Investigators have been looking at the nylon strap, used to help place a heavy steel collar on the crane, as a possible culprit in the Saturday's East 51st Street devastating crane collapse, but one veteran construction worker who helped dismantle the collapsed told WNBC.com the crane wasn't "properly anchored to the ground." The worker "noticed there were no bolts connecting the bottom of the crane tower to a base of steel and concrete beams crisscrossed......

Photograph of workers removing a body from the rubble yesterday by David Karp/AP Investigators suspect that a nylon strap may have started a horrifying chain reaction of events that caused a crane to collapse onto other buildings. Yesterday, emergency workers found the bodies of three missing people, construction workers Santino Gallone and Clifford Canzona, and Florida resident Odin Torres who was in town visiting a friend, raising the total dead to seven. Dozens more......

For a pair of diners with zero romantic involvement, Soba Totto proved the perfect refuge from the relentless Valentine’s Day spirit. Thanks to owner Ryuichi “Bobby” Munekata, the man behind upscale yakitori joints Yakitori Totto and Torys, Soba Totto is one of the few Japanese spots in town offering both top-notch soba and top-flight yakitori. In a begrudging acknowledgment of the so-called holiday, two juicy skewers of hatsu, or chicken heart, were ordered. Out of......

Shawn Kovell, who was arrested in an undercover drug sting in October, was released from jail yesterday to head into a drug treatment program. She was able to get out by making a deal with the Manhattan DA's office: Kovell pleaded guilty to charges that she sold cocaine with her boyfriend, Robert Chambers, the infamous "Preppy Killer" in the 1986 death of Jennifer Levin. Kovell was originally held on $25,000 bail, and Kovell's lawyer had......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Utica Ave. in Brooklyn, an attempted bank robbery on East Fordham Rd. in the Bronx, and a large tree down on East 114th St. and 91st Ave. in Queens.. Buzz over the much-anticipated J.J. Abrams feature code-named "Cloverfield" has precipitated to something much more solid: a feature named "Cloverfield." The Internet's been speculating about the horror-thriller with a trailer that includes the decapitation of the Statue......

Some of you looking outside this morning might have had a double take, as fog has rolled in some parts of the city. Janelle sent us this photograph of fog seen over the East River from Dumbo (the Brooklyn Bridge is hidden on the left), but we hear that the view is clear and beautiful looking from Midtown East. As for what kind of fog it is, we're not sure, but it sure is......

There are many fun events today, like Ecofest at Lincoln Center and Atlantic Antic in Brooklyn, but for those interested in our fine feathered friends, we recommend you head to Central Park to check out the Parks Department's Falconry Extravaganza with the Urban Park Rangers. The Urban Parks Rangers are bringing a number of falcon species, such as the Saw-whet Owl, Screech Owl, Eurasian Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, Barn Owl, Turkey Vulture, Harris Hawk, and Adrian......

This morning, President Bush is addressing the 62nd United Nations General Assembly. He is expected to discuss "global fight against terrorism, tyranny and poverty," as well as sanctions against Myanmar in support of the protest organized by Buddhist monks. However, he will only mention Iran briefly, and will opt to cover "broad themes." A White House spokesman said, "The president wanted this speech to focus on many other issues that are facing the world......

As we know, Con Edison and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection have confirmed that asbestos was found in debris after the steam pipe explosion at 41st Street and Lexington, but that there is no airborne asbestos. If you were in the area of the explosion and have contaminated clothing, Con Ed is actually accepting clothes and will dispose of them:Anyone who was in that area around 6 p.m. who has dust or......

A truly strange set of robberies has been solved in Staten Island. Strange because many took place at funeral homes. Jacqueline Garbutt hit three funeral homes a number of times, stealing purses from mourning family members and even jewelry belonging to the dead as she posed as a mourner herself. Police nabbed Garbutt after surveillance images from grocery stores, convenience stores and pharmacies where she used stolen credit cards and checkbooks. Her first haul was......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a large crowd on Prince and Lafayette at 4:45am, 10-75 at Broome and Attorney in LES, and a barricaded EDP in Midtown East. Greetings from Washington Heights: the Castle Village retaining wall that collapsed in May 2005 has finally been repaired. If your landlord is trying to evict you to turn the building into an illegal hotel, you might soon get some relief-- the city is changing the loophole......

We've been wondering about the new public toilets ever since they were previewed last year. When are they coming? And how fast will they get wrecked? The Daily Intelligencer now reports that there are some concerns about the public toilets from City Council members. Members were asked to nominated two sites for potential potties, but some aren't interested. Councilwoman Jessica Lappin who covers Midtown East and the Upper East Side, said, "There isn’t really an......

Two separate sexual attacks, one in Greenwich Village and the other in the Bronx, on Sunday have left people worried. In the Greenwich Village incident, a young woman had left Society Bar and Restaurant at LaGuardia and Bleecker and was trying to hail a cab. Police now say the woman entered a dark sedan voluntarily; the Post reports that it's "unclear if the driver was someone she knew or if the man posed as a......

What is a Presidential trip to New York without some protest? During President Bush's United Nations General Assembly address (in which he tried to emphasize that the U.S. wanted a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear program), protesters rallied outside to speak out against the war in Iraq. After initially being prohibited from marching by the NYPD - which then allowed the march to take place if only on the sidewalk and on a different......

Yesterday, a reader sent us a photograph what seemed to be a fire on the Upper East Side. But after reading about the Bronx fire at an auto shop and yard, we think it's actually a photo of the smoke from the scene. The fire could be seen from as far away as NJ, so why not from Midtown East At any rate, we're suckers for any photos with the UN Building in them.......

