A number of NYC ambulance companies are sending trucks and crews to New Orleans as Tropical Storm Gustav continues to move towards the Gulf Coast. Citywide Mobile Response Corp. spokesman Isaac Newman says FEMA contacted them at 10 p.m. last night to deploy ambulances; Citywide sent five ambulances and 15 crew members on the road this morning. Right now, Gustav is expected to be a major Category 3 hurricane when it reaches Louisiana on Tuesday......

Last week Gothamist was in San Francisco for the third time this year. It was sunny and warm and we took an odd pleasure in watching the natives hustle about wearing wool hats and gloves. In our three trips to the west coast we managed to avoid the Valentine's Day snow storm, the April nor'easter and resultant flooding, and last week's snowy/icy/rainy pair of storms. We will leave it to our readers to decide......

Reading about the The Yes Men's activist exploits is kind of like reading about live action forum trolling. Their acts of identity correction, where they make outrageous, hilarious, and satirical claims while posing as spokespeople for companies such as ExxonMobil and Haliburton, have been covered by news agencies around the world and have helped expose the ludicrous behavior of corporations to the general public. Gothamist talked with Andy Bichlbaum, one of the leading members of......

This week New York Magazine chose Eric Harvey Brown as their look book subject. We decided to ask him a few questions ourselves, and dig a little deeper - beyond the beard (just a little though). How did NY Mag approach you for the Look Book piece? They found me walking past Times Square. Why do you think they picked you? I have crazy facial hair. Where did they shoot the photo? They shot the......

Warm weather continues for the ninth straight day today as air gets pumped up from the south ahead of an approaching storm. It's quite a storm, too! Currently centered over Memphis, the storm is likely to kick off high winds, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes over much of the southeast later today. Say "hi" to a mild El Niño, as fall-winter severe storms along the Gulf Coast are more common when El Niño is around.......

Nice late summer day, don't you think? Enjoy the warm, sunny goodness while you can because tomorrow is going to be decidedly less sunny, and a bit cooler. A cold front that currently stretches from Lake Superior, down to the Gulf Coast, and west to Arizona, is going to sweep through town tomorrow night. Ahead of that front we can expect showers and perhaps a thunderstorm, starting around daybreak tomorrow. The front is moving fast......

Curse you stationary front! Because of your unpredictable behavior, which makes your name a misnomer, Gothamist has had to revise our last two weather posts to catch up with changing conditions. You are a vacillating front not a stationary front! You moved south through town on Friday, took a weekend in Rehoboth Beach, headed north through the city last night before reversing direction late this morning. Staying to our south means the rainy weather will......

August 23 & 24: Grouse Dinner at Orsay Grouse? Yes, grouse. It's grouse season, which is quite brief, running from August 12 through the end of the month. To celebrate, Orsay will present Scottish grouse dinners as the first in a series of special dinners focusing on game and specialty products from Scotland (menus dedicated to partridge, pheasant and wood pigeon are in the works). The five-course grouse dinners include wine pairings with each savory......

That was a nice little Monday morning rain shower wasn't it? While the heavier rain has left the city, we can still expect showers and possibly a thunderstorm through tonight. Tuesday's grey, and Wednesday too. Thursday it will rain upon you. Friday, I'm in love. Saturday wait. Sunday is looking great. The cause for all this rain remains the same, what the Weather Service is calling an "endless persistent omega block" which is geek......

February 22: From Disaster to Dessert – the Fate of New Orleans Food Slow Food NYC and the Project for Public Spaces will host a panel discussion on the impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita on food production in New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf region. Panelists include: Clara Gerica, an independent Gulf Coast shrimper; Richard McCarthy, founder of the New Orleans Crescent City Farmers Market; Poppy Tooker, the leader of Slow Food New Orleans;......

Gothamist has our guacamole and Tostitos with a Hint of LIme (best tortilla chip ever!) and we're ready to see if anything crazy happens during the game. Pre game: Stevie Wonder and friends perform hits of Motown. Joss Stone, India.Arie, John Legend... Gothamist loves Stevie Wonder, but medleys hurt our heads. This is a nod to Detroit's heritage, but let's face it, the Stones are the halftime act because their fans are the attractive-to-advertisers......

Gothamist is a proud sponsor of the upcoming foodie, a sixty person, six-course Gulf Coast inspired tasting event created by our own Joe DeSalazar. This special foodie, which is being held on October 16th from 6-9:30 pm, is designed to raise funds for the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, with the goal of donating 70% or more of the proceeds to Habitat for Humanity in hopes of assisting the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast......

through October 9: Shacktoberfest at the Shake Shack Stop by the Shake Shack for a celebration that includes 4 specialty sausages, 10 special beers, and the Bloat. Not from the beer and sausages (well, maybe from that too): it's a beer and frozen custard float. Madison Square Park at 23rd and Madison. Open from 11-11 daily. October 8: Beer on the Pier Beer, beer, and more beer. Taste beer from over 100 breweries, listen to......

