AA's "Fat Flier" Got Whole Row
State Sen. Savino Gets Noticed For Impassioned Gay Marriage Speech
Teen Gets Two Years For Killing Kitten
Ashley Dupre On Tiger Woods' Babes: "At Least I Kept My Mouth Shut"
Same-Sex Marriage Blame Game Aims at Paterson, Addabbo
It's hard to believe that another year is coming to a close (we're going to be three next February!) and Gothamist can barely remember what happened last week, let alone 11 months ago. But we've come up with a list of some things that do rise to the top:
- Crimes made for the media: Everyone knows that a crime can sell papers as well as scare and outrage people...this year, they included the murder of Nicole duFresne (bad timing meets the crossroads of race and class), iPod-related crime (haves vs. the have-nots), and the Peter Braunstein case (what the media hath wrought)
- Brooklyn as battlefield for the future: Between Bruce Ratner's dreams, rezoning Greenpoint and Williamsburg and a revamped Coney Island, not to mention a New Yorker cover questioning its status relative to Manhattan, Brooklyn certainly is the buzz borough
- Public art in the city: The Gates as the temporary, and the Alamo as the enduring (subcategory for debate: Graffiti - is it art, advertising - see Time, Sony - or a menace)
- West Side Stadium: Setting the stage for upcoming showdowns between Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Mayor Bloomberg - and questioning what the MTA can do with its money
- Ground Zero stasis: The big projects seem to be stalling (Redesigning Freedom Tower, lack of progress with other projects), but at least the PATH terminal will be constructed, albeit with a mall
- NYC 2012...or not: The best failed attempt for the Olympics in NYC for 2012 ever!
- The Democratic primary: More exciting than the actual election, as well as almost more depressing
- And the lifeblood (and sometimes bane) of our existence, the MTA, NYC Transit, and subway system: From subway bag searches to terror scares, from subway outages to possible automation, from Closing token booths to perverts pleasuring themselves, ending the year with a transit strike for the new millennium, we'd call mass transit our "Thing of the Year"
What do you think are the big stories of the year?
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I would have to go with the overarching MTA thing. And you forgot to mention the Billion Dollar Surplus and useless Holiday Bonus fares. They also were involved in the West Side Stadium/Olympic Bid fiasco as well as Ratner's useless arena for a bunch of millionaire thugs, I mean NBA team.
I wouldnt call the Holiday Bonus useless. As a Subway AND LIRR rider I got free rides and discounts totaling $70 in value.
All in all 05 has been a pretty shitty year. Bring in 06
Kojak - For the majority of riders, the holiday Bonus Scheme is useless. It would seem that those who are monthly ticket holders on the commuter rail lines made out the best, while Joe and Jane Straphanger had to not only find a Holiday Bonus MetroCard sales location, but had to pay cash for it. The $50 million could have been used to fix up crumbling subway stations or add bike racks to buses - you know somehthing that would improve life over the long term.