Results tagged “communityassistanceunit”

If you ever thought wedding planners were a waste of money and a huge headache, you'll love this NY Times article about them. Sure, there are good ones out there (if you have any suggestions, feel free to list them in the comments), but there are many horror stories, like a couple who went through two "planzillas" (including one whose planning was turning their wedding into a million-dollar affair) until finding one they could tolerate. Our advice: See how much the catering manager of the venue you're planning your event is willing to take on. And then rope in an understanding, super patient friend or relative who is Type A enough to want to help you out. And if you have any other advice, let us know!

Moving onto a new job is always exciting - and it's always another opportunity to have a farewell party from your old one. But it seems that partying got the better of former deputy commissioner of the Community Assistance Unit Christopher Coffey. The Daily News reports that Coffey was pulled over in his car after the police got a call about a "rowdy drunk" - apparently Coffey had been "stumbling around and pounding on cars" after leaving a bar at the Maritime Hotel.

After pointedly saying that it was easy for drivers to move their cars during the midweek snow-and-ice storm and that parking tickets would stand, Mayor Bloomberg backtracked and said tickets issued for alternate side of the street violations on Thursday and Friday would be forgiven (the message is also there on 311). The Mayor begrudgingly said he was sorry during his radio program yesterday:

I’m sorry for the inconvenience to people, but you know you have to make decisions, and each of these storms is different......In retrospect, in some parts of the city there was not that much snow, and in other parts it probably really was an imposition. We did get a lot of calls and listened very carefully to what the Sanitation Department heard, to what our Community Assistance Unit heard, took a look at what calls came into 311.

We've always been well aware that neighborhoods are a tricky thing to define - growing up we were never really clear if we lived in the East Village, NoHo or the Lower East Side - but this wonderful article by Manny Fernandez in today's Metro section still managed to surprise us with just how hard it can be. Especially in places where the populations have constantly turned over rapidly and dramatically. For instance the only New York borough on mainland America, the Bronx:

According to a Department of City Planning map of the city’s neighborhoods, the Bronx has 49 [neighborhoods]. The map publisher Hagstrom identifies 69. The borough president, Adolfo Carrión Jr., says 61. The Mayor’s Community Assistance Unit, in a listing of the borough’s community boards, names 68. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, lists 44.

- Rachel Kramer Bussell meets Amy Sedaris and tells her about her cupcake blog!