By: David Mallory

Far right extremists in New Jersey are causing law enforcement to step up their efforts to find and stop them.

Looking into the phenomenon, the New York Times is reporting that “The arrests of the two men rocked law enforcement officials in Sussex County, raising fears that far-right extremism is growing in this sleepy, rural area in New Jersey. It is impossible to know if the two arrests so close together are a fluke or signal of a growing white supremacist movement in the county, law enforcement officials said. The two men appear to have no connection to one another.”

Sussex County has shown all the signs of extremism, ranging from antisemitism and racism to scrawled swastikas and other hate-filled rhetoric.

“One hundred percent certainty, the numbers of reports have increased,” New Jersey state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal told Times reporters Ali Watkins and Nick Corasaniti. “I can’t say that belief system is isolated to Sussex. We’ve seen it in all parts of the state.”

Last week, Gov. Phil Murphy, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, and former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson met in Garfield, NJ, to discuss the threat from domestic extremism. “Individuals who seek to terrorize our communities are terrorists, period, and we need to call them that,” said Pascrell.

“The forum, held at Veterans of Foreign War Post 2867, comes as civil rights groups warn about an alarming rise in domestic hate groups, fueled by a resurgence in white nationalist ideology. They say easy access to guns, heated political rhetoric and disinformation campaigns online are obstacles to fighting extremism at home,” reported northjersey.com.

“We need to impress upon leaders that they have responsibly to engage in civil dialogue, to lower the temperature,” said Johnson, according to the news site. “There are those who want to make light of the phrase ‘white nationalism’ and say, ‘What’s so bad about that term?’ Let’s not forget that veterans of foreign wars fought an entire war against white nationalism in Nazi Germany, so this is something not to be made light of.”

“Some domestic extremists are likely willing to shift to foreign terrorist ideologies as a way to justify violence due to their susceptibility to radicalization, existing violent tendencies, and willingness to support extremist groups,” noted The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (NJOHSP) ono its web site. “An NJOHSP review found that many domestic extremist and foreign terrorist ideologies share similar viewpoints typically rooted in hatred and intolerance.”

By Ted Brooks

The Empire Outlets mall has become a big deal on the world stage.

The mall opened in May, and since then shoppers from around the world have come by the hundreds of thousands. Its nearly 30 retailers include Nike Factory, Levi’s and Nordstrom Rack.

Empire Outlets is “a category-defining retail destination and New York City’s first and only shopping outlet—the retail centerpiece of the City’s newest entertainment district on Staten Island’s waterfront. The world-class shopping destination is located at the base of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, a 20-minute free ferry ride from Manhattan. It hosts approximately 100 shops of the finest brands, an extensive array of waterfront food and beverage concepts and a 190 room boutique hotel with rooftop lounge offering unparalleled views of New York City,” according to NYC & Co., the city’s tourism bureau.

International business currently comprise the large majority, 65%, of Empire Outlets spending, according to NYC & Co., which examined Visa credit card data. That’s helped push international spending on the island up by 47%, while total apparel spending has grown by 158%, NYC & Co.’s credit card data finds.

“Staten Island is one of the most visited boroughs, but the average stay is about five minutes,” Travis Noyes, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the outdoor shopping center, told the New York Post.

Shopping “is the No. 1 activity for overseas visitors, followed by sightseeing, according to NYC & Co.,” the Post reported. “Still, the surge in overseas shoppers on Staten Island comes at a time when other city retailers have suffered from a slowdown of wealthy Chinese visitors to the city. Retailers from Tiffany & Co. on Fifth Avenue to Macy’s in Herald Square have cited weakened spending by international tourists for their sagging sales in recent financial updates. Tourists interviewed by The Post said they’ve chosen Empire because it’s convenient to the ferry, and they love a good deal.”

According to ny1.com, “many stores — like Nike and Nordstrom Rack — saw big crowds last night thanks to their doorbuster deals. The mall also has some bonus holiday fun today, for when you need a little bit of break between stores. There are Christmas trees on sale, a holiday pop-up food and beverage market, food trucks and even massages.”

Last week, patch.com reported that Empire Outlets “will be adorned in 70,000 LED lights and wrapped in 1,096 feet of garland (that’s as tall as the Chrysler building), while local merchants will sell hot chocolate and other treats, gifts for shoppers and even “rejuvenation massages” on Black Friday for those who shop early and want to go back for more.”