We recently had occasion to drop by Ribot, an ambitious Midtown East Italian-Mediterranean with a focus on ingredients. Peas, their shoots, fava beans, morels, and asparagus all make their springtime appearances, and we were struck by the use of Heritage Farms pork and Wagyu beef. Not that these last two ingredients are that rare or special, but we rarely seem to see Heritage products north of 14th street. The aforementioned ingredients find life in a......

An 89 year old woman was found dead on the stairwell of her Midtown East apartment building. Phyliss Weiner was found on the 10th floor stairwell at 157 East 57th Street by her super, and police believe she may have been pushed. Apparently her walker was found on the 11th floor, and her nephew tells the Post that his aunt would usually take the elevator. Which makes sense - if you were 89 and using......

We're fascinated by the Verizon cable meltdown that still have 1,500 Manhattan residents without phone or Internet access (the cable melted at Madison and 38th Street - that's either Murray Hill, Midtown East, or Koreatown). Mainly because we happen to use Verizon for our high-speed internet needs and would have been weeping like a seven month old baby whose parents made us use the potty if our precious, precious internet access were compromised... and then......

- A Staten Island woman found her daughter murdered, naked, and stuffed under the mattress when she returned home last night. And the daughter's room was locked. - The Hard Rock Cafe is moving from West 57th Street to Times Square (Curbed has photos!). Great! More tourists for Times Square! Woo! But, really, when you're a middle schooler in the 80s, going to the Hard Rock and deciding you will collect every Hard Rock shirt......

With the urgent need to renovate their asbestos-filled and cramped headquarters on the East River, the United Nations is considering a move to Brooklyn. Seriously. Over a year ago, the U.N. selected Fumihiko Maki to design their new temporary space on First Avenue, a "glassy, white and sheer but elegant building," but the NY State Senate rejected the plan, so the U.N. had to hunt again for space starting in 2007. There are reports that......

Last week's bombing outside the British Consulate in Midtown East still has police puzzled, but the NY Post reports that a biker seen on a surveillance tape is now a suspect. The bike rider, seen around 3AM, was found on tapes from "from Sixth Avenue and 48th Street to 845 Third Ave., the site of the bombing, and on to East 53rd Street between Park and Lexington avenues," as the NYPD expanded the area of......

After reading that Keith Hernandez was selling his Midtown East apartment on Curbed, Gothamist immediately thought of one of the best Seinfeld episodes everm The Boyfriend, Part 1. Jerry befriends the ex-Met, but then questions the extent of their friendship when Hernandez asks Jerry to help with his move. And there's the brilliant JFK-esque subplot about why Kramer and Newman hate Keith Hernandez (you can read the script to Part 2 here). This is also......

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, the Daily News sees whether or not those roses at bodegas you get for $12 (even $6 in some cases) can stand up to considerably more expensive roses. Four women were asked guess which was the $48 bouquet and which was the cheaper bodega spray, which had some additional baby's breath and foliage. And in this highly unscientific test, it turns out that women can't tell, as two women guessed......

A Sutton Place apartment building discovered that a favorite doorman was robbing tenants' apartments during the day. Residents of 434 East 52nd Street were shocked to learn that one of their favorite doormen, Edgardo Rodriguez, was behind a number of building robberies. He was found out when one tenant had installed video cameras in his apartment and saw Rodriquez "rifling through his belongings and trying to disable the one surveillance camera." Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau......

As most New Yorkers who live or work on the East Side, especially in Midtown East, cars with diplomatic plates are given a free pass time and time again. However, an amendment from our Senators, Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton, into a federal spending bill will attempt to get diplomats to pay city taxes and parking tickets. And then the bill would "dock foreign aid" to countries that still owe money! Gothamist guesses the thinking......

Last week, the The National Federation of Colombian Coffee Growers opened its second Juan Valdez coffee shop in Manhattan (the first opened in Washington, D.C. earlier in September). There are plans to open 300 of these shops worldwide in the next three years. Designed by Hariri & Hariri Architecture (Iranian-born sisters Gisue and Mojgan Hariri), the storefront's primary feature is a folded teak plane inspired by the irregular surface of a coffee bean. The......

The NY State Federation of Taxi Drivers announced that livery cab drivers will be increasing their minimum base fares from $5 to $6. This move comes after the yellow cab fares increased at the beginning of May. Gothamist says "whatever," because we've made it a point not to take livery cabs from the street, as livery cab drivers tend to be even more renegade and crazy than yellow cab drivers, insisting that you pick up......

It's good to know that even though Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez has a Metrocard, he's not letting New York real estate brokers down by getting a downmarket walk-up: A-Rod and wife Cynthia have rented a Midtown East apartment in "a full service building with a doorman and concierge. The apartment has views of both the East River and the park, and will have easy access to Yankee Stadium via the FDR Drive." The......

It had to happen: Some crazy kids are showing how to do "verts" and some x-treme stuff on that gunning 12 mile per hour power hog, the Segway. Extreme Segway has a few photographs and will be posting tricks later on. Ah, there's nothing like trashing thousands of dollars of goods. It's like when Gothamist tries to open with our teeth, we briefly think about our formerly braces clad teeth and the various headgear......

The Daily News gives the Lever House Restaurant three stars. Pascale Le Draoulec loves the restaurant - entrees are a mixed bag, desserts are fabulcous, cocktails need "fine-tuning," great service, sexy ambience - but the review is heavy-handed with bee references - a nod to the honeycomb interior design elements. - Title: This hive's a honey of a spot - The all-American tartar sauce that comes with the lobster Tempura seems stuck in the era......