In yet another gem from Modern Mechanix, folks from 1932 ponder "How Much Longer Will Our Big Cities Last?" Photos of subway tunnels collapsing and apartment fires in New York set the apocalyptic tone for the piece which claims "scientific prophets" see the mammoth cities becoming obsolete. We're to pictured a cobweb-enshrouded Empire State Building and dandelions overtaking Wall Street after "exhaustive studies" concluded that we're pretty much, well, screwed.

According to such writers as Stuart Chase, when man built the city he built a Frankenstein monster which would eventually turn and try to destroy its creator. The city, Mr. Chase believes, has grown so intricate and unwieldy that it now dominates its helpless inhabitants, rather than being dominated by them. more ›

Chef Jonathan Waxman is known for many things, but the benchmark of his cooking over the years has arguably always been his roast chicken. The cover of his new cookbook A Great American Cook depicts Waxman slyly drawing a Lavazza espresso cup to his mouth, wood-burning oven full flame in the background and a sliced open cheese pumpkin in front. The book also features the chef’s roast chicken recipe. “My culinary anthem,” Waxman waxes in the recipe’s preamble. “There’s nothing else like it,” we were told by a stranger at a party last week celebrating the release of said book. “You really have to make it,” said someone else, emphasis on really. And so we did (results pictured here). more ›

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a carjacking at Tompkins and School Rds. on Staten Island, a person was killed by a 5 train at Bowling Green station in Manhattan, and an armed robbery at 51st Ave. and Northern Blvd. in Queens. Bidding closed at $2,600 for the new owner of the Seinfeld ASSMAN license plate prop on eBay. Another Mister Softee driver was busted for selling drugs out of his ice cream truck, this... more ›

This morning we woke up not at all surprised to see Jared Paul Stern still flagellating himself over at Gawker. But to be honest, we were getting kind of bored with the whole thing. The best part of JPS's first post was his last line and the first comment: "And, just in case you were wondering, yes I can tell who's really posting the Comments. I am, after all, the Editor." Followed by Nick Denton commenting "Um, actually, commenters are anonymous, if they want to be. I am, after all, the publisher." We read that, laughed and went to eat an Easter meal with our family. When we got back a few hours later those two lines were gone, and Gawker went a little cray-cray. more ›

The first, and very possibly best, advice we got when we returned to the Big City after our self-imposed exile to the Midwest was twofold: "Don't take taxicabs and don't pay ATM fees." more ›

On Sundays, Gothamist puts its own opinions aside, and asks friends and strangers to write Op-Ed pieces for us. If you want to submit one, email Jake. Here's a review of Ian Frazier's new book, by Ben Cosgrove-- sounds like a winner to us: more ›

Matthew Kenney's Big City Cooking: Recipes for a Fast-Paced World more ›

The Naysayer is Brooklynite Anna Padgett, alt-country storyteller who weaves descriptive narratives of seemingly mundane people, places and things, delivering curt punchlines in deliciously laconic fashion. A native Houstonian, Padgett lingered in Louisville, Kentucky before settling in New York. Southern sensibilities seem to ground the narrator in Padgett's songs, who doesn't mince words, recounting with a healthy thread of skepticism, observations of life in the Big City and other tales. more ›