Photographs by SilvaAzniv on Flickr (left, right); the steam in the right photo is from Con Ed - not a fire At West End Avenue and West 59th Street, a water main broke, flooding the Amtrak tracks. The FDNY is pumping out the water and a number of other city agencies, including the Office of Emergency Management and Department of Environmental Protection are on the scene. According to other reports, a new building (an......

Design by João Sequeira, with Ana Figueiredo, Marta Moreira, and Pedro Ferreira, of Lisbon, Portugal Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City Office of Emergency Management have announced 10 winners in the contest to design temporary housing for the thousands of New Yorkers who might be displaced in the event of a catastrophe, like a direct hit from a Category 3 hurricane. The 117 submissions from 30 countries had to create quickly assembled housing for......

Satellite map rendering of 475 Kent Avenue from Live Search Maps Over 150 residents of an eleven-story building at Kent Avenue in South Williamsburg were evacuated yesterday after the Fire Department and Buildings Department found a number of violations. The building had been illegally converted to residences and a matzoh factory, complete with two silos of (highly combustible) grain in the basement. A neighboring building was cited as well, and the violations ranged from......

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is busy trying to rally support in Florida, one of many big states with primaries in the coming weeks. He didn't really focus on the Iowa caucus (where he placed fifth - after Ron Paul) or New Hampshire (so he claims; he managed to place 4th, ahead of Ron Paul) and flew out of the Granite State before the polls were closed. His poor showing in the first two political showdowns......

Former mayor Rudy Giuliani is in Florida today, skipping the Iowa caucus that his team never counted on anyway. Still, his staffers are trying to remain relevant in Iowa by "contacting reporters, reminding them that even though the former New York mayor is lagging badly [in Iowa]...he will remain a player in the big states that hold their primaries in upcoming weeks." We kept Giuliani on the brain by reading Elizabeth Kolbert's New Yorker......

Everyone is buzzing about the Brooklyn Bridge Park development today. The latest is that the project (which has been stalled time and time again) could begin next month as a wrecking ball tears down a piece of the area's history. The Daily News reports:If approved today, the $18 million construction phase would include the demolition of the historic Purchase Building [pictured] and the removal of portions of five piers, officials said. "This is the......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an injured firefighter on Myrtle Ave. in Queens, a robbery/mobilization on Broadway in Manhattan, and a suspicious death on Sheffield Ave. in Brooklyn. Five Hoboken police officers filed a federal lawsuit claiming discrimination by the town's police department. Their commander allegedly used the "N" word frequently and said "the white race was destined to rule and dominate others." You know you're screwed when you call your City Council representative......

Taxi workers held another strike starting at 5AM this morning over demands to remove the new GPS systems, for there to be a healthcare and retirement pension fund, and union recognition. However, it's unclear how many of the tens of thousands of taxi drivers actually struck. The Metro Taxi Cab Board of Trade says that 95% of the 13,000 taxi fleet was on the streets and the Office of Emergency Management did not notice......

Tenants of the office building at 370 Lexington Ave. and East 41st St. are alleging that while they were barred from the building for more than a month during clean-up and decontamination of the area following July's midtown steampipe explosion, their offices were looted of cash, cellphones, electronics, and other portable valuables. The New York Post talked to the president of a graphic-arts company located in the building, who found that approximately $45,000 in items......

Mayor Bloomberg announced that the city was prepared for the possible two-day taxi strike that some taxi driver groups have threatened for tomorrow morning, starting at 5AM. About 7,000 of the city's 44,000 taxi drivers (there are about 13,000 cabs in total) have reportedly promised to strike over new technology that the Taxi and Limousine Commission wants to install in all cabs. Some drivers' issues with the technology, which includes GPS tracking systems and......

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance said that it definitely will strike on Wednesday and Thursday to protest the city's plans to put new technology, including GPS systems, in all taxi cabs. NYTWA spokeswoman Bhairavi Desai said, "Leave the car parked at home or at the garage. No yellow cabs for hire." The city has said that the new technology, which also includes the option to pay by credit, is useful; for instance, the......

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that President Bush had signed a "major disaster declaration" for Queens on August 8, the day the weather (including a tornado in Brooklyn and Staten Island) caused much of the city to come to a standstill. This means that Queens residents and business owners will be able to apply for disaster relief. Some New York residents had been angry that the President was taking so long to sign off......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck at Arden Ave. and Hylan Blvd. on Staten Island, a fall victim down an elevator shaft on West 38th St. in Manhattan, and injured officers at 124th St. and Linden Blvd. in Queens. The city's Office of Emergency Management will be shutting down streets around Penn Station tonight between midnight and 4am in order to run drills testing New York's preparedness for a terrorist attack. City......

If you rely on taxis, you may want to adjust your transportation plans: The Taxi Workers Alliance says that drivers it represents will strike on September 5 and 6 to protest the Taxi and Limousine Commission's decision to add GPS systems to all yellow cabs. But then the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, another advocacy group, said that there would be no strike (with spokesman Fernando Mateo saying, "Read my lips: There......

Residents are trying to clean up after the mess of yesterday's EF2 tornado that touched down in Brooklyn. At least 40 homes, many in Bay Ridge and Sunset Park, and buildings were damaged. The tornado touched down first at 6:30AM, with winds of over 100 miles per hour, making it the first in the borough since 1889 (there was an F1 in Staten Island in 1995; a F2 in Queens in 1985). Interesting fact: While......

