Jack Price was coming out of a College Point deli late one night in October 2009 when he was savagely beaten by two men, Daniel Rodriguez Jr., 22, and Daniel Aleman, 27. The sickening assault and robbery was caught by a surveillance camera, and by the time Price, 50, got medical attention, doctors had to put him into a medically-induced coma. He was hospitalized for 22 days and suffered a broken jaw, several broken ribs, two collapsed lungs and a lacerated spleen, the Post reports. At Aleman's sentencing yesterday, he apologized, while also blaming his behavior on booze. more ›

Earlier today 22-year-old Daniel Rodriguez Jr. pleaded guilty to beating and robbing Jack Price specifically because he is openly gay. He admitted to taunting Price with gay slurs before beating him up, leaving him in a medically-induced coma, and taking his cash. However, Rodriguez's father seems to have still not come to terms with his sons misdeeds. He told the Post, "This incident came about because of an argument over some kind of writing of graffiti on the wall of the deli. I’d like to apologize to Jack Price and his family, but this didn’t happen because he was gay...and [Price] knows that." more ›

First birds, now cranes: On January 8th, pilots trying to land at La Guardia had to work around a giant crane on a barge in the middle of Flushing Bay, 2,000 feet from the runway. The crane is being used to build a controversial trash-transfer station in College Point, which critics predict will attract thousands of additional birds, like the ones that brought down U.S. Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River. While construction cranes are permitted near airports, ideally they're not supposed to get between planes and the runway. An FAA spokesperson tells the Post some flights had to be diverted until the barge was moved out of the flight path. more ›

Two men have been charged with hate crimes in the brutal beating of a gay man that was caught on tape in College Point last October. A grand jury indicted 21-year-old Daniel Rodriguez and 26-year-old Daniel Aleman on 14 counts of assault and robbery as a hate crime, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced yesterday [pdf]. The two men allegedly attacked 49-year-old Jack Price after he left a deli around 4:30 a.m. on October 8th. Aleman and Rodriguez are accused of "shouting anti-gay slurs at him" before the assault, which left Price hospitalized for three weeks with a broken jaw, several broken ribs, two collapsed lungs and a lacerated spleen. more ›

City Island residents have finally gotten rid of the NYPD firing range on nearby Rodman's Neck in the Bronx, which has been disturbing their peace since the Kennedy administration. Last week the City Council approved the site of a 40-acre Police Academy in College Point, Queens, where the NYPD will relocate training to an enclosed firing range. But some residents say their aural nightmare endures! more ›

The Queens gay man who was nearly beaten to death spoke out about the brutal attack for the first time yesterday. Jack Price, 49, who is still in the hospital recovering from multiple injuries, told the Daily News, "I thought I died. I was bleeding all over the place." more ›

Initial reports about the brutal beating of an openly gay Queens man Friday night (video) mentioned that one of the alleged assailants told the victim, "My father is a C.O. [correction officer]. You will never do anything to us." That stupid boast had been unsubstantiated, until now. Last night the father of Daniel Rodriguez, the second man arrested in the alleged hate crime against Jack Price, came forward to speak to reporters. more ›

A merchants' association in College Point, Queens recently installed a number of security cameras in the neighborhood to deter graffiti. Early Friday morning, one of those cameras captured in vivid detail the shocking assault on openly gay local Jack Price, 49, who was leaving a 24-hour deli. The attack left him in a medically induced coma with collapsed lungs, broken ribs, damaged spleen, and a metal plate in his jaw. This video shows how it happened, but be warned: It is extremely disturbing. more ›

Police have identified the second suspect in the savage beating of an openly gay Queens man who is still in grave condition after the Friday morning attack. On Sunday police arrested 26-year-old Daniel Aleman and charged him with assault and aggravated assault as a hate crime; they say the second assailant is Daniel Rodriguez, 21, of College Point, Queens. The victim, 49-year-old Jack Price, was leaving a 24-hour deli in College Point around 3 a.m. Friday when he was attacked by two men who allegedly screamed anti-gay slurs during the assault. He's in a medically-induced coma. more ›

An openly-gay Queens man is in a medically-induced coma after a brutal Friday morning beating which police are investigating as a hate crime. 49-year-old Jack Price was leaving a 24-hour deli in College Point around 3 a.m. when he was attacked by two men who allegedly screamed anti-gay slurs during the assault. Yesterday police arrested 26-year-old Daniel Aleman and have charged him with assault and aggravated assault as a hate crime; the second suspect remains at large. more ›

