The preponderance of big chain stores on the Upper West Side could be severely reversed under a plan introduced by the Department of City Planning. Acting on concerns from the Upper West Side community and elected officials, the city is considering rezoning part of the neighborhood to create two Special Enhanced Commercial Districts. Each of these zones would limit the frontage of new and expanding banks and residential lobbies along Broadway, Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues. Overall store size would not be restricted, so big chains could still burrow underground, but city planners argue that "over time the general multi-store character of Amsterdam and Columbus avenues would be maintained, while promoting a more varied and active retail environment on Broadway." more ›

Mayor Bloomberg seemed less ominous than recent years in announcing his $68.7 billion preliminary budget for the 2013 Fiscal Year yesterday, which is balanced as required by law and doesn't feature any tax hikes or layoffs of teachers or cops. Rocking a blue V-neck sweater in honor of the Giants' Super Bowl bid, Bloomberg told reporters, "Cities across the country have struggled to keep their heads above water - laying off teachers, police officers, or firefighters, with a few even having to declare bankruptcy,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “We’ve avoided those painful steps, because we spent years planning ahead, made government more efficient and saved for a rainy day." more ›

The owners of the hot and trendy restaurants Torrisi Italian Specialties and Parm are among the restaurateurs sniffing around the dessicated corpse of Tavern on the Green, which the Parks Department showed off to potential operators today. "We’re taking it all in," Torrisi co-owner Zalaznick told City Room during the tour this morning. "The question is how casual they’ll let the restaurant be. It used to be a pretty formal place." During the tour and Q&A that followed, the Parks Department let it be known that they do indeed want the new iteration of Tavern to be casual and accessible. The city is spending $10 million to renovate and shrink it, and the Wall Street Journal reports that Assistant Parks Commissioner Betsy Smith made it clear that the new Tavern should be "a moderately priced restaurant" that's not as "fanciful and glitzy as before." more ›

If it's the third week of January, it's time for media outlets to regurgitate Travel & Leisure's annual reader survey of America's "favorite" cities. Bite-size tabloid AM New York was quick to cough up a cover story today about how we're just not that friendly, and the Daily News also reports that "out-of-towners have ranked New York as the No. 1 city — in rudeness." But as we pointed out last time this bullshit survey resurfaced, the word "rude" isn't part of Travel & Leisure's survey, which ranks cities by how friendly its residents are. And just because you're not perceived as "friendly" doesn't mean you're rude! For instance, it might mean you're simply busy and don't have time to cheerfully pour iced tea for every needy hayseed tourist blocking the tourist lane. more ›

Yesterday life in New York City ground to a halt as New Yorkers pondered the possibility that the next time they ride the subway, there might very well be an opossum snarling under their seats. The story went viral, but it seems none of the online articles have any new information about the animal's fate, beyond what the Times reported. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne told the Times that animal control agents met the train in a subway yard next to the Grand Concourse in the Bronx... but Richard Gentles, the spokesman for Animal Care & Control, tells us, "AC&C was not involved in the removal of an opossum from a subway train on Friday, nor was one delivered to the shelter." more ›

On Wednesday around 11:30 p.m., a taxi cab passenger, apparently frustrated that the cab was stuck in traffic on the FDR, jumped out and was struck by a minivan. Now, the Daily News reports that the victim, Lower East Side boutique owner Mehdi Kabbaj, died from his injuries. more ›

On December 22, 39-year-old Tennesseean Meredith Graves brought her loaded .38 pistol in her purse to the 9/11 Memorial and, after she asked a guard if there was a place she could check it, was promptly arrested. She posted bail on Wednesday and yesterday at least one local pol started pushing for lenience (she faces a minimum sentence of 3 1/2 years on a single felony weapons-possession charge) since her gun was properly registered in her home state. Also, police say that besides the gun Graves, a fourth-year medical student, had "two envelopes of what they suspected to be cocaine" in her purse. more ›

Well, it seems there's some consolation for those of you who choose to reside anywhere other than the greatest city in America! Non-New Yorkers can least look forward to their baffling, blinkered lives ending sooner than if they'd actually followed their dreams in the big city. At a press conference at a Bronx maternity ward today, Mayor Bloomberg announced that babies born in NYC in 2009 have an average life expectancy of 80.6 years, nearly two and a half years more than the most recently reported national rate of 78.2 years. And though there's no official research on this, it's safe to assume that those extra two and a half golden years in NYC are packed with mindblowing sex and prolific novel-writing. more ›

