You may remember Chef Ludo Lefebvre from his appearances on Top Chef Masters (offal tacos! electrified tartar sauce!) but he's garnered acclaim for his pop-up restaurant, Ludo Bites, in LA to the point that the Sundance Channel is airing a show—Ludo Bites America—that features him and wife Krissy opening pop-up restaurants in small towns the country. So, when is he going to open one in NYC? more ›

Commuting by bicycle is gradually becoming more popular over in car-crazy LA, where the City Council has just sent a message to anyone who tries messing with bike riders, with the passage of The Bicyclist Anti-Harassment Ordinance. In a unanimous vote, the Council passed stiff fines of up to $1,000 for such violations as physical assault or attempted physical assault against a cyclist, threats of physical injury, intentional distraction and forceful removal from street. more ›

We've done many dubious things to prove our parents wrong (we still owe you one, Peruvian consul!) but hailing a cab from LaGuardia to LA strikes us as the ballsiest. John Belitsky's father, a former New York City cab driver, told his son that there was no chance he could catch a ride that far. But that's exactly what Belitsky and a pal did, for $5,000. more ›

New York has never been known for its barren streets, but for years we could at least comfort ourselves on not being as bad as LA when it comes to traffic. In 2009 New York City had the second worst traffic in the nation, and according to the 2010 National Traffic Scorecard we're still #2. However, New York's I-95 SB (NE Thwy, Bruckner/Cross Bronx Expys) was ranked as the worst traffic corridor in the country. Which raises the question: What will New Yorkers do to feel superior if they can't make fun of LA's traffic? more ›

Lonely Planet is at it again—this time pitting NYC against LA in what would be a laughable battle if we weren't so cold right now, and craving decent Mexican food. The creators of the poll say they are here to put "this historic banter to a test." They do seem to know what they're talking about, in it they include their pick for best city tour: "the elevated purple No 7 subway line across Queens is actually deemed a national historic trail, akin to Lewis & Clark. Going on/off it is one of NYC's classic one-day explorations many miss." You can place your vote here (and seriously, vote—because we totally lost to San Francisco recently and that is not okay). more ›

This morning Lindsay Lohan surrendered to the court and was sent to county jail to serve her sentence. Fans (or hired guns?) rallied outside with "Free Lindsay!" posters, and confetti flew as she entered the courthouse. While Complex magazine is using the occasion to run their months-old photo spread of the fallen starlet, TMZ has her most up-to-date photo: her mugshot. more ›

Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski will not be extradited to the U.S. to face sexual abuse charges. Today, the Swiss Justice Ministry announced, "The 76-year-old French-Polish film director Roman Polanski will not be extradited to the USA. The freedom-restricting measures against him have been revoked." The AP reports, "The Swiss mostly blamed U.S. authorities for failing to provide confidential testimony about Polanski's sentencing procedure in 1977-1978. The Justice Ministry also said that national interests were taken into consideration in the decision." more ›

A Queens man living in Los Angeles has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder for a 2009 fatal shooting in Elmont. On May 16, 2009, police found Galy Fortune lying outside Cafe Moments with a gunshot wound in his lower back; he was pronounced dead at the hospital. Both Nassau and federal authorities were able to find suspect Sandino Campbell after learning he was arrested in LA on unrelated drug charges. He was brought back to LI this weekend, but his lawyer says he will plead not guilty to the charges. While there are no witnesses, Mitchell Benson of the Nassau DA's office told Newsday (subscription required), "We're confident we have the right guy." Benson said Fortune and Campbell did not know each other, but got into an "altercation" at the nightclub. more ›

Think you're hardcore barreling down the Williamsburg Bridge bike ramp on your fixie? Try pedaling on the 405 in L.A. Here's a fresh trailer for the forthcoming documentary To Live & Ride in L.A., which is somewhat reminiscent of the forthcoming messenger bike documentary Empire. They both seem pretty rad, but this one from the West coast gets extra points for looking so exotic. LA bike hipsters: they're just like us, except they have surfboard baskets on their frames. more ›

