Results tagged “citynews”

The news is grim for many gay rights supporters after the NY State Court of Appeals upheld the gay marriage ban - ceding a decision to the NY State Legislature (one of the most dysfunctional in the country!). The NY Times' news analysis calls this a "key setback" as other states deciding on gay marriage will look at this ruling:

For now, at least, so-called marriage equality is the fight that both sides want to wage, and opponents are predicting that New York will be remembered as the beginning of the end of gay marriage.

Continue reading "Fallout Expected After NY State's Gay Marriage Rejection"

- Robert DeNiro is donating his collection of movie scripts, notes, costumes, etc. to the University of Texas at Austin - Bobby, NYC wanted your glasses from Bullwinkle & Rocky, anyway (though the guns from Taxi Driver...)

When we woke up this morning, Gothamist hoped last night's Oscars were only a dream. Because the idea that Crash won still hurts our head so much that we haven't been able to really read all the nitty-gritty (because we know our eyes will start bleeding) - we can't believe we frigging liveblogged that shondah! Forget conspiracy theories about Jack Palance being wacked out and mistakenly reading Marisa Tomei's name as Best Supporting Actress in 1992 (maybe over Judy Davis) - this will bet he conspiracy theory to talk about for ages. Or maybe everyone in Hollywood really does love Don Cheadle, even though he wasn't allowed a producer credit at the Oscars. We don't know - and just to spite you, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Gothamist will be attempting to only watch movies on DVD whenever possible - screw you and your horrible voting tactics. But we'll see you next year, with clenched teeth, some ibuprofen and a hotline to our shrink.

There are $11 movie tickets at some chains around town, but for one week, the Ziegfeld will be charging $12.50, a whopping $1.75 more than usual, when it premieres The Producers. Yes, $12.50. Is this because The Producers the Broadway musical started the trend of charging serious dough for theater tickets? And they are thinking that fans of the Broadway show will rush to see it the first week? Lame! Some exhibitors claim that with other costs of living rising, this is reasonable, but Gothamist likes to think this is why the movie business better rethink it's model, because we can buy DVDs for the cost of a movie ticket and a popcorn. The Post finds outraged movie goers, who complain that prices are rising even as they are held hostage by the 20+ minutes of movie theater commercials, which makes us realizes that we haven't really noticed if local chains were publishing "real movie times" - you know, when the previews start, versus when the commercials started.

Excellent! Apparently it's normal to be in a foul mood over this descpicably humid weather! The NY Times calls it the "Grumpy Factor" - New Yorkers have been acting like wittle babies because it's so hot and sticky. A doctor tells the Daily News it's a "thermo inversion": "With little breeze, the polluted air sits stagnant, irritating eyes and making air passages more sensitive to pollen." Hmm, is that enough of a reason to call in sick and spend the day at a rather empty movie theater - movie marathon, perhaps? The temperature is going to hit around 90 degrees today, but the dew point means the heat index is 100 degrees - drink your water! Gothamist hopes that one day the news will include temperatures in the subway, because we're sure the Times Square stop will be around 115 degrees and stinky. Please, Mother Nature, a little rain!

The two NY Daily News sponsored NYC spelling bee contestants didn't advance in yesterday's fourth round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Alexander Martin, a Dwight School eighth-grader, misspelled "dissilient" (it means "springing apart, specifically bursting open"; Martin spelled it "desilient") and seventh grader Rajdeep Chahal at MS 137 was stumped with "feuilleton" ("the part of a European newspaper devoted to light fiction, reviews, and articles of general entertainment"; Chahal spelled it "fuolyurtone"). Even though these kids are headed back home early, Gothamist would like to congratulate them, because Martin and Chahal could easily whup our ass in spelling... in fact, if either one could master Movable Type, we'd love them to check our spelling.

The Health Department is so worried that the Asian bird flu will hit New York that officials meet every two weeks to figure out a strategy on how to save the city. Basically, the fear is that the avian flu is "one crucial mutation away from turning into a monster malady," hyperbole courtesy the Daily News, and the dilemma is whether or not to stockpile the city with Tamiflu, the "only known treatment against bird flu." Well, if the city isn't going to stockpile the city full of Tamiflu, Gothamist will be contriving reasons why our doctors will have to prescribe it to us, since we visit the doctor for our severe hypochondria. And we're going to buy stock in Roche.

