Earlier this week, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that a Queens marina owner was convicted of dumping untreated sewage into Broad Channel in Jamaica Bay. Cuomo said, "John Schmitt’s actions have been truly disgusting. Dumping raw sewage into a public waterway is not just bad for the environment; it is a clear abuse of the people who use the bay for swimming, fishing, and boating." However, Schmitt's lawyer says his client will appeal, "This is......

In Mark Kurlansky's 2005 book about New York City and oysters, The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell, the author suggested that given the improved environmental conditions of New York Bay, perhaps the time is ripe to start replanting the oyster fields that used to carpet the underwater surface. The City and environmentalists are now undertaking a project to replant oyster beds in the bay, not for harvesting, but as natural, or soft, anti-pollution......

John and Annette Ferranti certainly did not feel they were in good hands with the Allstate Insurance Company, after Allstate refused to pay their homeowners damage claim they insist was caused by an Air France Concorde jet. The insurance company, which had wanted to appeal appeal a jury award of $1.15 million to the Mill Basin couple, finally agreed to pay the Ferrantis $995,000. On July 21, 2002, the Ferrantis say that the Air......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a triple shooting on East 21st St. and Caton Ave. in Brooklyn, a missing child on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, and a mass casualty incident at Castle Hill Ave. and the Cross Bronx Expressway. Many New Yorkers donned black this Thursday in solidarity with the Jena 6. Cops are looking for a man who applied for a job at the Duane Reade on 34th St. and 5th......

Yesterday afternoon, the Fire Department responded to a call about nine people, including seven children, who fell ill when carbon monoxide leaked from a boat's exhaust system. A number of adults and children were aboard the Lady V, a 39-foot cabin "miniyacht," was in Jamaica Bay, off Brooklyn. The adults were upstairs, and the children and teenagers were downstairs. The Daily News reports that one of the kids went upstairs to tell the adults that......

The marshlands in Jamaica Bay that make up a portion of the Gateway National Recreation area and includes the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge are disappearing so quickly that some estimate all of the marshes could disappear in as few as five years. The New York Times reports that recent satellite images indicate that about 33 acres of tidal wetlands in the bay are disappearing annually, almost double the prior estimate of 18 acres per year......

Grant Stoddard (pictured) saw little islands (also pictured) as his plane flew above New York, and from that a seed was planted for possibly the craziest idea we've heard, well, this week: he wanted to live on one of these islands for a few days to, you know, test his wilderness survival skills while still having a clear view of the Empire State Building. After running the idea by a friend, Duke (who coincidentally spent......

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......

ART: FreeNYC reminds us that the new gallery Honey Space is opening tonight with a little shindig. The night will include a solo show by Thomas Beale, "otherworldly food, homemade drinks, one New Orleans circus star, a 9-piece brass band, and the products of years of concentrated effort." 6 to 9pm // Honey Space [11th Ave at 21st St] // Free MOVIE: March of the Penguins kicks off the Outdoor Lawn Chair Summer Movie Series......

Through much of its history New York had a working waterfront. Be it for passengers, cargo, fishing, or ship building, warehouses and other industries, the waterfront was a busy, stinky, messy place. As a result the poshest residences were usually built inland, think Park Avenue. Since the ports are no longer used for industrial purposes there has been a rush to build along the shore. As discussed in a long article in Sunday's Times,......

We bet most anyone who has attempted to follow a map in Queens can empathize with the plight of new immigrant Damon Mootoo. Mootoo, who had just arrived from Guyana, got lost when he left his brother's home on 152nd Street in South Jamaica and ended up wandering around in the cold for five days. Five days! The Daily News reported that Mootoo, who can speak English but is hard of hearing, "didn't want to......

Restaurant Girl visits the newly open and extravagantly hyped Bar Martignetti, and concludes that "With some kick-ass cocktails and a satisfying menu, [it] will undoubtedly breed a following of aspiring regulars." Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an electrocution on 33rd Street, a serious MVA on Bleecker Street, and an All Hands call on Delancey Street. Stupid burglar decision #1: robbing a VFW hall in Broad Channel, Queens. Stupid burglar decision #2: trying to hide......

