Results tagged “grandconcourse”

Nate Robinson hasn't been able to get signed in New York since becoming a free agent this off-season, but Tuesday he was able to get booked up in The Bronx, charged with driving with a suspended license. Cops say they pulled Robinson over for not having his seat belt on while driving down the Grand Concourse in Bedford Park, but the Knicks' two-time dunk contest champion tweeted, "Cops pulled me over cuz my windows were 2 dark (but my windows were down) lol how funny is that." Doesn't an NBA star get tinted windows specifically 95 degree days driving down the Grand Concourse? In any case, cops discovered that Robinson's license had been suspended in June for the fifth time after a series of infractions around the area including traffic violations, speeding, driving without his seat belt on and for driving while talking on a cell phone.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Amboy Rd. in Staten Island, another bank robbery on 5th Ave. in Manhattan, and a scaffolding collapse on Grand Concourse and 149th St. in the Bronx.
• A building slated for destruction on Governors Island will become a lab for the FDNY to examine the dynamics of high-rise fires and how best to defeat them. Fire crews from cities around the country will be on hand to observe.
• Someone crunched the numbers and found that The New York Times Fashion Magazine is almost as white as the arctic in February, pre-global warming. The 55% of New Yorkers who aren't white are probably not the targeted demographic the Times Fashion Mag is looking for anyway.
• A New York Presbyterian Hospital official in charge of the Women, Infants, and Children program--which was designed to provide food for impoverished women and children--is accused of siphoning off a few hundred thousand dollars for vacations and comfortable living.
• City Councilman Eric Gioia is running a "carbon neutral" campaign for public advocate, that involves the use of more emails than flyers, the purchase of carbon offsets, and the use of hybrid vehicles.
• The International House of Pancakes downtown Brooklyn location is doing so well that plans are in the works for locations in Bed-Stuy, East New York, and Williamsburg.
• The family of a 25-year-old, who allegedly had his jaw broken by an EMT, is suing the city for $2 million. They accuse the EMT of punching the young man in the face after the patient accidentally drooled on him as he was giving him oxygen.
• Summertime probably seems far off today, but the organizers of the Movies With a View program are looking for submissions of short films to be shown before features in July and August amidst the moonlit shadows of the Brooklyn Bridge.

ART: The Bronx Museum of Art is getting on board the First Friday bandwagon. They'll be opening their doors every first Friday of the month for free, and add a little something extra each time. Tonight their theme is “Say it Loud! I’m Black & I’m Proud” in celebration of Black History Month. There will be a tribute to the late James Brown, and a showcase of independent artists paying tribute to black music.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired on 166th St. and the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, a pedestrian struck at Berry St. and Division Ave. in Brooklyn, and a found body on Richmond Valley and Arthur Kill on Staten Island.
• Still searching for the Staten Island ninja burglar, police questioned New York Post photographer Ron Romano because of his ninja-like ability to tightrope walk.
• A huge hole in the middle of Brooklyn's Pacific Street provides rude awakenings for drivers who don't see it.
• Mark it. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says he has no intention of running for Mayor.
• The City of New York was found liable for the 2004 mauling of a toddler in the Bronx, because a police officer gave a pit bull to a mother who had never handled the dog before.
• The loudest neighborhoods in NYC, based on the number of noise complaints. The Bronx is blasting.
• With two weeks to go before Christmas, customers are lining up day and night to get a hand on a Nintendo Wii game system.
• Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes describes the sub-premium mortgage meltdown as equivalent to the crack epidemic of the 1980s.
• And w00t is Merriam-Webster's word of the year.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a construction accident on East 46th St. in Manhattan, a stabbing on Grand Concourse and Bedford Park Blvd. in the Bronx, and an industrial accident on Quentin Rd. in Brooklyn.
• New York jeweler Tiffany & Co. is accusing online auction site eBay of pawning off bogus baubles as the genuine item.
• Fark.com may have failed in its bid to re-name a Boston sports stadium UFIA Arena, but it did get itself its own "Jeopardy!" category.
• Developers are falling over themselves to build housing on the Brooklyn site of a former fuel plant, which is considered environmentally contaminated.
• What could be of more importance than a proposed fare hike to board members of the MTA? Practically anything, as half of them didn't bother to show at a hearing to discuss jacking up ride prices.
• Brooklyn Tech got a "B"-grade on its first ever public rating. It's the first of New York's specialized high schools not to get an "A" rating.
• Robber suspected in more than a dozen city robberies taped while holding up an ice cream shop.
• Tickets are being distributed for free to an upcoming mass with the Pope at Yankee stadium, and the Vatican wanted to emphasize that scalping would be discouraged. Ticket holders who receive them for free are thus faced with an economic moral hazard.