Fashionistas and music snobs descend upon the city over the next week with both CMJ and Fashion Week starting. We'll most likely only be attending the former. Before it begins though, we'll ease into the hectic schedule with a few of the following events...even if we should be resting up for the week ahead. PARADE: Some downtown blocks will play host to The Art Parade this weekend, with artists parading toward Soho on foot and......

I cleaned out my closet this weekend and have a few bags of clothing in good condition. My first reaction was to donate to the Red Cross for hurricane victims, but are there any agencies or shelters in NYC that will give clothing directly to people in need? Now is a good time to remember that while the poor and displaced of the Gulf Coast need our help and sympathy - and will for quite......

Witnessing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi, many Gothamist readers have asked what they can do to help. The most important thing for many of the Gulf Coast's residents right now is basic services: clean water, food, and medicine, all of which costs money. If you choose to make a donation to help with the relief efforts, Gothamist urges you to give to the American Red Cross. (Donation form here.) Just as......

Hurricane Katrina is bearing down on the Gulf Coast region right now, and with residents trying to leave the area and news crews trying to report from the area (it's all about soaking reporters). Since Katrina became such a beast so quickly, words like "toxic gumbo" (get it - it's hitting New Orleans!) and phrases like "this could be our tsunami" have been tossed around with images of people taking shelter in the Superdome to......

We are getting a sneak peek at summer today as warm air streams up from the Gulf Coast ahead of a cold front. Gothamist wanted to wear shorts to work today but we were not awake enough to actually find them. Anyway, the Weather Service and weather.com both think we'll get up into the mid-80s or warmer today. AccuWeather is being uncharacteristically conservative, only calling for a maximum temperature of 80. No matter what our......

This morning Gothamist was reading an AccuWeather story on Hurricane Jeanne's likely path. We were saddened by the non-literate nature of the story more than its content. Jeanne's path is described as "somewhat uncertain," that a high pressure system will block a northward "escape path," and that Jeanne may "impact" Florida. Gothamist wonders, somewhat uncertainly, from what Jeanne is escaping when she impacts Florida. Maybe we are being curmudgeonly, but this sort of writing makes......

Oh, sure, Ivan has caused death and destruction along the Gulf Coast, but, as a self-centered New Yorker, Gothamist wants to know how Ivan will affect us. Depending on how much damage was done to Avery Island, our McIlhenny Co. Tabasco brand pepper sauce price may rise. We may also get drenched late tomorrow night into Saturday. Drenched as in 2-5 inches of drenchiness. Until then expect warm weather, sunny today, cloudy tomorrow. And then,......

As Gothamist Leslita mentioned, New Orleans is especially at risk from tropical storms because it is surrounded by water and is below sea level. As the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer image of New Orleans (whitish area to the left) and the Mississippi Delta above graphically shows, there's not much difference between land and water along the Gulf Coast (story and high res image covering a larger area on NASA's Earth Observatory). Mobile is particularly vulnerable because......

Ivan is one bad mother______. The National Hurricane Center's forecast discussion this past weekend had an admission that caught Gothamist's eye. The forecaster said something to the effect that "we don't have enough information from storms this size to have confidence in our forecasts." That statement may have also caught the Times attention, as they have a story in this morning's paper on why the hurricane prediction maps look like inverted teardrops and how......

Florida is getting an unprecedented double bashing by Tropical Storm Bonnie and Hurricane Charley this week. During the day today Charley has strengthened to a seriously dangerous Category 4 storm with 145 mph winds. A hurricane's potential for damage is assessed using the Saffir-Simpson scale. A category 4 storm is described as "extreme" with widespread damage resulting. Charley is expected to hit the Gulf Coast of Florida near Sarasota later this afternoon. People near......

National hurricane preparedness week is May 16 to 22. NOAA will be dedicating each day this week to promoting information about different hurricane related topics. While it's easy to think we aren't very vulnerable to hurricanes here, one shouldn't take it for granted, especially if you happen to be one of those people who helicopters out to the Hamptons. We aren't as bad off as some coastal areas, but we aren't immune to the......

Apparently, while filming the sequel to the smash "The Simple Life," Paris Hilton was thrown from a horse while shooting. The diva of bad home movie judgement was airlifted to a hospital on the Gulf Coast. It turns out she didn't even come close to being the next Christopher Reeve -- she came out with no serious injuries. The possible jokes about the incident seem too many to mention, but Gothamist likes the money quote......

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