An organizations representing taxi drivers is asking the Taxi and Limousine Commission to create a Manhattan-JFK $45 flat rate. Much like the JFK-to-Manhattan flat rate, cabbies are looking to make sure they get airport business, with the main concern being that livery drivers tend to rip off tourists at big hotels. Plus, the group argues that many people heading to JFK are confused, as they think there is an existing $45 rate already.

It's that time of year again: Landlords are tryin to increase the rents for stabilized apartments, of which there are about 1 million in the city. Tonight, the Rent Guidelines Board is set to hear the landlords' arguments, who claim that oil costs necessitate increases of 6.5% for one-year leases and 10.5% for two-year leases; to put that in perspective, last year the hikes were 3.5% and 6.5% for one- and two-year leases respectively. Gothamist looked at the Rent Guideline Board's most recent study of landlord operating costs, and that study says costs have increased 5.8% (driven by a 20% increase in oil costs). We don't like rent increases, but this does make a 6.5% seem reasonable, though a 10.5% a little out of control.

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg announced $3 million health initiative to have city hospital offer the morning after pill. The Mayor said to the National Abortion Rights Action League, where the plan was announced, "I make this promise. As mayor, and as a private citizen, I will continue to do what I can to make a difference whether in the city, in Albany, in Washington or anywhere that the rights or our daughters, our sisters, our friends or our colleagues are threatened." The NY Times notes that pro-choice groups like NARAL are very happy with the Mayor's decision, though they wish he would do more to encourage other Republicans to understand pro-choice matters. Further, this move helps Mayor Bloomberg become appealing to the many Democrats in NYC (not to mention makes him unattractive to more conservative Republicans in pockets of Queens and Staten Island). Gothamist found one observation from Newsday interesting: The Mayor had struck down a 2002 City Council plan that would crack down on pharmacies that didn't customers that contraceptives were sold and hospitals that didn't inform patients of their options. It seems the Mayor really wants to make inroads with more liberally minded voters, especially women (perhaps in case C. Virginia Fields walks away with the Democratic nomination?).

Ooohh... In 1905, when the original Police Headquarters was being built at 240 Centre Street, the NYPD may have buried a time capsule under a cornerstone, in hopes of it being opened on May 6, 2005. However, the posh co-op which now occupies 240 Centre Street is against, well, busting through some granite for what could be a wild goose chase. The president of the co-op board, Arthur Emil, says, "My answer is, 'No.' There are legends galore about the building. I've heard about the time capsule but paid no attention because there's no concrete proof. If it was a simple operation, like unsealing a Ziploc, to see if it was there, I'd have no problem." Oh, Mr. Emil, that's so silly - they didn't have Ziploc back in 1905! While the Police Building's architects during its 1988 renovation don't remember any sort of time capsule-like vessels, the Daily News reports that historians are pretty sure there is a time capsule, and that police records say contents include a "gold engraved revolver, a police badge, a letter from then-President Theodore Roosevelt and a police roster are said to be among the items in the capsule." Even the NY Times back in the day reported that the time capsule was "over a recess which contained coins, newspapers of the day and police rules and records."

While many people, in and out of the political arena, can find bad stuff to say about Mayor Bloomberg, there seems to be a problem with finding anything to say about the Democratic candidates who want to run against him. At least, anything to say that will stick with voters, and many Democratic leaders are worried about that. The NY Times quotes Reverend Al Sharpton's political director as saying, "People are saying, why should we get rid of Bloomberg? The Democrats are not giving any solid reasons why Bloomberg should not be in office. I don't think any of the candidates have come forward with lucid arguments as to why Bloomberg has been ineffective and why he should be fired from his job as mayor." Gothamist has to agree: The candidates aren't really proposing anything constructive or feasible (Jets Stadium in Queens? The Jets aren't putting their $800 million in Queens.) that has legs yet. We hope that messages and tactics will take further shape in the next month before the debates start. The primaries are on September 13; the run-off, if needed, will be held on September 27. If you're not a NYC voter and want to be, register here. And here's the New York City Voter Assistance Commission site; you can find your representative here.

