The only way to save Harlem for the benefit of its longtime residents is to economically cripple the neighborhood. So says Dr. James Manning of the ATLAH World Ministry church. He's proposing an economic boycott of the area in Manhattan between 110th St. and 155th St., from the Harlem River to the Hudson River. The plan is that once interloper businesses have been driven out via bankruptcy, Harlem will become a less desirable place to......

A new Quinnipiac poll reveals that people may support congestion pricing - if they get something in return. And that something is better mass transit. It turns 58% of voters oppose congestion pricing (37% support), but 60% will support it if "money from the plan is used to improve mass transit in and around the city." Quinnipiac's Maurice Carroll explained, "Traffic is a horrendous problem, New Yorkers agree. But they reject all the ideas that......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person fatally injured under a train at 77th St. in Manhattan, a shooting at Neptune Ave and West 35th St. in Brooklyn, and a shooting on 133rd Ave. in Queens. A 24-year-old man killed his mother and brother and then dumped them in the Harlem River. Young teenagers are clamoring to learn about sex. Mayor Bloomberg feels that city parking placards are being abused and will start cracking......

Police officer Sean Sawyer was released and not charged after confessing to shooting an unarmed man in Harlem during a road argument early Sunday morning. The Manhattan DA's office claimed that Sawyer could have been acting in self-defense, because the other driver, Jayson Tirado, suggested he had a gun when he gestured and yelled at Sawyer. DA Robert Morgenthau said the "case is under investigation and is going to go to a grand jury. When......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a water rescue off West St. at Battery Place in Manhattan, missing children on Grimsby St. on Staten Island, and a DOA floater in the Harlem River off Manhattan. New Yorkers may have just seen their water bill rates hiked 11.5% three months ago, but officials are now saying property owners can expect a rate increase of another 18% as early as the start of next year. Idle speculation......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian was fatally struck on East 4th and Bowery in Manhattan, a child was shot on Blake Ave. in Brooklyn, and a shooting/homicide on Fish Ave and East Gunhill Rd. in the Bronx. The oldest living inmate in New York State is a Long Island surgeon convicted in 1978 of killing his wife. He'll turn 89 this week and concedes that divorce might have been a better choice.......

The 25-year-old man shot and killed by police Friday evening had a troubled history with the law and an official review of the shooting by the NYPD concluded that its officers acted properly. Plainclothes police approached Ronald Battle Friday night around 11 p.m., while responding to a complaint that two armed men were outside the Rangel Houses development on Harlem River Drive. Battle ran when he saw the police and attempted to enter one of......

Gov. Spitzer ordered the immediate inspection of the 49 deck truss bridges in New York similar to the Minnesota bridge that collapsed earlier this week, but city politicians are stressing that New Yorkers have nothing to fear from their bridges. Despite the fact that the majority of the city's bridges were ranked only fair to poor in their most recent survey, Mayor Bloomberg insisted that they are perfectly safe. In a radio address, the mayor......

The 2007 FISA Rowing Tour USA makes a stop in New York City today by rowing around the isle of Manhattan. The last leg of the week-long rowing tour is a "Row Around New York" where participants will row 30 miles around the island. The boats began at 6 am today at Pier 40 (Houston St. and the Hudson River) and should finish there at around 5 pm. Participating rowers, there are 70 of them,......

Every morning, Bobby Fish parks his busted up maroon Dodge van at the edge of a Hess Express parking lot on West 207th Street. He unloads his signs and opens his Coors Light umbrella. “Bobby Fish,” the signs proclaim, “El Rey Del Ceviche.” People call him the King- it's not just his own posterboard. The King pulls a few lawn chairs out of his van and sets them on the sidewalk. Behind him, a Harlem......

Around 2AM Sunday morning, a Dodge Caravan crashed into a light pole on the Harlem River Drive, killing 14-year-old passenger George Perez. Police say the van, which held a total of 10 people, was overloaded and that the 35-year-old driver lost control of the vehicle. The Caravan only holds 7 people. The NY Times reports that the car swerved "with such force that George was thrown partly out a window from one of the rear......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a DOA floater in the Harlem River at Manhattan's 135th St., a homicide on Church and Nostrand Aves. in Brooklyn, and a jumper was up on the Williamsburg Bridge just before noon this morning. NYC local Steven Herbst won a Hall of Fame award at the International Whistling Convention in Louisberg, NC. When we wrote about former NJ Governor Jim McGreevey's life-sized nude photo he had on display in......

Today on Gothamist Newsmap: A brush fire at 147th and Harlem River Drive, a truck stuck under the bridge at the West 231st and Broadway subway tracks in the Bronx, and a barricaded EDP on Staten Island College news: NYU protesters didn't storm the stage when the president of the Minutemen visited and Barnard's president is stepping down after 14 years (!) According to the Post, Peter Braunstein "has sat through the hearings in......

