Results tagged “lincolntunnel”

According to police, a driver who ran a red light was busted for trademark counterfeiting after a Port Authority police officer did a little more inspection. The NY Post reports that Lin Librao and his wife were head to the Lincoln Tunnel when they were stopped at West 40th Street: "The traffic stop quickly turned into a nightmare for the Libraos as Reyes peeked into the back of their Chevy Suburban and noticed a stash that included 10,000 pieces of Tiffany-labeled jewelry, 3,000 purses with designer tags, and 2,000 wallets." It's estimated the goods were worth millions. Librao, who said he and his wife were headed to a flea market (hey, why not bring Canal Street to Jersey?) was charged with trademark infringement and possession of counterfeit goods.

Somewhat unusual: There are delays at the Lincoln Tunnel not due to traffic but because the police are investigating an alleged assault. WABC 7 reports, "Police say a woman claimed she was assaulted, possibly sexually, inside a white Hummer limousine just after 4:30 a.m... Four men reportedly left the scene in the Hummer limousine, and authorities were looking to question them." Therefore, the West 42nd Street's westbound lanes were closed at 10th Avenue, causing delays. WABC 7 also says the woman was taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries.

Two NJ Transit commuter buses collided in the Lincoln Tunnel this morning. Both were Manhattan-bound buses--the 113 from Dunellan and the 160 from Hackensack. WABC 7 reports they were "closer to the New York State side, shortly after 9 a.m. this morning," when the 113 was rear-ended by the 160. Thirty-three people were injured, but their injuries are not considered life-threatening. The south inbound tube was closed and traffic was diverted to the center tube, according to WCBS 2.

After three incidents where bottles have been placed outside the outbound Lincoln Tunnel--ensnaring commuters in hours of delays as the Port Authority police investigated--the authorities have finally made an arrest. The Jersey Journal reports that 39-year-old Lawrence Fellilppello of Vernon, NJ was charged with making a terroristic threat and the police are also looking for a second person. As for how the case was cracked: "Port Authority police had put out information concerning the type of device recovered and another police agency realized they had made a motor vehicle stop some time ago where they had seen similar items in a vehicle."

Last Friday afternoon-into-evening, commuters leaving NYC through the Lincoln Tunnel were treated to hours of delays, because a suspicious package was left on I-495 West. It turned out to be two bottles filled with an ultimately harmless liquid, but the damage was done: Traffic was diverted to local roads in NJ, commuter bus passengers were hating their devotion to mass transit, and there were still hours of residual delays.

The race to get out of NYC through the Lincoln Tunnel was painful yesterday afternoon into evening as authorities investigated a suspicious package on I-495 West. MyFoxNY reports that the section right have the Weehawken exit was shut down between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. And after it was cleared up, there was another hour or two of residual delays!

Board up your windshields and lock yourself in the trunk: The squeegee men—those Giuliani-era poster boys for quality-of-life crime—are making a comeback according to the Post, which has an alarming article about the "pests." Of which there are four. But be afraid! They're congregating near the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, and a Hells Kitchen elevator manager tells the tabloid, "They get very aggressive. I was like, 'Dude, don't even think about it!'" The Post finds business booming, even though police have arrested several squeegee men at the location. But at least one of them is still haunted by Giuliani's crackdown (which actually began under NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly during the Dinkins administration); he implored the reporter not to publish the article because "Giuliani will lock my ass up. There will be 30 cops up and down this street."

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian was struck at Neptune Ave. and Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, a shooting on Bivona St. in the Bronx, and a burn victim at East 20th St. and the FDR in Manhattan.
• An assistant DA for Staten Island is considering possible charges against relatives who may have aided in the fugitive status of Rebekah Johnson, who is accused of attempting to murder a commune leader by shooting him several times.
• A Queens inventor is selling a eucalyptus-scented trash bags that repel rats and raccoons. They're so effective that most of the 2,000 residential buildings his company sells janitorial supplies to have made the switch, and they are being used in Central Park.
• The TB patient who travelled against doctors' advice to Europe and then snuck back into the US when told he should check into an Italian healthcare facility, is stunned that the CDC resorted to subterfuge to lure him to a NYC hospital for forced quarantine.
• In the first five days since a new noise ordinance took effect, New Yorkers have flooded 311 with complaints. The number of noise-related calls is up 36% from last year.
• WNBC is reporting that a helicopter equipped with pontoons crashed into the Hudson River just 50 yards north of the Lincoln Tunnel entrance this evening.
• Onetime gun control supporter Rudolph Giuliani espoused his strong belief in the 2nd Amendment and gun rights before a town hall audience in Georgia yesterday.
• NY1 is reporting that when EMS workers arrived at an accident scene in Brooklyn, the injured driver pulled a gun on them. Passing police stopped and the man was killed in a shootout. It's suspected that he has taken part in multiple recent carjackings.

