Gowanus Yacht Club: Outdoor seating at Carroll Gardens’ kitschy beach bum beer garden was born again on Thursday night; Eater is rightfully ecstatic, and has some photos, which show the place looking pretty much the same as ever. Wouldn’t have it any other way; Gowanus Yacht Club is an ideal summer's eve refuge for enlightened discourse on the finer points of yachting, whilst sipping fine lager and feasting on hamburgers and hot dogs. (A vegan......

The 14-year-old boy held for second-degree manslaughter in the death of a Columbia graduate student appeared in family court yesterday, as lawyers, police officials, and an aunt who cares for him weighed in. A judge assigned the boy, named Sheldon, lawyers and decided he would be tried as a juvenile offender in Family Court. A city Law Department attorney told the court, "This attack was predatory in nature." The boy, named Sheldon, had punched 24-year-old......

Police say that two teenaged boys led them to the 13- (or 14-) year-old charged with manslaughter in the death of Columbia graduate student Minghui Yu. On Friday night, the teen had punched Yu in the face at a median on Broadway between 122nd and 123rd Streets. After a struggle, Yu managed to escape and ran into the street, only to be fatally hit by a car. The police have not charged the two other......

A 13-year-old boy was arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter in the Friday night death of a Columbia graduate student. According to a Daily News source, the boy bragged to his 15-year-old friend before chasing Ming-Hui Yu, "Look what I do to this one." The teen and his friends apparently hassled Yu, a 24-year-old Ph.D. student in statistics and a teaching fellow, at the median at Broadway and 122nd Street. The Post reports one "punched......

A 24-year-old Columbia University student studying late at the library Friday evening is in critical condition at St. Luke's Hospital in Manhattan after his bid to escape a pair of muggers ended in serious injury under the wheels of a Jeep. According to WABC News, the student had just left the library on Columbia's Morningside Heights campus and was waiting for a bus around 9 p.m., when he was approached by two young men. It's......

The man who attacked two women this weekend after picking them up under the guise of being a legit livery cab driver has been arrested. One of Torkieh Sadagheh's victims, Monica Maneiro of Morningside Heights, hailed his car after getting off work at Scores strip club on Saturday night; the 23-year-old recounts what happened next:"Out of nowhere he just stopped the cab and jumped in the back seat. He grabbed me and had his hand......

Last year, the federal authorities had been looking for Esther Elizabeth Reed, a woman who faked her way into attending Harvard, Cal State and most recently Columbia University, by using a dead woman's identity. Reed was on the lam, but this past weekend's murders at a mall outside Chicago led the police to Reed, who had been living in the very same town the killings occurred. In 2006, while in NYC, Reed had applied for......

A Brookings Institution study reveals that New York is a great place for walking, with 21 out of 21 walkable urban places. But Washington D.C. is the most walkable on a per capita basis while New York is ranked 10th, because New York is measured as the NYC metro area, including NJ, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. The study's author, Christopher B. Leinberger, admits there are issues with the methodology, namely that walkable places are weighted the......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a fatal fire on Pennsylvania Ave. in Brooklyn, a train derailment on 41st St. and 1st Ave. in Brooklyn, and a shooting on East Gunhill Rd. in the Bronx. Anthony Marshall's––Brooke Astor's estranged son––lawyer pleaded not guilty to forgery in the sordid case of her will. BestWeekEver.tv's Michelle Collins manages to compliment Tony Bennett, fling a t-shirt at Nick Lachey, stump Josh Groban on the definition of "Cougars", covet......

Starting next Tuesday, Park Slope shoppers will be entitled to one of 400 free umbrellas made available at a number of neighborhood stores. Yes, you heard right. FREE. UMBRELLAS. And they’re just the most adorable shade of yellow! But what’s the catch, you say? Well, each one is emblazoned with this message: "Please enjoy this community umbrella and return it to a participating local merchant." The Park Slope Civic Council pooled $2,000 and bought the......

We visited the Cathedral of St. John the Divine yesterday to participate in the Feast of St. Francis service - and to see all the animals that flocked to Morningside Heights for the annual animal blessing. Many people brought their pets - mostly dogs, but there were quite a few cats, birds and bunny rabbits - and the cathedral was packed. One highlight of the service is the procession of animals. And everything from......

Just a day after it was announced that Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the Minuteman Project, could be returning to speak at Columbia University, the Columbia Political Union voted against having him back when it learned that there would be no counter-point speaker. Gilchrist's 2006 appearance at Columbia sparked protests that got out of hand as demonstrators rushed the stage where he was speaking and participants got physical. Eight students were disciplined following the......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a large sinkhole on Nostrand Ave. and Quincy St. in Brooklyn, a large fight on Park Ave. and 129th St. in Manhattan, and a water rescue at the St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island. The Daily Show is giving the green screen that is used to fake remote segments a rest and actually sending correspondent Rob Riggle to Iraq to file reports for the satircal news show. This......

Did you ever wake up one morning and feel like something's not quite right with the universe? The other day, we had that very feeling. During the course of the day we learned that not one, not two, but THREE new Pinkberry locations are in the works in addition to the four existing branches. Do we really need three more Pinkberrys? Some people say yes. We mentioned the word "Pinkberry" in front of a......

