Today Brooklyn venue Magnetic Field announced they would soon be closing up shop. From their email, which likely saddened many patrons of the place when it hit inboxes earlier:After five-plus years of rocking Atlantic Avenue and entertaining thousands of customers and welcoming hundreds of great bands, Magnetic Field in Brooklyn will be closing its doors on March 31st. Co-owners Lee Greenfeld and William Crane would like to personally thank all of Magnetic Field’s staff and......

Kevin Walsh of Forgotten NY directed our attention towards this site, which features a number of photographs from a New York that brings to mind the fact that we're not just in another decade in this city; we're in another century. The picture above is identified as probably 55th St. near 8th Ave. in Manhattan and taken in 1970. We wonder if "Sexual Freedom in Denmark," then playing at the Eros Theater [right-hand side......

The city's last privately owned island was sold to the federal government for $2 million. South Brother Island, a 7-acre island (just west of Rikers Island), will be turned over to the city's Parks and Recreation Department and will remain, as amNew York reports, "significant nesting colony for several types of shore birds, including Egrets, Cormorant, and Night Herons." According to the NY Times, the deal, which was "brokered by the Trust for Public......

Famed New York realtor Barbara Corcoran chimed in on a matter of public aesthetics and the nature of our city by advising that homeowners would be best served by tearing up their lawns and gardens and paving them over as a suitable place to park their cars. We'll let her speak directly on the subject, as it seems too insane to try to rephrase ourselves. From Friday's Daily News:Q. My wife and I have......

Forgotten NY's Kevin Walsh reminded us that tomorrow is the Norwegian Day Parade in Bay Ridge. The parade celebrates Norway's adoption of a constitution and many people of Norwegian descent or with Norwegian ties celebrate by wearing traditional Scandinavian clothing, riding in Viking ship float, dressing as Henrik Ibsen and, yes, donning Viking helmets. The parade begins at 1PM, 5th Avenue, 90th-66th Streets, Bay Ridge. Lost City points out Norwegian parts of Bay Ridge and......

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......

A six-foot tall chocolate sculpture of Jesus which will be displayed at a Midtown hotel next week is stirring up controversy. Catholics are calling Cosimo Cavallaro's "My Sweet Lord" an "all-out war on Christianity." The sculpture is supposed to be installed in a window at the Roger Smith Hotel's gallery, The Lab, on East 47th Street and Lexington Avenue. Cavallaro claims that the Easter-timing was a coincidence, and besides, this isn't his first chocolate......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: Slashing on West 65th, fatal pedestrian stike in Bay Ridge, and a jumper down in Queens. See a car with a government-issued permit parking illegally? Send a picture to Uncivil Servants, a new website dedicated to exposing parking permit abuse The St. Patrick's Day Parade planner moves the FDNY from the front of the parade to the middle because he doesn't want drunk firefighters at the start The Voice......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A retaining wall collapsed on the Sawmill at the Major Deegan in the Bronx, a truck into a store in Brooklyn and a pedestrian was struck at 57th and Lexington in Manhattan NY State has more aggressive plans to monitor sex offenders, but the press conference was also an opportunity for Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno to say, "Steamrolling works." Did you head to the bodega to buy a......

The Port Authority has officially agreed to fund $1 billion of the Freedom Tower's construction Dr. Denton Sayer Cox, whose patients have included Andy Warhol and John Steinbeck, told police he was beaten and burned with a chemical at York and East 73rd Street but police believe he was the "victim of a gay pickup gone wrong" in his Upper East Side apartment. Either way, he's fighting for his life. A corrections officer gets......

In the crossroads of the "Can't Beat 'Em, So Join 'Em" chronicles and the "____ Diner, R.I.P." annals, there's is the Moondance Diner. The NY Sun reports the SoHo fixture will be razed for - you guessed it - luxury condos. But that's not all: Moondance owner Sunil "Sunny" Sharma was originally going to sell the property, but decided to develop it himself with Extell's Gary Barnett and others. Plans for a 66,743 square......

Via Triborugh, the New York Public Library has this cool map showing the Brooklyn Bridge Station and City Hall loop. The station was first opened at the start of the Interborough Rapid Transit Line on October 27, 1904, but it closed in 1945 - there were big gaps between the platform and doors of newer and longer trains. Since the station wasn't used very much, the MTA decided that the Brooklyn Bridge station was......

Although we haven't heard the old "urban jungle" metaphor applied to New York lately, preservationists continue to churn out new lists of "endangered" architectural species. The newest, Ten to Save: Endangered NYC comes from an editor at amNewYork, Rolando Pujol. It is derived in part from the New York Landmark Conservancy's Endangered Buildings Online, which was unveiled last summer July. The driving concept behind the new list sounds by now quite familiar: "The soaring......

From the Gothamist Newsmap: A check cashing joint robbery in Brooklyn, a confined space rescue in the Bronx, and an evidence search in Queens Ugh, a lawyer asked a client for a blow job in return for taking her case; the client is trying to sue him but says the Manhattan DA's office won't take the case, even though she recorded the lawyer admitting he propositioned her! Gowanus Lounge predicts the Red Hook will......

For the next four months, the 145th Street Bridge will be closed to traffic and pedestrians as the Department of Transportation reconstructs the bridge. And it is a total reconstruction - new bridge arrived on barge and is parked nearby. From the NY Sun:Once the old bridge is disassembled and disposed of by the contractor, Kiewit/Pully, the new trusses will be floated in at high tide. Over the next four months, deconstruction will occur in......