By Spencer Douglas

The Rose Club inside the famed Plaza Hotel is getting a facelift – at least temporarily.

Elle Decor magazine has introduced a remodeled look for the jazz club, to be known as the Elle Decor Café. The new look includes a brand new furnishing line that people can buy in the spring.

The Plaza Hotel is a landmarked 20-story luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan. It opened in 1907 and is now owned by Katara Hospitality.

While the hotel’s balcony remains a popular tourist spot, interior designer Sasha Bikoff told the New York Post, much of the rest of the décor was “dark, and a bit sad,” to say nothing of being a bit frayed around the edges.

“Bikoff dubs the new look that will wrap the venue through the end of March “Marie Antoinette at Studio 54,” with white, gold and lavender to create high-’80s glam,” the Post reported. “The vibe evokes an era when Donald Trump owned the iconic hotel and Ivana Trump ran it — before Trump took an $83 million hit on the Plaza in bankruptcy court. Now, it’s owned by the Qatari government’s Katara Hospitality.”

The Rose Club features Wednesday night live jazz, starting at 9pm and performed by Kat Gang Jazz. The establishment, “embodying the grandeur of The Plaza with a splash of contemporary style and spirit, overlooks the hotel’s stunning Fifth Avenue lobby,” its web site explains. “Previously known as the Persian Room, The Plaza’s legendary nightclub, this space hosted incredibly notable acts including Bob Hope, Kay Thompson, Bob Fosse and Liza Minnelli. The Rose Club walls have listened in on many unforgettable moments in music and entertainment history. During the Persian Room’s 41 year run, modern jazz made a spectacular debut with a stellar cast of performers including Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Billie Holiday.”

The Rose Club’s menu features an array of signature cocktails and a select epicurean menu to satisfy the tastes of those wishing to indulge in lighter gourmet fare, the hotel notes. “The stylishly elegant ambiance of The Rose Club embraces the past, present and future of this legendary hotel and will be a treasured setting for the making of new memories.”

Construction on the first Plaza Hotel at this location began in 1883, on the site of the New York Skating Club. The builders ran out of money, and the New York Life Insurance Company foreclosed and hired the most-celebrated architects of the era, McKim, Mead & White, to complete the hotel, which finally opened on October 1, 1890.

By: Zachary Lichtberg

Lord & Taylor isn’t really going away; it’s just getting smaller. A lot smaller.

Executives have said that its flagship New York City store, which is in the process of closing, will be succeeded by a tiny, 2,400 square foot location in Manhattan.

It will debut, according to Crain’s New York Business, as “a temporary shop, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not be identified because the plans haven’t yet been announced. This will give Le Tote—the company’s new owner—a chance to re-connect with customers in the middle of the busy holiday shopping season… It will open for two weeks in mid-December in New York’s SoHo district on Wooster Street, surrounded by upscale names like Mansur Gavriel and Diane von Furstenberg.”

Rental startup Le Tote just acquired Lord & Taylor for $100 million this past summer. Lord & Taylor is a department store that was founded in 1826 and has been owned by Hudson’s Bay Company, which also owns Saks Fifth Avenue.

Le Tote said it was taking control of all of the department store’s operations, which include its digital channels and its 38 stores. “Le Tote will extend employment offers to the “vast majority” of Lord & Taylor associates, according to a joint press release about the acquisition. Last fiscal year, Lord & Taylor generated $1.4 billion in sales,” according to fastcompany.com.

“For Le Tote, a seven-year-old company, this acquisition opens up new possibilities when it comes to blending rental technology with traditional retail. For instance, Le Tote might be able to make Lord & Taylor merchandise rentable, or use the retail locations as drop-off points,” fastcompany.com added.

In November, the deal between Le Tote and HBC for Lord & Taylor was officially concluded. “It was reportedly worth 99.5 million Canadian dollars in cash (USD$75 million at the time) and a secured promissory note for $33.2 million payable in cash after two years,” noted pymnts.com. “All of Lord & Taylor’s remaining 45 retail locations will change hands. But the retailer will temporarily have a presence in Manhattan with the launch of a 2,400-square-foot store. It will remain open for two weeks in mid-December in SoHo on Wooster Street. Sources said the move will give Le Tote the opportunity to re-connect with customers during the holiday shopping season.”

Le Tote CEO Rakesh Tondon said Lord & Taylor was a perfect fit for his company. “It was about where our customers were going and what they were asking us to do. They’re telling us they want to buy but they also want to rent, and would love to touch and feel and be able to go into a store and swap out their items or pick up something new,” he told bizjournals.com.

