Six years ago, the prospects for downtown Manhattan seemed uniformly bleak. A persistent fire that burned for months amidst the wreckage of the World Trade Center filled the air with an acrid smell that was a constant reminder of 9/11. Restaurants and shops shuttered for lack of business. And many firms considered moving across the river, fearing that every tower in the financial district had a virtual target painted on its facade. The New York Times has an article today, however, that not only has the area below Chambers St. recovered to 2001 levels, the neighborhoods of downtown Manhattan are thriving like they haven't in decades, if not centuries. more ›

With much fanfare, the city announced a new public space recycling pilot program last month at the Staten Island Ferry Terminals. Six locations across the city are getting blue and green recycling bins to encourage people to separate their glass bottles and newspapers from regular trash. Not a groundbreaking idea, an important step for the city to expand its recycling efforts. more ›

The NY Times bursts the bubble for a lot of New Yorkers who complain about city traffic. While most of us blame out-of-towners for clogging up streets, it turns out that city drivers make up most of the vehicular traffic. The reasons are varied: many people drive from the outer boroughs where subway service is less accessible. Many are government workers who get free parking (think about that one, Mayor Mike, as you PLANYC). Some just prefer cars to the subways or buses. more ›

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Advocates warn that swimmers must stay out of the river for several days after rainfall -- when the city's drainage system dumps raw sewage directly into the Hudson. Within a three-minute walk from the proposed Hudson River Park beach site, muddy discharge is visible around one of the pipes. more ›

Cyrus Adler, president of Shorewalkers, Inc. more ›

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The Gotham Gazette has a good article about the state of our city's waterways. The good news is that they are less polluted than they used to be: more ›

An oldie but goodie -- Skycraper.org's five year old Transparent NYC map, which lets you overlay all sorts of information on a map of Manhattan Island. After you check that our, explore the Skyscraper site, which has a bunch of other cool NYC webprojects, and lots of information about the Skyscraper Museum in Battery Park City, which is one of many museums you can visit downtown. The current exhibit is the Top Ten Skyscrapers of New York, as picked by 100 experts. more ›

Remember back in May when with some fanfare the city started using the first new large SI Ferry in decades? Or at least you remember when it was christened two years ago out in Wisconsin (above). Yeah, well, that brand spanking new ferry broke yesterday. more ›

You might find the History Channel's reenactments of various moments of history scary, creepy, or trippy (the Barbarians series was off the hook), but they are definitely informative. This week, the HC is tackling the Conquest of America, with appearances by Bering, Coranado, and more, but Gothamist is most interested in an Englishman named Henry Hudson whose extensive travels in our part of the country have made sure that the estuary we know as the Hudson River was named after him. Little did Hudson know that people would be swimming his namesake hundreds of years later to prove it was polluted. The Henry Hudson segment runs tomorrow night at 9PM on the History Channel, which isn't great in Gothamist's book because it's when Veronica Mars comes back with a BRAND NEW EPISODE, but it'll repeat over the weekend. more ›