After a year of widely publicized construction site deaths, New York City's Buildings Dept. is working to tighten up some work rules that may have fallen by the wayside or are no longer sufficient. DOB Commissioner Patricia Lancaster wants new rules and a strengthening of the enforcement of work licenses for contractors and concrete operators. Given the pace of construction in NYC over the past few years, three deaths since 2006 related to concrete construction......

The Gateway National Recreation Area is a dual-state and tri-borough national park meant to showcase the Greater New York Harbor for all area residents. It includes the Sandy Hook peninsula of New Jersey that is the outer boundary of New York's Harbor, Long Island's Jamaica Bay that is a wildlife refuge, and Staten Island's parks that offer opportunities to visit historic forts and wildlife nature areas. All together, the group of parks is known......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: 7th Heaven (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WPIX 11) Last year when the show was on the WB it had a series finale, but was brought back by the new CW. This time the show is over, finally. Funniest Mom in America 3 (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., Nickelodeon) Despite sounding like a sequel to a bad summer comedy, this is actually a Mother's Day special of a search for a......

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg presented PlaNYC: A Greener, Greater New York, his administration's thinking about what the city needs to do by the year 2030 in order meet sustainability goals. The plan involves 127 initiatives under the areas of Brownfield Remediation, Housing, Open Space, Transportation, Energy, the Water Network, Water Quality, Air Quality and Climate Change, but the big topic was congestion pricing. After much speculation, Mayor Bloomberg even acknowledged that congestion pricing was the......

Two long-festering plans could come together: Redeveloping Governor's Island and bringing car racing to NYC. The NY Sun reports that the Indy Racing League might be interested in including a Governor's Island race in its circuit. A spokesman told the Sun:"Governors Island certainly is something that has come up, but in terms of definitive plans, we still have a long way to go. We've had some discussions with people in the greater New York......

This might be the most comprehensive sign that owning a car in New York City is an act against Mother Nature. Or building engineering. There's a NY Times story on how cars will finally be dug out after being buried by a dirt landsilde in Washington Heights last year. What's crazy is how many owners have to pay for towing their cars out themselves.Another buried car, a red 1993 Honda Civic, belongs to Sarah......

Earlier in the week the Sun pointed out that while Brooklyn may be "so hot right now" in terms of people and real estate that heat hasn't exactly turned into any money for the print-set. Just as quickly as new Kings County publications come out they seem to close. The latest to fold is the actually enjoyable The Brooklynite ("the only Brooklyn magazine to have published articles by a Pulitzer Prize-winner and a Scripps......

On Sundays, Gothamist asks our friends and neighbors for Op-Ed contributions-- essays about things related to life in New York City. For instance, below, local history expert Matt Levy schools you in some mayoral history: Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the host with the most, the ampitheater that’s coming right at ya, the most glorious arena in the world, New York City – for the time being, not being in time at all! If......

Jonathan Mandell & Mark Berkey-Gerard, Gotham Gazette...

Mayor Bloomberg criticized federal efforts to help Hurricane Katrina victims as he also reassured New Yorkers that our Office of Emergency Management had an evacuationg plan for the city if needed. At the West Indian Day Parade yesterday, the Mayor told a crowd:The sad fact is that the vast majority of those who were left behind in New Orleans were either black or poor, or both. How could we have turned our backs on those......

Summer in the city is always a slow period for gallery shows. Like any self-respecting Europhiles, many galleries stop opening on Saturdays and occasionally close all together for parts of August. Many of the big buyers have taken their money and fled the city for cooler pastures and almost all of the big art magazines produce only a single summer issue, so those shows that do go up in July and August often tend to......

Good ol' P.S.1 has been showing works from NY area artists in its Greater New York 2005 show. However, one artist, Mike Bouchet, causing been making a stink. Literally: His work, "Celebrity Hot Tub for Kofi Annan," has been making visitors ill, according to the NY Post. (For your NY Post conspiracy theorists, Rupert hates modern art!) How does Bouchet achieve this powerful audience reaction? The sculpture has a "rotting sausage stewing in a [Jacuzzi]......

The Daily News reports that New York Orchid Show is opening today and running through Sunday. At Rockefeller Center. The uninformative Greater New York Orchid Society page.......