By: Romy Ronen

Landlords have now dropped their rent rates significantly in Manhattan’s shopping market, owing to a crisis that was on the verge of wrecking the city’s devoted businesses. Walk along Fifth Avenue, one of the most esteemed shopping meccas in the whole world, and notice how there are empty stores with empty shelves in an empty space, a space that used to be filled lavishly with clothing and accessories. Maybe it’s because, in the last ten years, landlords have demanded such a high rent, that even the most high fashion institutions can’t afford the demanding price.

And here are the numbers to prove this timely, pragmatic shift in rent price: according to the Real Estate Board of New York, in this year’s fall season, building owners have cut rent prices in 11 of 17 shopping locations. The average rent price on streets between 42nd and 49th is officially down nine percent to reach 852 dollars per square foot. The rent price on streets between 49th and 59th is down five percent from just last year. In SoHo, the most trendy shopping area (arguably in the entire United States) rent price is down 12 percent to reach 491 dollars per square foot. On Madison Avenue, vibrantly pristine and effortlessly graceful, rent is down 22 percent, to reach 906 dollars per square foot.

Decreased rent rates are a change made only for the better: businesses are opening up, and new, more affordable strategies are creating for fresh and unique selling ideas. REBNY reports that “an increased presence of pop-ups and promotional spaces indicate that brands are offering unique in-person experiences to attract both online and in-store shoppers.” The more creative the initiative, the more Manhattan’s economy benefits.

The entirety of Manhattan covers much ground, and not every landlord is following this lead. Although rents are decreasing in price in the most prestigious areas of Manhattan, some are left in the cold this winter. There are set places where asking rents have significantly increased, and only for the worst. In Lower Manhattan, specifically between Battery Park and Chambers Street, rents rose to 22 percent, averaging to 413 per square foot. On 125th street, a street between Columbia University and Harlem’s beginnings, rents rose eight percent, averaging to 125 per square foot.

Manhattan businesses, stores, institutions are currently thriving in lower rent environments. Landlords that control the Upper East Side domain, Soho, etc. gain benefits from lower rent prices in the long run: less shops are shutting down, suddenly prospering in this manageable economic standing.

By Singh Patel

As 2019 draws to a close, the New York Times has taken a look back at the past 11 months and declared this to have been “the year that New York bit back against big real estate.”

The evidence, the Times insists, is clear.

“First, a slate of Democratic candidates declared that they would not take money from real estate developers. They swept into state office last fall, displacing incumbents who were friendly to the industry,” noted writer John Leland. “Then in February, Queens officials, bucking the mayor and governor, scuttled Amazon’s plan to open a huge headquarters there, snubbing the promise of 25,000 jobs. In June, the new Democratic majority in Albany passed historic protections for renters, reversing decades of a Republican-controlled Senate chipping away at these laws. Real estate had for so long seemed invincible. And then, suddenly, it wasn’t.”

Of all the changes, the Statewide Housing Security And Tenant Protection Act Of 2019 may well be the single most significant. On June 14, 2019, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the act into law. As the New York Department of State makes clear, it is “a sweeping and comprehensive collection of new provisions that strengthen tenant protections for all New Yorkers. To help licensed real estate brokers, salespeople, and other interested parties understand the new law, the New York State Department of State (the Department) has prepared this guidance.”

The Act broadly protects applicants seeking housing and tenants throughout the state, the Department of State explained. Under it, a “landlord, lessor, sub-lessor or grantor” is now prohibited from collecting an application fee greater than $20.00. Further, “if the potential tenant provides a copy of a background check or credit check conducted within the past thirty days” the fee must be waived.

Also under the Act, no “landlord, lessor, sub-lessor or grantor may demand any payment, fee, or charge for the late payment of rent unless the payment of rent has not been made within five days of the date it was due, and such payment, fee, or charge shall not exceed fifty dollars or five percent of the monthly rent, whichever is less.”

The loss of the Amazon deal was a debacle whose effects are still being felt. “Most of the 25,000 jobs that were supposed to come to Amazon’s HQ2 in New York City will now go elsewhere, now that Amazon has announced its backing out of its agreement with the city,” CNBC reported earlier this year.

Amazon’s spokesperson told CNBC that “the bulk of the 25,000 jobs that the company had promised to create in New York City for HQ2 will now go to other corporate offices and tech hubs owned by Amazon across 17 North American cities, including Boston, San Francisco and Vancouver.”