The nighclub Marquee is back in the news after a Queens construction worker was indicted today for kidnapping a passed-out woman at the club, taking her home and raping her. In March, Luiz Zambrano, 39, allegedly found the inebriated 23-year-old passed out on a couch in the Chelsea hotspot where DA Robert Morgenthau says, "(He) approached the woman and began kissing her." He added that Zambrano then began dragging her and dropped the woman where she "fell headfirst into a wall and crumpled on the floor," but no one at Marquee assisted her. Zambrano put her in a cab that took them to his car and then drove to his College Point apartment, where he allegedly sexually assaulted her twice. During the second assault, the woman regained consciousness; the victim was able to lead the cops to Zambrano's house. The police also found that DNA left on the victim matched the "DNA found on another woman who said she'd been assaulted (at Marquee)." Zambrano, who was convicted of harassing a woman last year, pleaded not guilty and is out on $30,000 bail. Marquee was in the news last year when a woman disappeared after leaving there with a convicted sex offender. more ›

Yesterday morning, a Chicago-bound American Airlines flight took off from LaGuardia Airport, only to make an emergency landing at JFK Airport after one of its engines (engine #2) failed. Dozens of pieces of metal from the engine fell over a warehouse in College Point, Queens, alarming people in the area who heard a loud noise that wasn't the usual whirring of airplanes in the air. And it's suggested the engine was overdue for its required maintenance. more ›

Yikes: WABC 7 reports, "A plane that experienced an engine failure above Queens may have dropped plane parts on a College Point neighborhood." An American Airlines flight (#309) left Laguardia this morning, bound for Chicago's O'Hare airport, and experienced some trouble and engine number two failed. The FAA said metal parts fell from the engine onto a home on 123rd Street. The plane, an MD-80, was diverted to JFK; according to WCBS 2, no injuries were reported from the plane or on the ground. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a missing child on Union St. in Brooklyn, a shooting on Wyatt St. in the Bronx, and a fatal car fire on the Long Island Expressway near College Point in Queens.
• Colombian immigrants celebrate their roots with rolling parties aboard buses known as chivas.
• Is the person doing Amazon.com product reviews for ski masks under the screen name "Ninja Thief" Staten Island's very own Ninja Burglar?
• New York Times critic Kelefa Sanneh is rumored to be heading to The New Yorker.
• A horse marching in the Queens St. Patrick's Day pararade yesterday bolted free from its handler and galloped into a crowd of spectators. Four people were injured.
• A woman with the unwieldy street name "Brooklyn's Reclusive Cat Woman Bank Robber" was arrested after returning most of the money she stole several years ago and attempting to apologize to the the bank.
• For the first time in its 31-year history, the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament was held in Brooklyn. First prize is $5,000 and a dictionary.
• Police arrested a man in the fatal stabbing of a Brooklyn woman that occurred Saturday night.

After the many questions about the unofficial Democratic primary results, the NYC Board of Elections has released the official results for the February 5 primary results, confirming a Clinton victory in the Big Apple. She won 55% of the vote with 527,941 votes, to Barack Obama's 43% (413,898 votes). A total of 955,966 votes were cast, meaning 34% of the city's registered Democrats voted. more ›

A two-story home in College Point was engulfed by a quickly spreading fire yesterday evening. A 70-year-old woman told WNBC that the television exploded at 22-47 128 Street. She said, "We were in the house, the fire broke, we ran like anything els. We grabbed one animal, but we left the birds and the other dog. So we ran out." more ›

