The NY Times has an article this weekend that focuses on the overused and so over H word. Hipsters! They're still here, in all their b&w print glory. This time they're settling down in Staten Island to make babies. The new slow-growing hipster mecca has been a nearly silent Siren for a few years, drawing the hipster crowd over from Brooklyn -- the Times even tells us that at least one resident there wears "black......

Staten Island may not be the only borough worried about its future, but it might be the only one to have commissioned a study to understand the next 13 years. Earlier this week, the Center for an Urban Future presented Staten Island 2020 plans. The Advance noted that Mayor Bloomberg had PlaNYC 2030 while SI had 2020, "The study...lays out an ambitious series of recommendations aimed at promoting sensible growth, boosting tourism and protecting......

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't officially start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... Over at Sampaist, spring has more than sprung: it's sweltering! But, as everyone knows, museums are an ideal......

A $100,000 donation to study how a free subway can save money? Yes, someone really did it: The NY Sun explains that 92 year old Theodore Kheel has donated the 100 G's to the Institute for Rational Urban Mobility to study the concept. The belief is that making subways and other mass transit free, then drivers would have an incentive to switch. The IRUM is the group behind the 42nd Street light rail idea......

Longtime readers may remember the Vision42 plan we covered at the beginning of 2005. Sponsored by The Institute for Rational Urban Mobility, the project would close 42nd Street to cars and lay down a light rail from river-to-river. Yesterday, Vision42 released their economic benefits study, which, if you believe it, says that a light rail would cost $500m, but generate more than a billion dollars in value. Don't get too excited yet-- according to......

- The Brooklyn community of Gerritsen is quiet to the police after hate-crime arrests - A newspaper vendor was killed by a hit-and-run driver in the Bronx yesterday - and a pedestrian was hit by a car in Queens - Mayor Bloomberg wants solid proof that September 11 made rescue workers ill when their relatives are applying for September 11 death benefits - The Little League teammates of Shamar Porter, the 10 year old......

Times Square, the crossroads of the world, wants to be a little less roady and more of a place for pedestrians to cross. The Times Square Alliance has a ten point plan to further improve Times Square, namely to make it look more beautiful and for pedestrians to have an easier time of it. Times Square Alliance president Tim Tompkins said, "While Times Square is gorgeous from the neck up, it needs a makeover from......

- MTA token booth clerks might sleep...but can you blame them? - Debate on whether cellphones hould be allowed in public school classrooms - Catching the Amazin' Mets on the radio - Ask Gothamist tackles how the Ari Halberstam Memorial got its name - A group tries to rally support behind a 42nd Street light rail - The MTA considers locking subway cars for safety - The three days in an elevator ordeal for a......

An article in the Post about an initiative for a light rail on 42nd Street piqued Gothamist's interest because the lack of efficient crosstown transportation options has always bugged us. Given the slower than molasses crosstown bus service and the neverending development along 42nd Strett, the group vision42 is trying to get a light rail built, to make 42nd Street a boulevard of pedestrians, complete with outdoor cafes and other stores. This idea is......