Aside from lawmaker protest over the government's $700 billion bailout plan, there were a number of protests across the country over the bailout. Labor unions organized a protest on Wall Street yesterday. AFL-CIO president John Sweeney said, "The Bush administration wants us to pay the freight for a Wall Street bailout that does not even begin to address the roots of our crisis. We want our tax dollars used to provide a hand up for......

Harvest in the Square, Union Square's yearly food and wine fundraiser to benefit the Union Square Partnership's "ongoing beautification efforts" to the park, is self-described as "Great Food. Great Fun. Great Fundraiser. Everyone Leaves Feeling Great." That might not be the case tonight, though, when a mob of rabble rousers converge to jeer at VIPs as they arrive at the "pricey party tent." The protesters' beef, as you'll recall, is with the partnership's controversial attempt......

Reports from last night's Donut Social protest in the East Village say it ended in a mini-riot with several protesters arrested. During an impromptu acoustic concert in Tompkins Square following the scheduled demonstration, Leftover Crack singer Scott Sturgeon was first arrested (possibly for throwing donuts at police). More arrests followed when protesters sat in front of the police car containing Sturgeon blocking its exit from the park as the crowd called for police to "quit,......

Those self-described downtown "slacktivists" who previously called for yuppie scum to die at the Bowery Wine Company are focusing their contempt on the NYPD. They're planning a punk concert and protest Friday night against "police brutality, real estate developers, and the blatant selectively targeted harassment/discrimination toward our scene during the 20th Anniversary of the Tompkins Square Park Police Riots concert/political rally." The so-called "Donut Social" was originally planned for directly outside the 9th precinct on......

Right now at Giants Stadium, there is a rally to protest a seat-license policy which will charge Jets and Giants season ticket holders thousands of dollars in a one-time fee for their seats. Both teams are implementing the fee to finance half the construction costs of their new stadium. Jets fan Steve Kern organized the rally and thinks that the fees should be limited to the most expensive seats or season ticket prices should be......

The city spent five years and an estimated $1 million, give or take, fighting off a lawsuit brought by a group of 52 activists who were arrested en masse during an Iraq war protest in April 2003 outside the offices of the Carlyle Group, an investment firm with ties to the Bush family and major holdings in the military-defense sector. And that “bonfire of legal expenses,” as the Times puts it, is just the cherry......

Reports are coming in that NYC street artist and Graffiti Research Lab founder, James Powderly, has been detained in Beijing for planning a pro-Tibet protest via a L.A.S.E.R. Stencil art piece. When Boing Boing reported the news at nearly 8 this morning, he had been held for around 19 hours already. They were tipped off by Students for a Free Tibet, who learned of it via a Twitter message that read "held since 3am." There's......

Opponents of Bloomberg's proposal to rezone and develop Willets Point weren't the only ones angrily protesting yesterday; the public hearing held by the City Planning Commission [CPC] also drew outrage over a rezoning plan for the Lower East Side. The change would place height limits on buildings in an area that has swelled with luxury high rises, from Delancey Street to East 13th Street, and east of the Bowery to Avenue D. But NY1 reports......

Today at 2pm in Tompkins Square Park, there will be a punk concert to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the police riots that took place there. The NY Times has an account of the battle between cops and protesters that took place back on August 6th and 7th, 1988 over a city-imposed curfew of 1 a.m. that had been enacted in an attempt to clean up the rampant homeless population and drug usage that dominated......

15 city council members (including the ubiquitous John Liu) have thrown their support behind a temporary $1 taxi surcharge. But the Taxi and Limousine Commission and the mayor continue to reject the proposal, with Bloomberg pointing to hybrid taxis as the best solution to skyrocketing gas prices. At a rally yesterday, taxi driver Parvinder Singh told NY1: "This gas price is just killing us – all the drivers and all the 5 percent we're paying......

