A well-known ruin is crumbling. According to Roosevelt Island Historical Society president and historian Judith Berdy, part of the north wing of the Smallpox Hospital collapsed about a week ago. She writes, "The rest of the north wing especially the front is in danger of coming down any time... [The Roosevelt Island Operation Corporation] is working with TPL, the Southpoint park developers to find a way to do emergency stabilization of the rest of......

Kevin Walsh of Forgotten NY directed our attention towards this site, which features a number of photographs from a New York that brings to mind the fact that we're not just in another decade in this city; we're in another century. The picture above is identified as probably 55th St. near 8th Ave. in Manhattan and taken in 1970. We wonder if "Sexual Freedom in Denmark," then playing at the Eros Theater [right-hand side......

Famed New York realtor Barbara Corcoran chimed in on a matter of public aesthetics and the nature of our city by advising that homeowners would be best served by tearing up their lawns and gardens and paving them over as a suitable place to park their cars. We'll let her speak directly on the subject, as it seems too insane to try to rephrase ourselves. From Friday's Daily News:Q. My wife and I have......

It was reported last week that the 71 year-old Hartsdale, Westchester Carvel -- the very first outpost of the ice cream shop -- will likely be demolished at the end of next summer to make room for businesses that presumably make more money. Yes, the 68% milkfat solid, sidereal softy known as Cookie Puss is crying tiny crunchy tears as we speak; Flying Saucers are slowing down for their final approach. While the building’s current......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person under a train at West 31st St. and 7th Ave. in Manhattan (the 1 line), a triple shooting on Elder Ave. in the Bronx, and an unconscious baby on Hylan Blvd. on Staten Island. The used anti-tank weapon that a NJ woman found on her front lawn was traced to a Marine, who had thrown the missile tube in the trash. A white-painted "ghost bike" memorial for......

The last free-standing diner in Manhattan is closing tomorrow night after 70 years in business, and like many displaced New Yorkers it will be moving to Pennsylvania. The Moondance Diner in SoHo is shuttering, and next month it will be shipped to PA to become part of a museum. The lot where it currently sits is going to become the site of luxury condos. The New York Sun reported the imminent demise of the Moondance......

Forgotten NY's Kevin Walsh reminded us that tomorrow is the Norwegian Day Parade in Bay Ridge. The parade celebrates Norway's adoption of a constitution and many people of Norwegian descent or with Norwegian ties celebrate by wearing traditional Scandinavian clothing, riding in Viking ship float, dressing as Henrik Ibsen and, yes, donning Viking helmets. The parade begins at 1PM, 5th Avenue, 90th-66th Streets, Bay Ridge. Lost City points out Norwegian parts of Bay Ridge and......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bomb threat at New York Law School on Worth St. in Manhattan, shots fired on New York Ave. in Brooklyn, and a person in the river off of Manhattan's 59th St. and 12th Ave. The former head of the NYPD's forensic crime lab, Deputy Chief Denis McCarthy, was transferred to a patrol division by Chief Ray Kelly after allegations of falsified lab reports were substantiated by investigators. Debra......

There's a fun NY Times City section article about the Queens Museum of Art's Panorama Challenge. The Queens Museum of Art's panorama is a to-scale model of New York City: One inch equals 100 feet (the Empire State Building is 15 inches tall) and the model was originally designed for the 1964 World's Fair, as a "helicopter" ride over New York City. (And, yes, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses commissioned the panorama in 1964, just......

A six-foot tall chocolate sculpture of Jesus which will be displayed at a Midtown hotel next week is stirring up controversy. Catholics are calling Cosimo Cavallaro's "My Sweet Lord" an "all-out war on Christianity." The sculpture is supposed to be installed in a window at the Roger Smith Hotel's gallery, The Lab, on East 47th Street and Lexington Avenue. Cavallaro claims that the Easter-timing was a coincidence, and besides, this isn't his first chocolate......