Yesterday morning, a Cessna 172 made an emergency landing in Calvert Vaux Park in Brooklyn yesterday. The pilot, Paul Dudley of Staten Island, had taken off from West Hampton Airport in Long Island and was headed to Linden Airport. But Dudley says after flying over the Jamaica Bay Inlet and Floyd Bennett Field, his engine went out and he decided to land the plane. Dudley said, "I detected something wrong with the airplane, and rather......

You take some eggs, some rowdy residents, and some undercover cops and you get a crazy riot in Broad Channel. The NY Sun has a very detailed article about the riot between police and residents, where the only part of the story that the police and residents agree on is that a bunch of kids egged an unmarked police car. Which was only in the area to respond to earlier calls about property being......

One of the many things I love about this town is that there are a thousand places where you might find yourself saying, “It doesn’t even feel like I’m in New York City anymore.” I started driving a yellow cab, in large part, to try to find as many of those places as I could. I’ve discovered quite a few. The first time I drove down those steep streets in upper Manhattan I imagined I......

Five boaters got very lucky yesterday when their boat capsized in Jamaica Bay: They happened to be right near the NYPD's Aviation Unit at Floyd Bennett Field. NYPD chopper pilot Michael Hendrix told the Post, "I was in the middle of eating my birthday cake when I looked up and saw a boat listing. I said, 'That doesn't look right.' Shortly after, it started disappearing into the horizon. I grabbed my binoculars and saw it......

- A 13-year-old boy drowned in Jamaica Bay yesterday on a day camp field trip. - Lakeside apartments available in Hell's Kitchen! Act now! - Oh, to be Young, Latino and Goth in the Bronx. Or to just be in the Bronx. - A 1974 cold-case murder looks like it has a suspect. The step-dad, natch. - An NYPD sergeant facing disciplinary action shot himself in Queens yesterday. - A 19-year-old cover girl died......

Rockaway, Queens. Just hearing its name makes us smile. Some of our happiest high school memories involve sitting on its beaches looking out at the Atlantic, content in the knowledge that we were still in the City and that Manhattan was but an A train away. But will it always be? That's the question posed by today's News in a story that might as well have been written by Chicken Little. Short answer: For......

Have you ever wondered how to bike to City Island from Manhattan? Now you know! Check out the five great other routes up at Recteck-- the most bizarre is the nine bridge circumnavigation of Jamaica Bay. That's probably not for beginners!......

The Gotham Gazette has a good article about the state of our city's waterways. The good news is that they are less polluted than they used to be: Swimming and fishing are all right in the Hudson and East Rivers, too. "The water is cleaner now than it was ten years ago -- and by some estimates 100 years ago. It is perfectly safe and sanitary to swim in it," says the Manhattan Island......

Most stories about boaters being lost and later helped by the Coast Guard end up as "Man, he was lucky!" type human interest stories. But when three Ukrainian friends were lost in Jamaica Bay, it's cause more for mocking by the media. Mainly because they didn't have a having working radio, lit their flares for fun - not realizing they might be needed in case of trouble, got a cellphone wet when one of them......

Yesterday may have been a national holiday, but there were a number of stories Gothamist was intrigued by: - A prop plane crashed into Jamaica Bay. Authorities are investigating what caused the plane, which had come from NJ and was perhaps on its way to the Hamptons, carrying an advertising banner for a "beverage," to crash, but they do not think it was intentionally crashed. Newsday reports a resident as being relieved it wasn't a......

The last kite Gothamist flew prominently featured Rainbow Brite--but that might soon change. April is National Kite Month, and the American Kitefliers Association has put together a ton of activities in the New York area for kids, amateur fliers, and those, ahem, serious kite aficionados out there. Honestly, Gothamist can't believe the hipsters haven't reclaimed lovable, kitschy kiteflying as their weekend activity of choice. (It's the logical next step after rollerskating.) It probably has something......