David Harshorn, the 52-year-old Queens Little League coach charged with molesting three of his charges, doesn't just have a history of pursuing sex with minors. He also has a history as a campaign manager who uses minors for grunt work! Harshorn managed Alan Gerson's failed 2009 City Council bid and worked on Joe Fox's failed shot at unseating Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi. In both cases he used kids to hand out literature and it is unclear if a background check was performed in either case. Meanwhile, the Little League has begun its own investigation into how he got his coaching gig. more ›

The parents of a 10-year-old Bronx boy who was killed by an allegedly speeding van while riding his bike are suing the city for $10 million for failing to install a speed bump. 10-year-old Michael Needham was riding his bike with friends outside the Allerton Library after school on June 5th, 2008 when the van struck him; he died after 19 days in a coma. The suit, filed Tuesday in Bronx Supreme Court, argues that the city should have known that drivers near the Allerton Library "regularly exceeded the speed limit, failed to obey stop signs, raced to make traffic lights and otherwise operated their vehicles in dangerous and unlawful manners." more ›

The thin line between nonprofit organizations and local politicians was blurred once more again today. Elizabeth Benjamin of the Daily News reports that a ballot squabble between two city council candidates revealed that officials at the United Jewish Council of the East Side have been doing campaign work for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and mayoral challenger City Comptroller Bill Thompson. Renee Abromowitz of UJC said under oath that she had gone out to gather signatures for candidates testifying, "I have done this many years...So I know when the sheets on my desk [sic], I just go out and I volunteer to do signatures." Abromowitz also admitted to handing signature sheets over to her boss, a UJC director. The News says that Silver has directed more than $2.3 million in member items to UJC since 2006. The UJC has also received $16,000 in slush funds from City Councilman Alan Gerson, the man at the center of the controversy when the issues was raised by his Democratic primary challenger, Pete Gleason. A lawyer for Gleason said, "This is a charitable organization, and it's being perverted for political purposes." more ›

It's been a while since we checked in on community dissatisfaction with the DOT's changes to Grand Street in Manhattan, and we're not surprised to see the opposition still hates the new configuration, which provides a dedicated lane for cyclists, separated from traffic by a row of parked cars and pedestrian islands at some intersections. On Monday night City Councilmember Alan Gerson held a public forum on traffic and parking problems in the neighborhood, and accused the DOT of turning "a deaf ear to community concerns. Traffic on Grand Street is worse. Pedestrian crossings are more dangerous. Critical turns for the Fire Department, ambulances and police have become difficult." more ›

Last year the police were hassling the art vendors in SoHo, something documented by Robert Lederman, president of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists’ Response to Illegal State Tactics). Around the same time, word of an Alan Gerson-proposed bill to "deal with the problem" was getting out, and now the City Council proposal has arrived, leaving the artists on the defense. more ›

The South Street Seaport redevelopment plan, released yesterday, is unsurprisingly being met with immediate backlash. Councilman Alan J. Gerson, who the NY Times reports has a significant voice in the approval, has stated with confidence that the plan is “certainly not going to pass in its present form.” more ›

Sure, the 2008 election is exciting, but hundreds of candidates are expected to run for city office next year. more ›

Later today, the city will discuss whether the I.M. Pei-designed Silver Towers should be landmarked. The Observer reported that NYU announced its support today, a reversal from an earlier position over three years ago. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired on Soundview Ave. in the Bronx, a gas leak on Snyder Ave. and East 34th St. in Brooklyn, and a bank robbery on West 4th and 6th Ave. in Manhattan.
• High school girls (including a pair from Long Island) swept the top prizes in both team and individual categories for the first time in the history of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology.
• Houston St. now sports south-side sidewalks that have doubled in width and feature trees planted in the middle, after a renovation of the street between Broadway and West 6th.
• Silicon Alley Insider names the 100 most influential people in the New York world of digital business. Mayor Bloomberg captured the top spot.
• A New Jersey task force recommended that Drug Free School Zones are too large and the mandatory harsher penalties against non-violent drug offenders crowd actual violent criminals out of prison and back onto the street.
• Gov. Spitzer raised $1.5 million at a fund-raising dinner last night in an effort to refill a diminished campaign war chest. Voters are indicating they've got buyers' remorse after electing the once-popular Spitzer.
• Police recruits studying for their pre-graduation (Dec. 27) exams will receive an early Christmas present in the form of iPods loaded with study material. They will have to return the devices after graduation.
• And a judge has cleared the way for Washington Square Park's renovations. City Councilman Alan Gerson who previously opposed the renovations but is fine with concessions the city has made: "We have secured unprecedented protections against the commercialization of the park."

