[UPDATE BELOW] The NYPD and Coast Guard are searching the water under the Throgs Neck Bridge, which connects the Bronx and Queens, after a worker fell into the water this morning. The unidentified worker fell somewhere near the middle of the bridge around 8 a.m. Sources tell NBC New York he was changing his harness and the platform he was on gave way. more ›

Swimmers, breathe easy: the Long Island Sound is now officially a "no-discharge zone," meaning you can practice your backstroke in pristine, poop-free waters. The Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday that all 760 square miles of the Sound are off-limits to boats looking to dispose of their waste, a move officials are hailing as "long overdue." more ›

A man's body washed ashore on Huckleberry Island in the Long Island Sound on Saturday and his relatives identified it as Brooklyn resident Eoin Curran, 30. Curran had been taking a sailing class on the sound on Saturday, July 25 when a squall hit and he and the instructor were knocked into the water; he was not wearing a life jacket. A harbor master told Patch, "The rain was coming down so hard you could barely see a person standing next to you... A squall like that will lay the boat over on its side, to the point where you're taking water in the cockpit." Curran, originally from Ireland, was a programmer for Google. more ›

The Coast Guard has suspended its search for a 30-year-old Brooklyn resident who went missing in the Long Island Sound near Larchmont, NY. Eoin Curran had been training on a sailboat on Sunday afternoon when the boat "reportedly listed 90 degrees due to heavy winds from the squall." He and an instructor fell off the boat. more ›

Two Connecticut fishermen were sickened Sunday after they discovered about ten old military canisters while dredging for clams about 45 miles south of Long Island. As they were throwing the canisters back into the ocean, one of them broke open and exposed a fisherman named Costa, who developed blistering on his arm and leg several hours later. New Bedford fisherman Kevin O'Sullivan told WBZ-TV in Boston the canisters had the date "1914" or "1918" on it, and there's speculation that they may be WWI-era mustard gas. more ›

A few weeks ago the Times reported on two mostly-white Bronx communities that are accused of plotting to keep black families out, but inside the developments many think the charges are “baloney.” They say their co-op boards are picky, but according to Richard Ardisson, a firefighter who lives in Silver Beach Gardens, “That’s what keeps it nice. Everybody’s got a good job. No one wants garbage in here.” more ›

Two picturesque Bronx developments at the edge of the Long Island Sound are accused of barring blacks from purchasing homes in the quiet confines of their communities. The Fair Housing Justice Center is suing Edgewater Park and nearby Silver Beach Gardens for racial discrimination, as well as one its longtime residents, Realtor Amelia Lewis. Investigators sent fake couples to try to buy homes in the community: a white pair received a warm welcome, but when a black couple inquired they were immediately asked for references and then told by Lewis “there’s no way you’re going to get in there.” Stats revealed that though blacks account for 35 percent of homeowners in the Bronx, they own less than 1 percent of the 1,100 homes in Edgewater Park and Silver Beach Gardens. The prosecution says it was tipped off by the communities’ low profiles. “Any time anything’s hidden or secret,” the justice center’s lawyer told the NY Times, “you have to ask, ‘Why would you want to be hidden?’” more ›

The bottlenose dolphins that have surrounded New York City in the past week are definitely a welcomed visitor. Not just because they are adorable and probably don't want to kill us (unlike some aquatic guests), but it means that our water could be cleaner than we thought (not to mention stocked with plenty of herring). Newsday reports that "fishermen and scientists said it has been 30 or more years since they'd seen bottlenose dolphins in the Sound in the summertime, and experts agree that the marine mammals came here following food. Experts say the real test will be next year if the dolphins return. If they do, there is a chance the Sound waters are clean enough to sustain a population of the animals." Dolphins used to be a common sight in the Sound, until the post-WWII development boom that helped pollute our waters, but maybe this is the first step in getting them back. Now, can we add some puppies to this story? more ›

From the wires: A marine unit has reported seeing a pod of dolphins off the south end of City Island!! (Maybe they heard how much Remy Ma likes Sammy's?) About 150-200 dolphins were seen in the Long Island Sound yesterday; the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation told Newsday they were "acting normally"—and chasing herring—but reminded people to stay 150 feet (or more) away from them. Update: The marine unit says the dolphins appear to be "confused" in the Long Island Sound—poor dolphins! more ›

In two separate incidents, police and Coast Guard personnel pulled 19 individuals--including children--from the water after their boats swamped. Sixteen people were pulled from a 40-foot Sea Ray boat approximately a mile from shore and submerged so that its passengers were ankle-deep in the Long Island Sound Friday. Seven of the rescued were children. The boat began foundering when an exhaust hose broke, causing water to fill the boat. Separately, three Staten Islanders were rescued from the Hudson River near Peekskill when their sinking boat was in the path of a fuel barge. more ›

When you're 85-years-old and a World War II veteran, dying by way of parallel parking is not the way to go. And luckily, John Tyrrell is no worse for wear after driving his car off a cliff in the Bronx. more ›

The New York Times has a tragic tale of a storied property that was meant to be a source of familial togetherness, but has instead rended the fabric of the Handler family to ribbons. The Point, as the estate on the Long Island Sound is known, is believed by many to be the inspiration for the home of F. Scott Fitzgerald's character Jay Gatsby. The 21-acre estate's mansion is only one of nine buildings on the property, which is filled with amenities like "a vineyard, a lily pond, a clay tennis court, a horse paddock, a squash court, a gym, a greenhouse and formal gardens." The Times reports that all of these are neglected and overgrown. more ›

