Merging urban exploration with something akin to La Blogotheque's Take Away Shows, the below video gives a glimpse at what's hidden in the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel underneath Downtown Brooklyn while performer Greg "Cosmo D" Heffernan scores the journey. more ›

Jose Rivera, who shot at a car full of undercover cops, hitting one of them, was sentenced to 16 years in jail. In February, while driving in Park Slope-Prospect Heights, Rivera thought that the cops were giving him a dirty looks and yelled at them, "You got a beef?" and then fired. The police fired back and later, Rivera's police officer wife seemed to try to cover up the shooting by parking their bullet-ridden car far from their home. more ›

The NY Times has a Section A, Page 1 article about a woman whose identity since the WTC attacks has been defined as a September 11 survivor but her September 11 story doesn't quite add up. Tania Head said she had been on the 78th floor of the north tower, still bearing some burns, and gave tours at the Tribute 9/11 Visitor Center. She also acted as president of the Survivors’ Network and said her fiance died in the south tower. But her supposed fiance's family and roommate never heard of her, no hospital has a record of treating her, and she was not employed by Merrill Lynch, the company Head said she was working for at the time. more ›

Getting shocked by an electrified manhole isn't just for the winter: Yesterday morning, a Labrador retriever suffered a jolt when he stepped onto a wet manhole cover on Thompson Street. more ›

In February rumors started to fly about Jimmy Fallon becoming the next Late Night host when Conan O'Brien leaves his current spot to take Jay Leno's spot. It's an after-hours game of musical chairs! (Though no one knows where Leno will end up, it is said he'll likely stay in the late night game.) NBC chief Rick Ludwin says that Fallon is now at the top of the short list for possible Late Night hosts. more ›

While poking around on YouTube recently we stumbled onto this awesome clip from 1989 of David Letterman appearing on Live at Five and Live at Five simultaneously appearing on Late Night With David Letterman. In it, we see Letterman, whose studio 6A is just across the hall from WNBC's Live at Five's studio 6B, being interviewed by Jack Cafferty (and vice versa) on the occasion of a prime time anniversary show. Late Night taped its show every afternoon as Live at Five broadcast live, and Letterman on occasion popped in on Live at Five and was noted for complaining that WNBC's newscast got better guests then he did. more ›

Recently Rolling Stone took a 60-second tour of The Beatles' New York, with a little help from Google’s Street Maps feature. more ›

Nowadays, when people see rodents at restaurants, they aren't necessarily calling 311 immediately - it seems the first call is to the local news station! A couple strolling by the Upper East Side Pinkberry at 82nd and 2nd Avenue called WABC 7 when they saw mice running around the store at 2:30AM yesterday. WABC 7 observed, "The mice seemed to prefer the counter area. It is just feet from the yogurt machine where the fresh-fruit toppings are kept." One Pinkberry customer, who had waited 20 minutes on line, told the Post, "As long as there's no rats in the ice cream, I'm OK." And, plus, mice are way cuter than rats. more ›

In February, the State Liquor Authority suspended the liquor license for Scores West, the West Chelsea exotic club where some employees were arrested for prostitution. Now, in the latest chapter of Scores West vs. the law enforcement, the Post reports that the manager for Scores West was "roughed up by lawmen" and is now in the hospital! more ›

In February, Jones was busted again. Officer Pedro Murphy saw Jones walk between subway cars on a J train in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Patting him down, Murphy found Jones was carrying a knife with a 3-inch blade and a loaded .38-caliber Rossi revolver. more ›

Newsday reports that NYPD Assistant Chief Bruce Smolka is retiring. While many officers Newsday spoke to love Smolka, he leaves behind an interesting legacy. Let's paraphrase Aaron Naparstek's 2005 piece about Smolka for the NY Press' 50 Most Loathsome New Yorkers issue:

...Smolka was the commanding officer of the NYPD’s infamous Street Crimes Unit. It was his officers who, in February 1999, pumped 41 bullets into Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant guilty of nothing more than standing in the hallway of his own apartment building.... more ›

They say New York is home to a million stories, and so far this year, we've published 7021 of them here on Gothamist. So in case you missed any of those, let's take a little stroll back in time, and review the most significant stories the past 12 months, shall we? Here's part one of a semi-chronological look at 2006; part two will go up tomorrow: more ›

Well-known radical lawyer Lynne Stewart was sentenced today to 28 months in prison. In February 2005, she found guilty of terror charges - she had smuggled messages from terrorist Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman to his followers in defiance of prison rules. Stewart had been pleading for leniency, as she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, and before the sentencing, Stewart's lawyer Elizabeth Fink said, "If you send her to prison, she's going to die. It's as simple as that." The AP reported that Stewart smiled when she heard 28 month sentence; she had faced a maximum of 30 years in prison. The NY Times mentions that Judge Koetl acknowledged that there was "'no evidence that any victim was in fact harmed' by her actions" and noted her career as a "lawyer to the poor and the unpopular." Stewart will be appealing. more ›

In February 2005, the first Pinkberry opened on a quiet street in West Hollywood by 32-year old Korean entrepreneur Hyekyung (Shelly) Hwang. The frozen yogurt fiends came in droves, forced the LAPD to write 1,000 parking tickets because the store's neighbors couldn't find a place to put their cars amidst the visitors' SUVs, and now Hwang has signed more than thirty leases for yet-to-be-opened Pinkberry stores around the country. more ›

