Frozen Coney, by MurphyZero at flickrToday on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Livingston St. in Brooklyn, another bank robbery on 2nd Ave. in Manhattan, and a third bank robbery on 71-41 Main St. in Queens. Even diamonds can get family members riled up and stabbing this way and that. Something Into Plowshares: behold the transformed Park Slope Armory. Toys in Babeland coming to family-friendly Park Slope. The Pink Pussycat Boutique, which operates......

First rule of Fulton Street Transit Center: Nothing will go as planned. Back in 2004, the MTA unveiled designs for the new Fulton Street Transit Center, which would have included a towering steel-and-glass dome (the "oculus") AND connections between many different trains lines, providing easier transfers for subway riders. But in 2005, the MTA said the project would be delayed and scaled back (smaller dome, shorter hallways between lines) and then earlier this year,......

Love it! The MTA's board says free newspapers are what caused subway flooding in 2004. Which contradicts an April report from the MTA's inspector general, who found that the agency was at fault for severe flooding that shut down much subway service on a September day (September 8, 2004 - when Hurricane Frances came to town and wreaked transit havoc). The April report noted the MTA's "historic neglect" of valves, difficulties Transit Authority first......

Dig out that reading list, load your iPod up, and get ready to lose that teeny sense of "personal space" while commuting - the MTA wants $20 million in service cuts as part of a way to deal with its huge, looming budget deficits. And we're talking deficits of $905 million in 2008, $1.13 billion in 2009, $1.48 billion in 2010. The NY Times reports how the cut could manifest themselves in our everyday lives:The......

If you're going to protest going to jail after leading an illegal transit strike for three days, then you might as well with the Reverend Al Sharpton, teachers union head Randi Weingarten, and about a thousand other supporters. And according to plan, many members of various unions are starting to view Roger Toussaint as a martyr, versus the main guy who inconvenienced the city (well, it's him and MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow). Toussaint headed......

The expectation is that the MTA will approve that RFPs for the Second Avenue Subway can be issued tomorrow. In other words, the call to construction for the first phase of the project will go out, making the new T line a very real possibility. NY1 has the about the project: MTA board member Barry Feinstein said, “We were building the Second Avenue subway before. It didn't get built because they ran out of money,......