Results tagged “citycouncilman”

The MTA's various fare hikes for the NYC subways and buses, as well as its railroads, went into effect this weekend. Today, subway and bus base fares still cost $2, but higher-value pay-per-ride Metrocards have less of a bonus discount while weekly and monthly unlimited ride Metrocards are more expensive.

Yesterday, the Post reported City Councilman Dennis Gallagher, the Queens politican accused of raping a woman last summer, was offered a plea deal that would "keep him out of jail and off the sex-offender registry" and possibly force him to resign office.

In a few days the city will begin its promised crackdown on the glut of parking placards issued to civil servants. But according to Uncivil Servants, a website that documents illegally parked cars displaying city permits, employees of Park East, an Upper East Side synagogue, have been using bogus DIY parking placards for years. And since they don’t even work for the city, their privileges won’t be affected by the new rules.

Sure, the 2008 election is exciting, but hundreds of candidates are expected to run for city office next year.

After two fires with fatalities and one with a firefighter injury, the Uniformed Firefighters Association and City Councilman Leroy Comrie expressed outrage over the FDNY's response to Queens fires. They say the new pilot dispatch program is endangering lives.

• 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 $114 million plan to put a waterfront park on the East River, just south of the United Nations, came into focus yesterday; the four-acre site is where a parking lot for a Con Edison power plant used to reside. City Councilman Daniel Gardonick said, "The opportunity to create this riverfront park is an opportunity we cannot afford to let slip away." The Municipal Arts Society renderings for the park envision a floating pylon in the river, featuring a restaurant, viewing platform, exhibition space and ferry landing.

In her State of the City address, City Council Speaker Quinn said that the Council would do its own belt-tightening given expectations the economy will slow. Still, she mentioned, per the Sun, "tax cuts, improved transportation, more pay for teachers, and affordable housing," saying, "Getting leaner does not have to mean getting meaner."

Later today, the city will discuss whether the I.M. Pei-designed Silver Towers should be landmarked. The Observer reported that NYU announced its support today, a reversal from an earlier position over three years ago.

Andrea Schwartz, the Brazilian ex-pat who settled in Manhattan and became a madam with powerful clients, is back in the news. And she's as saucy as ever, this time denying that she's a lesbian. Tell us more!

Queens City Councilman Dennis Gallagher, whose office was raided last July after rape allegations and was indicted by a grand jury in August, is smiling - for now. A judge dismissed the indictment, believing the defense's claim that the "grand jury process was compromised." The jurors had complained the prosecutors were trying to make Gallagher look "foolish."

The tragic death of a construction worker at the Trump Soho building has put the spotlight on the spotty history of a contractor on the project. On Monday afternoon, a worker, Yuriy Vanchytskyy (pictured below), fell 42 stories to his death when the molds he and other workers were pouring concrete into broke, causing a collapse into lower floors.

Retired football great Jim Brown is the president of a new snack food and beverage company and City Councilman Leroy Comrie is not happy about it. Brown's company is called OG Nation, which Comrie says stands for "original gangster." The company currently markets "King Pin" lager and a line of mixed drinks under the brand "Party Dogg." According to Newsday, Arizona-based OG Nation is also developing a line of potato chips, pretzels, pork rinds, and dips that will be marketed as "Thug Chips."

So if you remember correctly, Grand Theft Auto IV, the New York City crime simulator, was supposed to be in stores by now. But between production delays and the million other great games this season to compete with, they decided to just push it back till next Spring and get it right. But just in case you've you've still got an itch for some Eastern European organized crime this holiday season, here's a brand...

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired on Soundview Ave. in the Bronx, a gas leak on Snyder Ave. and East 34th St. in Brooklyn, and a bank robbery on West 4th and 6th Ave. in Manhattan.
• High school girls (including a pair from Long Island) swept the top prizes in both team and individual categories for the first time in the history of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology.
• Houston St. now sports south-side sidewalks that have doubled in width and feature trees planted in the middle, after a renovation of the street between Broadway and West 6th.
• Silicon Alley Insider names the 100 most influential people in the New York world of digital business. Mayor Bloomberg captured the top spot.
• A New Jersey task force recommended that Drug Free School Zones are too large and the mandatory harsher penalties against non-violent drug offenders crowd actual violent criminals out of prison and back onto the street.
• Gov. Spitzer raised $1.5 million at a fund-raising dinner last night in an effort to refill a diminished campaign war chest. Voters are indicating they've got buyers' remorse after electing the once-popular Spitzer.
• Police recruits studying for their pre-graduation (Dec. 27) exams will receive an early Christmas present in the form of iPods loaded with study material. They will have to return the devices after graduation.
• And a judge has cleared the way for Washington Square Park's renovations. City Councilman Alan Gerson who previously opposed the renovations but is fine with concessions the city has made: "We have secured unprecedented protections against the commercialization of the park."