The Willis Avenue Bridge cost the city $1.6 million when it was constructed in 1901. More than a hundred years later, its planned replacement should cost an additional $635.4 million to build. The low-profile bridge crosses the Harlem River and connects the Bronx to Manhattan's First Avenue. The Transportation Department estimated the cost of its replacement at $417 million and was surprised when it received bids of $612 million and $637 million. At 3,212 feet,......

On Passover, Coca-Cola makes special Kosher Coke with regular sugar (instead of corn syrup)-- it tastes like the Mexican version enjoyed by many Coke enthusiasts. You can recognize it by the yellow cap and OU-P symbol. Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: DOA floater in the Harlem River, serious MVA in Brooklyn Heights, and a boat fire in City Island. Caffeine fiends rejoice: free coffee at local Starbucks tomorrow from 10am to 12 noon. The......

Yesterday's steady deluge of rain (and at times, pouring) left a variety of problems yesterday. While the amount of rain that fell in Central Park was well below the record for November 8 (9.7 inches in 1977), the NY Sun notes that the 2.93 inches did not go unnoticed. Vendors and stores lost business, airports all had flight delays and the FDR and Harlem River Drive were flooded. Not to mention the subways. One Pace......

Police are looking for the driver of a cream-colored Lincoln livery cab in connection with the death of 15 year old Stephon Bacchiano on Halloween night. Bacchiano was hit by the car when crossing the Harlem River Drive, and the passenger stepped forward. She told police the driver said about Bacchiano, "He didn't belong on the highway anyway," and that the driver didn't stop. Bacchiano's mother said, "What goes around comes around. There's no way......

Halloween has its scary sights and fun spooks, but it's also a night where lots of people pour onto the streets and tend to act a little crazy. - Of all the cars to egg: Some teens egged an unmarked police car in Broad Channel yesterday afternoon. When the undercover cops got out, according to the police via Newsday, 17 year old Patrick Rich "jumped on the back of one officer" while 16 year old......

On Saturday, the NY Times had a big feature about the NYPD aviation unit, which has helicopters for "rooftop evacuations, air-sea rescues and counterterrorism operations." And yesterday, one of those choppers was put in use when a woman jumped into the Harlem River. The 51 year old woman was weak and barely moving, so one of the aviation police officers hung onto the side of the helicopter and tried to pick up the woman. Officer......

On June 27, 1986, Keith Haring got a $25 dollar ticket for painting an unauthorized mural on a handball court on East 128th Street. A few months later, the Parks Department invited him back to finish it, and twenty years later, it's still there-- an iconic reminder of times past. Bonus fact: the piece is probably one of the most-seen in the entire city, as it sits a stone's throw from the Harlem River......

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. There are certainly many beautiful buildings in the Bronx as anyone who has ever been down the Grand Concourse can tell you, but so much......

Nothing the Yankees do is without controversy. The proposed new stadium for the Bronx Bombers is coming under fire from some Bronx residents as the plan calls for the stadium to be built on two parks - the Macombs Dam Park and John Mullaly Park. The public hearing on the $800 million project had 85 speakers which the Daily News reports were chanting back and forth - "Build it now!" and "Not on the park!".......

As the Times points out in its article about Bette Midler's New York Restoration Project, the usual response to a celebrity dipping their influence and pocketbooks into other peoples issues and neighborhoods is often, shall we say, not a good one. Or as Midler puts it: "There's a distinct possibility that it's vanity, but even if it were, so what? The gardens stand as a testament to nature, and I love nature despite what......

Rescuers are still looking for a rower missing in the Harlem River. Four rowers who had left the Peter Jay Sharp Boathouse at 6AM this morning were hit by a power boat near Harlem River Drive and Dyckman Street. Three of the rowers were recovered (two by the powerboat, which was on the way to Connecticut to be winterized); one rower had a serious head injury, the other two had less serious injuries. The part......

- A fatal tanker fire on the Bruckner Expressway is causing delays for subways, Amtrak, and drivers - Without the Nets, NJ still goes ahead and builds a stadium facility in Newark - it's all about the Devils - The authorities are still searching for Monica Lozado-Rivaineiria's body, but in the meantime, her daughter sees her first relative since the murder - The NY Sun says the U.N. may consider focusing of the crisis of......

The city has announced its final Olympic venue plan for the NYC 2012 Olympics bid. There are three main clusters where the games would be held: "Olympic Square at Hudson Yards on the Far West Side of Manhattan" for track & field, the opening and closing ceremonies, plus other actitivities like fencing and judo at the Javits Center; "Olympic Park at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park," where archery, rowing, slalom (!!!), tennis and water polo would be;......