Results tagged “anewyork”

A New York State Assemblyman ticked off about congestion pricing for suburban drivers is retaliating by proposing a $4-per-ride surcharge for taxi riders, rather than the congestion fee of $8 for motorists entering Manhattan below 60th St. That taxis are another form of mass transit that allow New Yorkers to get around without owning a car escapes Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, whose district includes parts of Westchester County.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Amboy Rd. in Staten Island, another bank robbery on 5th Ave. in Manhattan, and a scaffolding collapse on Grand Concourse and 149th St. in the Bronx.
• A building slated for destruction on Governors Island will become a lab for the FDNY to examine the dynamics of high-rise fires and how best to defeat them. Fire crews from cities around the country will be on hand to observe.
• Someone crunched the numbers and found that The New York Times Fashion Magazine is almost as white as the arctic in February, pre-global warming. The 55% of New Yorkers who aren't white are probably not the targeted demographic the Times Fashion Mag is looking for anyway.
• A New York Presbyterian Hospital official in charge of the Women, Infants, and Children program--which was designed to provide food for impoverished women and children--is accused of siphoning off a few hundred thousand dollars for vacations and comfortable living.
• City Councilman Eric Gioia is running a "carbon neutral" campaign for public advocate, that involves the use of more emails than flyers, the purchase of carbon offsets, and the use of hybrid vehicles.
• The International House of Pancakes downtown Brooklyn location is doing so well that plans are in the works for locations in Bed-Stuy, East New York, and Williamsburg.
• The family of a 25-year-old, who allegedly had his jaw broken by an EMT, is suing the city for $2 million. They accuse the EMT of punching the young man in the face after the patient accidentally drooled on him as he was giving him oxygen.
• Summertime probably seems far off today, but the organizers of the Movies With a View program are looking for submissions of short films to be shown before features in July and August amidst the moonlit shadows of the Brooklyn Bridge.

A New York State appellate court ruled that under the federal concept of the "marriage recognition rule," which grants reciprocity to the bond of marriage formed in other states, it will recognize gay marriages solemnized in other states. As one of the largest states in the nation, this is a huge step for proponents of normalizing same-sex marriages. Gay marriages still aren't allowed in New York State, although a young mayor in New Paltz, NY attempted to go forward with that initiative, but marriages performed elsewhere will be granted legal status. It's a bit of legalistic court-leading-the-horse, but gay rights proponents seem pleased.

A New York State senator is proposing a law that makes criminals legally responsible for the inadvertent harm to helpful bystanders who might come to the aid of a person under attack. The proposal comes in the wake of the death of Flonarza Byas, who may have been killed by Maurice Parks while he was defending himself during a robbery.

The art group collected under the name Flux Factory is being pushed out of their Queens warehouse gallery to make way for the MTA's $6.3 billion East Side Access project.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission has made it official: Cabs purchased after October 1, 2008 must get at least 25 miles per gallon. Then, after fall of 2009, newly purchased cabs must get at least 30 miles per gallon. As the AP puts it, this means "taxi fleet owners, who must replace their cabs every three to five years, will probably be forced to buy fuel-efficient hybrids, which run partly on electricity." The Taxicab Board...

Food bloggers from around the world are offering delicious prizes as part of Menu for Hope 4. Menu for Hope is an annual fundraising event hosted by Chez Pim. Last year, Menu for Hope raised an incredible $62,925 to help the UN World Food Programme feed the hungry. Want more details? Well, here’s the FAQ. From December 10-21, you can buy raffle tickets to bid on any on the food-related prizes being offered. Tickets cost...

A New York state legislator stood at the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge yesterday and blamed confusing signage and roadways for the death of Sam Hindy, who was killed last week. Hindy was killed when he struck a barrier and plunged to the lower roadway of the Manhattan Bridge and struck by a car. The 27-year-old was riding from Manhattan to Brooklyn with a friend, Benjamin Price last Friday evening when they found themselves on...

Escaping a closed world: CNN's Randi Kaye talks with a woman who successfully left a polygamist society.

Last year around this time, the Observer pitted Williamsburg hipsters and Park Slope yuppies against each other. This year, the Observer tackles the yearning some native New Yorkers have for when NYC was bad (sorta like Michael Jackson video Bad!). Summer of Sam, Needle Park, Ford telling the city to drop dead, all of it seems better than it is now. Here's what some people told the Observer:

- “I was flashed all the time—that’s how a true private all-girl kid learned about the male anatomy,” wrote Liz Alderman, 32, a television producer and former Brearley lass, in an e-mail.