The State Assembly voted in favor of allowing same-sex marriages in New York. Newsday said it was the first time a gay marriage bill was "debated publicly in one of the houses of the State Legislature Tuesday." However, the bill is not expected to make it pass the Republican-controlled Senate. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said, "We're not doing gay marriage by [tomorrow's adjournment], that's for sure." The Sun had a breakdown of how the......

This story has it all: Wild turkeys, bottle rockets and a 59-year-old man with connections to the Columbo crime family. Franklin Picone was arrested yesterday for allegedly setting off bottle rockets to disturb wild turkeys that roost in his Dongan Hills neighborhood. But Picone claims it wasn't him, even though he does admit to hating the turkeys and calling up the city to complain about them - there are about 40-50 that wander around. Picone's......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: "severed limb" at PS240 in Brooklyn, a DOA/shooting on East 85th Street in Manhattan, and a "car vs. house" in Staten Island. A 4-6 month old Hereford calf escaped from a slaughterhouse-bound truck in Bay Ridge Tuesday-- he was eventually caught by the police. His future is a little unclear-- the slaughterhouse had until 1pm to get him, but if they failed to do that, he goes to a......

Over the weekend, the Daily News had a story with the following lede: "Famed as a hotbed of debate over academic freedom, New York's most elite school is also a playpen for sexual hijinks, sophomoric antics and the wacky indulgences of the children of the rich." Ooh, we wondered if it would be about Dalton or some other fancy prep school. But then we took into account the "academic freedom" part and realized, uh,......

We were biking up by Morningside Heights yesterday-- the view over East Harlem to the river is beautiful. Check out the full panoramic view here. If you look closely, you can see all the way to the Throgs Neck Bridge.......

Here's a sad story about Morningside Heights' real estate, courtesy of the New York Times: A 20-story, 300-unit rental apartment building would rise on the southeast corner of the grounds of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine under a deal nearing completion between the cathedral's trustees and AvalonBay Communities Inc. The building, which would partly block views of the cathedral from the Manhattan Valley neighborhood below, is the first of two potential......

Whoa-- apparently we weren't the only ones that had a bit too much to drink last night. At 3:31am, we got the first tip that something was going on uptown: "There was just a huge bar fight/riot outside of The West End at Columbia University. 20+ cop cars, a paddy wagon, 2 ambulances. Anyone know what happened?" Indeed, we do know-- the crowd got wild at the West End just after 3am, so the......

This is probably the first time a literary magazine has won our Map of the Day prize! The Morning News put up a nice set of maps by Dorothy Gambrell measuring the bohemianess of various neighborhoods in NYC. The formula she used: [(% of persons 18–24 with some college or associate degree or higher) + 7(% of persons 25+ with a bachelors degree or higher)] / [median household income in dollars] All data was......

Oh man-- we thought nothing would top the Lerner Student Center for ugliest new building in Morningside Heights, but it looks like the administrators at Barnard are gunning for the title with their Nexus building, scheduled for completion in 2009. The Spectator reports: The $50 million building, which has graduated from schematic development to design development, will create space for classes, academic departments, dining, theater and dance rehearsals and performances, and gallery showings, among......

During an overnight video shooting for a new Busta Rhymes video in Brooklyn, a security guard was shot and killed outside the studio. The victim, Israel Ramirez, a 29 year old from Brooklyn (and raised Morningside Heights), is reported to be Busta's new guard as well as a "longtime member" of the entourage, but police think he was shot because of another fight that erupted on the shoot - not because he was Busta's jewelry......

Really, we shouldn't be talking about heat in January but we're in the midst of another stretch of unusually warm weather. Temperatures were 15 degrees above normal over the weekend and at least that much again today (It's already 60 degrees at JFK!). If Gothamist has done our math correctly we will easily be the fourth warmest January on record and may squeeze by 1950 and 1990 to finish in second place. At two degrees......

Cathlin Baker, Ordained Minister & Special Asst. to President, UTS...

The General Theological Seminary takes up an entire block of West Chelsea between 9th and 10th Avenue. The seminary is the oldest Episcopalian seminary in the country-- it was founded in 1817! We've been peering through the bars for years on the way up to the galleries in Chelsea, and now, courtesy of Open House New York and our pal What I See, we finally get to take a peek inside. Check out his......

Gothamist was reading the Columbia Daily Spectator, trying to recapture our youth (we are getting OLD), when we stopped at this headline: "New Policy Will Hurt Columbia Fanbase." Forget what the new policy is... Gothamist was surprised that Columbia's sports team actually had fanbases. There are alumni, yes, but fans? In our day, Gothamist would call them "fellow students." Anyway, the new policy is that Columbia is not allowing tailgating at football games, and making......

Didn't we once say that readings were boring? Well, if you forced us to go to a reading we'd totally pick this one tonight run by Heeb Magazine! It's part of their Storytelling series at Joe's Pub. The readers tonight include AJ Jacobs (Esquire editor and author of The Know It All ), novelist Molly Jong Fast, David Israel (musician and author of Behind Everyman),  Jelvis, (the world's greatest Jewish Elvis impersonator), Todd Levin (standup comic), Jessica......

My family is going to be in NYC for Christmas, and I would like to take them to a church service on Christmas Eve, which is tradition in my family (we're Lutheran). Is it insane to try to go to St. Patricks? Any idea where I can find a schedule of Christmas Eve services? - Christina We must admit we're not churchgoers here at Ask Gothamist HQ, but Gothamist's Tien Mao informed us that you......