By: Jerry Sterngood

Areported $2 billion in early online sales ain’t bad, and that’s what Black Friday brought, according to published reports.

“The frenzy associated with Black Friday shopping was missing this year as U.S. retailers offered earlier discounts and more consumers shopped online, though spot checks around the country showed traffic picked up after a sluggish morning,” according to Reuters.

Black Friday “remains important for holiday shopping but its relevance is fading amid early promotions, with six fewer sales days between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” the Reuters report continued. “That has pulled spending forward. More than half of consumers polled by the National Retail Federation (NRF) in the first week of November had begun making purchases.”

The annual shopping day was even better, according to CNN. “Americans with a hearty appetite for online deals pulled out their smartphones and, for the first time, shelled out more than $4 billion on Thanksgiving to kick off the holiday shopping season. Thanksgiving Day’s record online sales of $4.2 billion — about half of which occurred before the pumpkin pies even hit the table — set the stage for a busy Black Friday and potentially another blockbuster holiday season for retailers, according to Adobe Analytics data.”

One feature of brick and mortar retailing that has come to be synonymous with Black Friday is stupidity and violence. The annual melees arrived as expected, with “chaos breaking out around the world, with fights, stampedes and a gun scare at shops in the US, Brazil, and South Africa,” according to The Sun. “Security guards were filmed fighting to stem the flow of people as shoppers jostled to grab the best deals. A brawl was seen breaking out amid Black Friday sales in Pennsylvania.”

In Fremont, California, “there were reports of a gun scare after someone shouted the word “shooter” in a branch of retail giant Target,” The Sun added. “One person tweeted they had had to “sprint out with my mom out the emergency exit” while another warned others to “stay clear of the area” after the incident, which proved to be a false alarm.”

Others, however, see Black Friday mania waning. This year, only 36% of people said they planned to do most of their holiday shopping on Black Friday — down from 51% just three years ago, according to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

“Black Friday is still a very major event, both for retailers and for shopping. But historically, it’s been the major event and now it’s just a part of the overall season,” Steve Barr, who leads PwC’s consumer markets practice, told npr.org.

By: Leslie Phillipson

They’re being called The Thanksgiving Four — four employees fired by Google as part of what some allege is an attempt to “crush” an incipient effort to organize.

Staff were told via an internal memo that the firings were related to data security and employee safety, according to bbc.com. “But those who lost their jobs have said they were being punished for “speaking out”. The sackings followed a demonstration at Google’s San Francisco office on Friday, attended by more than 200 Google employees. Two of the four fired employees, Rebecca Rivers and Laurence Berland, spoke at the protest.”

Google has confirmed that the memo is authentic. It was first published by Bloomberg.

Google’s Security and Investigations team “said the employees were routinely accessing information about other projects and employees inappropriately, bbc.com continued.

“Our thorough investigation found the individuals were involved in systematic searches for other employees’ materials and work,” reads the memo. “This includes searching for, accessing, and distributing business information outside the scope of their jobs–repeating this conduct even after they were met with and reminded about our data security policies. This information, along with details of internal emails and inaccurate descriptions about Googlers’ work, was subsequently shared externally.”

A statement posted to Medium.com (https://medium.com/@GoogleWalkout/googles-next-moonshot-union-busting-7bd2784dc690) reads in part: “Four of our colleagues took a stand and organized for a better workplace. This is explicitly condoned in Google’s Code of Conduct, which ends: “And remember… don’t be evil, and if you see something that you think isn’t right — speak up.”

“When they did, Google retaliated against them. Today, after putting two of them on sudden and unexplained leave, the company fired all four in an attempt to crush worker organizing.

“Here’s how it went down: Google hired a union-busting firm. Around the same time Google redrafted its policies, making it a fireable offense to even look at certain documents. And let’s be clear, looking at such documents is a big part of Google culture; the company describes it as a benefit in recruiting, and even encourages new hires to read docs from projects all across the company. Which documents were off limits after this policy change? The policy was unclear, even explicitly stating the documents didn’t have to be labeled to be off limits. No meaningful guidance has ever been offered on how employees could consistently comply with this policy. The policy change amounted to: access at your own risk and let executives figure out whether you should be punished after the fact.

“We knew then, and it’s clear now: this policy change was setting up an excuse to retaliate against organizers, allowing the company a pretext for picking and choosing who to target.”