Last night the first of two meetings to discuss the future plans of (the recently landmarked) McCarren Park Pool took place. The NYC Department of Parks & Recreation and architects Rogers & Marvel unveiled their plans and how they will spend Mayor Bloomberg’s $50 million. The initial press release listed: renovating McCarren Park Pool for swimming, creating a year-round recreation center, and preserving and restoring the historic bathhouse building and entry arch, as top priorities......

A 17-year-old student at Massapequa High School died of bacterial meningitis yesterday. Michael Gruber had gone to bed with flu-like symptoms on Wednesday and on Thursday morning his parents were unable to wake him up. He died at New Island Hospital. Gruber was also in the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Youth basketball league and worked part-time at a King Kullen in Massapequa Park. The Nassau County Health Department is notifying people who had close......

On the front page of the NY Times section A, there was a photograph of some workers in Haoro, India and an article titled "New York Manhole Covers, Forged Barefoot in India." And in fact, the workers are barefoot, bare-chested, bare-handed, and bare-headed as they work in an iron foundry, making manhole covers for Con Ed and other cities. The Times explains that a photographer, J. Adam Huggins, who works with the newspaper brought......

The Nor'easter that drenched - and flooded - the Northeast with inches of rain has headed out. Many homes in the area were flooded and pummeled by winds; the NY Times adds that though the storm is gone, rivers are "still rising, swollen by the runoff of record rains." Residents in some suburbs were evacuated and thousands of people are without power: NY Governor Spitzer noted the devastation, while acting NJ Governor Richard Codey......

When David Clarke of Queens received information from a bank about a $180,000 second mortgage on his Rosedale house - a mortgage he never applied for - he decided to contact the police. And Queens authorities found a Brooklyn couple who had been using Clarke's identity to buy a home in Long Island. Yesterday, the Queens D.A.'s office charged Emerick and Donna Martin with identity theft, second-degree grand larceny, first-degree scheme to defraud and much......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: Intoxicated students at a Queens high school, a water rescue near East 14th in the East River, and a body was found in Van Cortlandt Park Subway Stickman, or how to turn gum on the ground into floor art Because of the Minuteman Brawl, the College Republicans at Columbia will get a refund from the university The NYPD has decided to have an outside firm examine its stop-and-frisk procedures,......

In week 2 of the NYC Department of Education's busted school bus route changes, parents are still complaining and the media is loving it. There's 5 year old Michelle Baum in the Post today, waiting outside in the freezing weather for her bus. And the hotline the DOE has been directing parents to seems to be just as bad: In yesterday's Daily News, there was 11 year old Eleanor Shanahan whose family was told a......

Business must be rough for Karl Kemp Antiques if Karl Kemp is suing four homeless people for $1 million. Kemp claims that "John Smith," "John Doe," "Bob Doe," and "Jane Doe" are sullying his stretch of Madison Avenue (his store is 833 Madison Avenue, at 69th) and scaring off customers." His lawsuit claims the group has been "consuming alcoholic beverages from open bottles, performing various bodily functions such as urinating or spitting on the sidewalk,......

If you drive into the city from Queens or Long Island, it might be worth your while to stop by Shea Stadium today between 10AM and 2PM. Why? Because the NYC Department of Transportation is trying to relieve holiday gridlock by giving 350 $4 Metrocards to commuters who park at Shea and will use mass transit today, next Wednesday (December 27) and January 3. This is supposed to be part of the DOT's holiday traffic......

As you celebrate Thanksgiving with your friends and family, Gothamist Health wants you to feel reassured that your government is concerned for your well-being. We saw this strange poster at the Manhattan Veterans Hospital earlier this week encouraging our vets to go ahead and get tested for HIV. This is all well and good as we know our vets pick up more than just horrible memories and mistrust of our leaders while overseas. But......

-- Holy bajesus-- if you thought the Atlantic Yards plans were bad, you need to check out the documents on the Williamsburg Edge project. Or screw it-- just move to Philly. -- The prosecutor who got demoted for saying Brooklyn has "more dead bodies per square inch than anybody else" sued and got damages! -- Even a priest on his way to performing last rites gets a parking ticket, raising concerns about the NYPD's......

Bedbugs are horrible and gross and nothing that anyone should have to deal with. That said, it's probably not a great idea to douse your mattress with gasoline in order to repel the critters. The FDNY has found a number of Queens residents who have taken to soaking their mattresses with gasoline - even children's mattresses - as a foolproof way of getting rid of bedbugs. Or even wiping it on themselves. Battalion Chief Robert......

Recent SVA graduate and filmmaker, Derek Lake, was the bicyclist killed by a truck at Houston Street and Laguardia yesterday. And while initial witness accounts pointed to Lake trying to squeeze between a truck and construction site, Transportation Alternatives says that a metal construction plate, a familiar site along gutted Houston Street, may have had something to do with the accident. From their press statement (PDF): The metal street plate is in violation of......

