No surprise here, but skyrocketing fuel costs have not spared farmers who sell produce at Greenmarkets, the AP finds. Upstate strawberry grower Franca Tantillo estimates that roughly half the money she earns at a Manhattan Greenmarket is spent on transportation costs. And it’s not just getting back and forth from the city that’s more expensive; fuel costs have driven up the price of fertilizers and animal feed, and plastic supplies for greenhouses cost more. As......

Gas prices have doubled since Mohammed Kalair started driving a cab in New York three years ago, and now it’s looking like he may return to his native Pakistan to enjoy a better standard of living. Though the Taxi and Limousine Commission says drivers still can average a living wage of $12 an hour, other experts say they now net closer to the state minimum-wage of $7.15 per hour. Some are calling for a fuel......

Mayor Bloomberg’s ambitious congestion pricing plan may be toast (or Governor Paterson may bring it back from the dead) but it seems that skyrocketing gas prices are succeeded where Hizzoner failed. The Times is reporting that traffic on the city’s bridges and tunnels dropped 4.7 percent in June, compared to the same time last year. Meanwhile, subway, bus, bicycle and commuter rail ridership has surged. A transportaion consultant predicts that “if we start eclipsing $5......

The beloved 24-hour French diner Florent will be closing on Saturday with a big send-off, and lines have often been out the door as the end approaches. Today is no exception, as Eater reports, with the restaurant still packed despite the fact that the gas has been shut off. Reached today (his birthday) by phone at his lake house in New Jersey, owner Florent Morellet tells us that the gas was shut off over a......

Photograph of the New York Stock Exchange trading floor AP Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average took a 400-point-drop bath, prompted by rising oil prices and higher unemployment numbers, and stirred up more recession fears. Just Thursday, growing inventories of oil and decreased demand led investors and the public to think that perhaps our long national love-hate affair with oil had reached an amicable reconciliation. But then the oil prices rose to $138/barrel--an $11......

Soaring gas prices have managed to edge gas prices to nearly $4/gallon in the area. At an Exxon station in Queens, WCBS 2 found $3.99/gallon gas, while a White Plains Getty offered it at $3.69/gallon. One White Plains resident said it cost him $55 to fill up his sedan, "I used to pay by cash, now I have to use my credit cards because I don't carry that much cash on me." City Councilman James......

The gas main explosion that rocked a home on 48th Ave. and 41st. St. Wedneday––killing one woman and injuring six others––occurred despite what ConEd and FDNY say was them following proper procedures preceding the incident. Kunta Oza, who died at the age of 69, was burned over 90% of her body. In addition to the six others injured in the explosion, 200 people were evacuated from the block until it was deemed safe to return.......