Truck drivers entering New York will have to be patient: The NYPD is inspecting more of them for bomb materials as authorities step up counter-terrorism efforts, and two days ago, the NYPD ending up stopping 40 of 50 trucks that entered.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an amputation at Lee Ave. and Wilson St. in Brooklyn, another amputation on Beach Channel Dr. in Queens, and an armed robbery with shooting at Lenox Ave. and West 134th St. in Manhattan.
• The New York Times looks at the effect of city term limits and finds a near-permanent state of campaigning by NYC politicians.
• A 44-year-old Queens grandmother and her two-year-old grandaughter have been missing from their home for two days. Police are asking for help in finding them.
• Only four states have residents with smaller carbon footprints than those of New Yorkers.
• The NYPD only managed to recruit one-third of its goal in its most recent Academy class and Bloomberg's administration and the police union are bickering over a new contract.
• A driver who didn't heed flashing signs or police speaking through a loudspeaker drove his tractor trailer all the way through the Lincoln Tunnel without realizing his vehicle was six inches taller than the ceiling.
• Plans for the future of Governors Island are now open for public comment and 110Livingston.net has the details.
• Graffiti Bars are chocolate bars with wrappers designed by ten famous NYC graffiti artists.

We've seen Port Authority workers measure the heights of trucks to make sure they will fit in either the Holland or Lincoln Tunnel. But yesterday one driver refused to stop and proceeded to drive his 13' 6" truck through the Lincoln Tunnel's 13' high center tube. And what does a truck look like after doing that? Well, check out the photograph from the NY Times, which describes its roof as being peeled back "as if it were a tin can." We'd like to add "A tin can whose sides are also falling down."

The Port Authority is investigating adding a second bus lane to the Lincoln Tunnel. There's a bus lane already (carved out of a westbound lane between 6:15-10AM), which carries 51% of all passengers who use the tunnel, but the Post calls it a "victim of its own success," since it's operating at capacity. The second bus lane would be for buses - and perhaps for drivers who would pay a premium toll (over the current $6).

Yikes! A NJ Transit bus that just left the city via the Lincoln Tunnel crashed into a divider on I-495, near the Park Avenue exit in Weehawken. One of the commuters told WABC 7,"All of a sudden we were just on top of the divider. Nobody seems to know what happened. Everybody was jolted forward ... a lot of people sustained injuries to their face ... my friend got cut, she needed stitches ... a girl in front of us hit her face and a woman that was standing fell to the floor."

Earlier this month filming was going down in Berlin, and some New Yorkers have been playing paparazzi since the cast and crew have rolled into town. Has anyone else caught any of the action?

Did you see CBS 2 Investigates: Too Good For Gridlock? The too-good-for-gridlock offender is Isaac Heschel, a diamond dealer who is also a rabbi and volunteers time as a chaplain to the MTA and Port Authority Police. Heschel frequently uses sirens and lights in his Crown Victoria, but neither agency gave him sirens or lights, meaning that Heschel pimped the car out for emergency fun himself.

Yesterday afternoon, a 51 year old Bronx woman was fatally hit by a city bus. Rachel Levy had been crossing a road near the Henry Hudson Parkway around West 236th Street. The bus driver didn't realize someone was hit and didn't stop; the driver was not charged.

On the anniversary of the London subway bombings, US and city officials made a big show out of confirming that three men had been arrested for plotting to bomb various tunnels leading into Manhattan. But the tunnels they were looking at were PATH tunnels to the World Trade Center and Christopher Street - not the Holland Tunnel or even the Lincoln Tunnel as previously mentioned by the Daily News and Senator Schumer respectively. Interesting. The NY Times has an interesting quote from an anonymous counterterrorism source:

"These are bad guys in Canada and a bad guy in Lebanon talking, but it never advanced beyond that."