We're thinking that the newly renovated City Hall bullpen would be a great place for MTV Cribs to visit, even if Bloomberg staffers don't have posters of Scarface or The Godfather in their cubes. Because Panasonic has donated a 103" plasma HDTV to the bullpen! The TV, which retails for $70,000, can show news channels, "311 call statistics and a video feed from NYC TV's live traffic cameras," according to the Post. A Panasonic spokesman......

More updates below, but here's a summary so far (8:20PM): A steam explosion occurred on East 41st and Lexington Avenue (41st between Lex and Third) just before 6PM - right during the evening rush hour. The NYPD does not think it was a terrorist attack. It appears that there is a hole about 25' in diameter with a red tow truck in the center. One person has died (possibly from cardiac arrest) and there......

The fuel tanker, the White Sea, that ran aground near the Ambrose Channel off Coney Island and Sandy Hook, NJ, yesterday morning, is still stuck in the waters. An attempt to dislodge the 800-foot ship carrying over half a million barrels of "low-sulfur fuel oil" failed last night, so the Coast Guard began plans to "lighten" (remove) 110,000 barrels of fuel after the ship couldn't be moved. Coast Guard officials are hopeful that it......

It is hot. Although temperature is just over 90 degrees, it feels more like 100 with the humidity. And if you're on certain subway platforms, well, forget a mini-pack of tissues - you'll need a whole stack of paper towels or a big towel to wipe away the sweat while you wait for your train. But that's nothing compared to subway workers who don't get to board an air-conditioned train. One transit worker said,......

The highest temperature ever recorded in Central Park happened 71 years ago today. On July 9th, 1936 the thermometer maxed out at 106 degrees. That record is safe but it will be plenty hot today and tomorrow. There's a bit of uncertainty to today's high temperature. AccuWeather is calling for a max of 92 degrees, while the Weather Service and Weather Channel both say it'll be around 96 or 97. Gothamist is leaning toward believing......

Possibly on a Brooklyn-bound F train: Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Mayor's "bullpen-style" offices need some new paint, a new carpet and a few other fixes, so Bloomberg and his staffers are temporarily relocating to work out of the Office of Emergency Management headquarters in Brooklyn on Cadman Plaza East. The Mayor explained, “Somebody’s going to kill themselves with all of the rips in the carpet." Nice to know that he's concerned with personal injury lawsuits......

Con Ed is laying the blame on Mame Mother Nature for the two power outages this past week. The utility issued a statement saying that the 48-minute blackout on Wednesday - the one that hit the Upper East Side and South Bronx - was caused by a "strong lightning strike." This is what the Con Ed statement said:Information obtained from real-time lightning tracking data show that detection instruments measured a lightning strike of 34,000 amperes......

Well, there's nothing like having a barely-one-hour blackout on a sultry weekday to make you consider stocking up on flashlights, batteries, water, and maybe a Go Bag. Con Ed is still investigating the cause of yesterday's brief power failure to parts of the Bronx and Manhattan; Newsday reported "the blackout was caused when breakers opened at an Astoria substation and cut off power to stations servicing Yorkville and parts of the Bronx." It's unclear......

The Office of Emergency Management would like to remind you that for the next three days, New York City will be grosser than usual, with the heat index tipping 90 every day. But the professionals at OEM are on the case with such well-researched tips as,"Wear loose-fitting, light-colored clothing" and "Use an air conditioner if you have one." What would we do without our City government? But seriously, asthmatics should be extra cautious as......

Over the past few days the storm off the coast has been the Fugazi of weather systems. It's been doing its own thing, shooting spokes of clouds and rain over New York and New England, completely independent of the world of weather circulating around it. Over the next day or two, however, it appears that the low will get ambushed and be incorporated into the mainstream atmospheric circulation. Today's cooler weather is one sign......

Today, the fourth suspect in the alleged plot to blow up a jet fuel pipeline at JFK airport and the vicinity surrendered to authorities in Trinidad. Abdel Nur is being questioned and will appear in court in the next few days. Two other suspects, Abdul Kadir and Kareem Ibrahim, were arrested in Trinidad on Saturday, while Russell Defreitas, a former air cargo worker at JFK was arrested in Brooklyn. Surveillance camera footage of Defreitas was......

We started the morning with some Giuliani-9/11 news, so here's some end-of-the-day Giuliani-9/11 musings. There's an awesome update to one of our favorite Rudy Giuliani stories - the story, or mystery, of why was the Office of Emergency Management's emergency center placed at 7 World Trade Center. Here's how it goes: Sunday - Giuliani appears on Fox News Sunday. Host Chris Wallace asks him why the city's emergency command center was put in 7 World......

The Nor'easter that drenched - and flooded - the Northeast with inches of rain has headed out. Many homes in the area were flooded and pummeled by winds; the NY Times adds that though the storm is gone, rivers are "still rising, swollen by the runoff of record rains." Residents in some suburbs were evacuated and thousands of people are without power: NY Governor Spitzer noted the devastation, while acting NJ Governor Richard Codey......

The New York Times is reporting that the city is on its toes for Nor'easter 2007, with Mayor Bloomberg saying we should hope for the best as far as storm havoc goes, but prepare for the worst.The mayor said evacuations were unlikely, but in a cautionary move, city emergency planners have identified possible shelters in the highest-risk areas and have alerted hospitals and nursing homes there to be prepared to relocate patients and elderly residents......

Enjoy the sun while you can this weekend because a major Nor'easter is headed our way and it's got state officials scrambling to avoid the appearance of Katrina-like unpreparedness. Heavy rains and high winds are expected and the National Weather Services has issued a Coastal Flood Warning for littoral residents on Long Island and near the New York Harbor because of an expected storm surge hitting the east coast. A press release from New York's......