For the love of all that is crafty and thrifty: Brooklyn's beloved Flea is in danger! NYMag reports that "the large church on Vanderbilt & Lafayette along with some FG residents are meeting this week to try to shut it down." This is their third meeting addressing the topic, and each meeting has grown in size and support. Yikes! Jonathan Butler, organizer of the Brooklyn Flea, confirmed the problems and told us the following:At this......

Last week conservative radio host Michael Savage blathered on air about every child with autism being “a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out,” and today is still standing by his remarks, which were plentiful and included calling the disease “a fraud and a racket.” The NY Times noted that Savage's audience "ranks in size behind only those of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity," and you can bet all of those listeners--and......

EV Grieve has details from Friday night's protest over the tenement-to-mansion conversion of 47 East 3rd Street. According to EV Grieve, the protest, organized by other East Village residents (and not remaining tenants at the building), seemed to be "fairly calm and orderly," with "protestors...fenced in by the police" (and the police seemed nice, too). There's also video here. Sidenote: Lately, the cousin of 47 East 3rd Street's owner has apparently been commenting on various......

Last month, a court ruled that a single family could convert an 11,000 square foot tenement into a single family mansion after years of legal wrangling. Some other East Village residents* are planning a planning a protest tonight--a flyer explains, "Landlord Economakis says: 'Let them Eat Cake.' L.E.S. says let him eat shit." However Alistair Economakis is unhappy with the comparison to Marie Antoinette, writing, "As the statement was invoked to justify the death and......

In 2004 – the year taxi fares increased 26%, President Bush got re-elected, and Janet Jackson’s nip slipped – the average price of gas in the city was $1.80 a gallon. It now costs around $4.45 a gallon, with no signs of diminishing, and there is increased clamor from cabbies for the city to institute a surcharge of $1 per ride. But Taxi and Limousine Commission chairman Matthew Daus yesterday declared that "under no circumstance" would the TLC implement a surcharge. ...

Last night’s Coney Island Public Scoping Meeting was the place to be, as activists like political performance artist Reverend Billy turned the meeting into a carnival, leaping up on a chair with repeated cries of “Coney-lujah!” Musician Amos Wengler stood up to croon his anthem “Save Coney Island,” and Savitri D., the Mermaid Parade queen who had been on a hunger strike since Saturday to spotlight the meeting, passionately derided the city’s latest proposal for......

A lively, discontented rabble marched through the East Village Friday night, protesting what they see as the neighborhood’s ongoing desiccation, caused by “real estate developers, landlords, yuppie wine bars and Republicans.” Organized by longtime gadfly John Penley, the group swelled to approximately 100 protesters, who jeered, sang, read poetry and generally condemned others for enjoying fine wine and luxury apartments. Vanishing New York has a thorough account of the proceedings, which started outside the newish......

When it comes to turbo-gentrification, longtime East Village activist John Penley has drawn a line in the sand at the Bowery Wine Co.; the newish wine bar co-owned by actor Bruce Willis. Penley, who joined Jerry "the Peddler" Wade in pushing the Parks Department to permit this August’s concert commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Tompkins Square Park riots, not only objects to the “yuppie” wine bar’s sterile aesthetics but also Willis’s GOP support. A......

Rallies aren’t just for grassroots activists – moneyed developers can hold them too, as Bruce Ratner proved yesterday by financing an afternoon rally in downtown Brooklyn to support his beleaguered Atlantic Yards project. Organizers of the so-called “Brooklyn Day” event handed out free hot dogs and T-shirts to passersby in an attempt to drum up enthusiasm for the $4.2 billion project, though there were no free turkeys to fully evoke the Tammany Hall spirit.......

Reverend Billy climbed to the roof of the Pavilion building in Union Square last night around 6:30 p.m. to hang a banner reading: Not For Sale. While he was up there, he gave the passersby a lesson on why the historic free speech structure cannot be turned into a private, upscale restaurant; reminding people that the first Labor Day in 1882 took place there, and that one "shouldn’t have to buy a $15 appetizer to......