Continue reading "Old Naughty NYC Vs. Current Boring, Safe NYC"

The police officer accused of killing his ex-girlfriend during an argument on a Queens street was arraigned yesterday. Harry Rupnarine, 38, who joined the NYPD 2 years ago and worked on the transit task force, was charged with second degree murder. Though his lawyer said Rupnarine had family members willing to put up their life savings for bail, Rupnarine was held without bail. Queens DA Richard Brown said, "This is a tragic case from any perspective. A young woman is murdered. A New York City police officer is charged with her death. However, the sad reality is that this was, in essence, a domestic violence incident that occurs all too frequently and illustrates that police officers are not immune from social problems that are endemic in our society.” The NYPD has suspended him without pay.

Governor Spitzer and other state leaders finalized this year's budget, to the tune of $121.8 billion, just in time for tomorrow's deadline. While Spitzer has touted greater transparency with public process, the budget deal has been notable for negotiations taking place behind closed doors. The Times Union had Spitzer's opinion on the secrecy, "Do we all wish there had been more public articulation? You bet," but "said a 'wide chasm' between his plan and the Legislature's had to be bridged somehow." In other words, the Legislature didn't want to be steamrolled.

Last Monday, Gothamist set down with award winning sportscaster Len Berman. A New York native, Berman attended Stuyvesant High School and started his broadcast career while a student at Syracuse University. He got his start in television news as a reporter (and later news anchor) in 1970 at WLWD-TV (now WDTN-TV)in Dayton, Ohio. Three years later, he moved to Boston’s WBZ-TV, where he served as sports director and called Boston Celtics and New England Patriots games. In 1979 he returned to New York as weekend sports anchor for WCBS-TV.

House Calls

We're starting a new feature here called Tour-ist. Get it? Okay, let us explain.

Last night Gothamist attended the 4th annual benefit for the Academy of American Poets at Alice Tully Hall and was reminded that reciting poetry aloud is really a wonderful thing. As the kick-off to National Poetry Month in April, a panel of celebrity readers including William Wegman, Mike Wallace, Dianne Weist, Alan Alda and Meryl Streep read a few examples each from a variety of American poets. Great poets like William Carlos Williams, Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes and Kenneth Koch were represented in the mix, with a highlight for the night coming from musician Wynton Marsalis's lyrical reading of Sterling A. Brown's "Ma Rainey -- a poem he punctuated by breaking into song a cappella during one portion.

- An off-duty cop fighting with a group of "thugs" was shot early yesterday morning by another police officer.

Since negotiations between the MTA and the TWU started way back in Ocotober the threat of a strike has loomed, and loomed, and loomed. And now the thinkable has happened. After a 25-minute address at the Javitz Center from TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint yesterday, more than 6,000 members of the union voted to illegally strike next week if an agreement with the MTA can not be reached in time.

We are giving you fair warning: For better or for worse, in the next two months you are going to hear a lot about the plight of the modern transit worker and the incompetence of the MTA. Why? Because the last-mintue three-year contract that the Transport Workers Union signed with the MTA in 2002 expires at 12:01 a.m. on December 16. Isn't that still a bit off? Yes, but negotiations started yesterday.

The Upper West Side is overrun with mice and rats! Or at least that's the idea you get from a story in the Post, which suggests that you might be able to stop buying the Fancy Feast and let your cats feast on Grade A New York City Rat. Complaints have been coming in fast and furious to 311 and Community Board 7, which says, "They're in the 60s, they're in the 100's. They're everywhere." Most people having been calling mice "rats," and one woman said, "Over the weekend, I heard a shriek coming from a nearby brownstone. Then I heard the homeowners congratulating their cat, Leonard, for catching a mouse." Gothamist wonders if Community Board should adopt some tough, alley-cat types from a local shelter and have a mousing patrol, because supers generally don't do that much.

Mary Lou Lord

The first nine of the 164 token booths scheduled for closing will be shut down in April. The Daily News says the first retired booths will include ones in Union Square and Penn Station, and then the remaining booths will close weekly until October. Then, 600 of the clerks will be up and around, helping riders with the Metrocard machines and turnstiles. The Transit Authority emphasizes that even though the token booths are closing, the closures are just at stations where there will be one manned booth (and if you're at an unmanned entrance, there will be an intercom and you can ask to be buzzed in). Gothamist hopes that with these savings, there are more video cameras and monitoring, not to mention police presence, because we agree with 80 year-old Dorothy Francis who told the Daily News, "I can't run from robbers. I need protection in the subway."

Eric and Skye took some time out for Gothamist last week, check out what they had to say in response to our hard-hitting questions...