Photos keep rolling in showing the sad tree carnage wrought by the tornadoes and macroburst that slammed Queens and Brooklyn last week. An estimated 2,000 trees were felled by the storm in Queens alone, and crews are still trying to clear away the devastation. Karyn Regal, who sent these photos of Flushing Meadows Corona Park, says that visiting the park yesterday "was like attending a funeral. It is truly mind-blowing. I grew up in New England, with blizzards galore, but this takes the cake." more ›

Last night out in Flushing Meadows, the US Open witnessed an event in sports that is relatively unheard of: Following Rafael Nadal's four set win in Arthur Ashe Stadium, a male fan rushed the court and planted a kiss on the Spanish superstar. What's more than that—Nadal seemed to have no problem with it whatsoever. The video below shows the modern day Morganno rushing the court as soon as Rafa went shirts-off time immediately after his match concluded. more ›

When it rains, it pours. Yet another mini golf course has popped up in New York. The NY Times reports on Rocket Park, located in Flushing Meadows. Part of the Hall of Science, it fittingly combines fun with learning, with a design that's meant to teach astrophysics. The paper describes the course, saying "you start your nine-hole mission by putting the ball through a 'launch window' and achieving the proper 'escape velocity.' Then you send the ball around a loop-de-loop and learn all about weightless astronauts, after which you learn about avoiding debris in space and finding the right angle for geosynchronous orbit." Yep, it's that easy...so long as the kids pay attention to more than just getting the ball in the hole. Maybe there should be a pop quiz after each round? For now, learn more about the course itself here. more ›

Tonight is the last chance until December 2010 to witness a total lunar eclipse. This is the third such eclipse in the past year. With any luck the weather will cooperate. It looks like there will be breaks in the clouds over the city, which should make for dramatic views. Break out the tripods and cameras! more ›

For the 1964-1965 World's Fair, architect Philip Johnson designed the New York State Pavillion in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Besides the well-known observation towers (think Men in Black) and the Theaterama, he commissioned a "130-foot-by-166-foot terrazzo replica of a Texaco New York State road map." more ›

An orthodontist was killed while taking his 5-year-old daughter to the Annadale playground at Flushing Meadows Park. Around 11AM, Daniel Malakov was shot in the chest twice by someone who witnesses say was wearing a black fleece. more ›

Above is a picture of the observation towers at the New York State pavilion of the 1964-65 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows, Queens. A flickr member scanned the picture, and many others, after he found a scrapbook on the street in Cambridge, MA. He believes that the photos were taken by a woman named Lillian Seymour, who visited the World's Fair in 1965. more ›

Diamond asked the residents of New York City's most diverse nabe about their food preferences and solicited recipes. Her project, which is being presented by the Queens Museum of Art, runs through October 14. The goal of "This Is What Eat," is to "unite and empower its readers through food." Based on the diversity of recipes it seems to be a resounding success. The dishes run the cultural gamut from red beans and rice and macaroni cheese to shrimp ceviche and Belgium Chicken Soup. more ›

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! more ›

After hearing about the tragic rush-hour bridge collapse in Minneapolis that has claimed at least four lives, we wondered what the conditions of New York City's bridges were. Like the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, several of our city's largest bridges are undergoing what seems like constant construction. All the East River bridges are either undergoing repairs right now, have plans for the future, just finished construction, or all of the above. more ›

TONY blog has a report on the most endangered sites in the world. The World Monuments Fund released its 2008 list yesterday, which is packed with far off places. more ›

Now we know what happened to the NYPD's 2003 pilot program to have some of its officers use Segways: The batteries (which were eventually recalled) would make the entire Segway stop when they were dead, so officers were fall off. Now, the NYPD has decided the newer models are up to snuff and will make like it's 2003 by having 10 Segways patrol various parts of the city starting today. more ›

There's a fun NY Times City section article about the Queens Museum of Art's Panorama Challenge. The Queens Museum of Art's panorama is a to-scale model of New York City: One inch equals 100 feet (the Empire State Building is 15 inches tall) and the model was originally designed for the 1964 World's Fair, as a "helicopter" ride over New York City. (And, yes, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses commissioned the panorama in 1964, just as he commissioned the Queens Museum of Art's building, the former New York City Pavilion for the 1939's World Fair.) more ›

Join Denise Landis, recipe tester for The New York Times, as she shares recipes and expertise from her newest cookbook, Dinner for Eight. Free tasting and book signing to follow the demonstration. Broadway Panhandler, 65 East 8th Street (between Broadway and University), 3 PM, free. more ›

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 wares but also their thoughts and ideas…Over the course of which Neal gets progressively covered in more and more blood. The end. As if that weren't enough, it features special guest appearances by Kenny Mellman (of Kiki & Herb), Bridgett Everett (At Least It's Pink), and Adrienne Truscott (of the Wau Wau Sisters).” Read ye olde timey 2004 Gothamist interview with Medlyn. - John Del Signore more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: Falling debris at 107th St. and Lexington Ave. in Manhattan, a police officer is shot in Brooklyn's Nassau County's 3rd Precinct, and a car vs. building incident on Atlantic Avenue.
• Kittens in trees are over. Firefighters rescue drowning dog in Hudson River
• When your roommate is a mysterious stranger, write about him in The New York Times.
• NYC playing fields: no longer just for "having sex, getting high on drugs or settling fights."
• The man behind the woman behind the man. How Charlie Rangel played queenmaker to Hillary.
• And speaking of the queens, she's flush: Hillary raised $26 million in the first three months of 2007.
• One 13-year-old is dead and another 13-year-old is arrested after a playground fight turns deadly.
• Are special ed kids on Staten Island getting the shaft from the Department of Education?
• Is this cliche-fulfillment: Three city teachers caught smoking a joint outside an Allman Bros. concert at the Beacon Theater.

