As both a New Yorker and an economic development professional, I couldn't be more thrilled by 1) the Bloomberg administration's competition for a new world-class applied science campus, and 2) the incredible enthusiasm it has generated.

For once, it's a major economic development initiative that everyone seems...

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will retire on June 30th and he is already nearly universally acclaimed as one of the greatest Secretary of Defense in our nation's history. It is easy to understand why. As he acknowledged during his remarks at West Point last February, our country has faced...

Yesterday, DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) became the first wireless neighborhood in New York City. In a partnership between the DUMBO Improvement District, Brooklyn Bridge Park and Two Trees Management Company (full disclosure: the real estate development company I work for) free Wi-Fi internet will now...

I met Chris Hondros in 2009, when a mutual friend suggested we talk. I had just returned from a year in Iraq and our friend thought that Chris and I should trade "war stories." He lived in Brooklyn and I worked in his neighborhood, so we figured we'd have plenty...

Baghdad July 4, 2009

"You've got to come see this." The plywood door swung open to a makeshift balcony revealing an orange night sky - that eerie hue the sky turns in a blizzard - air full of expectation and energy. Not a sight I ever expected to see in...

Today marks the year anniversary of the beginning of the U.S withdrawal from Iraq. It was on June 30, 2009 that American troops withdrew from Iraq's cities fulfilling the first of our withdrawal obligations agreed to in the Status of Forces Agreement with the Government of Iraq. By August, only...

The elections in Iraq this week were without question critical in efforts to maintain progress there. But elections alone will not be enough to sustain the country's fledgling democracy. If progress is to continue, governance and civic management gains to support stability must be made as well, and America still...