You really can't keep a kook out of the kitchen: Republican Carl Paladino might have been stung by his poor showing at the GOP convention earlier this week, but he has no interest in giving up the desperate good fight. The real estate mogul-offensive email connoisseur vowed to gather the 15,000 signatures needed to challenge Rick Lazio in a Republican primary. "Today the real fight for reform begins...I'm the only Republican who should be the next governor of New York. And I intend to be," he said, with Ahab-like intensity. more ›

Just one week after a bizarre Q and A in which he revealed he has only been to Staten Island by helicopter and has only been a full-time New York resident for a year, former Tennessee congressman and likely Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. sat down with the Daily News — and refused to talk about the issues. In an interview "granted under the condition that the questions be limited to his rationale for running, and not issues," Ford blasted Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand as "weak in many places across the city and the state." more ›

New York Comic Con took place at the Javits Center this weekend and drew thousands of fans to meet authors, artists, actors, and characters of pop culture. It's also an opportunity for professionals in the industry to mingle and do business. This is the third year that the event has been held in New York. more ›

EVENT: Into anime? It's your lucky weekend, the New York Anime Festival is in town! There will be previews, screenings and panels galore. Check out their website for more details. All Weekend // Jacob Javits Convention Center [655 W 34th St] // $30 day pass, $55 weekend pass SHOP: FIT and the Design Mavens come together for a 3 day shopstravaganza. Tons of designers we're not cool enough to have ever heard of will be... more ›

It's the not the first time the government has wasted lots of money and it won't be the last, but the Daily News special investigation into former Governor Pataki's never-built Museum of Women is great proof of how bureaucracy sucks. Originally conceived to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Women's Rights Convention in Seneca, the museum would have been at the south end of Battery Park City. Various grants were directed to the commission (chaired... more ›

People may be talking the 2008 Presidential election, but when it comes to NYC, the aftermath of the 2004 Republican National Convention is still being felt. It was right before the convention when the NYPD arrested over 200 bicyclists during the August 2004 Critical Mass ride, starting more heated of NYPD vs. Critical Mass clashes. more ›

Grand plans for the 7 line extension have run into the harsh reality of budgetary constraints. Originally, the 7 line was going to be extended westward from its terminus at 42nd St. and 7th Ave. to a stop at the Javits Convention Center at 41st St. and 11th Ave., before heading south to 34th St. and the proposed Hudson Yards development site. Construction for the $2.1 billion project is going to be paid for by the MTA, which hopes to recoup its investment with proceeds from development of those Hudson Yards. MTA officials are now conceding that the project will be less ambitious. more ›

The Dalai Lama has arrived in New York, speaking in his native Tibetan language for two hours yesterday to followers, fans and the faithful at the Javits Convention Center. Newsday reports:

He delivered his entire speech without notes, pausing to take a sip of tea only at the end as tears of joy flowed through the crowd. [He stated:] "The Tibetan cause is a cause of justice, and that's something that cannot fade away. That is the nature of truth _ that it cannot die with time and with the change of generations."

A memorial to thousands of people buried in downtown Manhattan will open to the public Friday at 1 p.m., and there will be a candlelight procession at 8 p.m. from Battery Park to the monument at Duane and Elk Sts. The African Burial Ground National Monument is set to open 16 years after construction workers discovered human remains while doing foundation work on a downtown federal building. more ›

RALLY: Barack is back! This time he's hitting up Manhattan with an evening rally in Washington Square Park. It's gonna be a big one, so get there early! At least this time there won't be any unhappy paying customers, because it's free! Check out his video invite: more ›

Escaping a closed world: CNN's Randi Kaye talks with a woman who successfully left a polygamist society. more ›

"I'm a nice old lady. I have salt and pepper in my hair. And I would fight ferociously against anybody who would limit my ability to do something just because I'm sixty-four years old." The Gray Panthers are a pan-generational organization promoting senior citizen rights, but also campaigning for issues such as peace, health care, and workers rights. When Judy Lear joined the NYC network , she revitalized the whole organization. She's led protests, gone to UN meetings, and even gotten arrested. Gothamist sat down with this civil leader to learn more the Gray Panthers and their various endeavours. more ›

Critical Mass, which came to New York around 1993, hasn't always been a cause for concern amongst the city's police. After 2004's Republican National Convention coincided with that month's Critical Mass in Manhattan, things changed. The ride has taken a more political tone and there's often an air of protest circling it. more ›