City Council members Jessica Lappin and Alan Gerson have introduced a bill that would pass tickets received by food deliverycyclists and bike messengers on to their employers. The fines, which range from $100 to $300, are supposed to encourage restaurants and delivery firms to firmly encourage employees to cycle safely in the city, aside from being killed themselves. more ›

Yesterday morning, around 7AM, Queens resident Hope Miller was fatally hit by a truck turning right onto Houston Street from 6th Avenue. The driver, Roger Smiley, was fleeing the scene of an accident at Prince and 6th Avenue. more ›

Yesterday, firefighters and the community were in Bay Ridge to remember Joseph Graffagnino, one of the firefighters who died while fighting last Saturday's 7-alarm fire at the Deutsche Bank building. The building, which was in the process of being dismantled, has been described as a deathtrap, what with the contractors using flammable materials, a broken standpipe (which couldn't deliver water to the fire), and a lack of FDNY inspection. more ›

The ACMA (Alliance for Creative Music Action) is a group of musicians, artists and supporters of the arts who are joining together "as a pressure group to bring awareness about the needs of art in our communities." Tonight they'll be holding a Town Hall Meeting, demanding that the city provide "an adequate subsidized performance space in Manhattan." The meeting will be held just a block away from Tonic, a recent casualty amongst downtown performance spaces. more ›

AMNY continues the ongoing story about clubs and venues in New York closing. They report on the irony of it all: more ›

Yesterday a press conference on the steps of City Hall was held in response to the eviction and closing of Tonic, the downtown venue that shut its doors after nine years. A committee of musicians, cultural activists, and supporters made a call for public and political intervention to protect new music/indie/avant/jazz in New York City and to ask the city to provide a minimum 200 capacity, centrally located venue for experimental music. From the press release, the coalition is asking: more ›

Police and street vendors don't mix. The Villager reports that comedian and Soho resident Whoopi Goldberg thinks the treatment the police give the vendors is "atrocious," and she's not alone. more ›

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg signed a City Council bill that requires businesses with bicycle delivery workers to improve its bicycle safety measures into law. Read all about bill 24-A, which requires businesses to supply helmets, to make sure the delivery guys wear them, and to make sure the bikes are safe, as well as 58-A, which requires signs about bicycle safety and laws to posted in English, Spanish or whichever language is spoken at the business, here. City Councilman Alan Gerson initiated the bill in the fall of 2004 (why it took so long is unclear) and Mayor Bloomberg said about the legislation:

In addition to enhancing the safety of pedestrians traversing the City’s streets, these bills will help protect our City’s hard-working delivery personnel, many of whom are immigrants who speak a language other than English. Immigrants form the backbone of our City’s workforce and have helped re-energize our economy, and this bill will ensure that they are given additional protection.

The food blogs were all in a buzz yesterday about the possibility of a foie gras ban, similar to the one recently enacted in Chicago, being instituted here in New York. It seems that Councilman Alan Gerson was poised to introduce a ban today; Ariane Daugin of D'Artagnan, a prominent purveyor of foie based in New York, sent an email to her food-related contacts urging action. Jennifer Leuzzi posted the email in its entirety on Snack. In addition to providing contact information for the councilman, Daugin provided "proof points" in an attempt to educate readers about foie gras. more ›

Augh! The NY Sun reports:

Speculation is heating up that the Municipal Building, the soaring limestone landmark that overlooks City Hall, could be among the government real estate assets to be sold off and converted to residential buildings as municipal employees prepare to move into a new, privately managed office building planned for ground zero.

Family members protested at Ground Zero, asking that Mayor Bloomberg involve the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in the renewed search for remains from September 11, 2001. Local politicians like Representative Carolyn Maloney and City Councilman Alan Gerson support the families, but Mayor Bloomberg feels it's the "city's responsibility. We're not going to walk away from our responsibility and let somebody else bear the pressure of the work." The families argue that in spite of the new search plans, the search needs more supervision and oversight. more ›

A Chinatown bus story that does not involve its speed or quality of the ride: The NY Sun reports that the police aren't very happy with Chinatown buses using previous curbside space, because things are crowded enough. Which led some City Council member Alan Gerson to suggest that a bus terimnal be created for Chinatown: "These buses have more pick-ups and drop-offs than the Port Authority." more ›

Right when you thought we were done bitching about the Washington Square Park renovations, leave it to the Villager to bring us right back in. The issue at hand now? The cleanliness of the water in the soon to be moved Park fountain. more ›