train riders work
Train riders were more educated and better paid.
More than 60 percent of rail commuters had college
degrees compared with about 40 percent of drivers
and subway riders.
The average income of rail commuters in the region
was about $105,000, more than double the income
of the typical subway and bus riders.
August 19, 2006
Globe / Stephan Paternot
The Globe.com movie trailer, with great soundtrack.
See also Startup.com.
August 18, 2006
subway map mashup for NYC
google-subway map mashup by onnyturf.
See previously: Dynamap layered map.
August 17, 2006
The Real Estate Observer
therealestate.observer by the New York Observer
tracks New York real estate's luxury and upscale
developments.
August 16, 2006
NY water Taxi
nywatertaxi connects lower Manhattan across the East River
* Queens Hunters' Point to Midtown
* Brooklyn Williamsburg, Fulton Ferry, Red Hook to Battery Park
and
across the Hudson to NJ.
* World Finacial Center to Jersey City, NJ.
August 15, 2006
Hickey Freeman
August 14, 2006
Amagansett, Martha's Vineyard: real yatching and tennis
August 13, 2006
zillowblog, real estate mapping and data services
Zillow, the real estate mapper, blogs.
And Zillow adds new real estate mapping and data services,
drive-by appraisal via SMS.
See also Trulia.
August 12, 2006
Carnivalofrealestate
Carnival of real estate
Best of Real Estate this week.
August 11, 2006
Suit for $400
Business attire by English Cut.
$400 off-the-rack suit. In short — disregard the brand and
look for the best-fitting single-breasted (2 or 3 button)
gray or blue wool suit that you can find. Pants can go either
plain front or pleated. For more details about lapel and
sleeve buttonholes and pockets...
Blogrolled: thomas mahon, bespoke savile row tailor, london.
[ Via bankersball ]
August 10, 2006
What democrats must do
We must talk about good stuff to get elected.
Here is he good stuff we will do.
Now, when you preface your policy proposals by indicating that said
proposals are intended to win elections and unite your party, you have
already pretty much ended any chance that people will think you
making said proposals because you believe in those proposals.
This is because, well, you just said that the purpose of these
proposals was to win elections. Americans love it when politicians
admit in public that their legislative proposals are designed to win
elections.
Meme democratic leadership.
August 9, 2006
Yahoo Publisher Network, RSS widgets
Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) takes on
Google Adsense.
Also Y! now offers fully featured widgets via RSS fees.
What to do with RSS feeds: aggregate into Feed Groups !
See NetVibes.
August 8, 2006
Rent to mortgage payment ratio
Rent to mortgage payment ratio.
Mortgage payments are senitive to interest rates.
Are rents less sensitive to interest rates ?
Then why would we exprect a constant
mortgage payment to rent ratio ?
August 7, 2006
TBMA Mortgage Prepayment Projection Tables
TBMA Mortgage Prepayment Projection Tables: Questions and Answers
TBMA = The Bond Market Association.
The Bond Market Association's Mortgage Prepayment Projection Tables
provide "street consensus" long-term prepayment projections, based
upon a survey of Association members, for TBA securities that are
traded widely in the MBS market.
Where does the association get its data?
Twice each month, participating Association members firms submit
long-term prepayment projections for the securities in the table.
Each contributing dealer submits projections based upon the yield
curve at close of business on the day prior to the submission date.
What data is included?
The Mortgage Prepayment Projection Tables contain long-term
projections for the most widely traded coupon and issues year
cohorts in the following sectors:
* Conventional (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac 30-Year)
* Ginnie Mae I 30-Year
* Conventional 15-Year
* Ginnie Mae II 30-Year
The sectors, as well as the coupons and issue years included for
each sector, are reviewed every three months by the Association's
MBS Research, Strategy and Analysis Committee in order to stay
current with what securities are widely traded in the secondary
MBS market.
For each cohort, the tables include base case consensus
projections as well as consensus projections assuming immediate
and sustained parallel shifts in the yield curve of -300, -200,
-100, -50, 50, 100, 200 and 300 basis points. They also provide
the highest and lowest individual dealer base case projections
for each cohort and a listing of contributing dealers for each sector.
The Association's tables include long-term PSA and CPR consensus
projections calculated using both a median and a simple average.
How are mortgage prepayment projections used?
As opposed to other types of bonds where the investor receives
interest over the life of the bond and is repaid the principal (or
"face value") upon maturity, investors in mortgage-backed securities
(MBS) receive payments of both interest and principal throughout
the life of the security as the underlying mortgage loans are paid off.
These payments can vary widely because of the timing and speed
with which people pay off their mortgages. For example, when
mortgage rates are low homeowners often pay off and refinance
their mortgages in order to secure a lower interest rate and
decrease their monthly payments.
Projecting prepayments, therefore, is a vital step in MBS analytics.
Prepayment projections reflect what analysts anticipate mortgage
prepayment rates will be based on complex modeling procedures.
The Bond Market Association's Mortgage Prepayment Projection
tables provide "street consensus" long-term prepayment rate
projections that are based on an aggregate of the projections
produced by Wall Street's top prepayment models.
TBMA on MBS/ABS/CDO .
August 6, 2006
Hedging beyond duration and convexity
Hedging beyond duration and convexity.
By considering a representation using a Fourier-like harmonic,
empirical evidence that such a series provides our hedging
strategy on a mortgage-backed security (MBS) with the first
four principal components of yield curve.
Simulation Conference, 2002.
Proceedings of the Winter, 2002 - informs cs
J Chen, M Fu's nifty PDF.
August 5, 2006
mortgagebankers
Mortgage Bankers have an association; news on refinancing, prepayment,
orginations, servicing, delinquency, foreclosures, MBS, ABS, securitization.
More like this: mortgage.
August 4, 2006
DUI, DWI: attorney or driver ?
Driving Under the Influence (DUI) or Driving While Intoxicated (DWI).
criminal charges ?
Attorney fees or driver's wages ?
A lawyer or a cab.
A wonder that people of means drive themselves.
Latest example: Pete Coors.
August 3, 2006
LIRR in LIC
Long Island City has two Long Island Railroad stations.
Manhattan --- LIC --- Hunter's Point --- Jamaica ---
Hunters' Point Station: AirFoto
on 49 Ave between 21st Street and Skillman Ave,
Long Island City, NY 11101
Long Island City station: AirFoto
on Borden Ave, between 2nd Street and 5th Street.
Long Island City, NY 11101
StaphHangers weigh in.
August 2, 2006
House price decline, why ?
At another smaller project, the Abbey, a former parish
building on East 16th Street being converted to condominiums,
most of the apartments sold for the asking price, or close
to it. But according to property records, one apartment,
a duplex on the top two floors, sold at a discount of
$500,000, or about 27 percent below the asking
price. Eight of 31 apartments are still listed as available.
The developer, Herbert Hirsch, said that he became
convinced that a sloping triangular roof limited the
use of some of the top floor of the duplex, so he
reduced the price to account for this. He said buyers
were out there looking but were worried by press
accounts about the market and were postponing purchases.
Not a declining market, no Sir.
[ Via NY Real Estate ]
August 1, 2006
Larger apartments, higher ceilings, open views, add value
Strong demand for larger apartments with higher ceilings,
open views and well-designed kitchens and bathrooms
— the type of apartments that have not been built in
large numbers in a generation.
The bullish view of the Manhattan real estate market is based
on the belief that it is unique -- a magnet for wealth from
across the country and around the world.
[NYT]