Tens of thousands of colorfully costumed revelers partied down on Eastern Parkway from Crown Heights to Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn yesterday for the annual West Indian American Day Parade with millions of people lining the street. This year's celebration was somewhat muted by Gustav's damage to the Caribbean. Mayor Bloomberg, who led the parade with Gov. Paterson, told the revelers, "We know Mother Nature is a powerful force and there have been some deaths......

Tomorrow is the annual West Indian American Day Carnival and Parade, which goes from Eastern Parkway and Utica Ave. to Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn. The parade, which attracts millions of people, features floats, dancers and bands that celebrate the cultures of the Caribbean. The festivities are all day--here's a little history about the parade--and expect to see politicians there (last year, Mayor Bloomberg joked he could be considered West Indian because he spends so......

The family of Carol Simon is grieving after she was killed while walking on Eastern Parkway near Bedford around 5:30PM on Saturday. Simon, a 35-year-old nurse's assistant, had been on her way to take her son to swimming lessons when an argument between two men became violent and one pulled out a gun. Simon and her son Kieron, 9, had driven to an Exxon to buy some things. Simon realized she forgot her purse, so......

The pedestrian, bicyclist and sensible transportation advocacy group Transportation Alternatives has just launched a new website, Crash Maps: CrashStat 2.0, which maps intersections and streets where pedestrians and bicyclists have been hit by vehicles. It's an updated version of their previous map, and when the information is presented different depending on how closely you zoom into the map. For instance, at one level, it shows crashes (those with injuries as well as the fatal......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck on 11th Ave. and West 43rd St. in Manhattan, a shooting on 21st St. in Queens, and a shooting on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. Veteran political reporter Gabe Pressman weighs in on the wave of mortgage foreclosures sweeping New York and finds overwhelming evidence of racism. A privately funded program to encourage lower income and minority students to take Advanced Placement courses will pay cash for......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: there was a falling bricks collapse at East 128th St. and Madison Ave. in Manhattan, a stabbing on East 180th St. in the Bronx, and a homicide on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. An interview with the creators of a multimedia presentation that represents a post-Atlantic Yards development Brooklyn. Visit upper Manhattan's Ft. Tryon Park tomorrow to go old school at the 2007 Medieval Festival around The Cloisters. Jesters, jousters,......

Millions of people flocked to Eastern Parkway to celebrate the West Indian American Day Parade yesterday. This was the 40th year of the parade, which had floats, dancers, and bands interacting with the crowds. Many of the spectators wore or waved flags of native countries and enjoying delicious food. Many politicians marched in the parade, including Governor Spitzer and Lieutenant Governor David Paterson, who said, "This day is for everyone. Everybody is Caribbean today."......

One of the city's biggest parades of the year, if not the largest, is tomorrow: The annual West Indian American Day Carnival. With millions in attendance and colorful sights, the parade is a Brooklyn highlight. The parade begins at 11AM and ends at 6PM. The parade route starts at Rochester & Eastern Parkway and ends near Grand Army Plaza, and there are live performance outside the Brooklyn Library. Here are tips from the West......

September 3: West Indian–American Day Carnival Some may go for the dancing and general festivities, but some of us will be headed to this celebration for the food. The Eastern Parkway service roads will be lined with stands selling dishes from throughout the Caribbean, including jerk chicken, oxtail, fried flying fish, curry goat, roti, callaloo, and more. 8am–6pm, Eastern Pkwy between Utica Ave and Grand Army Plaza Brooklyn. For more info or directions, visit wiadca.org.......

MOVIE: The new Hairspray has set up special Sing-A-Long screenings! They begin nationwide today, and there will be three right here in New York. If you don't like rowdy theaters, skip this one! All Weekend // Various Times // Regal Union Sq 14; Clearview Chelsea 9; AMC Empire 42nd 25 MUSIC: Head down to the Seaport for an evening of Billie Holiday tunes. Turntables on the Hudson will be celebrating the release of Billie Holiday......

