The Bloomberg administration has spent millions of dollars installing custom-designed GPS tracking units in fire and sanitation trucks over the past several years, but the system is rife with malfunctions, according to audits by city Comptroller John Liu. The GPS system has repeatedly shown fire trucks and sanitation trucks to be in the middle of New York Harbor or sinking in Long Island Sound, when in fact they were still safely on land. The city has spent as much as $56,000 for a single unit in a sanitation truck, and will continue to spend money on what Liu calls "wasted on technology that falls short of what’s promised, raising questions about the oversight of expensive outside consultants." more ›

Ugh, doormen. Always with their hands out for tips and holiday bonuses, always romancing the residents, or winning the lottery and lording it over everyone. Of course they have a union, and the average doorman in New York City can make about $40,000 per year. But their days may be numbered, because voice and face recognition technology is poised to render them obsolete. 30,000 doormen will see their contract expire next month, and today The Post, ever on the side of the working man, gives some free advertising to a company that wants to replace these burdensome humans with "biometric doors" costing $15,000. more ›

Looks like Spike Lee called dibs on directing the James Brown biopic. The biography was authorized by Brown before his passing and Lee will rewrite the draft (that's already gone through several rewrites) by Jezz and John Henry Butterworth. The film may be in production as early as fall/winter 2007. more ›

. It was a rare treat for me, to see the progression and consistency of themes and style, not to mention the excellently-executed tricks in his bag of them. more ›

Gothamist has been reading Colson Whitehead's new book of essays, Colossus of New York, and we might need to make it our official book. Whitehead, who wrote The Intuitionist and John Henry Days, the books is a collection of essays about New York - essentially a love letter in thirteen parts to New York. An excerpt: more ›