Results tagged “midtowntunnel”

Police are investigating a shooting that allegedly took place at Morgan Avenue and Meeker Avenue in Greenpoint last night. Two men were driving the victim in search of a hospital when they flagged down a Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority officer as they headed towards the entrance of the Midtown Tunnel not far from the Greenpoint border in Queens around 11 p.m. The two men told police that the victim was in the front seat of the gold Honda Odyssey parked alongside the BQE when another man shot him in the head and then fled the scene. The victim was pronounced dead once EMTs arrived. No arrests have been made and police have not released any description of the alleged shooter.

The Daily News has an entertaining story today about the possibility of the five-block radius surrounding the Empire State Building becoming a sort of Bermuda Triangle for cars. Apparently, a number of cars have to be towed from that area every day, which makes people suspicious. The common denominator: the ESB.

“We get about 10 to 15 cars stuck near there every day,” said Isaac Leviev, manager of Citywide Towing, the AAA’s exclusive roadside assistance provider from 42nd St. to the Battery. “You pull the car four or five blocks to the west or east and the car starts right up.”

Time Out NY has a list of PETA's most wanted in the city. The organization has 25,000 of its 1.6 million members based right here, and while we wish they'd have a crack team of those members targeting folks like Brooklyn's Cruella DeVil, here are some of the big offenders.

As many people wonder about the state of the bridges in the New York City region, in the wake of I-35 collapsing in Minneapolis, the city's Department of Transportation is trying to reassure residents that our bridges are safe. Though many bridges meet the definition of "deficient" - 19% of bridges are in "fair" or "poor" condition, 15% meet the federal definition of "structurally deficient" - a DOT first deputy commissioner Lori Ardito says, "In New York, we do not have any bridges that are structurally deficient."

After the Sun mentioned the Mayor's upcoming Earth Day PlaNYC speech may include mention of a congestion tax, even more details about what the speech will include have come out. The NY Times says the Mayor is "expected to advocate more than 100 proposals," from cleaning up polluted sites to making buildings more energy efficient.

Around midnight, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus came into Manhattan with its traditional procession of elephants, other animals and performers through the Queens Midtown Tunnel towards Madison Square Garden. Kelly Loudenberg was on the scene and captured comments from the circus as well as protesters. She also writes:

City Council Member Rosie Mendez has introduced legislation to ban wild animal acts. The legislation would prohibit the display of wild or exotic animals for public entertainment or amusement. Recently, the Bronx Zoo decided that they would be closing their elephant exhibit after the death of one or two of its three aging elephants. John Philips, executive director for The League of Humane Voters says, "Not even the Bronx Zoo can provide for elephants' needs, why should we expect that Madison Square Garden can?"

Continue reading "Video of the Day: The Elephants Arrive"

Time At Tunnel: Approx 12:20 AM (Wednesday morning)

A man working a toll booth at the Queens Midtown Tunnel was taking his own special toll according to Queens DA. Robert Applegate of Woodside was charged with grand larceny for stealing $2,077.21 in toll money while on the job (tolls are $4.50 for cars). How was he found out? MTA compared the number of cars that went through his toll booth with what he collected! Applegate was fired yesterday and MTA told amNew York that he was a temporary worker. Naturally, the Queens DA accused him of "highway robbery."

If we gave out an annual award for excellence in NYC elephant photography, we'd be awarding it today to DrewBic, for this great shot of the troupe entering the Midtown Tunnel in Long Island City. While most of the crowd was waiting on the Manhattan side, Drew was over in Queens, where the elephants are unloaded from the trains. Does anyone else have pictures from there? [Via the ever vigilant eyes of CityRag.]

Last night the Ringling Brothers circus arrived in Manhattan. As usual, the elephants did the final leg of the journey to Madison Square Garden on foot, because they're a little too big to truck or train into the city. The running was a delayed by a car accident on the Queens side of the Midtown Tunnel-- word from the cops on the scene was that the police had to clean up a bunch of glass before it was safe for the elephants to walk. By 1:30am, the scene on the Manhattan side was totally crazy-- after waiting for an hour in the freezing cold, most of the onlookers and reporters were totally giddy with hypothermia.

