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March 31, 2008
Mayor Bloomberg appears to have the necessary votes to get congestion pricing passed in the City Council, because the Council scheduled a vote on the matter for this afternoon. The fact a vote has been suddenly scheduled is interpreted as a sign that fellow supporter Council Speaker Christine Quinn has enough votes for approval. The Mayor must have spent his weekend bending ears and twisting arms! A critical amendment was made to the statewide version...
Continue Reading "City Council Approves Congestion Pricing, 30-20"
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Photo of Johan Santana pitching against the Marlins by AP/J. Pat Carter The rain that postponed the Yankees' regular-season opener was nowhere to be found in South Florida, where the Mets disposed of the Marlins, 7-2, to start their eagerly awaited 2008 campaign. Johan Santana, living up to the trade and subsequent contract extension that made him a Met, struck out eight in seven innings of two-run ball. David Wright's three-run double capped a...
Continue Reading "No Raining on Mets' Parade in Miami"
The Buildings Department has partially lifted the stop work order at 246 Spring Street, aka the Trump Soho building at Spring and Varick. On January 14, a construction worker fell to his death while pouring concrete molds on the 42nd floor. A second worker also fell, but was saved by netting around the building. The DOB says workers were allowed to proceed "with interior construction and installation of curtain wall panels on the lower...
Continue Reading "Back to Work (Partially) at Trump Soho"
Property owners are not holding their breath for a citywide ban on domestic smoking, like the ones barring lighting up in bars or restaurants, but non-smoking is increasingly becoming a requirement for renters in New York City. The Daily News reports that while the city's health department doesn't have hard numbers on the trend, more real estate companies are forbidding renters to smoke anywhere on the premises. It's not just rental properties either:Manhattan real estate...
Continue Reading "Your Home is Your Non-Smoking Castle"
Brownstoner has done the math and concluded that there are a ridiculous number of hotels going up near Brooklyn’s lovely Gowanus Canal. The latest new development will be a nine story Fairfield Inn on Third Avenue between Douglass and Butler streets; construction will begin once existing buildings are torn down. So that makes a future grand total of 7 hotels in the Gowanus neighborhood; three already built and four more on the way. With a...
Continue Reading "Gowanus Hotel Boom Smells Funny to Some"Advertisement: Gothamist Continues Below!
March 31, 2008
Photograph by Mike Mostransky Today marks the final day of the New York Yankees ringing in a baseball season in the House that Babe Ruth Built. The current stadium has seen twenty-six World Series championship teams and holds the longest active streak for home opener wins (10 in a row so far). The Yankees, weather-permitting, will face off against the Toronto Blue Jays, with Chien-Ming Wang pitching against Toronto's Roy Halladay. Opening day is...
Continue Reading "Yankee Stadium's Last Opening Day"
A mother of three young children was fatally shot when she stopped by a makeshift shrine for a rapper who was killed last week. Police say 27-year-old Nancy Williams was hit by apparently random gunfire behind the Stuyvesant Garden Houses on Gates Avenue. Fans of rapper Leval Lyde had gathered to remember him a week four days after he was gunned down on Clinton and Fulton Avenues. A cop explained to the Post, "They were...
Continue Reading "Brooklyn Mother Killed at Slain Rapper's Memorial"
The weekend chill that continues today has been enough to drive the March temperature down below normal. Unless there's a totally unexpected heat wave this afternoon the average temperature of this month will be 42.3 degrees, or 0.2 degrees cooler than normal. That would make this month the coldest March since, uh, last March! What's more likely than a heat wave today is drizzle and rain. As the high pressure system that brought sunny, cool...
Continue Reading "Rainy Opening Day"
If you work in Prada's offices, it makes sense that the brand's clean aesthetic seen in the stores has to follow through at the cubicle level...right? Page Six got an e-mail (a "Prada House Rules for the Office"), allegedly sent from Prada head Miuccia Prada, detailing office style and lunchtime eating behavior:"Desk and work surfaces should be clean and uncluttered. Pictures, calendars, etc. should not be taped to cubicle/office walls. Pets may not be brought...
