
- You may have noticed that we've added another data source to our Gothamist Newsmap: now twice as much mayhem! Today's catastrophes: a water rescue in the Hudson off Houston Street, a "scaffold incident" at Leonard and Broadway, and double and triple shootings in Queens and Brooklyn. Yikes!
- On tonight's Nova science Now, Neil deGrasse Tyson (from the Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History) "mass extinction, the 1918 pandemic flu, robot engineer Cynthia Breazeal, and ancient papyrus." Fun, especially since the Gilmore Girls has been bleh lately
- Uh, we can barely explain it, so here's the first sentence of the story: "A man was struck and killed early Tuesday by a New Jersey commuter train sent to pick up passengers stranded after their first train hit and killed someone else."
- The Municipal Arts Society is suing to block Ikea's Red Hook plans. At issue is the fate of the 19th-century graving dock, which is due to be covered over with a parking lot.
- According to Brooklyn Heights Blog, the state is considering shutting down LICH, the main hospital servicing Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill.
- Check out these beautiful NYC night shots by Mercurialn.
- The NYPD installs a "Sky Watch" patrol tower in Harlem; while neighbors like the idea of tower, but wonder if it's there because of the luxury condos
- Mayor Mike might be worth $20 BILLION or more, according to a new analysis of his holdings. That would make him richer than Rupert Murdoch-- but still a lot less fun.
- More hotels are going to be developed in Brooklyn - next thing you know, they'll need an ugly convention center!
Empire View, by Santi-Jose.





I'm thinking I don't like the idea of the Gothamist Newsmap. It's kind of like the car accident along the highway...you are initially intrigued but get upset if you see/read something particularly gory.
jc: then don't read it! the newsmap is fucking awesome.
My objection to the Newsmap goes something like this:
When Houstonist was launched, pretty much every news story they reported on was some kind of violence. It really didn't paint Houston in a positive light, and made it out to be a gun-happy place. Maybe it is.
However, my civic pride for New York makes me constantly tell Canadians that "No, people don't get killed randomly anymore. Yes, it's safe to walk around at night. No, most of Brooklyn isn't 'the ghetto' anymore."
You will see that people's perceptions of crime are going up while crime is actually going down. Mass media is perhaps responsible: their "chaos news" reporting has also gone up as "chaos" itself is on the decline.
The Newsmap places a heavy emphasis on crime and I really hope it doesn't make its way to other -ists, especially Torontoist. Toronto has almost exactly 10x less homicide than Chicago, a similarly-sized city, but if we reported on every single murder that happened, it would probably seem like the 1920's.
nobody: hence the car accident comparison...
Thanks for the link. This definitely explains the sudden hit spike.