- Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a crime scene/hanging at East 13th St. and Shore Parkway in Brooklyn, a child mauled by a dog in the area of 91-43 Gold Rd. in Queens, and a possible escaped prisoner on Wards Island across from Manhattan.
- Asbestos removal at the Carroll St. F and G line station appears to be a non-issue. Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn received a note saying that air levels were fine and removal is not scheduled for the immediate future.
- The New York Aquarium's sharks at Coney Island are moving on up. They're upgrading their modest 90,000 cubic foot tank to a $67 million waterfront palace.
- The City is pursuing criminal charges against an 82-year-old buildings engineer for what they claim was perjury. A $.99 store whose designs he ok'd caught fire and rotten timbers allegedly resulted in the deaths of two firefighters.
- Did the Hell's Angels plan a 'Bay of Hogs' Long Island beachfront attack that ended in embarrassing failure during the 1960s? Apparently, after the Rolling Stones' concert at Altamont, some Hells Angels tried sailing to Mick Jagger's estate to kill him, but hit rough seas and fell overboard.
- The box office at Yankee Stadium opened this morning at 10 a.m., as the organization began selling tickets to games at the Bronx Bombers' final season in the House that Ruth Built, and that we mostly paid for when it was renovated.
- Bravo to Shannon O'Hanlon, the 9-year-old 4th grader from Queens who won yesterday's Fay Wray Scream-A-Like Contest at Film Forum in Manhattan. The contest was part of a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the original King Kong film.
Extra, Extra
Park Slope's Pavilion Theater: Flicks, Popcorn, Assault
Another slice of Park Slope life from Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn. Upon leaving a showing of Definitely, Maybe at the Park Slope movie theater, the Pavilion, OTBKB and fellow moviegoers spied a white teenaged girl "sitting on a bench [in the second floor concession area] icing an injury on her face just below her right eye."
Park Slope Mugging: "They Backed Me Up Against My Door"
As a counterpoint to the tale of the mugging in pre-gentrification Bushwick (or East Williamsburg) in New York magazine, we bring you this mugging story from gentrified Park Slope. From the Morgan L station to the popular Grand Army Plaza stop, a woman gave a first person account of being mugged on Sunday with Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn.
Extra, Extra
- Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a large fight on Fordham Rd. and Jerome Ave. in the Bronx, police activity in the employee parking lot at JFK Airport in Queens, and a pedestrian was struck on East 57th St. and Madison Ave. in Manhattan.
- Donald Trump owns almost 20% of Brooklyn's Starrett City that his dad bought for him when he graduated from business school. He now advises lower-income residents of the development that "This is not Communist China," in response to protests against a proposed sale and probable eviction.
- New York magazine's Daily Intelligencer points to the obvious conclusion of recent trends: two Duane Reade drug stores directly across the street from one another. What, no Chase banks nested inside?
- CSI: Egypt. The Brooklyn Museum catscanned a mummified body from Egypt and analysts determined that it died a completly normal and uneventful death.
- A former East Village drug kingpin is now busy getting West Village residents high on endorphins as a personal trainer.
- New York tap water may be proclaimed as the best by Mayor Bloomberg, but the city still pays $1 million annually for Poland Spring and other delivered water.
- The city is re-opening the bike-only lane on the north side of the Manhattan Bridge. Only The Blog Knows Brooklyn notes that it's been closed since October 2006.
- And a City Council member wants Councilman Dennis Gallagher, indicted on rape charges, to resign.
From the AY Saga to Terrorists at the Tea Lounge
Leaving our local Key Food this morning, for the first time we heard the spare change guy's rendition of "Bad to the Bone" and then we turned to one of our weekend rituals: Reading the The Brooklyn Paper.
Nipple Confusion
Brooklyn author, Jennifer Baumgardner's recent essay "Breast Friends" explores a topic so taboo Gothamist had never actually heard of it before -- "cross nursing" or "milk siblings". In her essay, Baumgardner details her experience nursing a friend's child while that friend nursed hers. And while she initially was shocked and put off by the idea, she has completely warmed to it by the end of her baby swapping experience. Gothamist was a nursing mother at one point, so we've been there, but for the sake of full disclosure, we have not done THAT.
Extra, Extra
- WNBC has the only known video of September 11 terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui; it's taken as he is being transferred to to his maximum security prison in Colorado
- A man was killed under an E train around 34th Street
- The City still won't look for World Trade Center remains in the debris that was sent to Fresh Kills
- A mistrial was ordered in a Colombo mob trial -- the jurors were deadlocked and three of the jurors cried!
- Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn tackles Park Slope affairs; the Slope is moments from being the next setting of a Desperate Housewives-esque show
- A NY1/Newsday poll shows, if they were to run, that Hillary Clinton leads over Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani leads over John McCain
Fun and Semi-legal: Shadow-graf!
We've been following the career of Ellis G for about a year-- ever since he started chalking his shadow-art around Smith Street in Brooklyn. He's already gotten a fair amount of press for the shadow-outlines-- and he deserves it, because the pieces are unique and fun. Today the Times weighs with a nice bio piece:

