The incessant stampede of beloved neighborhood institutions closing has a way of making your eyes glaze over and wonder it even merits mentioning anymore. But today’s tally of three (so far!) price-outs demands observation. Jeremiah's Vanishing New York – fast becoming the most depressing read in town – has the bad news of two of them. The first is Hopscotch, the 2.0 version of Avenue A’s Alt Coffee, renowned for its ‘No ODs Allowed’ signage in the filthy bathroom. Owner Nick Bodor had hoped to fancy it up for the yupsters, but it seems the local real estate market won’t rest until it’s a real estate office....

There's trouble brewin' at everyones favorite chain coffee shop. WCBS is reporting that there has been a shooting at a midtown Starbucks. The BNN confirms with a location: 120 W 56th Street, and reports a possible robbery as well. The NYPD are currently still looking for the suspect. UPDATE: The shooting took place outside of the Starbucks and WNBC is reporting that the NYPD, based on preliminary information, believes the incident was part of a......

LECTURE SERIES: The Nation forges on with their series of Tuesday evening lectures tonight. Nation columnist and Columbia Law professor Patricia J. Williams will be on hand to discuss her montly "Diary of a Mad Law Professor" column. Expect to examine the law in whole new light. 6pm // Library of the General Society [20 W 44th St] // $15 MUSIC: Peasant, who played our Gothamist House during CMJ, is back in New York and......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an industrial accident on 10th Ave. near 30th St. in Manhattan, a man down an elevator shaft at 50 West 15th St. in Manhattan, and a homicide at Neck Parkway and 42nd Ave. in Queens. Not only have investigators found hard drives scrubbed clean of potentially damaging e-mail messages related to Troopergate, the Spitzer administration is refusing to even identify the names of the Internet Service Providers that were......

It’s a common gripe that pretty much everything that gives New York its flavor is being steadily eviscerated and replaced with corporate chains and exclusive amenities for the affluent, but this week has been a doozy. In the past two days, for starters, we’ve seen closures announced for the following joints:The classic, blue collar Donuts Coffee Shop on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. The beloved unassuming LES coffee & bar oasis that was Lotus Lounge.......

Sometime before 8 this morning, Patrick Moberg and Camille Hayton introduced themselves to Good Morning America viewers, Diane Sawyer and hopeless romantics everywhere. The Subway Cyrano met up with his mystery lady last night for dinner, where they said they "clicked." Hayton suggests the subway moment was serendipitous because she wouldn't have been on it (going to a friend's place) if her house hadn't just burned down. Moberg is compared to a Hollywood leading man,......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an officer assaulted on Church Ave. and 53rd St. in Brooklyn, a car into a coffee shop in the area of Skillman and 50th in Queens, and two people shot on Park Ave. and 17th St. in Manhattan. An insurance broker pleaded guilty to idiotic target practice that launched arrows from his compound bow on the Upper East Side. Bono and Bloomberg's mutual admiration society. Brooklyn state Assemblyman Dov......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

A Korean restaurant is not something one would expect to find on the border of Forest Hills and Rego Park. If anything the neighborhood is better known for the plethora of Central Asian kebab joints. Nor is Korean chow something you'd expect to find at an old-school spot like the #1 Coffee Shop. Years ago local legend Robbie Richter, pitmaster of Hill Country, worked the flat top one day when the grill man was out......

Coffee Shop was closed for a few days when the Department of Health tallied up 102 points of violations - 28 or more requires a closure - at the restaurant, finding "Cooked or prepared food is cross-contaminated" and issues with plumbing among the concerns. The Union Square eatery posted a snippy sign explaining the closing, and owner Charles Milite went to the NY Times and said Coffee Shop was "caught in the cross hairs of......

On Passover, Coca-Cola makes special Kosher Coke with regular sugar (instead of corn syrup)-- it tastes like the Mexican version enjoyed by many Coke enthusiasts. You can recognize it by the yellow cap and OU-P symbol. Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: DOA floater in the Harlem River, serious MVA in Brooklyn Heights, and a boat fire in City Island. Caffeine fiends rejoice: free coffee at local Starbucks tomorrow from 10am to 12 noon. The......

Right now on South 4th Street in Williamsburg (between Bedford and Driggs) - there's some filming going on, for what looks like a bigger production. Anyone know what it could be? We know The Black Donnellys has been filming near the Williamsburg Bridge, but this looks like more of a movie production. Here are some shots of The Black Donnellys Olivia Wilde and her husband Tao Ruspoli - as well as their dog (the......

This will probably be a familiar sight: An explanation from your neighborhood restaurant that details why it's closed. And most likely it will include a complaint about the Health Department's sudden change in restaurant inspection behavior in this post-rats at a KFC-Taco Bell world. This sign was spotted outside The Coffee Shop by Joe Schumacher, proving that model-esque hostesses and servers are no match for making sure there are rubber gloves in the first......

Today in dirty restaurant news-- "Coffee Shop on Union Sq closed by the Dept. of Health! They have signs up that say "closed for renovations" but one of the ones on 16th St. has the tell-tale yellow DOH sign underneath. They have papered teh windows so you can't see the signs or see inside." [Via Gothamist Contribute] What would you choose: Dealing with bedbugs in a rent-stabilized apartment in Windsor Terrace or leaving the......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,......