Some fun Guest stuff for all you bastard people: A Fame Audit from Fametracker, an interview with Movie City News and Caryn James' feature on the retrospective in today's Times. It seems that Guest has always wanted to just do only three "mockumentaries" and that he doesn't really like TV except The Office. And Gothamist once shared an elevator with Guest when he was promoting Almost Heroes (Matthew Perry and Chris Farley as 18th century explorers - not being shown in the tribute). Guest asked us what we thought of his seersucker suit, and Gothamist couldn't help ourselves when the words "It's kinda Matlocky" came out. But we didn't mean Matlocky in a bad way!

Those drug dealers try to be so crafty: A drug ring that would smuggle cocaine in fish shipments and boxes of chow mein was busted yesterday at JFK Airport. The ring had used shell corporations and fake businesses to ship the goods to actual businesses that had nothing to do with the drug trade. Imagine if somehow the drugs weren't picked up and the cocaine was left with the frozen fish or in the boxes of chow mein. That would be some crazy food.

It seems that the Webby Awards will be held in NYC this year on June 6. Gothamist can hear the paparazzi making sure they have a premiere or model's birthday to cover that night. The Daily News notes that during the dot com boom, NYC tried to land the awards, and now, finally after a few years of dot com bust-imposed online-only awards ceremonying, the Webbies are live again:

"The Webby hasn't gone away," said [Tiffany] Shlain, the Webby's creative director. "This year has been a very big year for the Web again, and I think it's appropriate for New York, because it's all about creativity."

The Daily News isn't just the rival to the NY Post or the paper behind fouled up Scratch'N'Win promotions: It's become the leader using subway riders' cameraphone pictures to catch sleeping subway clerks. Today's bust involves a photograph of a very slumped-over C train clerk at the 163rd Street station. According to the photographer, who took the picture at 2AM, the clerk was sleeping for at least 20 minutes, even with loud construction work going on in the station. Earlier this year, the Daily News published a photograph of a sleeping Brooklyn subway clerk on the cover - and that clerk was suspended without pay for five days. The Daily News sent a reporter to talk to the 163rd Street station clerk and ask him whether or not he was sleeping:

"I wasn't sleeping," said the man, who appeared to be in his 40s and declined to give his name. "I was probably just reading a paper or praying."

Continue reading "Subway Token Clerk: Sleeping or Supplicating?"

The wait is over. In the "awards the city makes up just because" news, the Department of Health has finally announced the winners of their Golden Apple Awards - their food safety awards! Newsday broke it down, with the Golden Applees including a Dunkin' Donuts in Flushing, Winchesters Pub in Bellerose, Carifesta Restaurant in the Bronx, a Blimpie in the Bronx, the Churrascaria Plataforma in Midtown, the Post House on East 63rd, Juice Generation on West 72nd Street, McDonald's on Bowery and the Executive Conference Center on East 53rd. So there are nine really clean restaurants of varying price points in the city - thanks, DoH! And if you were wondering what it would take to win a Golden Apple, wonder no more. The Department of Health says:

To become eligible for a Golden Apple, a food service establishment must not have any critical violations and have four or fewer general violations (totaling no more than eight 'points') during their past two annual inspections; the manager or a supervisor must have satisfactorily completed DOHMH's Quality Improvement Food Protection Course or implemented a quality improvement plan that has been in place for 12 months prior; and the FSE must demonstrate that it has implemented and actively maintains a quality assurance program.

Gothamist was wandering down Greenwich Street in TriBeCa when we passed pet store Dudley's Paw. After cooing over the adorable stuffed animals dogs in the window, we noticed a gumball machine filled with "Liver Biscotti Dog Treats." Gothamist was intrigued, but we chalked it up to being what happens when you've got dogs whose owners have gourmet tastes. But the Daily News thinks it's big news, talking to the creator Brad Wilkinson who said the idea grew from thinking, "All these dogs walking around New York must get pretty hungry and what are owners to do?" Gothamist thought that dog owners generally kept treats in their pockets, along with extra plastic poop bags and some Purell. But it turns out that there are 20 dispensers in the city, and there may 50 more coming soon, given the success. Each Liver Biscotti is 25 cents; Gothamist isn't sure how they taste, but we hear dogs love them. We're sure that these dog treat dispensers will soon be filled with crazy caffeine-inspired concoctions, so owners and pets alike can be juiced on the java.