Continue Reading "No Tchotchkes at Your Prada Office Desk!"
Today, a Newsday editorial suggests Albany DA David Soares was either "afraid" or "just incompetent" when it came to reporting about former Governor Eliot Spitzer's involvement in using the state police to smear his political rival. Well, that's what happens when you initially say Spitzer had nothing to do with the Troopergate scandal, and then issue another report saying Spitzer was actively involved. Yesterday, the Daily News's Michael Goodwin added Soares to the list of...
Continue Reading "Albany DA Under Fire Over Troopergate Reports"
A NYPD academy dropout who lied about his involvement in September 11 rescue activities remains in jail as NJ police continue to investigate him. Fred Parisi, a 40-year-old Jefferson Township, NJ resident, was arrested for stealing from a business partner, but some suspect he used his so-called 9/11 story to raise sympathy--and money to send his son for a baseball program in Holland. A 2006 NJ Herald article, mainly about Parisi struggle to send his...
Continue Reading "9/11 Con Man's Lies Detailed"
The Post's cover story takes Senator Hillary Clinton to task for falsely claiming she faced sniper fire during her 1996 trip to Bosnia. Not only does the Post speak to former acting president Ejup Ganic, there's also comment from then 8-year-old girl who greeted Clinton and read her a poem. Emina Bicakcic, who is now 20 years old and studying to be a doctor, said she was "surprised" to hear about Clinton's recent dramatic retelling...
Continue Reading "Bosnians Don't Buy Clinton's "I Misspoke" Excuse"
Yikes: A tractor-trailer crashed into a building at Kent and N. 11th Street in Brooklyn this morning. No injuries have been reported, but the building has been evacuated (there are apartments on the second floor) and the Buildings Department has been called. And while some are calling the location Greenpoint, we're using the Williamsburg-starts- at-N.14th-Street route....
Continue Reading "Tractor-Trailer Hits Williamsburg Building"
Penguins 3, Rangers 1: As the playoffs draw nigh, people are beginning to wonder if the Rangers will be able to make a run when the second season starts. As almost everyone knows, the regular season in hockey doesn't prove anything. The Stanley Cup playoffs are where statements are made. If the Rangers were trying to tell the league something Sunday, it must have been, "We take a lot of penalties and can't score." Playing...
Continue Reading "Last Night's Action: Missed Opportunities"March 30, 2008
5-Year Regional Transit Map of Planned Improvements, (large version) from Streetsblog The Regional Planning Association released a map of what service and capital improvements tri-state riders can expect, even in the absence of approval for a congestion pricing plan. NYC Transit riders have a lot to be unhappy about following a fare hike, followed by the announcement that promised service improvements were off the table, followed by the prospect of yet another fare hike...
Continue Reading "Map of the Day: Planned Transit Improvements"Advertisement: Gothamist Continues Below!
March 30, 2008
A Red Hook man is hospitalized with serious stab wounds after his wife was found strangled to death in their Brooklyn home. It's a domestic abuse case that reportedly tilts in the opposite direction of most. Patrick Sculley (aged 60) and his wife (aged 50) had what neighbors described as a combative marriage, with frequent public fights. Neighbors told WNBC News that they saw Pamela hit her husband repeatedly with a baseball bat and kick...
Continue Reading "Domestic Abuse in Red Hook Turns Deadly"
Accused assistant to Murray Hill Madame Kristin Davis, Grace O'Toole, turned herself in yesterday, perhaps realizing that escape from both the NYPD and the NY Media was an impossible mission. After her alleged boss was arrested and jailed on $2 million bail for running a prostitution ring linked to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, O'Toole took off, although she was described very accurately by someone who witnessed her flight as wearing over-sized sunglasses, and carrying...
