Well, other major papers have talked about doing this for a while. Makes sense for the Times to try it out. The Boston Globe has something like this already and WickedLocal.com has been doing pretty well in the Boston area as well.
The equation: NYTimes Brand + 1 Nytimes editor + free copy from CUNY j-school + user-generated content.
ESPN's actually launching city-specific sites now, starting, of course, with Chicago.
Every big media company is making a local content play right now. I get e-mails every month from someone developing the next one asking me if I'd like to write for them for free in exchange for exposure.
The equation: NYTimes Brand + 1 Nytimes editor + free copy from CUNY j-school + user-generated content.
Interesting stuff.