Results tagged “newyorkdailyphoto”

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.

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 that has been abused by families who may have other options, like staying with a friend or relative. From the NY Times:

The city had allowed families who had been ruled ineligible to be given shelter for one night if they reapplied after 5 p.m. Some families using this emergency provision would keep their belongings with them and repeat the process [see this earlier Times article], moving to a new shelter the next day, often late at night, the city said.

Continue reading "City Changes Homeless Policy, Critics Dismayed"

- Don't be a MetrotardAnd yeah, a lot of these are similar to advice you'd give tourists. But in some cases, these students are four-year tourists.

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.

• 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 as adults after breaking into a woman's Central Park West home and allegedly raping her four times each before fleeing.
• The Daily News reports on the progress of Reid Stowe and his girlfriend Soanya Ahmad, who are attempting to sail 1,000 consecutive days without making landfall. They left New York Harbor 100 days ago, so only 900 days left.
• Complaints about rude police officers have risen dramatically over the past six years, so programs are being instituted to improve and chronicle relations between cops and the public. Critics of the new programs say that cops have to be rude and mean to do their jobs effectively.
• Some reports claim that the area around South Street Seaport is being overrun by rats, as construction to replace a 150-year-old water main on Fulton St. have driven the pests into the street.
• The New York Times has a short video piece on the replacement of hot dog sidewalk pushcarts with halal food carts.
• A 30" alligator was found in a pillowcase on a Long Island beach this morning. The person who found the pillowcase was forewarned of its contents by the message written on the outside, which read "Live gator, please find him a home."

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 God’s name.”

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):

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 the school.

• 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 31st Street in Astoria, Queens. The winning numbers are 24, 32, 34, 36, and 39, with the Powerball number 6. Now go check your pockets.

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, and Nicholas Pekearo, 28. And the shooter was David Garvin, 50 (also described as being 32 year old). Mayor Bloomberg said, "It's a horrible night for the New York Police Department and the city."

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.

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.

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 understand.

Continue reading "Love or Hate The Pepsi-Cola Sign "

Hawk Fest, by Brian at New York Daily Photo.

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 actual invasion of zombies looking for an Oscar. While it'll be a pain in the ass, we prefer this to the crappy fake NYC backlots in Hollywood. Then again, we pray there are no actual emergencies to tend to while filming is tying things up - like another mercaptan smell that needs to be investigated.

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 to worry about: The sun is out now and everything is melting away. But at least we know winter is here.

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, but not to be total narc, but we think the Health Code prohibits Burmese pythons.

-- And some bad news, by way of Gothamist Contribute: "according to the militant-islamic calendar, tomorrow, august 22, 2006 is the end of the world." Guess there's no reason to rush out for more cat food tonight.