Continue reading "Terror Plot Actually Targeted the PATH"

Mayor Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Kelly, and representatives from the Port Authority and FBI gave a press conference about the tunnel terror plot a few hours ago. This morning, the Daily News revealed that officials had "foiled" a plot to flood the city Katrina-style (no matter how technically unfeasible it would be), sending people into a tailspin, both the "crap, no" and the "the government is making this too big a deal" kinds. From the NY Times:

Mark J. Mershon, the agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's New York office, said at a news conference this afternoon that Lebanese officials had taken the plot's "mastermind" into custody in Beirut and that he had confessed. Mr. Mershon said that the Lebanese officials had identified the suspect as Assem Hammoud, a 31-year-old Lebanese native, and reported that Mr. Hammoud had sworn allegiance to Al Qaeda.Mr. Mershon said two of the other eight people he described as "principal players" in the plot had been taken into custody in other countries, although none had yet been charged with any crimes. He said that an investigation was continuing, involving six countries on three continents.

Continue reading "Tunnel Terror Plot Press Conference"

- And Real Worlder Kevin Powell (RW New York, circa 1992) isn't running for Congress anymore - don't get any ideas, Eric Nies!

Move over regular ol' pedicabs - the BicyTaxi has come to town. It seems like BicyTaxi hopes to make money off advertising on the vehicle, but the fare is supposed to be $1 per block and a $10 minimum. What's interesting is that BicyTaxi also urges people to order the vehicles in advance. We're not sure if these BicyTaxis will need to be regulated, but if they become for-public vehicles, we imagine they will.

Ooooh! Apparently Manhattan geography mashups are the new black. Kottke's Manhattan Elsewhere project has apparently inspired others to make their own. What makes this Miami/Manhattan mashup so cool is that Maximus actually connected all the roads-- so the MacArthur Causeway turns into the Lincoln Tunnel, and the Venetian Causeway connects to the Westside Highway. That is some attention to detail!

An auto club, AutoVantage, found the NYC ranks third out of major U.S. cities for road rage. Considering that L.A. is fourth (number 1 is Miami, followed by Phoenix; Boston is 5th), that is quite an accomplishment. Yet it makes perfect sense. Roads are narrow, there's double-parking galore, pedestrians are pretty aggressive, out-of-towners try to turn on red - and throw in all the buses and taxis. So, who knew people were so angry in Phoenix?

heard cries yesterday morning and thought it was a neighbor, so she called the police. But since it wasn't coming from any neighbors or anyone in 404 West 40th, the noise was coming from the walls where Serafin Sanchez, a homeless thief, who tried to escape police a couple hours earlier by jumping into the 1-foot square chimney, was stuck. A barechested Sanchez was pulled out of the chimney, covered in soot and carrying various jewelry from his earlier haul (he and another thief had been stealing from other buildings, and the police had been chasing them on rooftops, catching Sanchez's accomplice but missing him).

Real estate disputes are, almost by definition, never pretty and no matter what somebody is going to come out of them looking bad. In the case of the landmarked Starrett-Lehigh Building on 26th street and 11th Avenue the bad looking people would be the buildings owners, 601 West Associates, and one famous tenant whose name starts with "M" and ends with "artha Stewart".

Weird report Gothamist heard this morning: A man was stuck in a chimney at Dyer Avenue and 40th Street in the early hours. And then it turned out he was no ordinary man stuck in a chimney - he was a thief stuck there, either trying to get in or out of the building! D'oh! EMS removed him, and we can only hope the local news tonight and tabloids tomorrow will be all over it.

New Yorkers can find some comfort - at least there's one good thing to watch at Madison Square Garden. Last night, in a 5-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs, Jaromir Jagr picked up his 100th point of the season and reaching a milestone in Ranger history. Only five other Rangers have reached the century mark before. Henrik Lundqvist is near his own Ranger record. With three more victories, he will become the first rookie goalie to reach 30 wins.

Gothamist was there for the Campaign to End AIDS' protest walk through the Lincoln Tunnel this morning. The C2EA is walking all the way to Washington DC over the next couple of weeks, but we only tagged along for the first leg of the trip. Several hundred people turned out for the event, which kicked off at 7:30am this morning. In addition to supporting a good cause, we were very curious to check out the inside of the Lincoln Tunnel on foot. Turns out it's pretty much as you would expect-- although we did spot this cool mosaic that marks the NY-NJ border. Check out some more pictures of the event at Bluejake.

And like that Open House New York is over(ish). Our general impression has been that the rain and icky weather really kept people away this year. But that's just our impression. Anyone have any good stories? Take, or find, any good pictures? That's what comments are for.

Raising the Fawn