The big real estate news of the day is that the empty lot on the southeastern corner of West 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue - right near the movie theater on the south side of 42nd Street - will finally get developed. The NY TImes' coverage of the deal starts off with:A New Jersey developer plans to build a $1 billion office tower on the last parcel in the 13-acre Times Square redevelopment district,......

-- Jews4Jesus4SteveJobs: can they resurrect my broken Ipod? -- A new sculpture was dedicated at the Flight 800 Memorial today-- hard to believe that ten years have passed since the crash -- WNYC gets a brand spanking new office. -- BlogNYC spotted a UFO over the weekend-- we heard they tried to land in Williamsburg, but it was too expensive, so the aliens decided to live in a Bushwick share. -- This shiba puppy......

- Thank God, the Discovery shuttle's launch went well - Bizarre confrontation at a Brooklyn supermarket leaves a police officer slashed - People are visiting the Freedom Tower's cornerstone in Hauppauge - The two separate drowning deaths leave mothers devastated - The Jews for Jesus are hitting NYC with its biggest group of missionaries ever - The ME's office says it'll take a few days to perform the autopsy on the full-term baby found......

- Bronx students want sex ed classes; it's crazy that 12-13 year olds haven't taken sex ed classes yet - A plane headed from LaGuardia to Cincinatti was diverted to JFK because of engine trouble; luckily planes have more than one engine - the passengers and crew are okay - State senators want to repeal the 5 year statute of limitations on rape cases - Jonathan Lethem writes his letter asking Frank Gehry to......

This is what a hot real estate market has wrought: One of the city's oldest Jewish cemeteries has had construction debris fall onto dozens of tombstones in Chelsea. Congregation Shearith Israel built three cemeteries in Manhattan, and the Chelsea location, at 21st Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, was in use in 1828-1851 (one is at 55 St. James Place and another is at 76 West 11th Street). It seems like mortar from The O'Neill......

There are a couple articles about a year-old mob murder today, and why not? It happened at the Kreischer Mansion in the Charlestown section of Staten Island. Bonanno associate Robert McKelvey was killed by other Bonanno family associates over a "bad debt" after being lured to the house by the groundskeeper and mob associate Joseph "Joe Black" Young. The NY Times notes the crime is unusual because Young is black, as mob associates of color......

- Falling debris has fallen from the under-construction new New York Times building at Eighth Avenue and 41st Street and hit a car. Early reports say the debris was some sort of pipe. And not only that, it went through the car's sunroof. NY1 says that two people were injured, including a small child. Oh, dear. - An FBI agent was killed when his motorcycle crashed into a bus on the Upper East Side......

Another dispatch from the center of the world's most overblown real estate bubble: apartments in the soon-to-be-converted Williamsburgh Savings Bank building are going for up to THREE MILLION DOLLARS. What do you get for that price? A fairly long elevator ride and a great view of the north wall of Bruce Ratner's new Nets Stadium project. Hot! As if that news wasn't upsetting enough, the New York Post is reporting that beautiful lobby of......

- WABC 7 interviews the man swallowed by his Long Island cesspool! - What acrobatics people will do on subways on Vimeo - Forgotten NY looks at a rally to save St. Savior's in Maspeth - check out the protester with Darth Vader cut-out - Mafia cop Louis Eppolito gets rid of his defense attorney Bruce "John Gotti's Lawyer" Cutler - Gotham Girls Roller Derby is in Brooklyn - for now - People are......

Police are still investigating the murder of 61 year old William Oliver, whose stabbed body was found in Prospect Park on Saturday. Oliver was found near the Vale of Cashmere, a secluded area near Grand Army Plaza (here's a map of Prospect Park). He was described as an "avid walker" by his siblings; Oliver usually shuttled between his brother's and sister's homes by walking in the park. The Vale has been a gay cruising spot......

- New Yorkers may not always be polite but New York City has become a shining example of how to fine your citizens into polite behavior. - The News reports that New York City Cafeteria food is fairly healthy. Fairly. - Yesterday a ship was grounded between Staten Island and New Jersey. - Looking at the tenuous relationship between bloggers and Forest City Ratner. - Forgotten NY hits up Jackson Heights. - "A severely......

Here's a must-buy for all you NYC-architecture nerds: a manhole doormat made out of recycled tires! FLAXart has models for New York City, London, and Paris-- so if you've got friends overseas, this might make a nice gift. You can also buy the NYC version at the NYC.gov store, if you'd like to give the money to the city. If you're not sold yet, check out these manhole links: Forgotten NY's Manhole Page NYCsewer.com-- manhole......

The Morris Yacht and Beach Club was destroyed by a four-alarm fire this morning. At least 120 firefighters reported to the scene, trying to save the landmark building, using a fireboat as well as groundpower; they believe the fire, which was noticed at 1:30AM, started on a lower floor. The Victorian mansion was originally built by the Hearst family in 1850, and was later converted to be a yacht club in 1899. It's situated at......

Last night, two children were shot in two different incidents in the Mott Haven area of the Bronx. First, a 13 year old was shot in the leg yesterday afternoon while he was outside MS 220 on Brook Avenue; police think his shooter was aiming for someone else. Then around 7:30PM, a 10 year old girl was also hit in the leg while she was playing outside, and she was caught in the crossfire of......

Well, it's unclear whether or not it's the most haunted house of Queens, but 141-36 222nd Street seems that way. The NY Times has a big feature about the Victorian home that has fallen into disrepair, puzzling and captivating neighbors. There are a bunch of theories about who owns the house, and questions about whether or not someone is living there (maybe, though there's no electricity - but there is a bunker...maybe). The Times tried......