Results tagged “newyorkcitynews”

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg announced $3 million health initiative to have city hospital offer the morning after pill. The Mayor said to the National Abortion Rights Action League, where the plan was announced, "I make this promise. As mayor, and as a private citizen, I will continue to do what I can to make a difference whether in the city, in Albany, in Washington or anywhere that the rights or our daughters, our sisters, our friends or our colleagues are threatened." The NY Times notes that pro-choice groups like NARAL are very happy with the Mayor's decision, though they wish he would do more to encourage other Republicans to understand pro-choice matters. Further, this move helps Mayor Bloomberg become appealing to the many Democrats in NYC (not to mention makes him unattractive to more conservative Republicans in pockets of Queens and Staten Island). Gothamist found one observation from Newsday interesting: The Mayor had struck down a 2002 City Council plan that would crack down on pharmacies that didn't customers that contraceptives were sold and hospitals that didn't inform patients of their options. It seems the Mayor really wants to make inroads with more liberally minded voters, especially women (perhaps in case C. Virginia Fields walks away with the Democratic nomination?).

While many people, in and out of the political arena, can find bad stuff to say about Mayor Bloomberg, there seems to be a problem with finding anything to say about the Democratic candidates who want to run against him. At least, anything to say that will stick with voters, and many Democratic leaders are worried about that. The NY Times quotes Reverend Al Sharpton's political director as saying, "People are saying, why should we get rid of Bloomberg? The Democrats are not giving any solid reasons why Bloomberg should not be in office. I don't think any of the candidates have come forward with lucid arguments as to why Bloomberg has been ineffective and why he should be fired from his job as mayor." Gothamist has to agree: The candidates aren't really proposing anything constructive or feasible (Jets Stadium in Queens? The Jets aren't putting their $800 million in Queens.) that has legs yet. We hope that messages and tactics will take further shape in the next month before the debates start. The primaries are on September 13; the run-off, if needed, will be held on September 27. If you're not a NYC voter and want to be, register here. And here's the New York City Voter Assistance Commission site; you can find your representative here.

Those drug dealers try to be so crafty: A drug ring that would smuggle cocaine in fish shipments and boxes of chow mein was busted yesterday at JFK Airport. The ring had used shell corporations and fake businesses to ship the goods to actual businesses that had nothing to do with the drug trade. Imagine if somehow the drugs weren't picked up and the cocaine was left with the frozen fish or in the boxes of chow mein. That would be some crazy food.

The wait is over. In the "awards the city makes up just because" news, the Department of Health has finally announced the winners of their Golden Apple Awards - their food safety awards! Newsday broke it down, with the Golden Applees including a Dunkin' Donuts in Flushing, Winchesters Pub in Bellerose, Carifesta Restaurant in the Bronx, a Blimpie in the Bronx, the Churrascaria Plataforma in Midtown, the Post House on East 63rd, Juice Generation on West 72nd Street, McDonald's on Bowery and the Executive Conference Center on East 53rd. So there are nine really clean restaurants of varying price points in the city - thanks, DoH! And if you were wondering what it would take to win a Golden Apple, wonder no more. The Department of Health says:

To become eligible for a Golden Apple, a food service establishment must not have any critical violations and have four or fewer general violations (totaling no more than eight 'points') during their past two annual inspections; the manager or a supervisor must have satisfactorily completed DOHMH's Quality Improvement Food Protection Course or implemented a quality improvement plan that has been in place for 12 months prior; and the FSE must demonstrate that it has implemented and actively maintains a quality assurance program.

City health officials are wondering what's going on at Bronx Science High School, one of the city's coveted magnet schools: Hundreds of students were ill last week. The bathrooms and cafeteria are all being tested, as complaints of nausea, stomach aches, diarrhea, and vomiting have increased. (Hey, that sounds like Wednesday nights at Gothamist!) The Health Department thinks it's a viral illness: The medical director of the Office of School Health said, "It's unusual, and if this were June, I would have thought that this was a pre-planned ditch day. We haven't seen anything this concentrated in other parts of the city." Gothamist doubts that even ditch days would be worth rampant D.

About 30 kids, ranging from wee kindergarteners to eighth graders, were piled up at the bottom of the stairs, 14 went to the hospital (none were admitted; most of the injuries were just scrapes and bruises, not including a new fear of escalators and movie theaters) and Loews was issued a summons. This reminds Gothamist of our fears of riding escalators; for many years, we refused to go on escalators, leaving us stranded momentarily when our relatives would think we were following right behind (it usually took a nice lady to convince us it wasn't scary). What's more, the escalator it happened on was the one that goes to the IMAX theaters from the second floor - the really steep and scary one. Poor kids, it's no fun for your face to be smushed against the angry metal grooves of the stairs; Gothamist is sorry for thinking it was funny (even though it does seem like a bad but funny movie).

Gothamist hopes you ring in the New Year in you favorite way, whether it's with a crowd or in a more intimate environment. And for the serious partiers, here's How Stuff Works on how hangovers work and what can be done to prevent them (drink water, take an aspirin, and drink Gatorade before sleep...).

In the end, the City Council voted to pass the bill that allows pet owners the ability to replace their pets. Another feature of the bill is that tenants can keep a pet if the building's owner haven't removed the pet within three months of learning of the pet's presence, which some co-op attorneys argue is a violation of rights, since some tenants don't like their neighbors' dogs or their filth. Sigh, can't we just all get along?

In October, the NYPD noted that subway assaults were up. New York magazine interviewed an MTA station agent last week; Jose Borerro had some interesting insights on what being stationed in the token booth is like ("we’re the ambassadors for the system") and confirmed what we know: "Senior citizens have a really hard time with the swipe."

The Post looked at what happens to restaurants and grocery stores when their delivery trucks are rerouted - the police were really checking trucks and cars. And our readers note the security measures at the Citigroup and other buildings; Gothamist noticed people tense up momentarily when a police cars, sirens blazing, sped by but then we all just crossed the street and moved on.

Yikes - a Staten Island woman killed her husband, trying to kill herself, and then gave birth to a baby boy yesterday. The woman, Sung-Ann Choi-Lee, called the police in the morning saying she killed her husband. Police found her husband stabbed and her wrists slit. A few hours later at a Staten Island hospital, she had their son. All their neighbors are surprised that this could happen (as neighbors usually are), and police have charged Choi-Lee with murder and weapons possession. Gothamist doesn't know what to make of this, except that it's terrible and we imagine the murder charge may go down to manslaughter and she'll plead temporary insanity. And, yes, it may be fodder for an episode of Law & Order. But, still, scary and sad for the baby.

The Post notes that this is the third subway shooting in as many weeks: Two injuries, with the Times Square shooting of Monica Meadows and Queens subway platform shootingof Drake Business School head; then on Sunday, police shot and killed a robbery suspect. Gothamist wants to know what the hell is going on with the subways these days? There is always a general level of crime, but this seems like a lot lately.

Meadows told the police that the attack was unprovoked, but they are still investigating the incident. The suspect, who is white, around 30 years old, medium build (around 5'8"), with shoulder-length, wavy blond hair, simply ran into another train car after the shooting. The Times notes that witnesses described the suspect to the police "as having a 'scruffy' or 'grunge' look about him." Anyone with more information should call 1-800-577-TIPS (1-800-577-8477).

WNBC reports that two of the injured were a nun and rabbi, which sounds both "only in NY" and like an unintentional setup to a joke.