Leaving our local Key Food this morning, for the first time we heard the spare change guy's rendition of "Bad to the Bone" and then we turned to one of our weekend rituals: Reading the The Brooklyn Paper. Why do we love the Brooklyn Paper? Because it covers stories here way before the dailies get to them, if ever. Because of the NY Post-style headlines ("Fowl play: Fairway ducks foie gras flap" comes from today's......

Yesterday afternoon, an apartment building at 115th Street and Lenox Avenue caught fire and tenants and onlookers cheered as five children and their mothers were led to safety. A neighboring building's super, Sharif Abdul Aziz, made three different trips down the fire escape to save mothers and their babies. Aziz simply said, "Everything I do, I do for God." Firefighters also rescued one set of twins from the fifth floor by handing the kids through......

There's been a lot of talk on the Splasher overnight. One of the best comments comes from Visual Resistance, one of the hardcore experts of the NYC streetart scene: So here goes. I'm fuckin pissed about the recent destruction of some one of a kind art. I dont care to discuss the nature of pasting or painting on someone else's property, at the moment. I do want to address the nature of someone's supposed politics......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting at the Turkey Nest Tavern in Williamsburg at 4:41am, a police officer struck by car in Farragut, and an armed robbery in Central park at 8:23pm last night. Starbucks is opening its second location in Cobble Hill, and local cafe owners aren't happy: “The rest of us will be killed... because Starbucks’ plan is to saturate every neighborhood until its coffee shop is the last one standing.”......

Some details have emerged about what might have caused Wednesday's brutal fight amongst teenagers in Union Square that left one teen dead and two others injured. Yesterday Police Commissioner Kelly said it was a "planned confrontation": Some Washington Irving High School female students were "insulted," so they enlisted their boyfriends at Science Skills High School to defend their honor. Commissioner Kelly also suggested that the fight could have been gang-related, as some Washington Irving students......

Haverford graduate, Parks Department project manager, and Greenpoint resident David Langlieb is under fire for writing an essay about his neighborhood in his alumni magazine. According to the Daily News, the essay, ripe with complaints about the old-school Polish residents and self-deprecation about not being an Ivy League graduate, has incensed the Polish American Congress and Councilman David Yassky, who said, "my eyes pretty much popped out of my head when I read this."......

When Snack Dragon, Josephine Jansen's taco shack on Avenue B between 2nd & 3rd doled out its final taco this past Memorial Day, late-night devotees and locals alike mourned the loss of the cheap eats joint with tasty, always fresh tacos. Officials claimed the shack was built without a permit and Jansen, the taco-loving East Village veteran, had no choice but to leave. Thanks to a coffee shop that closed literally around the corner,......

THEATER: The Impact Festival and fall at the Culture Project get started in a big way with the world premiere of The Treatment, which starts previews tonight. Add together playwright Eve Ensler (of Vagina Monologues fame), stars Dylan McDermott and Portia, director Leigh Silverman, and a sharply topical play about a traumatized soldier who saw and took part in too much for his psyche to handle when he was a military interrogator, and you've got......

Is there some way to find rooms/shares in New York, other than Craigslist? I've waded through all the listings, the deceptive ads, and the perverts for the last few moves, and before that I used a fee-based roommate service. What other secrets of finding a decent share are lurking out there? We understand the hesitation of finding a potential roommate on Craigslist and roommate services. You really never know what you are going to get,......

-- Fear of an all slav planet: Menhanata has been denied a liquor license and may have to shut down! -- The new Aroma coffee shop on Houston cost $2m to build-- and they still have to pay $30k per month for their 650 "square meter" space! -- A homeless man saved the life of a police sergeant who got hit by a car yesterday. -- You think you've got family problems: one of......

Today Martha Wainwright and Belle & Sebastian played at the River to River Festival in Battery Park. Rain and an electrical storm threatened the show... But after some downpours and delays, the show went on. Belle & Sebastian played an amazing, and long, set - bringing on stage with them a string section that they claim actually showed up at the park that morning asking to play with the band. Masters at working the crowd,......

Recently, Gothamist left our Unabomber-style shack to blog from the local coffee shop. That is, until we saw the pricetag to get on their wi-fi network: 6 bucks an hour or 30 bucks a month! We said, no thanks, and returned to our shack where we already pay 30 bucks a month to get on-line and started looking up free wi-fi spots in the City. We found this great site that lists some places......

Richard Bright, who appeared in all the Godfather films as Al Neri, Michael Corleone's bodyguard, was hit by a bus on the Upper West Side. The Academy bus driver didn't know he had hit Bright at 86th and Columbus at 6:30PM and proceeded to continue to the Port Authority; police caught up with the driver, but won't be pressing charges. Bright was remembered as a kind neighbor on West 85th Street and a regular at......

Somebody got a case of the Mondays? Yeah, we just said that. Luckily there is plenty going on tonight to provide a happy transition in to Tuesday... •Brian DeGraw (of the band Gang Gang Dance) is one of the many deejays who will set the atmosphere at the Bicycle Film Festival Winter Party tonight. Luckily, since it's 60 degrees out, you can bike over and make use of the bike valet! There are no screenings......

Apparently short of dating Peter Braunstein, the best way to ruin your life is to try and open an intimate, Vienna-style coffeehaus on the Lower East Side. Yesterday's Slate piece by Michael Idov is really cringe-inducing; in it, he tells of the year of horror that ensued when he and his wife opened Cafe Trotsky on Orchard Street just below Houston. Apparently, the economics of the independent coffee shop make bankruptcy almost inevitable: A place......