Photograph of the Reverend Al Sharpton by Armchair Messiah on Flickr Two hundred sixteen people were arrested during pray-ins protesting the acquittals of three police detectives in the shooting of Sean Bell. The NY Times called the demonstrations "carefully orchestrated," as hundreds of (perhaps a thousand) people gathered at six different locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, blocking traffic and attracting arrest. The Reverend Al Sharpton, Bell's fiancee Nicole Paultre Bell, and Bell's two friends......

Photograph of protesters on Varick Street by stconrad on Flickr Hundreds of people gathered at six different locations in the city to protest the acquittal of three police detectives in the Sean Bell shooting. They blocked traffic at the Queensboro Bridge, Triborough Bridge, Manhttan Bridge, Holland Tunnel, Queens Midtown Tunnel and Brooklyn Bridge, and arrests were made at the Queens Midtown Tunnel and Brooklyn Bridge. The arrests seem to be because the protesters have......

Rendering courtesy of Municipal Art Society; original aerial photo by Jonathan Barkey. As a counterpoint to the new renderings of Frank Gehry's redesign for the Atlantic Yards flagship tower, here's a different perspective on the project's future look. The Municipal Art Society [MAS] has assembled a compelling slideshow that serves as a sort of dystopian crystal ball, depicting what could come come if Bruce Ratner moves forward with his development on 22-acres of land in......

Developer Bruce Ratner and architect Frank Gehry have announced that ‘Miss Brooklyn,’ the 620-foot residential and commercial tower planned for the 22-acre Atlantic Yards project, has been scrapped. In its place they’re proposing a building called ‘B1’: a 511 foot tall structure that will now house commercial tenants only. If they can be found – Forest City Ratner has yet to secure an anchor tenant for what will now be 650,000 of commercial space. B1’s......

Last week, the Post reported that an anti-war protester was arrested outside the 92nd Street Y, after allegedly assaulting a wheelchair-bound teenager. However, according to the NYPD, the protester, Gary "German" Talis was actually arrested for allegedly assaulting another individual--not the wheelchair-bound teen. Police from the 19th Precinct were called to the Y because two individuals were being disruptive during a talk with First Lady Laura Bush and her daughter Jenna. One of the Y's......

Erstwhile principal and school founder Debbie Almontaser made the front page of The New York Times today. The article is about how a woman who attempted to found a school based on cultural and religious understanding was forced from her position as the principal thanks to the resistance of spirited opponents. Almontaser founded the Khalil Gibran International Academy, which she envisioned as a dual language --English and Arabic--school that emphasized the cultural accomplishments of Middle......

Who knew that Laura Bush and daughter Jenna Bush's children's book tour would prompt violence? The Post reports a wheelchair-bound girl was assaulted by a Bush protester after the Bushes' 92nd Street Y appearance on Tuesday. Apparently German Tallis, 22, was protesting about Iraq and Iran, and John Lovetro said to him, "What are you doing? Shut up. This is about a child and books...Get out of here! You're being a moron!" But instead of......

Olympics planners and San Francisco authorities made many attempts (making up the route as it went along) to prevent demonstrators from disrupting the Olympic torch's only North American appearance on Wednesday, they couldn't stop a torch bearer from the Bronx from expressing her pro-Tibet sympathies. Majora Carter, a 41-year-old environmental activist from the South Bronx, had tucked a small Tibetan flag up her sleeve, with the torch in the other. The NY Times described her......

Photo by Robert Kreizel After the John Varvatos boutique officially opened its doors last weekend in the old CBGB space, activist Rebecca Moore held court on the sidewalk. This past Tuesday she sat outside the retail shop in protest with a sign that read: "One small loss of a music space, one large step for pants," and was joined by a few other supporters. Moore says her statement isn't about just one music space......

As anticipated, last night's gala event at the Brooklyn Museum honoring real estate developer Bruce Ratner attracted protesters opposed to the $4 billion Atlantic Yards stadium and residential development proposed for a 22-acre site just a stone's throw from the museum. Atlantic Yards Report was at the scene and writes: "The protest organized by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn last night outside the museum was notably angry, with some 80 people gathering at one point, many......