Photograph of the World Trade Center site by New York Daily Photo We got a NotifyNYC alert this morning:The Port Authority will be doing construction blasting at the World Trade Center site today beginning at 8 a.m. There will be a total of 7 controlled blasts during the day. This is a routine construction operation and there is no cause for concern.The only cause of concern is how the Port Authority has incurred millions......

Will Macy's give its regards to Broadway? The NY Times reports that the developers who are trying to redevelop the James Farley Post Office building into the new Moynihan Station "are in the early stage of negotiations with Macy’s" to move from the store's landmark Herald Square location to the Farley building on Eighth Avenue. Charles Bagli's article summarizes the progress of the Penn Station redevelopment and Farley-into-Moynihan Station project: It's complex, given the......

The city is changing its policy to let homeless people in its shelters, a move that worries advocates. Starting Friday, anyone arriving at the Bronx intake shelter after 5PM who has had their living situations investigated (many people been investigated when they apply for long-term housing) and were deemed ineligible for housing will be questioned again and turned away if nothing has changed. The city views this as a way to close a loophole......

Today, the NY Times had some advice for incoming first years to the city's colleges. They were:- Don’t fall asleep on the subway. - Don’t drink too much beer and use the street as a toilet. - Don’t ask a cabbie (or anyone else) to take you to “HUGH-ston” Street. - Don’t play chess for money with the hustlers in Washington Square Park. - Don’t try to swim in the river. - Don’t count......

When William Gottlieb died in 1999, he left behind an estate worth hundreds of millions (if not near a billion) that included over a hundred buildings, many in Greenwich Village and the Meatpacking district. His sister Mollie Bender was the sole beneficiary of his will, and with her recent death, her daughter is now fighting with her brother for control of the estate. Cheryl Dier and her son Michael Corbett argue that many of......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: missing children on Lenox Rd. in Brooklyn, shots fired at Columbus Ave. and West 104th St. in Manhattan, and a water rescue at the Stepping Stone Lighthouse off City Island in the Bronx. The chief of a volunteer fire company in the Bronx is scrambling to explain how the firehouse is now broke, after receiving a half-million dollars in donations after 9/11/01. A pair of 15-year-olds will be tried......

Yesterday was the 38th Annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride March, and thousands of people participated - from shimmying and showing off their outrageous costumes to waving gay pride flags and hollering their support. The grand marshals of the parade were religious leaders Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum and Reverend Dr. Troy Perry; Kleinbaum said, "We stand for a progressive religious voice. Those who use religion to advocate an anti-gay agenda I believe are blaspheming......

Congratulations to everyone graduating this month! As NYU's commencement was today, with speaker jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, we decided to list the many NYC commencement speakers, with help from The Chronicle of Higher Education (if we've missed any or gotten it wrong, let us know in comments): Barnard College: Anna Deveare Smith, playwright-actress CUNY Lehman College: Representative Charles Rangel CUNY Brooklyn College: Roberta S. Matthews, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Brooklyn......

Hundreds of Virginia Tech alumni, NYU students and other New Yorkers gathered for a candlelight vigil in Washington Square Park last night. Rabbi Yehuda Sarna, who had traveled to Virginia Tech earlier in the week, brought back a candle from a vigil there and used it to light candles last night. And today, many people are also wearing orange and maroon, Virginia Tech's colors, for "Orange and Maroon Effect" day to show support for......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a 4-alarm brush fire on Staten Island, a missing child report at 3rd Ave. and East 117th St. in Manhattan, and a stabbing on Boston Road in the Bronx. Finding parking in NYC requires a guide. Here it is (garage parking only). Street parkers must continue to survive on guile, cunning, and skill. The winning $105 million Mega Millions lottery ticket was sold at at The Magazine Store on......

Last night, a man carrying two handguns and over 100 rounds of ammunition shot and killed a pizzeria employee in Greenwich Village and fatally shot two unarmed auxiliary police officers, before responding police officers shot him on Bleecker Street. The slain counterman at DeMarco's Pizza is being described as Romero Morales or Alfredo Romaro (we will refer to him as Romaro). The auxiliary police officers were identified as 19-year-old Eugene Marshalik, a NYU student,......

That's kind of an obvious headline but it's true! Yesterday was 23 degrees below normal. Today will be nearly as cold, as if the high temperature makes it out of the teens. There's no wind to speak of, a gust reached 53 mph at JFK yesterday, so we don't have to contend with a wind chill. Our wind chill respite is but a temporary one. A second, albeit weaker, arctic air mass arrives tomorrow afternoon.......

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged 14 people in an insider trading ring that involved coded text messages on disposable cell phones, information from a Morgan Stanley lawyer, and secret meetings at the Oyster Bar. Wonder if they also shared information via the Whispering Gallery, too. The SEC says there were two schemes. One at UBS where an executive director gave tips to other traders for a share of the profits in cash. According......

Most New Yorkers love the Pepsi-Cola sign in Long Island City. But the for the new Queens West residents, the neon can be annoying. The NY Times spoke to tenants who live behind the sign:Like many of his neighbors in this new glass high-rise in Long Island City, Queens, [Yo Han] Cho is a newcomer to New York. When he first moved into his “humble room,” as he calls it, he did not quite......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: small fire at 110 Livingston Street in Brooklyn Heights, a special delivery (a lady had a baby in her apartment) in Queens and a double fatal three alarm fire in Bay Ridge. The cost of a hot-dog sales permit for the spot in front of the Metropolitan Museum costs $100,000 per year. Coming soon to a cab near you: touch screen LCDs. No video in the history of Extra,......

Possibly to pre-empt freaked out phone calls to 911, the production folks from the Will Smith film I Am Legend have alerted not only residents and businesses downtown and near the Brooklyn Bridge, but the major papers to to tell everyone not to freak out if they see Black Hawk helicopters, tanks, military activity, hundreds if not thousands of people, and lots of lights near the Brooklyn Bridge. Because it's just filming, not an......

If you were up and/or out earlier, you may have noticed fat, chunky snowflakes that didn't quite stick to the ground but did stick to the tops of cars and roofs and on tree branches. Brian at New York Daily Photo sent us this beautiful photograph of the snow at Washington Square Park that makes us happy. And copyranter found this juxtaposition of nature and commerce. However, the Department of Sanitation doesn't have anything......

Brian at New York Daily Photo took this picture of an albino Burmese python in Central Park. Apparently its owner was showing him (?) off, perhaps trying to harness some of the snake fever that's gripping the nation...okay, the Internet. But a Burmese python? We saw one at the American Museum of Natural History's Lizards & Snakes: Alive! exhibit, and they are insanely deadly! They are supposedly very popular to be bred for captivity,......

-- A Brooklyn marine - who was a NY State trooper - was killed in a Baghdad firefight last week; a Queens-born soldier was mortally wounded in the same fight -- Gawker hates itself and wants to die. And they hate fruit! Those bastards. -- Newark Mayor Cory Booker didn't waste any time: His spokesman says that debit and credit card records for former Mayor Sharpe James have been subpoenaed. -- According to Forgotten-NY,......