The Staten Island homeless man who repeatedly attempted to lay claim to the SoHo Grand Hotel has pleaded guilty and faces a year in prison. Kouadio Kouassi is an immigrant from the Ivory Coast and has been jailed since last December. He repeatedly filed claims with the city's Dept. of Finance in an attempt to assume legal ownership of the $76 million boutique hotel. Upon sentencing, Kouassi will like be quickly released and then deported......

New York City was amply represented during last night's National Design Awards at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. The Landscape Design award went to PWP Landscape Architecture, the firm that won the World Trade Center Memorial design competition (with Michael Arad). PWP Principal Peter Walker thanked Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki and described the last four years as "difficult," presumably for the number of redesigns and challenges with moving the project forward, but he......

All the papers are asking where Spider-Man was when Mary Jane Watson Kirstin Dunst's belongings were burgled on August 9th. The actress, who was in town filming How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, was staying at the SoHo Grand Hotel and had just left her suite with some others before the crime took place. What was in her room was a $13,000 handbag, $2500 in cash, ID and credit cards, two digital cameras, a......

Julia Levy was on the scene for yesterday's Art Parade and filed this report: Even though it is September, it looked more like the Halloween Day Parade arrived early, but in Soho instead of the Village. The marchers down West Broadway from Houston to Grand Street were a part of the 2nd Annual Deitch Art Parade produced by Deitch Projects, Creative Time and PAPER magazine. Showcasing 75 "acts," the parade included artists, performers, designers,......

We couldn't help but notice the abundance of talented white male rockers invading NYC this week. New and old and originating from various corners of the Earth, the white boys of rock n' roll are invading. Let us be your guide. Last time they were here, they rocked NYC under the Brooklyn Bridge. The Irish international living rock n' roll legends, U2, are coming to a stadium near you. Tuesday and Wednesday at Continental Airlines......

Gothamist doesn't really like New Years Eve, it's overhyped and too expensive. So short of suggesting you just stay at home here's a little list of things you could do to ring in '05. We love Marc Ribot and he'll be playing at Tonic as the ball drops. There are still tickets left for Wilco, Flaming Lips and Sleater-Kinney at MSG [we know, not below 14th]. As well as for Patti Smith at Bowery. Gothamist's......

Gothamist is sorry we haven't posted about this sooner, but in the spirit of better late than never, James Sanders, author of the beautiful book Celluloid Skyline about the representation of the city in film, is speaking at the Center for Architecture tonight about Edge of the City - Waterfront, Train Station, and Grand Hotel. The lecture is the fourth and final one in a series (earlier topics included Emerald Cities - Skyscrapers Real and......

The Daily News looks at an increasingly rare group: People who don't have cellphones. People talk about how much better their lives are without the cellphone interrupting them, as well as the pressures of having to return calls immediately. The DN calls them "People who just want some privacy." Oh, okay, fine, how very Greta Garbo in Grand Hotel, trying to stay unconnected, we get it. But sometimes the people who are opposed to......