A project that would create a mile-long esplanade, including a "cantilevered riverfront walkway" and a bike path, along the east side of Manhattan is two months away from its approval deadline in October. The Post reports that the deal would involve selling or leasing Robert Moses playground to the UN, and allow the organization to build another high-rise for office space. The city would sell the currently occupied UN buildings, creating up to $400 million in revenue, enough to pay for the improvements and upkeep. The sweet, sweet irony of course is that the playground in question is named after the man who some believe sold New York City's soul to the automobile. more ›

The MTA is very serious about you taking their new SBS M15 Bus Service Lanes seriously. They don't want you parking your cars or your bikes or you butts in the lane, and they don't want you driving in it (except to make immediate right turns). Today, they announced that camera enforcement of the Service Lanes along First and Second avenues will formally begin this Monday. And it'll come with a stiff penalty: any unauthorized use of the bus lanes is subject to a $115 ticket. The MTA has also begun a charm offensive online, putting up banners ads which read, “Riding the bus costs $2.25. Driving in the bus lane costs $115. Bus lanes will now be camera-enforced." So you have till this Monday to doing something really transgressive in the bus lane unencumbered by the watchful eye of Big Brother. more ›

Having endured heavy bombardment from East Village merchants, cabbies, and the anti-bike lane press, cyclists have rallied their forces and launched a daring counteroffensive. Not only are they insisting that the new dedicated bike lanes on First and Second Avenue remain in place, but they're also doubling down and demanding that the bike lanes be extended all the way up to 125th Street. Will the Bloomberg administration continue its policy of appeasement and let the cyclists occupy Poland ride through Harlem? more ›

The west side of Manhattan is an idyllic utopia along the river, where an interconnected series of parks and paths give New Yorkers the ability to travel on foot or by bike from the Battery up to Washington Heights, without mingling with motor vehicles. Much of the route along the Hudson River is green and well-maintained, which makes the contrast with the shabby East Side all the more striking. And so over the weekend Transportation Alternatives held a bike ride press opp along the East River to highlight his side's glaring inadequacy. more ›

WABC 7 reports that a bicyclist was critically injured in a hit-and-run last night: "The victim, a 45-year-old man, was struck while biking on Second Avenue at East 59th Street just before 11 p.m. Police say the truck that struck him did not stop and continued down Second Avenue." The cyclist was taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital; police are investigating the incident and interviewed witnesses. more ›

As we noted yesterday, the M15 "Select Bus" service planned for First and Second Avenues will operate on an honor system, with riders expected to buy tickets at curbside kiosks before boarding, and produce the tickets upon request by a uniformed inspector. But will New Yorkers really behave honorably, or simply roll the dice and bet they don't run into any of the 30 inspectors policing the route? more ›

Songwriter and film director Joseph Brooks was charged with a 91-count indictment yesterday for using his status as a onetime-Oscar winner to lure women with dreams of stardom into his apartment so that he could allegedly rape and sexually assault them. Brooks, 71, primarily used craigslist to advertise parts in "his next movie" that led to sexual assaults on at least 11 women at his apartment on East 63rd Street, mostly over the last two years. An investigator told reporters, “The Oscar was used as a prop. This could be you, this could be you holding this Oscar. If you do what I say.” more ›

It was only after all this that the officer ended up passing his gun over to the janitor who had unknowingly lent his uniform to the suspect, 51-year-old Placido Contreras. As the cop wrestled with a bloody McNair, he passed his gun to Contreras and told him, "Keep your eyes on him and shoot him if you have to." The janitor told the Post that it was the first time he held a real gun. more ›

Police are searching for a man suspected of groping at least three women in a two-hour period this past Wednesday. According to WABC 7: "The suspect first accosted a woman at a Rite-Aid drugstore on Second Avenue at East 30th Street at around 6:15 p.m. He allegedly put his hand up the woman's skirt, grabbed her crotch and buttocks and ran out of the store. Next, he did the same thing to a woman in the lobby of her building on Second Avenue near East 36th Street at around 7 p.m... He then allegedly assaulted a 27-year-old woman in the elevator of her building on East 56th Street near Third Avenue at 8:15 p.m." Police say the suspect is around 5'10" and 200-240 pounds, in his 30s or 40s with long black hair (he may be Native American). And an East Side resident told WCBS 2, "It's scary. I have a 6-year-old daughter. Can you imagine some man comes up from behind and grabs you? Scary." more ›

Not too many people are buying $40 million homes with grottos these days, but Madonna's never been a conformist. The NY Post reports that her Madgesty has just purchased a four-story, Georgian-style townhouse on East 81st Street, complete with 13 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, 2-car garage, 3,000-square-foot garden, 9 fireplaces, an elevator and a wine cellar with a grotto. If you need some jealousy-inducing visuals, Curbed has photos. She'll be doing extensive renovations before moving in, however, and in the meantime is looking for an English-style manor in Westchester or on Long Island. A source tells the Post that, "She's trying to recreate London in New York City." Recently the Material Girl tried to acquire a new 4-year-old but was told she had to live in Malawi for 18 months in order to do so. She already owns land there, possibly for a future school, and has asked a family home be built there as well. Related: Watch the Angelina vs. Madonna baby-off from SNL earlier this month. more ›

The east side Scores will pick up its crumpled dollar bills and jiggle into history by the end of the year, the Daily News reports. It's not quite clear if this means the entire Scores chain, which includes clubs outside of New York, is going down, but a lawyer for the owners says, "It's over; it is what it is." more ›