Police responded to reports of gunfire in an apartment in the Mt. Eden section of the Bronx last night and found three people shot in the head. Two of the victims were dead and one was rushed to Lincoln Hospital, where he is in critical condition. The dead victims were 20-year-old Ludmildy Rosado and 34-year-old Daniel Newton. Police were not sure if the two knew each other or not.

Just what everybody needs to end the day...a subway shutdown! No, it's not due to the system flooding, but because of a police investigation.

This afternoon's rain will continue into the evening, as some areas are being warned about the storms. New Jersey is supposed to have heavy thunderstorms, a tornado warning was issued, then canceled, for Nassau County, and an urban flood warning was issued for Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens until 7PM!

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a triple shooting on East 21st St. and Caton Ave. in Brooklyn, a missing child on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, and a mass casualty incident at Castle Hill Ave. and the Cross Bronx Expressway.
• Many New Yorkers donned black this Thursday in solidarity with the Jena 6.
• Cops are looking for a man who applied for a job at the Duane Reade on 34th St. and 5th Ave., only to return to the store a few minutes later brandishing a silver-colored gun and demanding money.
• The Parks Dept. has officially ended the bid for a company to build a 26-acre water-park on Randall's Island.
• A 45-year-old bachelor is striving for independence from the bedroom in his parents' home, where he's organizing a campign for an independent Long Island Nation. He wants Brooklyn, Queens, and the rest of the island to break off not just from NYC, but to secede from the United States.
• A kayak and canoe ramp opened in the Idlewild Park Preserve on Jamaica Bay in Queens, but not all residents seemed that enthusiastic.
• Former NJ Governor Jim McGreevey was ordered by a judge to pay his ex-wife $2,500 a month in alimony.
• New York City and State have agreed on a set of safety protocols that will be enacted at the Deutsche Bank building in the next two to three weeks.

Two years ago, we wondered if there was a big list of all the fountains in New York City. We haven't made that much progress with the list, but at least now we have a list of the "display fountains" the Parks Department maintains. And it's interesting - Brooklyn only has three while Staten Island has eight. Of course, there are many fountains outside of the Parks Department's jurisdiction (for instance, the fountain outside the Brooklyn Museum), so if you can help remind us of others in the comments, that would be great.

A week and a half ago, three people, including two boys, were caught when a Bronx building's parapet collapsed on top of them. Hundreds of pounds of concrete fell from a building on Grand Concourse near 183rd Street; 10-year-old Damion Hope Rosa's left leg was partially severed, and doctors later amputated it below the knee.

Yesterday morning, a 30-foot-long section of parapet onto the sidewalk at Grand Concourse near 183rd Street in the Bronx, injuring a women and two boys, ages 10 and 12. One boy, Damian Rosa, had his left foot amputated, while his stepbrother (or half-brother; reports differ) Frank Jones suffered a "collapsed lung, broken leg, and head injuries" as well as liver damage.

A fourth grader was hit by a commuter bus in the Bronx yesterday as he tried to cross a four-lane street on his way to school. The Daily News reports that Eliseo Oler, 10, suffered head injuries, a broken right shoulder and broken ribs and is in critical condition at NY-Presbyterian Columbia. And his mother blames the Department of Education, saying, "If they hadn't taken him off the bus, none of this would've happened. I told the principal, how could you make a 10-year-old child take the [city] bus to school?"