After decades of focusing their expansion efforts on the suburbs, a growing number of Southern Baptists are flocking to northeast cites for what's known as "church planting," or establishing new congregations in wicked Godless places. And NYC, with its gambling and bars that sell spirits til the ungodly hour of 2 a.m., is a top target for proselytizers, the Times reports today. Years of investing God-capital in NYC seems to be paying off, with some 45 Southern Baptist "church plants" established here since 2001, and another 50 churches planned for the NYC area in the next five years. Which comes as an enormous relief because, as the Southern Baptists point out, NYC really needs Southern Baptists. more ›

When Cornell announced that it had received a remarkable, anonymous $350 million donation specifically to help it build a new engineering and technology-focused school on Roosevelt Island (effectively forcing the city to select its bid) there was a lot of speculation as to who would donate that kind of money (*cough* hizzoner *cough*). But there is no reason to speculate anymore, the donor has come forward and, honestly? He sounds like the kind of 1 percenter we could use more of. more ›

And the winner of New York City's high-tech campus sweepstakes appears to be... Cornell, by $350 million dollars. Mayor Bloomberg is expected to announce the news later today at the New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Ithaca-based Ivy is apparently so eager to get started they want to have their first classes going by next September—a year earlier than the Bloomberg administration initially asked for! more ›

One of the things that used to make New York City great is that all the bars stayed open until 4 a.m., so you could support your local businesses long after residents of other more provincial cities had tucked their dainty livers into bed. But more and more—and especially in Manhattan—2 a.m. is becoming the norm for last call, because local community boards are withholding liquor license approval unless barkeeps agree to shut down early. We've seen this happen all over the Lower East Side, the Meatpacking District, and Tribeca, and now Harlem is the latest part of town to demand veritably Bostonesque hours of operation. more ›

It's not just your imagination; like everything else in this town, freaking electricity costs more than pretty much anywhere else in America. The US Energy Information Administration recently released a report comparing electricity costs across the country, and according to their analysis, New Yorkers on average paid 9.6 percent more for electricity last year, while national electricity rates were mostly flat. Con Ed in particular charges customers, on average, higher rates than anywhere else in the country: 25.85 cents per kilowatt hour, which is more than twice the national average of 11.54 cents. But at least you're paying more to watch Seinfeld reruns in an apartment in THE GREATEST CITY IN THE WORLD! more ›

The 1 percent are all around you! The rallying cry of the Occupy Wall Street types at Zuccotti Park turns out to be incredibly apt here in the NYC Metropolitan area where "Nine of the 10 most heavily taxed neighborhoods in the U.S." just happen to be, according to Internal Revenue Service data. What're we talking about here? Oh, y'know, nothing much. In 2008 the nine zip codes reported "$70.1 billion, or 0.9 percent, of the nation’s total adjusted gross income of $7.98 trillion." more ›

This morning, we heard a report of a grey seal spotted on the rocks behind Gracie Mansion, the city's official mayoral residence, so we messaged the NYC Mayor's Office via Twitter, "is there a grey seal on the rocks behind gracie mansion? if yes, can you take a picture?" Ask and ye shall receive, folks—the NYC Mayor's Office just Tweeted, "Meet the new City seal! MT @Gothamist is there a grey seal on the rocks behind gracie mansion? http://yfrog.com/gzgp2laaj" more ›

Kelsey Grammer, possibly the only straight Republican actor to ever play a gay cabaret owner, is considering a new role: mayor of New York City. more ›

You may remember Chef Ludo Lefebvre from his appearances on Top Chef Masters (offal tacos! electrified tartar sauce!) but he's garnered acclaim for his pop-up restaurant, Ludo Bites, in LA to the point that the Sundance Channel is airing a show—Ludo Bites America—that features him and wife Krissy opening pop-up restaurants in small towns the country. So, when is he going to open one in NYC? more ›

A tour bus from Canada headed to New York City crashed into a tractor trailer in Waterloo, NY, about 270 miles from the city. The two vehicles crashed on I-90 around 1:30 a.m. in the morning and burst into flames; both vehicles were destroyed by fire. The tractor trailer's driver died while 30 of the bus's 52 passengers were injured. more ›

Because the most talent bankers apparently would rather live in New York City than Connecticut, the Swiss banking firm UBS is considering moving from its massive Stamford, CT headquarters back to the Big Apple. As UBS negotiates a deal at to-be-built 3 World Trade Center, a Stamford man who sells "'a whole lot' of brown-bagged bottles of liquor to UBS employees every evening," tells the NY Times, "You couldn’t pay me to work at a World Trade Center tower. Have they forgotten about 9/11?" more ›