Although we haven't heard the old "urban jungle" metaphor applied to New York lately, preservationists continue to churn out new lists of "endangered" architectural species. The newest, Ten to Save: Endangered NYC comes from an editor at amNewYork, Rolando Pujol. It is derived in part from the New York Landmark Conservancy's Endangered Buildings Online, which was unveiled last summer July. The driving concept behind the new list sounds by now quite familiar: "The soaring......

For the next four months, the 145th Street Bridge will be closed to traffic and pedestrians as the Department of Transportation reconstructs the bridge. And it is a total reconstruction - new bridge arrived on barge and is parked nearby. From the NY Sun:Once the old bridge is disassembled and disposed of by the contractor, Kiewit/Pully, the new trusses will be floated in at high tide. Over the next four months, deconstruction will occur in......

EVENT: NYC Photobloggers will take over the Apple Store again tonight, for the 7th of their events there. The A-list...um, list, of past photographers is a long one. Six more will join the ranks tonight, as they are the centerpieces for this event. They are: Jay Parkinson of darkshapesprowl.com Kevin Walsh of forgotten-ny.com Kara Canal & Amit Gupta of photojojo.com Ed Leveckis of leveckis.net Matt Weber of urbanphotos.com Justin Ouellette of chromogenic.net Gothamist is sponsoring......

There are a couple articles about a year-old mob murder today, and why not? It happened at the Kreischer Mansion in the Charlestown section of Staten Island. Bonanno associate Robert McKelvey was killed by other Bonanno family associates over a "bad debt" after being lured to the house by the groundskeeper and mob associate Joseph "Joe Black" Young. The NY Times notes the crime is unusual because Young is black, as mob associates of color......

Oh bless you, Kevin Walsh-- without your magical work at Forgotten-NY, we'd never learn about out-of-the-way neighborhoods like Harding Park in the Bronx. For those of you who aren't familiar with the area (that should be just about everyone-- we asked a Bronx old-timer if he knew where Harding Park was, and he had no idea), the neighborhood is just across the East River from Riker's Island, near the mouth of the Bronx River.......

The Daily News has a big feature on underground tours of the city's underbelly of tunnels and sewers, as led by Steve Duncan of Undercity.org. What's great is the quote from the Department of Environmental Protection's spokesman: "They are not allowed in our sites. As you can probably imagine, we do not approve of unauthorized visitors. These are dangerous places. I only hope whatever they're doing, they're being very, very careful." And not carrying......

What are the orange cylinders that have been appearing over the last year on the city’s streetlights? They’re placed on the light part of the “cobra-head” style lights and there seem to be a few different kinds. I’ve been puzzling over this for a while and can’t quite figure out who to ask besides Gothamist. Thanks, D. New York is such a quirky city that the things we see on the street sometimes are unusual......

Kevin Walsh, Forgotten NY...

This past weekend was the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island, and the weather held out for the wild creativity of slinky sea-inspirsed couture. NY1 had a great quote from one onlooker: "The costumes are crazy. There are boobs everywhere.� It wouldn't be the Mermaid Parade without them. Newsday leads their article with a chesty description: "Marlena Zaps and her two friends sloshed along Surf Avenue yesterday, their breasts covered by an elaborate contraption: clear fish......

The City has announced finalists for its City Lights Design Competition, which began in January in an effort to find "new ideas for public street lighting." The finalists are: Tim G. Culbert of Atelier Imrey Culbert; Ross B. Wimer of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Chicago; and Thomas M. Phifer of his own firm in NY. Phifer worked on Castle Clinton in some capacity. Forgotten NY's NYC streetlamp page and a New Yorker Talk of the......

The Times had a nice article about Kevin Walsh and a tour of decrepit Prospect Cemetery in Queens that he arranged through his great site about New York, Forgotten NY (the site says about the cemetery, "it's a mess."). The Times positions Walsh as the guru of a subculture of NY history enthusiasts, some of whom have started their own sites: John Leita's Long Island Oddities, Jeff Saltzman's site about street lights and highways......