Yesterday, a five people were injured on Queens Boulevard at 47th Street when a Jeep Cherokee slammed into a Honda. The Jeep, which witnesses describe as trying to beat a red light, lost control and hit the Honda. The Honda, which had been making a turn onto Queens Boulevard, was crushed from the impact and then "plowed up onto the crowded sidewalk, pinning a 16-year-old boy against a lamppost."

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: unstable scaffolding at Manhattan's 265 West 37th St., a police car multi-vehicle accident at Thomas S. Boyland St. and Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, and a suspicious package at East 161st St. and Grand Concourse in the Bronx.
• How could the McGreevey saga get any more strange? Maybe if Jim McGreevey decided to join the priesthood. He told WNBC that he is entering a seminary to become an Episcopal priest.
• Politics makes strange bedfellows: the lobbyist most responsible for killing Bloomberg's beloved West Side Stadium project is now a major backer of his beloved Congestion Tax proposal.
• The sister of the Brooklyn woman accused of killing her newborn child by dumping it with the trash on her family's back porch is claiming she didn't know there was a still-alive infant in the pile of bloody towels her sister gave her to throw away.
• The New York Times features a slideshow of the United Palace theater, the 1930s baroque movie palace turned evangelical church hall turned current music venue.
• The Bancroft family rebuffs Rupert Murdoch's bid to buy the Wall Street Journal and other properties, and Dow Jones employees all exhale in a giant sigh of relief.
• The Dolan family is taking Cablevision private in a move certain to attract even more of the blame if the Knicks' woes continue next season.
• Meet New York City's new generation of preservationists.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a man was killed by a 6 Train at Manhattan's Bleecker St. station, a serious multi-vehicle accident on Grand Concourse and East 168th St. in the Bronx, and an evidence search followed a shooting on Beach Channel Dr. in Queens.
• The $250 nine course tasting menu at Per Se is the caloric equivalent of 4 and a half Big Macs, although we imagine infinitely more delicious. A prost-prandial stroll would have to be 31 miles long to walk it all off.
• Curbed reports that the former Jehovah's Witness Building in Brooklyn Bridge Park is getting the borough's first Trader Joe's.
• Brooklyn blogger and bicyclst eefers relates that she was nearly run down by a red light-running police car. When she physically indicated her displeasure at nearly being another bicyclist casualty of New York's traffic, one of the officers hurled her paper cup at her before the partners sped off. Rude certainly, but we imagine some citizens have endured worse.
• Appreciators can now purchase prints of artist Noah Kalina's "everyday" project, which are digital self-portraits taken every day for six years.
• It may do a body good, but milk will also slim your wallet. The price of a gallon of milk is rising to $3.54––up $.60 over the price a year ago.
• It's estimated that subway riders save roughly $1 billion annually using unlimited monthly and weekly metrocards. Only 12% of riders pay the full $2 a trip.
• The driver of the black SUV that struck and killed a Brooklyn boy last night and then sped off was arrested. He faces multiple criminal charges, including manslaughter.

Anyone who has attempted to walk or bike from one side of Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza to another knows that it can be a difficult journey, through which a constantly swiveling head is required to keep an eye on traffic coming from seemingly every direction. The above overhead image shows just a portion of the plaza where five different roads converge in an inner traffic loop, including Eastern Parkway and Prospect Park West, and the entire site is bisected by Flatbush Ave. It's also a destination for pedestrians and cyclists. Aside from the plaza's Memorial Arch and Bailey Fountain, Grand Army Plaza is the northwest entrance to Prospect Park, hosts a weekend greenmarket, and is the location of the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.

A 3-alarm fire ripped through a 17-story Bronx apartment building last night, and the toll of injured civilians and firefighters ranged from 36 to 53. The fire started around 9pm, when a gas explosion occurred in a first-floor apartment. The fire spread quickly because the apartment's front door had been left open, also sending "thick, black smoke into the stairwells." The Post reported a FDNY official as saying, "It's one of the nastiest fires I've seen in a long time."

