The city and this site is abuzz with news of new public restrooms that cost only $.25 and are self-sanitizing. The standalone units give one 15 minutes to do your business before scrubbing itself down in advance of the next user. Sounds like a nice convenience, although some people wondered who needs 15 minutes in a restroom other than those with gastro-health problems, drug users, and couples looking to engage in some quasi-public-private sex. Commenter JenChungsBra wondered if his experiences in Central America and their free market ass-wiping conventions could improve Gotham's space-age installations:

I liked the system in Chichicastenango in Guatemala. An old man sits at a table outside the public restroom (some grungy holes in the floor of a tin shack) and sells you toilet paper. Put down your two quetzals and he measures off a length of paper with his arm, tears it from a roll and hands it to you. If you think it's not enough you can give him another two quetzals and get some more. more ›

Mayor Cory Booker unveiled new technology to help fight crime in Newark. The plan is called "Community Eye," and it will "marry audio gunshot-detection technology with a series of remote-control public surveillance cameras into a network," according to the Star-Ledger. Booker hopes to put 100 cameras and audio gunshot-detection machines to work, as the Newark Community Foundation has promised to raise $3.2 million for the effort. Booker said, "When all the cameras and gunshot detectors are up, we will have about 8 square miles of the city covered." more ›

The NYPD and FBI shut down a $3.3 billion Internet gambling ring, arresting 27 people and seizing $7 million in cash and assets worth $500 million, including four Manhattan condos. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly called shutting down website Playwithal.com "the largest illegal gambling operation this department has ever encountered." Here's how it worked, according to the Daily News:

Traditional bookies would give bettors a secret code to use the Internet gambling site, authorities said. Bets were taken on all kinds of sports, including football, baseball, basketball, hockey, auto racing and golf - and at the end of each week, the bookies would pay off or collect from each client. more ›

Andrew Friedman is co-director of Make the Road by Walking, a Brooklyn-based community-based organization founded in 1997 on the belief that the center of leadership must be within the community. Since then, the organization has grown dramatically and now includes over 600 members, a member-elected board composed of low-income community residents, and a staff of twelve. Over the past 5 years, MRBW has achieved many improvements to the lives of Bushwick residents. They pushed New York City to conform to federal law and provide translation services to non-English speakers in food stamp, welfare, and Medicaid offices, and got dozens of neighborhood employers to pay more than $100,000 in illegally withheld wages to garment workers. more ›

Last week the Times anointed their official summer cocktail of 2006. It’s called The Cuke and consists of limes, mint, and cucumbers muddled with sugar, steeped in gin, and strained over ice with a splash of seltzer. It sounds stunning and we have every intention of mixing up a batch for our next get-together. But what if you’re less the garden party thrower and more just a garden variety boozer? What about those nights when you need a drink without much fuss, at home, perhaps alone? But you don’t want to just knock back straight liquor—that would be crossing a line after all. Why not stop in at your local bodega for some of these inspiring readymade mixers? After all, nothing’s more refreshing than a tropical drink. more ›

Occasionally we field questions here at the Gothamist newsdesk. Here's one hot out the inbox: more ›