The 21 Club opened on New Year’s Eve 1930 at 21 West 52nd Street as a speakeasy and restaurant. Legend has it that when powerful gossip columnist Walter Winchell was banned from the club, he ran an item wondering why the 21 Club had not yet been raided by Prohibition agents. (Winchell, of course, was the inspiration for the character of J.J. Hunsecker in The Sweet Smell of Success, which features several scenes at 21.) The next day 21 was raided and, soon after, the owners installed a secret wine cellar located behind a camouflaged door opening into the neighboring building, 19 West 52nd. The cellar remains behind that 2 ½ ton door to this day, where tasting menus are offered near the booth supposedly favored by Mayor Jimmy Walker. more ›

"New York City in the 1970s was the setting for Taxi Driver, Annie Hall, and Saturday Night Fever, the nightmare playground for Son of Sam and The Warriors, the proving grounds for graffiti, punk, hip-hop, and all manner of other public spectacle. Musicians, artists, and writers could subsist even in Manhattan, while immigrants from the world over were reinventing the city in their own image." Brian Berger, historian Marshall Berman and a troupe of contributers revisit the Big Apple of yesteryear in their book New York Calling. All five boroughs are documented through words and images, becoming a nostalgic collection as well as a reflection on how the city has changed. more ›

AARON: To that extent, I'd say Benten is a sort of fan-based promotion. more ›

In December the Hudson River Trust announced two new pieces of art being installed at an (also new) northern Chelsea park (at Pier 66), one being a giant waterwheel. The wheel is currently installed at the end of Pier 66 near 25th Street and was inaugurated at a ceremony yesterday. It uses the river's changing tide to power an odometer which has been functioning since April. more ›

Has Andy Warhol's estate been dominating the market for the artist's work? One owner of a silkscreen by Warhol says that it has, and yesterday filed a $20 million lawsuit in the U.S. District Court. more ›

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg traveled back to his Massachusetts roots and gave the commencement speech at Tufts University. Bloomberg, who grew up in Medford, name checked various haunts in the hood, tried to seem with it by mentioning Busta Rhymes, Ali G, and Salma Hayek, and reminded kids to call their mother. He also discussed free speech, in what the Sun called a nod to the Minutemen incident at Columbia:

The fourth lesson is, in the words of Ali G, 'Respect.' Don't worry, I'm not going to start quoting Borat. Respect is so important - especially in times of conflict. You all know what I'm talking about. In December, The Primary Source printed some things that much of this community ardently disagreed with - that many considered quite offensive. But instead of suppressing the publication - and despite the emotion of the moment - you respected their right to express themselves. more ›

We knew holiday tips were trouble! The former doorman to a Sutton Place apartment building on East 52nd Street is suing his former employers for $2 million. Viorel Cincu says that he was unfairly fired after 17 years of service, after a videotape showed him allegedly stealing a colleague's $400 tip. more ›

On March 13, 1967 Channel 5 launched the first prime time newscast in the tri-state area, just a few months after sister station WTTG in Washington D.C. became the first station in the United States with one. Since then, a lot has changed but there are still a few constants like the seemingly eternal question, “It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?” more ›

You're in town for the weekend. You've seen the Statue of Liberty, eaten pizza at Lombardi's, and taken in the view from the Empire State Building? What else is there do to in New York? Why, see the KFC/Taco Bell rats of course! What could be a better Big Apple experience? more ›

Mayor Bloomberg was in London yesterday, meeting with Sir Callum McCarthy of the Financial Services Authority. Last month, the Mayor, along with Governor Spitzer and Senator Schumer, declared that NYC's status as the world's number one financial center was slipping. One reason they cited that global business was shifting to places like London was because London only has on regulatory body - the FSA. The Mayor said, "The FSA is an example of the kind of streamlined and responsive regulatory framework Congress must implement if New York City is to remain the financial capital of the world." Good luck getting that to happen, Mr. Mayor. more ›

Today, there's a fascinating Op-Ed by Robert Sullivan about the state of NYC streets. Titled, "The City That Never Walks," Sullivan describes how NYC has "lost [its] golden pedestrian touch."

...yet, here in New York, we even have the debate over bicycle traffic backwards. We focus on drivers’ complaints about the bicycle commuter who races through red lights, rather than on the concerns of the mother biking her child around organic-food delivery trucks that idle in bike-only lanes. In December, the police say, a bicyclist was killed on the Hudson River Greenway by a drunken driver speeding along a bike lane that was completely separated from the road. Asked what was being done to improve safety in light of the biker’s death, Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested that bikers “pay attention.” more ›

There's a sobering article in the NY Times about the effectiveness of "safe haven laws". Safe haven laws allow babies to be abandoned at police stations, fire houses, and hospitals with no questions asked, instead of unwanted babies being killed by parents who are scared and worried. In 2006, six dead babies were found due to abandonment, which is twice as many as last year; one of the more notable cases was the dead newborn found while recycling plant workers were sorting through items. more ›

Yesterday morning, two teens were stabbed on West 58th Street. The Post reports that two girls had gotten "into a beef on Wednesday and told their boyfriends, who got together to rumble yesterday." The NY Times says that two boys were attacked by 11 other teens. more ›

Anya Kamenetz, Author, Generation Debt: Why Now Is A Terrible Time To Be Young more ›

Gothamist Food's own Joe DeSalazar is in the New York Post this morning, in an article on the growth of dining clubs in the city. Joe's very own dining club, Foodie, garners the Post's praise: more ›