With all the news of identity theft, of course it would have to hit couples who are getting married. The Post has an alarming story about a number of couples who, when applying for a marriage license, have found themselves already "married." It's believed that thieves use other people's identities to get marriage licenses and green cards. Denise Daskalkis "filed two appeals, multiple petitions, and attended a hearing at the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings," calling the two-year process hell while a Laura Berrios was "denied a domestic partnership with her lesbian lover because she had supposedly been married - to a man - for a decade." Berrios dryly said to the Post, "I've been out of the closet since I was 16. Trust me, I never have and never will get married [to a man]." more ›

Almost three years after the 2004 Republican National Convention, the tactics the NYPD used are still being debated in court. Per the NY Times, federal judge James C. Francis ruled yesterday that "hundreds of field intelligence reports by undercover investigators who infiltrated and compiled dossiers on protest groups" must be disclosed. more ›

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness - we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. more ›

The Post has button fever as it notices Bloomberg for President pins on eBay already! (Their headline is "Bloomy Looks Cute As a Button" - is that an underhanded way of saying he's short?) Some of the offerings include the stylized portrait and a straight up photograph. And there's always the classic all-type "I Like Mike" style. We expect anti-Bloomberg pins to go up this week - you know, the ones that mention how he's a New Yorker, divorced, Jewish, an advocate of gun control, supporter of a right to choose and immigration, etc. more ›

There are new details surrounding Sunday's 208 arrests at the Puerto Rican Day Parade: According to the NY Times, the police still claim that people were arrested for "specific illegal behavior," like blocking traffic, and not because they were wearing colors of the Latin Kings gang. However:

Criminal complaints filed against 10 defendants show that the police were concerned about the risk that those arrested would engage in violent or threatening behavior or cause some public inconvenience. more ›

Al Sharpton continues his effort to clean up rap lyrics. After Russell Simmons held some meetings on the topic, Sharpton took it to the streets by marching in midtown, and now he's brought his campaign to Motown. more ›

The Roseland Ballroom is hosting The New York City Tattoo Convention this weekend and videographer Kelly Loudenberg was onhand to capture an artist named Vincent Castiglia whose medium is human blood, the relentless buzz of dozens of needles perforating human flesh, and a lot of illustrated people. The TattooCon continues through tomorrow and tickets at the door are $18, with an all-access two-day pass going for $35. more ›

The NYPD decided not to appeal a judge's decision that the NYPD should declassify its surveillance documents from the 2004 RNC, so it has set up a special NYPD RNC Documents website with the documents. Of course, you have to scroll down to the very bottom for a zip file of the 600 pages of documents. And what's above the documents is the NYPD's rather thorough explanation/ defense justifying why it did such extensive surveillance of disparate groups and people, listing various terror incidents between 2001 and the convention as well as other incidents of protest. Here is Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's statement:

“I think a close examination of the documents is going to show that the New York City Police Department did an outstanding job in protecting the City during the Republican National Convention. People wanted to come here and shut down the City, to replicate what happened in Seattle, Montreal and Genoa. We simply didn't let that happen, and I think it'll just underscore the outstanding work of the men and women of the Department. In terms of gathering information, the vast majority of information that was gathered was open-source information. It was gathered from the Internet; these groups that were coming here were advertising what they were going to do — bragging about what they were going to do. It wasn't particularly difficult to get the vast majority of this information.”

ACT UP, Sierra Club, City Council members (Charles Barron, David Weprin, Bill Perkins), Sept. 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Johnny Cash Bloc, MSNBC, A31 Coalition, NYCLU, NOW, Planned Parenthood, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, Stuyvesant High School Students, Westboro Baptist Church, Indymedia, Democratic National Committee, Coalition of Fire and Police Unions, Grandmothers Against War, Falun Gong, Arab Muslim American Foundation, Time's Up, Billionaires For Bush, United for Peace and Justice, The Surveillance Camera Players, ACLU, Hip Hop Summit Action Network, The Federation of East Village Artists, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, Restaurant Opportunity Center of New York

The new chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee says the NYPD thinks it's the NPD - the National Police Department. The Daily News reports that Democratic Mississippi representative Bennie Thompson is critical of the NYPD's tactics that stretch into other jurisdictions. He told the News, "While I understand that chasing down leads in other locales might help keep the city safe, I emphasized that the NYPD is not the FBI, that it does not have national jurisdiction." more ›