This weekend, you could take a trip back to the 1860s with a visit to Governors Island. It's the Civil War Weekend, and the 119th New York Volunteer Historical Association will "recreate garrison life on Governors Island during the Civil War, portraying officers, soldiers and guards in the Regular Army conducting drills, a guard mount and historic weapons demonstrations." Here's a schedule of events for both Saturday and Sunday:

10:00: Witness the morning calls (sick, breakfast, officers’) at the Garrison and Confederate prisoners being marched to Castle Williams under guard more ›

The NYPD has announced that both suspects in the Brooklyn traffic stop shooting of two police officers have been captured. Last night, Dexter Bostic was arrested as he and the other suspect Robert Ellis were walking along Interstate 80 near Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. more ›

A 17-foot motorboat called "Bite Me" was capsized by the wake of a passing tugboat yesterday afternoon and a group of six people were thrown into the water. The boat's owner was taking a friend and his family, including his wife, two daughters and a nephew, for a cruise around the Statue of Liberty. On the return trip, their boat was swamped by the passing tug and all six people were in the water for about ten minutes until a passing yachtsman came to their aid. One witness was unimpressed by other boaters' behavior. "Private boats kept passing and no one stopped to help. 'It really shows what New Yorkers are made of,' said witness Jack Eisenkeit, 59." more ›

Our forecasted high of 64 degrees in Central Park was reached at one o'clock this afternoon. That's plenty warm for late-November but falls short of the 1896 record of 72 degrees. Fear not, fans of record-breaking warmth, the National Weather Service is currently predicting that we will tie Friday's record high of 69. The Weather Channel isn't quite so optimistic, calling for a high of "only" 63 on Friday. more ›

The Met just opened a new exhibit called “Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall: An Artist’s Country Estate” on Tuesday. Many aspects of Tiffany’s home (which took 3 years to build, from 1902 to 1905) are represented. The 84-room, eight-level house was nearly 600 acres overlooking Long Island Sound, was in Oyster Bay, New York. Tiffany himself designed the home inside and out, and this exhibition is a window into his art, through design, furniture and landscape. more ›

Earlier this week, Queens assemblyman Brian M. McLaughlin was charged with 43 different crimes, including racketeering, embezzlement, stealing from a Little League, fraud and more, taking $2.2 million. McLaughlin's office was raided by the FBI in March, and the indictment that was unsealed this week was 186 pages. The NY Times summarized some of his misdeeds:

Law enforcement officials said that Mr. McLaughlin used subordinates as “personal servants,” to take his dog to the veterinarian, hang Christmas lights, trap rodents in his basement and clean out his barn. more ›

"An eventual field of underwater turbines in NY's East River" sounds like a dream, but it turns out it may be a reality in a near future. Verdant Power, with the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority is working on the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy Project that would bring up to 10 Megawatts of energy from an East River turbine field. While the first turbines are supposedly being deploye this year, Verdant has been talking about this since 2004. From the Columbia News Service:

Verdant Power plans to install hundreds of what look like underwater windmills in the East River -- the misleading name for the tidal channel that separates Manhattan and Long Island. more ›

-- Did you know that the average bed takes up $30,000 worth of floor space in Manhattan? We're totally Murphy-ing everything we own - even the cat! more ›

This is something about the 2003 Blackout that we didn't know about: The city dumped 30 million gallons of "untreated human waste" into the East River because the Department of Environmental Protection's backup generators didn't work! Good work, DEP. A federal judge has put the city agency under probation for three years, and the Times notes that this is the "latest embarrassment" for the DEP, joining the "mercury in drinking water reservoirs" and "employees who ignore laws" incidents in the DEP's recent history.

In yesterday's proceeding in United States District Court in White Plains, department officials admitted that backup power systems in two of the city's 14 sewage treatment plants that should have kicked in immediately after the lights went out in August 2003 did not function properly. more ›

Last year was Central Park's wettest year since… 2003. Okay, not too exciting. We did have the wettest October ever, so that's something to tell the grandkids about. On the temperature side of things 2005 was the warmest year since 2002! Okay, also not too exciting. What's remarkable about last year's temperature is the stretch of almost continuously above average temperatures from early June until the first of December. The new year is starting slow for Gothamist but we'll throw a couple of graphs recapping 2005 onto the Flickr group later in the week. more ›

This story has a bit of everything: fantastic views of the East River and the Long Island Sound, golf, the mob, methane gas, Giuliani, toxic polychlorinated biphenyls, and nearly 1.5 million cubic yards of dirt being dumped by the terrifically named New York Dirt company. more ›

But if the weather gets to be as warm as it was earlier this week, then check out some places with outdoor eating from New York magazine. Gothamist on bars with views. more ›

I don't get up to the Bronx that much- my parents grew up there, but it's definitely off the beaten track- even Queens is more convenient. Off the northeast coast of the Bronx is City Island, where four teenagers disappeared and most probably drowned this weekend. The Times has a good article on Hart Island, the spookiest island in the Long Island Sound, which was where the kids were probably rowing when their skiff went down. I actually prefer the Morning News' lyrical history of the island, and the New York Genealogical Society's page on Hart Island, which includes pictures. More pictures from the Corrections Department, which operates the island. more ›