We've received a flurry of emails about this in the past few days, so we want to confirm that TONIGHT is the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey elephants will enter Manhattan from Queens, to spend a few weeks at Madison Square Garden. And, not to leave the equine sector out, there are horses as well. The walk will begin at the north tube of the Queens Midtown Tunnel (36th Street & 2nd Avenue) and will proceed along 34th Street to Madison Square Garden. The walk starts at 11:55PM, and then the animals are expected at the Midtown Tunnel at about 12:20AM. So, bundle up if you do go.

The annual march of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus elephants from Queens, through the Midtown Tunnel, and westward towards Madison Square Garden is set for 12:01AM on Tuesday, March 21 (that means it's 2 minutes after 11:59PM on Monday night - Gothamist is just spelling it out because we get confused about those thigns). The circus starts an almost four week stand at the Garden on Thursday, March 23, and tickets are on-sale now.

company) and only one elephant in the exhibit is "inhumane." The article goes onto to detail other American zoos that have ended its elephants exhibits (see Chicago and San Francisco, DC) and how elephants can be exclusive:

The Bronx Zoo, [Steven Sanderson, president and chief executive of the Wildlife Conservation Society] said, has a two-acre corral in which the elephants can move about, and its zookeepers monitor the stumpy feet of its elephants daily, but he would prefer to give them more company. Elephants may show their discomfort with a new arrival by the equivalent of a hunger strike.

Continue reading "Elephants' Last Stand in the Bronx"

Some single guy has purchased a $20,000 per month billboard at the Midtown Tunnel to help find a wife. Basically, it directs people to go to his website, see-tom (it'll launch at noon)... which makes Gothamist think this is a reverse Jason Mulgrew! The Daily News story on Tom Barrella says that it's not a publicity stunt for the former record executive/ former computer businessman/ current high school teacher and that he really wants to find someone. Yeah, and after he finds someone, THEN he'll write the book. Gothamist can't really trust anyone who would buy a billboard to find a wife... now, using craiglist or eBay is another story. Plus, isn't he worried that people will just ignore his billboard, because they will think it's about Tom Cruise? And what women are really looking at the Midtown Tunnel's billboards - they are busy putting on their makeup. He should have shelled out for a quality location, like at least the Flatiron Building. Updated: And our friends across the Pond at Londonist remind us that some guy set up a stall to find a lady this June! God, is the new black for men to be freaking out about getting married? Why can't things be back to normal, with just women being worried they won't find someone.

Perhaps spurred on by the H&M ad on the Flatiron building fracas, the City has revised the laws to remove the loophole that let companies challenge fines from the Department of Buildings. The new law will let the DoB give heftier fines of $25,000 but Gothamist wonders if that's a daily fine, because paying $25,000 to keep a billboard in a $250,000 ad space seems do-able, if annoying. And the NY Post says the illegal ad space at Manhattan bound entrance of the Midtown Tunnel went for almost $1 millon a month! The interesting thing about the law is that it will apply to areas near public parks and arterial highways, which we guess are the typical places where companies want to place ads... but what about Times Square and other busy roads, like Houston Street? Or does it not matter since there's so much clutter?

Last night, Ringling Brothers Circus arrived in Manhattan by way of the Midtown Tunnel. The main attraction was the running of the elephants up 34th Street around 12:30am. The scene was wonderful chaos- a pack of ten or more elephants, followed by horses, shetland ponies, and two or three squads of PETA protesters. A bunch of the photobloggers were on hand to document the happening- throw a link in the comments and we'll add them to this list:

I saw a poster today that said the Ringling Bros. circus is coming to NYC and was wondering when the elephants will be walking through the Midtown Tunnel. Where is a good place watch this?

At 11PM, the elephants in Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus will be walking through the Midtown Tunnel to Madison Square Garden. Now, we know that elephants are sturdy creatures, but how are they going to fare in the snow? Surely this isn't the first year elephants have needed to traipse through snow to get to Madison Square Garden, but this is the first time Gothamist is thinking about it. Luckily, it seems like they will be okay, as long as they are dried off inside. Director Michel Gondry incoporated the elephant walk into Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (picture above); see it in the trailers. Henry Mancini composed a little ditty, "Baby Elephant Walk," for The Pink Panther.