Yesterday, Transportation Alternatives held a rally at City Hall to draw attention to the recently increasing numbers of pedestrian fatalities on city streets. Last year, 163 pedestrians died, a 4% increase over 2005, and just this past weekend, four pedestrians were killed by vehicles. Relatives and friends of victims joined TA to demand that the city to make streets safer for pedestrians and "strengthen laws against motorists who kill or injure pedestrians" (Metro). Watch the video and hear them speak.

In 2006, over 10,000 pedestrians were hit by cars and trucks in New York City. One hundred sixty-six were killed. The City's pedestrian safety efforts are inadequate. Where is Mayor Bloomberg? He has spoken out about transfats, gun violence and smoking. If killing a pedestrian with a car was considered assault it would be the second leading type of homicide behind only gun violence. Where is his leadership on this issue?

WABC 7 reports that a steam main break has caused problems for the 4, 5, and 6 trains. The steam main broke on East 79th Street, between Third and Lexington, and water leaked onto the express tracks. The MTA has classified this as an "ongoing water condition at the 77th Street Station."

The amNewYork cover story is about dangerous intersections in the city. Queens Boulevard, aka the "Boulevard of Death," has only had four fatalities in the past three years, but there have been a number of pedestrian injuries on Grand Concourse in the Bronx and at Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. Grand Concourse has had 35 pedestrian injuries during the same period, while Eastern Parkway had seven pedestrian deaths in 1999 and 2005, not including many pedestrian injuries.

A person was fatally hit by a subway train at Columbus Circle on the 1 tracks. Which means that 1, 2, and 3 train service is suspended in both directions between 72nd Street and 42nd Street/Times Square.

As if the insane heat and humidity isn't enough, there are signal problems at Times Square that are affecting the 1, 2 and 3 lines. The 1 has been suspended between 137th Street and South Ferry and the 2 is running on the 5 line between 149th Street/Grand Concourse in The Bronx and Nevins Street in Brooklyn. The 3 is in even worse shape as it's not running at all. Gothamist is getting reports that the buses along the West Side are already packed as it doesn't seem like people want to walk to work in this weather.

It's getting a little easier to be green these days. There are ten new greenmarkets opening around the city, spreading around the summer bounty of fresh produce. One of the city's goals in creating the new markets is to make seasonal produce more accessible to low-income city residents. To this end, many of the greenmarkets will take senior coupons, WIC coupons, and EBT cards. The new Greenmarket locations, hours of operation and opening dates are as follows:

-Hylan Boulevard Looking at the MTA's site, it's pretty cool that the MTA is taking other bus systems around the world into consideration - and we love any plan that wants better bus boarding!

- We'll expect to see this on the Threatdown - brown bear roams NJ

Ah, the past couple weeks of fretting about taxes is almost over, but not quite: With tax day falling on a Sunday, the deadline for filing your federal taxes is actually tomorrow night if you live in New York state (Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and DC are other Tuesday night tax deadlines, because we all celebrate Patriot's Day - hello, Lexington and Concord). Newsday has a couple last minute tips, including the reminder that even if you file an extension (form 48-68), you still need to pay up to Uncle Sam. And if you e-file, you'll get your refund sooner.

Gothamist heads to the Bronx for a few things, Yankees games, trips to the zoo and dinners on Arthur Avenue, but a lot people are now heading there to live. With prices in the city becoming ever less affordable, the South Bronx may be the last bastion of reasonable value.

Gothamist decided to do a little bridge information digging after reading the New Yorker's Talk of the Town piece about how the Willis Avenue Bridge would be dismantled and is essentially for sale (but it's getting replaced - don't worry) and we came across this cool Department of Transportation Bridge Reconstruction Projects website. There are a bunch of projects on the list ("Rehabilitation of the 17th Avenue Bridge, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn," "Grand Concourse Reconstruction," "Rehabilitation of the Gun Hill Road Bridge over Metro-North Railroad") and some interesting diagrams and renderings. The Willis Avenue Bridge, aka the Third Avenue Bridge, project has taken a couple years and over $100 million, and as the New Yorker article stated, the new replacement bridge will be put beside it and the dismantling of the old, 105 year old bridge will occur in 2007. Photobloggers, pencil that into your calendars.