Continue Reading "Murray Hill Madam's #2 Turns Herself In"
The Fog Rolls in on Harlem, by jschumacher at flickr Harlem resident met with city planners in a public forum yesterday afternoon to discuss whether a major rezoning plan will enhance the historic neighborhood or rip out its heart. The zoning plan, covering 124th, 125th, and 126th Streets, paves the way for condos, a 21-story office tower, a hotel, and more. Rezoning supporters say the plan instills order into the economic transformation the neighborhood...
Continue Reading "Harlem Residents Address Rezoning"
The past few weeks may have been full of Governor David Paterson's admissions over extramarital affairs and drug use, but Paterson has still been hailed as exactly what New York needs as a leader right now. However, his role in directing at least $150,000 in state funds to a hospital that hired his wife to lobby the state for money gets the once-over in the NY Times today. Paterson arranged for his wife, Michelle Paige...
Continue Reading "Paterson, State Money and His Wife's Hospital"
Dith Pran, the New York Times photographer whose survival of Cambodia's "killing fields" was turned into a movie, died at age 65 in NJ. Dith had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in recent years. The NY Times obituary details how Dith "scraped and scrambled to survive the barbarous revolutionary regime of the Khmer Rouge" in the 1970s. Dith worked as a translator with then-NY Times reporter Sydney Shanberg and taught himself how to take photographs....
Continue Reading ""Killing Fields" Photojournalist Dith Pran Dies at 65"
Downtown Manhattan residents have heard enough from honking cabs, and one Community Board is asking the Taxi & Limousine Commission to do something about the racket. Community Board 3, which represents the area of Manhattan containing the East Village, Lower East Side, and Chinatown, voted this week to formally request that the T&LC require devices to be installed in cabs that will visually identify them as horn abusers. Currently, police have to audibly witness a...
Continue Reading "Downtown Residents Brainstorm on Silencing Horns"
New Jersey resident Fred Parisi was arrested at his fund-raiser for 9/11 workers last night, after accusations he stole money from another business. Now authorities are concerned Parisi's 9/11 fund-raising is lining his own pockets. Police say Parisi had started a woodworking business with partner Roy Jensen but put company money into accounts Jensen couldn't access. And now police are questioning Parisi's non-profit 9/11 Rescue Workers Foundation--Detective Joe Kratzel told the Star-Ledger that Parisi "took...
Continue Reading "NJ Police Arrest 9/11 "Hero" for Theft"
Photograph of the fire truck donated to Ladder 101 by Triborough on Flickr Members of a marching band from South Carolina were still years from entering high school when the attacks of 9/11/01 occurred, but the band arrived in New York City this week to visit a Red Hook Engine and Ladder Company that received a replacement truck in 2002 purchased with funds raised by White Knoll Middle School students and the residents of...
Continue Reading "South Carolina HS Band Visits Red Hook Firehouse"March 29, 2008
Photo of sandwish shop, by Tien Mao Observant New Yorkers may have noticed that someone's got an ax to grind with Sarah Marshall. There are posters all over town telling the woman that she is maternally hated, she sucks, and that yes, she does look fat in those jeans. The posters are part of an ad campaign promoting the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall, featuring Kristen Bell as an ex-girlfriend who is difficult to forget....
Continue Reading "The Real Sarah Marshalls Speak Out"As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continue to battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, Republican nominee John McCain has released his first general election commercial. The 60-second commercial emphasizes McCain's military service and also features him saying, "Stay strong. Do not yield. Stand up. We're Americans. And we'll never surrender," as well as giving his military rank and serial number. The ad's final words are "John McCain: The American president Americans have been waiting...
Continue Reading "McCain Unveils General Election Ad"Advertisement: Gothamist Continues Below!
March 29, 2008
New York Ranger forward Sean Avery may be on thin ice with any woman he's currently seeing, as his name popped up in the spreadsheets of Murray Hill madame Kristin "Billie" Davis. The distaff pimp was arrested after being linked to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer--one-time state attorney general and longtime whore connoisseur. Avery denies that he knows Davis or ever used a prostitute, laughing off the incident as a practical joke by someone familiar with...