According to a new study of 16 cities from IBM, NYC office workers have spent 5.9 years stuck in an elevator. The number spikes to 22.5 when taking into account waiting for elevators. We bet this study would have been really skewed if this guy was included. more ›

A baseball fan threatened to kill a stranger who was wearing a Los Angeles Dodger's hat in a Brooklyn diner yesterday. According to the Post, 38-year-old suspect Marcos Esteban — who was born 14 years after the Dodger's abandoned Brooklyn — menaced the Los Angeles fan with a boxcutter for wearing the wrong ballcap to the eatery, which is near the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Skillman Street. more ›

The author of the new book Save the Deli has declared that LA has better Jewish delis than NYC, but he only says such hurtful things because he wants to see New York do better. We haven't read David Sax's heretical book, but the LA Times did, and of course they're gloating over there, because Sax says, "The [delis] that are most inspiring, the ones that people cling to, the ones that people enshrine for years and years are the traditional Jewish delis. And Los Angeles just happens to have more of them than any city I've been to." How can that be?! more ›

Former NYC Police Chief William Bratton announced yesterday that he will step down from his current post running the LAPD and return to New York to work in the private sector. Bratton has been chief of police in Los Angeles since 2002 and spoke of his tenure with a sense of "mission accomplished" yesterday, telling reporters, "We succeeded in making this city one of the safest in America." more ›

Zoe no! Today the Times talks to Zooey Deschanel, along with her 500 Days of Summer co-star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whom the paper says really "enjoy one another’s company." What do they share in common? A desire to shit on the Big Apple apparently! Zooey tells the paper, “I think there are so many films that romanticize New York in that way, but it’s not like a perfect city. It’s dirty, and if you blow your nose, there’s dirt coming out.” Apparently the smog sneezes are squeaky clean in Zooey's hometown of LA, where the film is set. Up next is Gordon-Levitt, who says, “I didn’t really start to appreciate what was beautiful or aesthetically pleasing about L.A. until I moved to New York when I was 19. I’d come back to visit, and I’d be like: ‘You know what? There’s something really nice about driving through the canyons and singing as loud as I want, alone in my car.’ ” Well who's stopping you, ya alien twerp? Back when Zooey talked to Gothamist, she told us, "I love New York. I've worked there a lot and I feel really comfortable there." Maybe reenacting famous local bloody death scenes has made someone a little Gotham germophobic. more ›

It might not come as a surprise to anyone who's ever been stuck in the Lincoln Tunnel on a late Friday afternoon, but a new report from the Texas Transportation Institute shows New York drivers lost a staggering 380 million hours stuck in rush hour traffic in 2007, the second-highest rate in the nation. (Just think about the waste—that's enough time to build 11 full-size Great Pyramids or watch almost every episode of Law & Order!) No matter how bad that sounds, though, at least drivers idling on the Cross Bronx Expressway can be thankful they're not in Los Angeles. As Newsday reports, the TTI found the City of Angels had the nation's worst traffic congestion, costing its motorists more than 485 million hours and $10 billion in travel time and extra fuel. The other piece of good news from the report is that, while New York drivers themselves may not be improving, the traffic is. City congestion has fallen for two years now from its peak in 2005, a trend Kate Slevin of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign chalks up to a strong public transit system: "People want to be on transit. They like having options and transportation choices, and that's reflected in these numbers." more ›

Singer Michael Jackson has died at 50 after going into cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon, according to several sources. The LA Times says that he arrived at UCLA Hospital in Los Angeles in a deep coma after suffering a heart attack. A spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department said, "The call came in because a person was not breathing. When the team arrived, they saw that CPR was already in progress by someone at the home. The person not breathing was transported to UCLA Medical Center and remains there." more ›

