Two sisters are suing the NYPD over being arrested for simply not knowing where they were going. The women, identified as Miriam and Bracha, were on their way to an engagement party on July 7th, 2009 when they realized their directions had led them astray. A passerby directed them down an apartment complex driveway when a car pulled up behind them. The driver got out and tapped on their window and asked where they were going, and when they said they were lost he reached in and snatched their directions. The man identified himself as a cop, but the women wanted more proof. more ›

The city has spent $12.3 million to spruce up its Marriage Bureau and move it out of its drab old home in the Municipal Building by City Hall, all in an attempt to compete with Vegas as "the wedding destination of the world." That necessitated hiring designer Jamie Drake, who handled Mayor Bloomberg’s Upper East Side town house, to transform an old DMV office up the street into a peach and lavender connubial oasis. more ›

As a reader pointed out, while Google's Google Maps ads-wrapped subway cars are nifty-looking, an ad inside the car "mislabels Times Square as Grand Central Station." The mistake implies that one can get the 1, 2 or 3 from Grand Central--when everyone knows that the only way to get to the 1, 2, or 3 from Grand Central is to take the S shuttle or the 7 (if the S isn't working) to Times Square first, and then get the 1, 2, or 3 there. At least, that's what experience and Google Maps tells us. more ›

Pity the poor tourist who comes upon this ad hoc weekend subway service advisory message scribbled on a series of dry erase boards at the Fulton St. station in Manhattan. Actually, pity any subway rider who pauses at great length to try to determine the meaning behind this advisory and then comprehends what it ultimately means for them to get to where they need to go. more ›

Responding to years of griping (and vigilante sign-making) about the poorly lit, hard-to-locate pedestrian entrances to the Brooklyn Bridge in DUMBO, the city has finally gotten around to putting up some new signs guiding walkers to the bridge. Spearheaded by the DUMBO Improvement District, the makeover was unveiled today by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and other officials, and coincides with the bridge’s 125th birthday celebration, which kicks off tomorrow at the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park in Brooklyn with live music by the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Grucci fireworks, and “an unprecedented light installation spanning the length of the Brooklyn Bridge.” more ›

Roughly six years have passed since the controversial Red Hook IKEA was first proposed, further dividing an already fragmented community. Next month the 346,000-square-foot store, the first IKEA in New York City, will finally open on Beard Street, and, you guessed it, the community is still divided. John McGettrick, co-chair of the Red Hook Civic Alliance, insists IKEA is a waste of 22 acres of prime waterfront property and will create a traffic nightmare on Red Hook’s quaint back streets. more ›

The upside to the weak U.S. dollar? NYC made $28 billion from tourists last year. The Mayor announced that tourism to NYC was at record highs, with 46 million people visiting the Big Apple. Of the 46 million tourists, 8.5 million were from other countries, which is another high. From Mayor Bloomberg's speech:

This incredible surge puts us well on our way to reaching our goal of drawing 50 million annual visitors by the year 2015. And it's helping to bolster our local businesses even as the economy is slowing down nationwide....The impact of those dollars reverberated in every sector of our economy: from our neighborhood shops and restaurants to our hotels - which sold a record 22.8 million rooms, to arts and cultural institutions. In fact, City-owned cultural institutions across the five boroughs saw a combined increase of 855,000 visitors since 2006.