Excellent - the New Yorker has updated its 2003 story on Bill Jones, the Whole Foods employee who became an institution at the Chelsea location for directing shoppers to available registers, providing comfort with his reassuring, "Number 5 is yours!" and a wonderful smile. When the Time Warner Center Whole Foods opened up at Columbus Circle, we suggested that they should clone him. But wouldn't you know, Bill Jones himself was working at the Columbus Circle location, greeting shoppers at the store's entrance. This is where an online-only New Yorker story picks up:

In February, 2004, a Whole Foods opened in the Time Warner Center, at Columbus Circle, and the company offered Jones a healthy raise and transferred him and his sonorous baritone uptown. The Columbus Circle store boasts almost twice as many checkout counters as in Chelsea, but Jones isn’t line-directing—the cashiers there take turns. Instead, five days a week, he stands at the base of the escalator that leads into the subterranean supermarket, to greet customers and offer directions. “When they come off that escalator, their mind is someplace else,” Jones says. “What I was doing in Chelsea was much more fun.”

While Wal-Mart decided not to build a store in Rego Park last year, the NY Sun says the behemoth retailer working on surround then attack approach by opening up stores in just outside the city limits Last month a store in Kearny, NJ opened, and next up is one in White Plains that will be an "urban model." As in an urban model with "design elements that could be incorporated into a New York City store." Huh, does that include uncensored DVDs and controversial music or books? Here's what the store will be like:

The 179,731-square-foot Wal-Mart is split onto two levels, underneath a six-floor parking garage where customers can park for free if they spend more than $5. Special escalators will transport shopping carts between floors. more ›

Kevin Dresser, Rabbit Owner and Designer more ›

In February of 2005, we booked New York band The Cloud Room to play our 2nd Movable Hype show. We had heard their song Hey Now Now and it instantly stuck in our head like peanut butter to the roof of one's mouth. This is how it was for everyone we talked to. We'd even venture to say that a song hasn't stuck in our head like that since. more ›

We noted in yesterday’s roundup of theatre in 2005 that at least in our optimistic eyes, last year had plenty of great shows. If anywhere like the same number of impressive plays and musicals appear in ‘06, it’d be hard to complain. But nonetheless, we do have a small wish list. more ›

In February 2002, Ronald Popadich of New Jersey embarked on a shattering crime spree over four days, shooting two people dead and driving into 25 in Midtown. Yesterday, Popadich pleaded guilty to the murder of one of the hit-and-run victims who died during surgery. Popadich, a paranoid schizophrenic first killed his Garfield NJ neighbor, Lisa Gotkin, on February 10, 2002, and then drove into Manhattan on February 12, running into 18 people. Then, on February 13, Popadich stole another car, hit three people near Madison Square Garden, then turned around to hit four more, and fled into the subway; Popadich also shot a cab driver at 14th and 2nd Avenue that day, but the driver survived. Popadich is already serving 30 years for Gotkin's murder; this plea adds 25 years to his term.
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Roosevelt Island, pop. 10,000, is in the news again. The small town in the middle of the big city, one of the great urban planning "eh-steps" (not quite a misstep, but close), was last seen in the news scaring Jennifer Connely in "Dark Water." But now its got a political scandal, or the makings of one, to call its very own. more ›

It turns out that the elapsed amount of time from a wacky, but sorta relevant City Council proposal and thing happening can be as short at 2.5 months! In February, City Councilwoman Gail Brewer floated the idea making movie theaters list the times movies actually started, versus having people sit through the countless commercials before them. Now, Loews Theaters will be printing when movies really start, sorta: The NY Times says movie listings, ads, and web litsings will still have the time when movies+trailers+commercials start, but a note will say "the feature presentation starts 10 to 15 minutes after the posted show time." Ha, nice try, but "10-15 minutes" is hardly precise - when it comes to moviegoing, Gothamist like exactitude! Our moviegoing missions are timed like clockwork: Arrive 30-40 minutes early. Find seats. Settle in. Dispatch person to get popcorn. Go to bathroom about ten minutes before movie starts. Make fun of trivia questions. Do not enjoy the "Twenty." Laugh at people who desperately look for seats five minutes before showtime. The plan will be tested in Connecticut next week, and then come to NYC in a few weeks. more ›

Last week I didn't tell you about the show Beck played at Hiro Ballroom Friday night (one night before his appearance on Saturday Night Live). That's because the "secret" show wasn't even announced until Thursday. Beck is known for playing last-minute small-venue shows, and I was lucky enough to score a ticket to this one. Here are the pictures. more ›

Andrew Boyd, Cultural Activist and Founder, Billionaires for Bush more ›

Sam Seder, Director / Writer / Comedian / Co-Host, "The Majority Report" more ›

A childhood friend of mine announced her engagement a year ago. In February, I had lunch with the bride to be. She showed me photos of her dress and declared her excitement about my presence at the wedding. After that I never heard from her. Recently, my sister saw the bride and asked about the wedding. She told my sister the invitation was coming in the mail, but I never received one so I figured I was shafted. I understood this as there are limitations on who can be invited but it sucks when your friend of 15 years told you that you were invited and then you never hear from her. Here's the thing: the wedding is this Saturday and I got the invitation a few days ago. It's obvious that she's only inviting me now to be politically correct. I have other plans this weekend, too. Should I give in and attend this big, fat, weird wedding? more ›