Unless you were one of those people on Friendster who used to list "Kill Your Television" under Favorite Shows, you probably have heard that Conan O'Brien will be taking over later this evening. As New York officially lets go of its red-headed late night stepchild once and for all, Conan introduces himself to Los Angeles with an inaugural show that has a distinct '90s feel to it: his guests are Will Ferrell and Pearl Jam and the return of old sidekick Andy Richter as his new announcer. Will Pimpbot 5000 return as well? In an interview with today's Times, Conan said, "I can’t go anywhere without people saying, ‘Good luck in LA’ Or, ‘What’s it like in LA?’ Osama Bin Laden is in a cave somewhere saying, ‘I wonder how Conan will be in LA.’” more ›

In a scene described as "total destruction," a rush hour commuter train in Los Angeles carrying 225 passengers collided head on with a Union Pacific freight train. As of the latest update, 15 people are confirmed dead and 135 injured (45 critically) as rescue teams worked into the night. "They are in there removing dead bodies that are lying on top of survivors," Fire Captain John Virant said. Currently there is no word on the circumstances that allowed the accident to occur. LAist has extensive ongoing coverage of the accident and its fallout, including photos from the scene. more ›

At 11:42 a.m. PST, a "moderate" earthquake, measuring 5.4, struck Southern California in the Chino Hills area. Chino Hills is 29 miles southeast of downtown LA. There have been a number of aftershocks, and so far, some damage to homes near the epicenter, but no immediate damage within LA. The NYC Office of Emergency Management says earthquakes are "uncommon in NYC, [but] tremors occasionally occur." Here's a list of the biggest earthquakes in the NYC area--the most recent were 2.6 magnitude tremors felt on the UWS of Manhattan and in Queens. more ›

A man and three women were arrested by the feds for overseeing an intercontinental prostitution ring catering to the upper crust of New York, Miami, LA, and Europe. more ›

href="http://torontoist.com/2008/02/phototo_snowbal.php">photographing a big, organized snowball fight.

As we mentioned yesterday, the writers' strike may be coming to an end. Michael Eisner leaked that we'd be hearing news of it this weekend, and the former Disney CEO was right. Today Variety reports that "the WGA has finalized its tentative agreement with the majors and will present details of the pact to members today in meetings in Los Angeles and New York." more ›

Yesterday, the Daily News and Newsday offered editorials endorsing Hillary Clinton for Tuesday's NY State Democratic Primary. While the News calls both Clinton and Barack Obama are "compelling choices," disagrees with both candidates' strategies for ending the war in Iraq and finds Obama inspirational, the News ultimately finds Clinton to be the "stronger" of the two, because of her experience. There are concerns about Bill Clinton's recent involvement - and potential involvement if his wife is elected:

Based on her experience and her service on behalf of New York, The News backs Hillary Clinton in the full expectation that from here on out she and her husband will abide by standards of fairness - and, more important, that she intends to draw firm, clear lines should she make it to the White House.

New York City faced some stiff competition in the Forbes Top 10 “Misery Measure”, but ultimately moped away with a respectable fourth place, losing only to such perennial dystopias as Detroit (#1, forever); Flint, Michigan (#3) and… Stockton, California, in the #2 slot? Apparently, the Bay Area satellite has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country and a swelling population. more ›

A study to be published later this year in the Journal of Food Safety proves that George Costanza’s cavalier method of double dipping his chip is, in fact, “like putting your whole mouth right in the dip.” For those who may have missed the Seinfeld episode or somehow not seen it reenacted at every party serving dip since it aired in 1993, we’ve posted the scene below. Suffice it to say that Costanza’s preferred dipping style involves dipping his chip in dip, taking a bite, and then going back for more dip with the half-eaten chip. more ›

We know that Giants co-owner and movie producer Steve Tisch has been trying to ramp up the star power for the Giants sidelines. After Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore and Cameron Diaz were seen at a game last fall, Tisch told the NY Times, he brings "the spices, the taste, the flavor" to the Giants (if the Giants experience were a soup; the other co-owners, the Maras, would bring the meat and potatoes). more ›

After intense speculation about why the masseuse who discovered Heath Ledger's body last Tuesday called actress Mary-Kate Olsen multiple times, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly spoke to reporters yesterday to clear the air. Kelly said, "We believe that of the three phone calls by the masseuse to Mary-Kate Olsen, only one got through. That call was 99 seconds long." more ›