Dardanel: Salt crusted fish is the star of the reasonably priced seafood menu at this new midtown east restaurant (pictured), named for the strait that connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. As such, the high number of seafood dishes are complemented by Turkish classics like halvah pie. The fish is imported daily from the Mediterranean, and entrees include Brook Trout Casserole with grilled vegetables ($19); brick oven baked Black Sea anchovies with rice, pine nuts, currant and herbs stuffing served in a casserole ($19); and Char Grilled & Skewered Chicken or Lamb Adana ($16). Wines come from as far afield as Israel and Georgia, and the $5 desserts include Almond Macaroons and Baklava. Dardanel seats 65, and is "nautically themed." 1071 First Avenue, (212) 888-0809 more ›

Last month chef Michael White and his business partner Chris Cannon opened Convivio in the space formerly occupied by L'Impero, which White took over after the abrupt departure of chef Scott Conant (who has since opened Scarpetta). Where L'Impero was perceived by some as stuffy and overly formal (Times critic Frank Bruni said it evoked "the upholstered interior of a very large coffin"), Convivio aims for a more casual, though still elegant, atmosphere, with "burnt orange" upholstered banquettes, lacquered ceilings and a copper bar top. (Photo after the jump.) more ›

The morning after George Atterbury, general manager of Grayz restaurant on West 54th Street, was interviewed by Eater about his experiences greeting swells at Grayz, he was slashed in the face and stabbed in the abdomen by three men on the East Side. A dining blog curse, or just a random act of violence? Police are now suggesting another possible explanation: mob ties. more ›

It's not uncommon to hear about animals being housed in New York apartments -- not just cats and dogs, but tigers and monkeys, oh my. The latest animal house can be found in a 50-story luxury condo complex on the East Side. more ›

Perhaps an Uptown versus Downtown battle would have worked better, as The NY Times says only 100 people showed up at this past weekend's "Battle of Manhattan," which pitted the East versus the West side of town (perhaps they were all at the Scotland Run). more ›

Yesterday afternoon a 32-year-old woman was busted for running a prostitution ring on the East Side of Manhattan that charged $900/hour for its services. Kristen Davis (no relation to the Sex and the City star...probably) operated four websites, sending her gals to one of two apartments she kept for the illegal trysts (the magic apparently happened at both 229 East 53rd Street and 533 Third Avenue). more ›

You'll only be getting babes, not booze, when you go to Scores West: The State Liquor Authority has taken away the strip club's liquor license after police found prostitution at the Chelsea joint (the Upper East Side location is not affected). An SLA administrative judge wrote that prostitution was "open and notorious such that the licensee knew or should have known of its occurrence." more ›

Wildly successful young chef and restaurateur Michael Psilakis – whose Anthos is one of only two Greek restaurants in the world with a Michelin star – refined his talent not in culinary school but in the kitchen beside his Greek mother during his childhood on Long Island. After earning a business degree, he found himself drawn back to the food world, where he worked his way up from waiter to owner of the Long Island restaurant Ecco. His subsequent enterprise with celebrated restaurateur Donatella Arpaia, called Dona, was one of Esquire's Best New Restaurants in 2006, but the place closed when the building housing it was sold to a developer. more ›

Costumed performers and tour guides are fighting for unionization at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, where they work to recreate the squalid living conditions of turn-of-the-century Jewish immigrants, the very group that was integral to 20th century unionization efforts. Dozens of the tenement employees protested last night outside a fundraiser for the museum at Chelsea Piers. more ›

Today the Times’s chief food critic Frank Bruni revisits WD-50 (pictured) and elevates the Lower East Side avant-garde restaurant to three stars (a 2003 Times review by another critic had awarded it two). Chef Wylie Dufresne has made WD-50 a destination with his experimental, transgressive menu, and Bruni concedes that in the past “too many of his creations were gratuitously perverse… many visitors understandably feel that what they’ve experienced isn’t so much a meal as a prank.” But now most of the dishes are “knockouts” and Bruni extols “the tidiest Benedict the egg-loving world has ever known.” more ›

, his first novel in five years, was described by Times critic Michiko Kakutani as “a visceral, heart-thumping portrait of New York City... no one writes better dialogue than Richard Price.” more ›

This morning, the first-ever State of the MTA Address was given, with MTA CEO and Executive Director Elliot Sander Sander emphasizing the MTA was born 40 years ago out of crisis and needed federal, state, and municipal cooperation to get things done (in other words, nothing changes!). more ›

The police are continuing to look for James Gonzalez, who is suspected of fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend at a grocery store as well as stabbing her co-worker. The attack occurred Friday afternoon at the East Village Key Foods location. more ›

Nothing says romance like a public proposal in The Daily News. Marina Maiuri stood atop the Empire State Building (which is so "Sleepless in Seattle") to have her photo snapped by the paper on the observation deck; but she wasn't looking for love, she was looking to propose. more ›

The MTA unveiled its 2008-2013 Capital Plan, which explained almost $30 billion will be needed to improve mass transit and complete projects like the Second Avenue Subway, the East Side Access plan and more by 2030 (many of those projects will also be delayed). Though the current MTA capital plan doesn't expire until next year, the MTA presented this plan because the state congestion pricing legislation required them to present a plan by the end of the first quarter of 2008. more ›