The area across from Shea Stadium known as the Iron Triangle has never seemed suitable for housing, mostly because it was home to hundreds of auto shops. That could all change, if Mayor Bloomberg gets his way. Yesterday, the mayor announced a master plan to revitalize Willets Point, the official name of the 61-acre area in Northern Queens. The plan would replace the 250 businesses, which employ about 1,300 people, with housing, office space, restaurants and shops, a hotel, and a convention center. The plain claims that it will create 20,000 construction jobs and 6,100 permanent jobs. If approved, it would also be "the first neighborhood, and the City's largest development project to incorporate "green" building technology." more ›

Swedish rockers Peter Bjorn & John have won over the world with their brand of catchy indie pop. Last time they were in town their album wasn't even released yet and they sold out three shows. This time they've got two consecutive shows at Webster Hall (May 1st and 2nd)...and hopefully you got your tickets, as they are both (suprise, surprise) sold out already. This week Peter took some time to answer some questions for us... more ›

Patrick Cullina is the VP of Horticulture and Facilities at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and New York's go-to guy for cherry trees (there are over 200 trees and 42 species at BBG alone!). Anita Jacobs is responsible for all of the programs that go along with the garden, speaking of which... more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a DOA floater in the Harlem River at Manhattan's 135th St., a homicide on Church and Nostrand Aves. in Brooklyn, and a jumper was up on the Williamsburg Bridge just before noon this morning.
• NYC local Steven Herbst won a Hall of Fame award at the International Whistling Convention in Louisberg, NC.
• When we wrote about former NJ Governor Jim McGreevey's life-sized nude photo he had on display in his bedroom yesterday, we were thinking along the lines of Robert Mapplethorpe. It's actually less artsy than that.
• A bronze statue of Andy Warhol will be installed in SoHo's Father Fagan Park on 6th Ave. between Prince and Spring Sts. next month.
• Jean-Georges Vongerichten has pulled lobster dishes from all seven of his restaurants' menus and many other restaurateurs are following suit or hiking prices as the lobster fishing industry is having a particularly bad year.
• A drunk driver killed a woman who was driving with her three children early this morning in Queens.
• Brooklyn's oldest restuarant, Gage & Tollner (est. 1879), closed in 2004 to make way for a T.G.I.Friday's chain restaurant, but the successor never caught on in the neighborhood and closed. Now residents wish the space could be filled by an old-school chop house; some place with history and a little class.
• NY Giant Michael Strahan's ex-wife is a little cash-strapped with their divorce entangled in the courts, so she had a yard sale to sell off her and her ex-husbands personal possessions while their daughter sold lemonade.
• Eater has pictures of the plywood coming off the old 2nd Ave. Deli to reveal the gleaming new Chase Bank branch underneath.

Senator Barack Obama made his appearance at the Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network Conference yesterday. The conference, which is also known as the Sharpton primary, featured many Democratic presidential candidates, including Senator Hillary Clinton on Friday. But yesterday's speech from Clinton rival Senator Barack Obama was especially notable, given the earlier talk that Sharpton wasn't a big fan of Obama. Obama worked to woo the crowd, even joking, when Sharpton's Blackberry buzzed on the podium, "There's something humming down here. Is that Hillary calling?" Obama announced he supported Sharpton's efforts to go after negative language in the hip-hop industry, Obama thinks more should be done. From the NY Times:

"Let's not just single out the rappers...I’ve heard those words around the kitchen tables,” Mr. Obama said, speaking to members of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s group, the National Action Network at its ninth convention. “All of us have been complicit in diminishing ourselves, and engaging in the kind of self hatred that keeps our young men and young women down. That’s something we have to talk about in this election.”

On Tuesday "The Oprah Winfrey Show" became a platform for the Hip-Hop community to respond to the Don Imus controversy with a panel discussion featuring Russell Simmons, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Kevin Liles, Common and more. more ›

Car makers are flocking to the city with the New York International Auto Show opening this weekend (media previews start tomorrow) at the Javits Convention Center, and there's one particularly NYC-focused exhibit: Taxi '07. more ›

This morning, WNBC 4 aired Gabe Pressman's News Forum interview with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Pressman asked Kelly about topics such as attacks on the police given the city's record low crime, stop-and-frisks, the recent arrest of a man who intimidated a witness in the Sean Bell case, the NYPD's eal Time Crime Center, terrorism, Rudy Giuliani and police conduct during the Republican National Convention. This is a small bit of Pressman and Kelly's exchange:

PRESSMAN: Civil libertarians go--hark back to the Republican Convention in '04 and the many people who were arrested or detained and then released. Thousands in all were involved in these demonstrations. Do you think that they have a legitimate complaint, that too many were detained, considering the results? more ›