Continue Reading "Of Hookers and Hockey Players"
Interested observers who want to see Pope Benedict during his April visit to New York, but couldn't score tickets to his appearance at Yankee Stadium, will be able to glimpse the head of the Roman Catholic church's hierarchy as he cruises the city in the Popemobile. Pope Benedict will be taking the bullet proof bubble car from St. Patrick's Cathedral to a residence where he's staying on the Upper East Side April 19th. He'll also...
Continue Reading "New Yorkers Get to See Popemobile During Papal Visit"
Photo of Joe Girardi and Brian Cashman before an exhibition game against the Florida Marlins by AP/Luis M. Alvarez Joe Girardi made the goal clear from his introductory press conference donning the number 27 to represent the quest for a 27th title. But, despite their tremendous resources and talent, this Yankees’ team is further away from winning a title than any in recent memory because of the question surrounding the starting pitching. It is...
Continue Reading "For the Yankees, Will It Be 27 in '08?"
After Remy Ma was found guilty earlier this week, she was carted off in handcuffs screaming, "Oh, my God! My son! My son!" If she receives the maximum sentence of 25 years, her son will be 33 by the time she's free again -- and she will be 51. The NY Post reports the convicted wasn't the only one causing a scene, one of her supporters was taken out of the courtroom after yelling "F*ck...
Continue Reading "Remy Ma Hopes Fan Mail Will Shorten Sentence"
A Long Island City concrete firm won a contract to provide $103 million worth of "slabs, decks, walls and enclosures" for the September 11 memorial at the World Trade Center site. According to the NY Times, Navillus Contracting will be responsible for 45,000 cubic yards of concrete for the memorial itself as well as "adjacent underground areas" and the Port Authority's executive director Anthony Shorris said, "This contract will move us to the next...
Continue Reading "Concrete Plans for World Trade Center Memorial "
Almost all of the injuries suffered by tenants in Thursday night's high rise fire on the Lower East Side were preventable and the result of panic and poor decision making by residents. In addition to the 30 firefighters who reported injuries fighting the blaze on Grand St., 16 tenants of the 26 story building were injured--two seriously. FDNY officials say that all of the injuries to the tenants could have been avoided. Roy Holloway was...
Continue Reading "Panic the Cause of Injuries in LES Blaze"
Gov. Paterson is proposing cutting $60 million from the MTA's $10 billion operating budget. That's less than 1%, but further decreases in real estate revenues could make an even larger dent in the budget. According to the New York Post, real estate revenues were off $31 million this month, which could add up to hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The effect on riders will not make many happy: possible service cuts and another fare...
Continue Reading "MTA's Budget Crisis Means More Fare Hikes, Service Cuts"
Albany County District Attorney David Soares released a second report saying that former Governor Eliot Spitzer did, according to an aide's testimony, tell his aides to release state travel records about his Republican rival in a smear attempt. This report reverses Soares' September report, which concluded Spitzer's aides broke no laws. Interestingly, Soares says if Spitzer had not resigned, he could have faced impeachment or other disciplinary action because he lied about his involvement, repeatedly...
Continue Reading "Albany DA Confirms Spitzer's Dirty Tricks"
Students were confined to classrooms until the end of the school day yesterday afternoon after a student was badly injured in a stabbing just after noon. Police swarmed through Paul Robeson High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, looking for a student suspected in the stabbing of 18-year-old Kyle Owens, who was wounded in the neck and the chest with an unidentified weapon. Teacher and basketball coach Todd Myles helped save Owens' life by coming to his immediate...
Continue Reading "Reading, Writing, and Stabbing at Brooklyn HS"
Yesterday, a NYPD trajectory expert testified about the fatal 2006 shooting of unarmed man on his wedding day. Crime scene detective Michael Cunningham, only called to examine the evidence seven months after the incident, testified he was unable to determine some trajectories because measurements supplied by the crime scene unit team were inaccurate. Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora are on trial for manslaughter, while Detective Marc Cooper is charged with reckless endangerment. Prosecutors used...
Continue Reading "Sean Bell Shooting Trial: Week 5 Ends"