Sunday’s Times reported on the progress of an unusual marine biology project/art installation taking place in the East River: the Electric Oyster Experiment, designed to speed up the reintroduction of oysters to local waters with the help of solar electricity, and sculpture provided by Brooklyn-based artist Mara Haseltine. Here’s the premise: electrified, submerged helical sculptures provided by Haseltine spur the production of limestone rock, shown through research to be a protective environment for wayward oysters that might otherwise have a hard time surviving. The project started at the beginning of the month; the Times reports there are currently 700 oysters growing in College Point. The folks behind the Electric Oyster Experiment have set a short-term target of 2,000 oysters; at some point in the future, the oysters will be harvested and used to seed other tidal areas around the city. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting at 178th Pl. in Queens, a bank robbery at White Plains Rd. in the Bronx, and a homicide on West 157th St. and Broadway in Manhattan, and a water rescue off 88th St. near Gracie Mansion..
• The suspected killer of FDNY Chief Ray Downey's nephew, who was tracked to California, killed himself yesterday when cornered by cops.
• East River State Park opened today. Be one of the first to visit.
• $1,000 goes a long way: the cash handed to Richard Johnson at the NY Post continues to gain him press at the Times.
• Perhaps in an attempt to take the edge off moving it from Gramercy, Manhattan, to College Point, Queens, the City wants to pour $1 billion into the new Police Academy.
• A Long Island husband was arrested for allegedly murdering his estranged wife in a Long Island bagel shop.
• The original Star Wars was release this weekend 30 years ago.
• Vice President Cheney delivers the commencement address at West Point.

The Navy's ship has come in - as well as the ships for the Marine Corps and other military aircraft - today is the start of Fleet Week! It's a great time of the year, when people get to visit various ships and aircraft AND admire men and women in uniform. Ships are docked at Pier 90 in Manhattan and at Stapleton Pier in Staten Island and are open to the public. Here's a Fleet Week Schedule of Events (PDF) and some highlights: more ›

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Given the dozens of rave reviews lining the walls, Gothamist decided to keep an open mind. It should be noted that a "hamburger" at Five Guys consists of two 3.3-ounce patties. (If for some ungodly reason you wish to eat less well-done beef, you must order a "Little Hamburger.") Our hamburger was topped with bacon, cheese, tomatoes, ketchup and raw onions and sided with a regular order of fries. The Guys present all orders in brown paper bags, whether they're to go or not. Perhaps there was a tray shortage in the D.C. area when they first opened. Tearing open the bag provides a serviceable tray much like butcher paper acts as a plate at any good Texas barbecue joint. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A shooting in Brooklyn, a power outage in Queens, and scaffolding that fell on the 5 tracks - subway service on the 2 and 5 is messed up!
• A Bronx man pleaded guilty to terror plotting; Tarik Shah will serve no more than 15 years for offering to teach Al Qaeda operatives "how to wage jihad with hand-to-hand combat"
• New lawsuit to stop the Atlantic Yards lawsuit, on the grounds that the Pataki administration's Environmental Impact Statement was "fatally flawed"
• A man stabbed his father while in an SUV in Midtown last night; his mother watched from the backseat
• Brooklyn Record looked at the Williamsburg jeans from the Gap, but it's questionable how Williamsburg they really are
• The Police Academy will move out of its gross East 20th Street digs to College Point, Queens, where the College Point auto pound currently resides
• The missing British teen who ran - and flew - away to NYC after an argument with his parents was found at JFK; we're intrigued how he had enough money of his own to buy a ticket (credit card, probably?)
• Gridskipper lists the top sake bars in the city; old standbys Decibel and Angel Share make it
• The pet food recall now includes dog biscuits
• And, finally, Community Board 4 approved renaming the west side of 53rd and 8th Avenue "Jerry Orbach Way"
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The NY Times announces that its print edition will be 1.5" narrower and a printing plant in NJ will be closed. With this change, a total of 1050 jobs will be lost and most of the regional printing will be moved to the College Point, Queens plant. more ›

The National Weather Service is giving a shout out to northern Queens in their morning forecast, saying "Windy and mild with highs in the mid 60s...Except upper 60s in northern queens" more ›

Given our stint in the suburbs where having the most beautiful, manicured lawn becomes the object of desire for homeowners, and now living in a place where dog pooped and gummy sidewalks is what greets us when we leave our front door, we were fascinated by the NY Times story about outer-borough homeowners paving their front yards. Mind you, these are not brownstone owners with a sliver of grass, these are people who fairly substantial (for NYC standards) front property, perfect for lawnmowing, fertilization, watering, you name it. The trouble with lawn maintenance is why many homeowners decide to pave, as well as that other precious city commodity: Parking space. Our first thought about paved yards was that they were ugly, but when we saw this photograph that accompanied the article, our thoughts changed to, "That's Queens?" (The other photograph, of a house in College Point, confirmed our initial thought.) more ›

Kevin Walsh, Forgotten NY more ›