February 27, 2008
Extra, Extra

- Today on the Gothamis Newsmap: a bank robbery on 40th St. and 7th Ave. in Manhattan, a stabbing on Morris Ave. and East 190th St. in the Bronx, and a sinkhole on 68th St. and Madison Ave. in Manhattan.
- The original and exisiting Coney Island boardwalk originated from wood chopped down from the Amazon rainforest. The new and improved CI boardwalk will be made of plastic, made from oil. Onwards and upwards!
- Queens Crap reports the Mayor's Community Affairs Unit "sent police to St. Saviour's today to make sure the developers' efforts to demolish the church were not impeded."
- That duct tape-homicide at the Best Western motel? The ME ruled it a suicide.
- The Park Slope Armory's $16 million renovation was revealed; the YMCA will operate the stunning facility.
- Bernard Kerik was back in court. Prosecutors are arguing his lawyer has to recuse himself because he's a likely witness.
- Parker Posey sells her East Village digs, joining the establishment at 30 Fifth Avenue.
- A Connecticut battalion chief firefighter was shot during a bank robbery. Cops shot another person by accident as the actual robber made his getaway.




>>>The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says the first leg of a subway planned for decades on Manhattan's East Side will be put off until 2015
And they'll keep pushing it back till they cancel it. The first thing to go is always mass transit.
When is the MTA going to abandon this impossible dream and have a much.more do-able dedicated bus lane system?
www.forgotten-ny.com
Pathetic. Can someone dissolve the MTA once and for all?
You know, these lines seemed to be built a lot quicker (and in much more quantity) when our subways were 3 separate companies (IRT, BMT and IND.) I think breaking the MTA up and selling the lines to the highest bidder might be the best thing the city can do at this point. A little competition will get plenty of lines built. I mean, who does the federal government have to compete with? nobody. Look at the productivity of government agencies. It's awful. I'm not some mega-capitalist, but lets get real people.
How is it even possible for a person to commit suicide by wrapping duct tape around his mouth and nose? Bizarre.
MTA is good at one thing - raising the fares.
Raising the fare is easy, but when it comes to any projects forget about it.
Kevin, I wish I'd put down money when the 2nd Ave. Subway was resurrected. Even as they were kicking people out of their apartments in Yorkville and burying heavy equipment, I was certain "The sky will fall b/f a 2nd Ave. subway is ever built. Bank on it."
I love how they have raised the rates under the guise of all these new additions and improvements, but now that the rate approval went through they not only cut those improvements, but have much crappier service. The G train is now about every 20 minutes, the L is totally wacked every morning, the A.C, and E are disgustingly filthy and sound like the brakes went out long ago. The JMZ line feels like its about to topple off the tracks onto the ground below at times (ever stand on the elevated platforms and feel it rocking). Trash is everywhere in the stations and on the cars. Piles of puke everywhere. Its great that we now get to pay more for worse service and no improvements. They should dissolve the whole mess.
When and if the 2nd Ave. line ever gets built, let's call it the JV Line, for Jules Verne. It was conceived as possible in the 19th century and remained unbuilt until the 2xth century, with all the trappings of science fiction.
Everyday someone complains about the subway and mindlessly wants private companies to make things better. The fact is every last private NYC subway company went broke decades ago and the public sector had to take over to keep the city moving. Private bus companies were absorbed by the MTA a few years ago because they were broke and wouldn't have lasted a second with a lot of MTA money to pay the bills.
You didn't know that? What a surprise!
ANGRYGOD HAS SPOKETH!
Umm...where can I get one of those cupcakes?