This is a report we'd love to get our hands on: The Post reveals details from a 44-page City Council report about crimes in the city's biggest parks. And it turns out that Riverside Park leads all parks, with 36 major crimes reported during the spring and summer; Flushing Meadows Park had 35 crimes, and Prospect Park was number three, with 25 major crimes. Central Park was not included "because it is its own precinct and crime figures have long been available for the park." more ›

In keeping with our lists of events from 2006, here are some of the sports stories that Gothamist found compelling in the past year. It ranges from the playoff disappointment from the Mets and the Yankees to the welcome performances of last season's Rangers, this season's Jets and Rutgers. more ›

Police believe that the man severely beaten on Christmas Day near the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park was part of a string of robberies by the same men. The victim (pictured and still unidentified) in Monday's Christmas attack had been riding his bicycle and is now in critical condition. more ›

Yesterday, there were two mugging incidents in city parks. Last night, a man was beaten with a club near the Unisphere in Queens' Flushing Meadows Park. He had been walking through the park around 6:40PM when two men attacked him. Police believe they were trying to rob the man, who is now in critical condition at Elmhurst General. more ›

We think there is still free access to Times Select articles today, so we urge you to read Dan Barry's column about the NY State Pavilion from the 1964 World's Fair. Here's the opening:

Once there were elevators gliding up the sides of the towers to reveal a city unfolding; now they are rusted in mid-rise. Once there were stairwells winding within those towers; now they are rotted through. The call for a better tomorrow, for “Peace Through Understanding,” is answered by the flutter and coo of its hidden inhabitants. more ›

After doing some research, we were able to find a couple other options for miniature golf around the city in addition to Randall's Island and Coney Island. more ›

With the weather so nice, it's the perfect opportunity to head to Flushing today to check out the final day of the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York. Today's races have already started, but the event lasts until 6 p.m., with the last race scheduled for 5:09 (it will undoubtedly be running late). If watching various teams compete in dragon boats from the shores of Meadow Lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, there will also be a dumpling eating contest at noon today. more ›

- Get your seersucker suits and sun dresses out! Tomorrow evening is the 138th running of the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown and horse racing's "Test of the Champion." Races on stakes day begin at noon with post time for the Belmont Stakes at 6:33 pm Television coverage starts at noon on ESPN with coverage on ABC starting at 5. The current favorite for the race is Bluegrass Cat, but the winners of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness will both be absent from the race. Barbaro was injured at the Preakness and the owner of Preakness winner Bernardini decided to rest him. Pre-Derby favorite Brother Derek will also be absent. But that doesn't mean there won't be plenty of fun at Belmont, especially since general admission is only $5. more ›

"The U.S. hasn't had a fair in two decades. Since they [the committee] opened the door, we felt we had an obligation to look into this seriously." The FMCPWFA is working on the proposal, with the Willets Point junkyards as the base. But there are some roadblocks, namely how the U.S. ended its membership with the BIE in 2001 and that Mayor Bloomberg, and then President Bush, would have to support the effort. more ›

Yay for optimism, because that seems to be the key word at the Department of Sanitation. The DoS and the city have launched a new anti-littering campaign - "Stomp Out Litter." And it features the cast of Stomp traipsing around the city, from Times Square to the Bronx Zoo - even Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Funny, it looks so glamorous, so "Rent" when the cast of Stomp stomps out litter. more ›

With the proposed chill coming this weekend, we thought it would be a good to remind everyone that the city's ice skating rinks will be closing on April 2. Yes, the Pond in Bryant Park has been closed since January and Prospect Park's rink closed last weekend, but there's still the Abe Stark Rink at Coney Island, World’s Fair Ice Skating Rink in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the Staten Island War Memorial Ice Skating Rink in Clove Lakes Park, and Lasker Rink and Wollman Rink in Central Park. And speaking of toe picks, has anyone seen The Cutting Edge 2 on ABC Family yet? more ›

Wi-Fi Salon is installing Wi-Fi into 10 city parks over the next few months. Central Park will have eight hot spots (including the zoo, Delacorte Theater, and Boathouse), as will Orchard Beach, Flushing Meadows, Van Cortlandt, Pelham Bay, Prospect, Riverside, Union Square, and Washington Square Parks. The Daily News says that Battery Park's hotspot, near Battery Gardens, is already running and that Wi-Fi Salon is paying the Parks Department for the right to install the network, hoping to encourage people to join its IP phone service. Whatever the reason, Gothamist can only say hurrah, because if there's one blogging goal we have, it's to live-blog monkeys throwing poo at us from the Central Park Zoo. more ›

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Queens Borough President Helen Marshall really wants the Jets to move to Queens so much that she says she's fine with getting rid of the Fountain of Planets in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Marshall made the point that no one will care about the Fountain of Planets because it's filled with garbage. Mayor Bloomberg was with Marshall when she made that comment yesterday, and he said, "If it's filled with garbage there will be somebody there this afternoon," and wouldn't you know it, workers were clearing out the muck chop chop! Our mayor is so funny. He was so gung-ho about the Jets moving to the West Side, but now when it comes to Queens, he's suddenly concerned about parkland: "I'd love to see the Jets plan any place in New York rather than across the river. The alienation of parkland is clearly going to be controversial and something that has to be looked at. If you take away parkland, the state law is quite clear. We'd have to come up with parkland someplace else." The Jets say they would replace eight acres of parkland, but how one does that sounds more like magic to us. And, of course, the Jets are being accused to grabbing land, since the team rejected a plan to move to Willets Point. The Jets just won't win! more ›