Results tagged “citylife”

Mike Bloomberg may end his tenure as the Mayor of Pothole Repair. Under Bloomberg's watch, the city has filled 1.25 potholes since 2002. While anybody that hits potholes with their bike or their car surely thinks the city missed a few, Mayor Bloomberg assures us that they are doing what it can to fix them. In his first public appearance since returning from Asia, Bloomberg said, "Now, potholes are as much a part of city life as hot dog carts and yellow cabs, although that hasn't stopped us from doing everything we can to fix them once they appear."

With the stock of affordable housing in New York City shrinking, and requirements that some city workers reside within the five boroughs and nearby suburbs, some unions are entering the real estate market to directly provide or subsidize housing for their members. The firefighters union recently announced that it was considering using some of its $7.2 billion pension fund to invest in real estate that would be used to provide affordable housing for New York's Bravest and their families. According to NY1, the union hasn't determined whether it would sell or rent to its members, but any development is still years in the future.

I was telling a filmmaker friend of mine that for the Mafia boss I needed someone who is old and physically not very strong but psychically totally dominating, like William Burroughs. He said, why not ask him? I could think of no good answer to that, and got in touch with Burroughs, and he was interested. He did the part perfectly, except for his Midwestern accent. An unknown (at the time) actor named Vincent D’Onofrio was a bartender at the Ritz, a club that has since turned into Webster Hall, and somebody I knew who worked there put us together and he tried out for the lead part. He wasn’t right for it--too big and tough looking--but he was a good actor so I asked him to play one of the muggers.

Billy Bob Thorton sets aside his raunchy also comes to big screens this weekend.

There are lots of things to love about New York City. Being able to order take out food from just about any ethnicity you can imagine, lazy summer picnics in Central Park or playing Frogger on 3rd Avenue after a pint or two are just a few that come to mind. But perhaps our favorite attribute of city life is being able to construct the perfect six-pack at your local bodega. Beer selection at the little grocery stores that line the corners of our city blocks is improving tremendously. It’s not just Bud or Miller but rather great wheat beers from Belgium, craft beers from the US and stouts from England. Our favorite little place to get our beer is Dual Spice Specialty Store located on 1st Ave between 5th and 6th street, which claims to have over 400 beers. Our friend plans to have his ashes spread around the store as his final resting place. This place is conveniently located next to about 12 different BYOB Indian restaurants. Beer and cheap Indian food. God I love it here.

Scoping out movie sets is practically a city-wide past time in New York and today in the movie pales in comparison to parking parity.

Lisa Whiteman, Photographer

Kemp Powers, author, The Shooting: A Memoir

Asking for a "medium" at Starbucks just to avoid saying "grande?" Done that. Bypassing an automated telephone system by punching zero? Yup. Stacking magazine subscription cards to put back in the mail so that it costs the magazine the postage? Um, no, but that's not a bad idea... In some ways, these little ideas are less about "sticking it to" the offending company, and more about simply registering a protest in an impersonal world. People know that it won't make much difference, but they want someone to know that they object to Starbucks' latte lingo and refuse to comply.

Cheryl B., Poet, Spoken Word Performer, Atomic Curator

What do you think will be the next big lunch trend? For more about food: Gothamist Food and Gothamist's other food archives.

Signing off on the project would be a concrete gesture of good will that could not be measured in political platitudes. If you go to Childs' firm's site, Skidmore Owings Merrill, launch the site, and click on transportation projects, you can access more photos of the new Penn Station design.

Also be sure to check out Gothamist Sports' Olympics coverage; for further beach volleyball examination, check out Tien's own site.

Gothamist imagines that Apollo was trying to get the Bohemian Beer Garden in Astoria, or perhaps the new Lee Bontecou exhibit at the MoMA Queens. We wonder what would have happened if Ming the tiger had escaped his Harlem apartment - a trip to Sylvia's, perhaps?

There is a Coalition to Prevent the Destruction of Canadian Geese, Gothamist wants to know would you choose to stay - pigeons or geese? It's a hard call; really, geese do not disturb most city life, but in the parks, forget about it - geese poop is really really gross. But at least they don't poop from the air (we don't think).

Okay, here's another new rule for city life that Ask Gothamist would like to see instituted immediately.

Gothamist on the Times' look at cupcakes. And NY magazine readers chose Magnolisa as their favorite cupcakes, with Amy Sedaris's cupcakes at Joe in second.

Related: If you're looking to play golf in New York City, you're in luck. The Daily News looks at the city's best driving ranges. They rate The Golf Club at Chelsea Piers as the best in the city, with the Brooklyn Golf Center getting an honorable mention.

Punk Rock Aerobics comes to NY on May 6 at the Virgin Megastore in Union Square. In the meantime, there is the book that shows J Mascis doing the "Face Down Butt Lift" and has interviews with many rockers, such as Hugo Burnham of Gang of Four.