Mike Bloomberg may end his tenure as the Mayor of Pothole Repair. Under Bloomberg's watch, the city has filled 1.25 million 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......

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......

The Brave One (directed by Neil Jordan) As city dwellers and city lovers, we know living in New York can be scary. We just don't usually get reminders of how perilous our home is when we go for entertainment at the movie theater. Irish director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game), with the help of one of our best and most revered American actors Jodie Foster, have constructed a randomly violent and morally ambiguous New York......

A Mighty Heart (directed by Michael Winterbottom) If you ever turn on the TV, your computer or glance at a newspaper, you're probably aware that mother/humanitarian/human clothes hanger Angelina Jolie has a new movie coming out this weekend. You've also probably gathered that it's produced by her hunky paramour and co-parent Brad Pitt and that it highlights Angie's "good person-ness" by having her depict the tragic life of journalist Mariane Pearl shortly after the kidnapping......

Jacob Burckhardt is a second generation observer of New York life. His father, Rudy Burckhardt photographed and made narrative films during the '50s and '60s of city life and his New York School artist friends. In '84, Jacob made a fiction film about his bohemian life in Brooklyn casting the Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and Beat novelist William S. Burroughs in small parts, as well as a young neighborhood thespian named Vincent D'Onofrio as a......

Billy Bob Thorton sets aside his raunchy Bad Santa persona with his new family movie The Astronaut Farmer about a man building a rocket in his backyard. This family drama looks cheesy like Velveeta from the previews, but hey, that's what you expect with these "ordinary Dad does extraordinary thing" movies. They're always heavy on the sentiment. Jim Carrey senses the universe may be trying to communicate mysteries to him through numerology and a book......

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......

Scoping out movie sets is practically a city-wide past time in New York and today in the New York Times' City Life, Francis X. Cline elaborates on the natives' love/hate relationship with the constant filming on our streets. While it's easy to love catching a few celeb sightings on your lunch break or nab a snack from the unsuspecting Craft Services, it seems complaints about location scouts getting carte blanche on illegal parking led......

Lisa Whiteman, Photographer...

Kemp Powers, author, The Shooting: A Memoir...

Gothamist likes that the Times devoted part of the front-page today to Ian Urbina's article about people exacting their petty revenge on the trivial aspects of daily life that annoy them. The piece isn't about the kind of grand vengeance that one takes in fighting major career or personal battles, it's more about getting back in small, ineffectual ways at the kind of impersonal annoyances and hypocrisies that crop up day after day. Asking......

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

Mmm, the Daily News examined some delicious lunch spots, from the affordable, like The Adore, to the gourmet-to-go, 'wichcraft, plus the "break the bank" kind (Masa, with a $300 lunch), which makes Gothamist want to plan what we'll be eating for lunch this week. And it got us thinkig that the next big sandwich in this post-panini (Monterey Cheese and turkey says quesedilla more than panini to us), post-make-your-own-salad (we're tired and lazy now -......

After a lot of worrying, it seems that most commutes during the convention have been pretty easy. Some areas, especially Penn Station and Grand Central, are thick with police presence, but others, like Times Square, have had unusually empty sidewalks - when the protesters aren't around. Of course, this is probably due to the fact that many people have left the city, letting Gothamist feel like the city is a ghost town, in some parts.......

Watching the Olympics made Gothamist hanker for a messy souvlaki dripping in hot sauce. Luckily, Greek delights are just a train ride away. The Daily News looked at restaurants in Astoria that will bring you to the Meditarranean, if only just through a taste. Chowhound looked at the state of Greek restaurants in Astoria (part one, part two), and Citysearch has a section on Astoria. And if you're too lazy to take the N from......

NYers have a rep (well-deserved in most cases) for being blase and nonchalant about bizarre occurences that happen in city life (except for seeing naked people in the apartment across the way - that's always cause for a phone call to a friend) because that just the way it is. Except when it comes to tigers roaming city streets. That's why an escaped tiger escaped tiger stopped traffic in Queens. The 450 pound white tiger,......

In a stunning display of showing Canadian geese who is boss, the Port Authority is going to "round up" 495 geese at Rikers Island and "feed them to needy families." Yes, it'll be like Olde English Christmas time, when goose was served for dinner (though Gothamist thinks English Christmas geese are the nice, white ones). While animal activists are aghast, the Port Authority says that the geese are a menace to planes at LaGuardia. They......

Okay, here's another new rule for city life that Ask Gothamist would like to see instituted immediately. If you are in a car, about five or six cars back from the intersection and the traffic is not moving, DON'T HONK. Instead of leaning on the horn, take a deep breath and remind yourself that if the cars in front of you could move they would. The only person who has the right to honk, in......

For the love of tiny cakes with frosting on top: The Daily News turns sixteen adults and children into cupcake testers to find the best cupcakes in New York, rating them on a scale of 1 (low) to 5 (lovely). Some of the usual suspects include, Magnolia Bakery, Sage in LIC, Sweet Melissa, Crumbs, Magnolia, Amy Sedaris at Joe, and Polka Dot, but remember, cupcakes are subjective, so don't get bent out of shape if......

Yesterday, on the final hole of the 68th Masters, Phil Mickelson won his first major, finishing with a 9-under 279. It took 43 attempts in his 12 years as a pro, but now Lefty, who has come close to winning several majors, no longer has to answer questions about losing majors. Mickelson's final putt was a 20 footer for a birdie and a one stroke victory over Ernie Els. The winning putt hung on the......

Forget salsa workouts or striptease exercises - it looks like Punk Rock Aerobics is the latest exercise trend to come to a gym (or your own living room) near you. A Daily News reporter tries out the workout's moves which were made up by Maura Jasper and Hilken Mancini when they listened to punk rock while watching Richard Simmons. Well, genius has to strike somewhere. It doesn't seem like there are breaks for cigarettes, drinking,......

The Daily News decides to look at the salaries of various New Yorkers, both ordinary and unusual, to give a sense of what the people you see every day are making. The DN starts it off by trying to make you feel good, reminding everyone that Mayor Bloomberg and some others all make $1 a year, although they neglect to mention earnings from their other businesses or trust funds. The average New Yorker made $46,920......

With the "new" attention on the Brooklyn dining scene, forget gatherings outside the Alliance Francaise or pockets of the East Village or Lower East Side, there newest French enclaves are in Brooklyn are confirmed by the robust culinary scene. The Daily News looked at many of Brooklyn's bons restaurants, with a focus on many neighborhoods, not just Smith Street or Park Slope: Chez Oskar in Fort Greene, brunch standby Banania on Smith Street, Park Slope......