City health officials are wondering what's going on at Bronx Science High School, one of the city's coveted magnet schools: Hundreds of students were ill last week. The bathrooms and cafeteria are all being tested, as complaints of nausea, stomach aches, diarrhea, and vomiting have increased. (Hey, that sounds like Wednesday nights at Gothamist!) The Health Department thinks it's a viral illness: The medical director of the Office of School Health said, "It's unusual, and if this were June, I would have thought that this was a pre-planned ditch day. We haven't seen anything this concentrated in other parts of the city." Gothamist doubts that even ditch days would be worth rampant D.

Once again, City Council Speaker and mayoral hopeful Gifford Miller talks about the proposed West Side Stadium. But instead of saying he'd block it, now he wants to move it to Queens. Miller claims that putting the stadium in Queens will strengthen NYC's chances of landing the Olympics, but Gothamist has a feeling that the IOC is attracted to the idea of having a stadium in the center of the city, versus the outer boroughs, for the flash factor. And Miller's statement makes us think his aides said to him, "Hey, you're alienating the union guys by blocking the stadium. And your numbers in Queens are low, so why don't you suggest the stadium go in Queens?" Queens is not a new location to be mentioned in the same breath as this project, but the problem is that the Jets do not want to move there, even though it would make them closer to their Long Island fan base.

Gothamist knew that the West Side stadium fracas would get nutty, but we didn't think that the Giants might be contenders as well. Apparently, the Giants are at an impasse during their negotiations with NJ over a new Giants Stadium in East Rutherford. Interestingly, NJ's Acting Governor Richard Codey had been crowing about the proposed $750 million complex, saying the Jets should consider staying in NJ. The Giants claim its intention is to stay in NJ, but as the Giants are more a NYC team (the Jets' fan base seems to be strongest in Long Island), the idea of the Giants in Manhattan is intriguing - they were last in NYC in the '70s, playing at Yankee Stadium. Fascinating business of sports teams tidbit: NY Times also notes that Giants want to get a deal settled soon, because it's "crucial for the Giants to be able to start selling luxury suites and club seats before any competition can develop from other new sports facilities, such as the new arena that has been proposed for Brooklyn, or the Jets' stadium."

A Family Court lawyer in the Bronx was suspended for six months because of his crude remarks. The Daily News says that 67 year-old Robert Kahn had a "peppermint potty mouth":

The lawyer, Robert Kahn, admitted that "he frequently consumed peppermint-ball candies in the courthouse and, when offering candies to adversarial female staff attorneys, consistently made sexually offensive comments," a state Appellate Division ruling released yesterday says.

Continue reading "There's No Place For Candy at Bronx Family Court"

In more serious news, Sharpton has been asking people to stop listening to violent rap for 90 days, a ban to make people realize that this music only romanticizes crime. hip hop music points out there are already other grassroots movements around this issue and is surprised that Sharpton is going to ask the FCC to regulate music. Gothamist is not as surprised, because even though Sharpton seems mellower, he's still a master of the media, and would naturally look for ways to maximize publicity.

Just a couple blocks south of the much-coveted MTA railyards, two other rich dudes are fighting over the right to develop Pier 57. The Daily News calls it the "heavyweight real estate duel of the season" (we guess the DN thinks the Hudson Yards is the duel of the year), and gives some good background of the two developers, Roland Betts of Chelsea Piers (and Dubya crony) and Stephen Witkoff, a real estate developer, as well as which politicians they're tight with. The main difference between the two bids is the Betts would be expanding Chelsea Piers, while Witkoff's plan, "The Leonardo at Pier 57" would be putting in a ton of banquet space (hello, corporate holiday party; hello, bar mitzvah) as well as galleries and stores featuring Italian artists and retailers. The Italian theme goes further with accusations from the Betts team that the caterer Witkoff proposes has mob ties, which makes Gothamist eager to see what other mud will be slung/slinged.