Yesterday, a five people were injured on Queens Boulevard at 47th Street when a Jeep Cherokee slammed into a Honda. The Jeep, which witnesses describe as trying to beat a red light, lost control and hit the Honda. The Honda, which had been making a turn onto Queens Boulevard, was crushed from the impact and then "plowed up onto the crowded sidewalk, pinning a 16-year-old boy against a lamppost." Both legs of the boy, Tonpo......

Google Maps has upped its considerable offering to include "Street View," which offers views of the certain locations at the street-level imagery. The areas where you can see images are noted by blue lines on the map (click the "Street View" button). Manhattan is pretty covered and downtown Brooklyn is covered, but the Bronx, Queens and State Island views are pretty much limited by major roads. Below is 1 Centre Street; you can't get......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: unstable scaffolding at Manhattan's 265 West 37th St., a police car multi-vehicle accident at Thomas S. Boyland St. and Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, and a suspicious package at East 161st St. and Grand Concourse in the Bronx. How could the McGreevey saga get any more strange? Maybe if Jim McGreevey decided to join the priesthood. He told WNBC that he is entering a seminary to become an Episcopal priest.......

Anyone who has attempted to walk or bike from one side of Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza to another knows that it can be a difficult journey, through which a constantly swiveling head is required to keep an eye on traffic coming from seemingly every direction. The above overhead image shows just a portion of the plaza where five different roads converge in an inner traffic loop, including Eastern Parkway and Prospect Park West, and......

THEATER: We could try to describe Neal Medlyn's Coming In The Air Tonight, but why bother when there’s this: “The show features a variety of Phil Collins and Genesis music and is about how Neal is starting to slowly fall apart due to how he's all torn up inside from getting his heart broken into tiny pieces. It is also about how Neal steals a lot of stuff from people. Like their belongings and house......

Should non-citizen legal immigrants be allowed to vote in City Council races? After all, they do pay local taxes. Sad: Colors, the restaurant founded by workers from the WTC's Windows on the World is foundering, and may shut down. Some people want to add a compass rose to Columbus Circle-- maybe that will help all the tourists get where they need to go. The voice caught up this week with Claw, one of New......

ART: Running through March 7th at Gavin Brown's enterprise at Passerby is "Radical Living Papers". Some of the passionate writers of forty years ago will have their words become a part of this exhibit, which serves as a snapshot of the Vietnam War era and a history of counter-culture and alt press. Publications (all from the 60s and 70s) include Rolling Stone, The Black Panther, Freep, The Seed and the Los Angeles Free Press. Friday......

THEATER: Survey: Do women actually, um, enjoy Playgirl magazine? It’s a timeless question, and one that - according to former editor Ronnie Koenig - even haunted the boss herself. Her multimedia play Dirty Girl, now in previews, is about her “quest to find a woman who actually likes the beefcakes in the magazine.” The cast has been blogging and a book deal is in the works. (Brace yourself for The Devil Wears Nothing.) - John......

There is an incredible feature about British author Will Self visiting NYC in the NY Times Arts section. Why a feature and why so incredible? Well, Self decided to walk from JFK Airport to Manhattan - all 20 miles - and Times writer at large Charles McGrath and Times photographer Casey Kelbaugh went along for the journey, too. So it's incredibly brilliant and incredibly nuts at the same time. There's a great map of......

The amNewYork cover story is about dangerous intersections in the city. Queens Boulevard, aka the "Boulevard of Death," has only had four fatalities in the past three years, but there have been a number of pedestrian injuries on Grand Concourse in the Bronx and at Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. Grand Concourse has had 35 pedestrian injuries during the same period, while Eastern Parkway had seven pedestrian deaths in 1999 and 2005, not including many pedestrian......