The 69-year-old woman who was burned over 90% of her body in a gas explosion in her Sunnyside home died yesterday. City Councilman Eric Gioia said, "It is with great regret and sadness that I announce the passing of Kunta Oza. My deepest condolences go out to her entire family, and I ask that all New Yorkers keep them in their Thanksgiving prayers." On Wednesday afternoon, calls were made to 911 about a gas smell...

Yesterday afternoon, a gas explosion in a Sunnyside home burned a 67-year-old woman over 90% of her body. Six other people were also injured, as over 200 people needed to be evacuated and over a hundred firefighters responded. Kunta Oza, who lives in a three-story at 41st Street and 48th Avenue, is at New York Hospital Burn Center in critical condition. WNBC reports that she "sent her grandchildren outside as a precaution. The move might...

City Councilman Simcha Felder's proposed legislation to fine people $1,000 for feeding pigeons has struck a nerve. Felder and other elected officials claim that pigeons' poop is harmful to New Yorkers and, therefore, various ways to limit pigeons' eating and procreating should be explored. But some pigeon lovers are unhappy with the level of vitriol directed at the city's unofficial bird. Hence the video from Animaniacs, "Goodfeathers" (it's 10 minutes, so settle in to...

Famed New York realtor Barbara Corcoran chimed in on a matter of public aesthetics and the nature of our city by advising that homeowners would be best served by tearing up their lawns and gardens and paving them over as a suitable place to park their cars. We'll let her speak directly on the subject, as it seems too insane to try to rephrase ourselves. From Friday's Daily News:Q. My wife and I have...

Housing activists and some City Council members believe that New York City needs a law prohibiting landlords from discriminating from potential tenants using federal rent vouchers. The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program gives low-income families the opportunity to rent apartments while paying only 30% of the rent; the remaining portion is covered by the vouchers. The Times explains that "Eligible households are those earning no more than 50 percent of the metropolitan area’s median income, or no more than about $35,000 for a family of four in New York," while the rent limits are "$1,069 for a one-bedroom and $1,556 for a four-bedroom."

The LA Times invaded the Big Apple to investigate the amazing fund-raising power of Hillary Clinton in Chinatown. The leading 2008 Democratic contender was able to raise $380,000 during one April fund-raiser - and back in 2004, John Kerry was only able to raise $24,000.

Ah, City Councilman Peter "I hate graffiti" Vallone weighs in on the chalk "graffiti" made by 6-year-old Natalie Shea on her home's front stoop. Back in 2005, Vallone introduced the law that requires property owners to clean up graffiti, so when a neighbor called 311 to complain about Natalie's drawings (again, mind you, on her own stoop, not a neighbor's stoop), her parents got a warning letter from the Department of Sanitation.

The city changed its emergency shelter policy yesterday at 5PM, vowing to turn away homeless families who had previously been deemed ineligible (because they could, potentially, stay with relatives or a friend).

The hilarity never ends when talking about cell phone service in the subways. The City Council spoke to the MTA about the agency's upcoming cell phone service plans, and apparently some members suggested that there should be "quiet cars" on the subway. We cannot stop laughing!

The video of City Councilman James Oddo letting the f-bombs drop on a Norwegian TV comedian is getting mixed reactions - and a fair number of chuckles - from New Yorkers, but now it turns out that he wasn't meant to be a poor sap duped into answering stupid questions about whether Barack Obama is an American citizen and "Hillary Clinton's incident with a cigar."

After reading this, you may think twice about having a seat in Union Square. The website peeped some peeping toms in the area, visually depicted above (they added a "red carpet" to illustrate the "peeper zone"). They also tell us that a "peeper live zone" can contain up to two dozen pervs at one time and can extend up to 30 feet. We wonder what they do when summer skirt season comes to an end...migrate to the West Coast?

For some reason, Norwegian comedians thought that City Councilman James Oddo would be a perfect target for their program, "Rikets Rost." Oddo, a Republican and the minority leader in the Council (he's recently supported legislation such as banning aluminum bats and giving the Department of Transportation the authority to name streets), apparently consented to the interview because the request was to discuss presidential politics.

New York City is cracking down on the brazen theft of tons of goods that occurs right out in public, practically on a schedule. The Department of Sanitation noticed that the volume of recyclable paper it was collecting was down 2% from the previous year - and in parts of Manhattan's East Side, the decline in paper pick-ups was 25%. That prompted an investigation that found that out of state unlicensed haulers were sneaking into the city and grabbing recyclables the night before their regular pick-up was scheduled. Law & Order: DOS Recycling Unit!