Annie Leibovitz photographs will be traveling the world soon, and are on view at the Brooklyn Museum starting this week. The exhibit, titled: Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990-2005, debuts in Brooklyn and will contain more than 100 photographs. The work on display, and also in the accompanying book of the same name, includes not only work Leibovitz created as a professional photographer, but also personal photographs of her family and close friends. She stated,......

On the messageboards of Brooklynian, there's a crazy account of foiling a mugger. Rhodamime, a self-described "large guy" who "people rarely fuck with me (knock on wood)," was at Eastern Parkway and Bedford on Sunday (yes, taking pictures for a blog) when he got jumped:The guy got me in a headlock from behind, pressed a screwdriver against the back of my neck and repeatedly demanded "Lemme get that camera, motherfucker, lemme get that camera" as......

-- This week's New Yorker has two covers-- on the outside, a tightrope walker reminiscent of Phillipe Petit is shown walking over a white void-- on the inside cover, he's shown hanging in space over the footprints of the twin towers. -- Speaking of the WTC, 70% of first responders have experienced lung problems. -- Only ten bucks from Boston to New York? Maybe you are better off paying a bit more. -- Brooklyn......

It looks like a gorgeous day for the West Indian Day Carnival's parade today. The Brooklyn parade is apparently the city's largest parade, with 2 million spectators, but what's especially awesome about it is that the spectators really feel like they are part of the parade. The parade starts at Eastern Parkway and Utica, and then goes west on Eastern Parkway to Grand Army Plaza, so expect lots of street closures and celebrating! And......

-- The Caribbean Day Parade is tomorrow-- it starts at 11am on Eastern Parkway. But check this out: "the really cool kids will be lining up to watch predawn procession known as J'Ouvert that kicks off at 2 a.m." -- Banksy punks Paris Hilton's new CD in the UK-- but apparently he didn't do any in NYC on his recent visit. -- The NYPD is now 17% women, but surprise, surprise-- they only hold......

That putrid smell coming from Eastern Parkway and Prospect Park? It might just be the Amorphophallus titanum blooming at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The titan arum, aka the "corpse flower," is one of the world's largest flowers, and the BBG has been carefully cultivating its own for the past ten years. The plant, named "Baby," is set to bloom sometime this week - it seems that the flowery part (the "spathe") will unfurl for......

MUSIC: Propect Park. TV on the Radio. Matt Pond PA. Voxtrot. Free. Need we say more? Bring a blanket. Friday // 6:30pm // Prospect Park Bandshell // Free READING: On of our favorite New Yorkers, Joan Didion, will be reading from her masterful book, The Year of Magical Thinking, tonight in Central Park. The book, which chronicles the year after Pulitzer-prize-winning Didion lost her husband John Gregory Dunne to a heart attack, was a taut,......

Yesterday, there was a press conference to herald the formation of the Grand Army Plaza Coalition, which will help improve Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza for pedestrians. According to Transportation Alternatives, is coalition is "made up of civic associations such as the Park Slope Civic Council, the Prospect Heights Parents Association and the Eastern Parkway Cultural Row Association...cultural institutions such as the Prospect Park Alliance, the Brooklyn Public Library and the Heart of Brooklyn Cultural Partnership...advocacy......

Yes, we are aware of widespread reports of a line of 56 Mitzvah Tanks driving slowly through Manhattan. At first, we thought the Hasidim had decided to topple the godless Bloomberg administration in a bloody coup, but then we got this press release from Lubavitcher World Headquarters: New Yorkers and tourists heading out for lunch this Thursday April 6 2006 could be greeted by an unexpected surprise. A parade, consisting of fifty-six motor homes,......

We know it's fashion week, but Gothamist prides itself on offering all kinds of other, more bookish delights for those not inclined to prowl the tents at Bryant Park. Kicking off this week, Symphony Space (95th and Broadway) is hosting Banned: Stories by Censored Writers and Dissidents, with work by authors from Iran and Indonesia. The show starts at 6:30PM on 2/8 and costs $25, less for members. At KGB Bar (85 E. 4th St.)......