Awesome - that sound some British company developed to repel teenagers from hanging outside convenience stores is now a cellphone ring tone that teens are using at school. Since many schools frown on cells in the classroom, this seems tp be a way for kids to get away with being connected. But the NY Times offered this lesson: Recently, in classes at Trinity and elsewhere, some students have begun testing the boundaries of their new......

Even though that strange maple syrup scent that pervaded the air a few months back has left, our fair city’s less-than-fair air may be making our kids dumber. A new Columbia University study, which tracked 183 3-year-olds from Harlem, Washington Heights, and the South Bronx, finds that kiddies exposed to high levels of air pollution in the womb have higher rates of mental deficiencies. Women in the study were asked to wear air pollution monitors......

The city's new health curriculum will require teachers to start to explain what HIV is to their students starting on Monday. Even kindergarteners will be learning that HIV is a "germ" and "not easy to get," per the Daily News. If the city has figured out a way to make children understand that HIV is not necessarily a death sentence and may just be another illness that people can live with, way to go -......

Someone marked this pretty panoramic picture on Delicious, and the title of the page says "newyork/building/1900_sky.jpg". We're guessing that means it's a skyline shot of NYC taken in 1900, but for the life of us, we can't figure out exactly where it was taken, or identify the buildings in the shot. Can you? [Related: for beautiful historic NYC photos, we recommend the NYC Department of Records site-- lots of the photos can be ordered......

The Department of Health has relaunched its restaurant inspection look-up website, so it'll be easier for New Yorkers to know how clean or unclean restaurants they frequent are...or maybe confirm why there are some restaurants you avoid. Gothamist gave it a test run last night and we have to say it is must easier to navigate than the old site: Now you can search by category, borough, violations, name, zip code. There are quite a......

The Port Authority is adding bomb shields to the George Washington Bridge. And we say "All right!" because when the bombs hit, we'll be fleeing to NJ and expect the tunnels to be flooded. The Daily News says that these are "first such bulwarks to appear on a New York-area bridge" - they will be shields around parts of the bridge's cables. The NYC Department of Transportation and MTA have made plans to reinforce other......

Given the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's attempt to get pet owners to stop smoking, by alerting them to the fact that pets can get sick from our vices, Gothamist spent some time talking to pets we know or just see on the street. They gave us a few other suggestions for living life:From dogs: - Spill more food onto the floor - it doesn't matter if you get cockroaches, because I'll eat......

If you are thinking about clearing out some of your stuff, there's no better resource for disposal and recycling questions than the NYC Department of Sanitation's "How do I Dispose of..." page. We've literally spent hours clicking around-- they tell you how to get rid of pretty much anything you might have in your house. For instance, just the "S's": Salad Bar Container.. see how to dispose of Household Non-Recyclables Shampoo Bottle... see how to......

Every now and then, even Gothamist has to stay home and nurse that fever, runny nose, and cough that comes with the perennial flu. And with the Chiron Corporation (Emeryville, CA), the major global producer of the flu vaccine, announcing that it might not meet its expected output this year, getting your annual shot may prove tough to find. Though more doses will be manufactured this year than in 2004, demand will likely again......

Just in time for Halloween, The City has apparently climbed aboard the paranormal bandwagon led by TV shows like Lost and Supernatural. In a new smoking cessation campaign aimed at raising awareness of the dangers of smoking, posters such as the one above (click image to enlarge), showing family portraits where one relative is fading into the background, will be plastered on subway billboards in Chinatown and Chinese print media. The tagline will read: "Don't......

Wither the McDonald's fries and black and white cookies? The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene want to Take the Trans Fat Out of New York! It's a big initiative to prevent cardiovascular disease, and the goal is lofty: To get NYC food establishments from restaurants to supermarkets to stop using or selling partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. Yes, we're talking trans fats which makes foods shelf stable (think the bag of Oreos or bag......

The NYC Department of Health issued a drinking water advisory after the yesterday's flooding may have affected NYC's Hillview reservoir. The DoH says that "higher than normal levels of particles" have been detected in the water supply. While that water has been diverted, they ask that "infants, the elderly, pregnant women and New Yorkers with conditions that compromise their immune systems– those with HIV/AIDS, especially those with CD4 counts less than 200; those with leukemia;......

Pity poor Gothamist, this time last week we were enjoying our last day in pleasantly cool Alaska, writing our name in the snow, only to return to the tropical steambath that New York has become. The steam is going to be around for a couple more days, with tomorrow being more unpleasant than today. Conditions may be ripe tomorrow for an official heat advisory. Today, though, the Weather Service is just giving us a friendly......

The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will give the first 45,000 callers to 311 free nicotine patches, as part of a campaign to help New Yorkers stop smoking. The Daily News says the Pfizer-donated kit includes "a six-week course of nicotine patches, instructions, educational information and online support." Health Commissioner Thomas Friedan says the 2003 free-nicotine-patch program helped 11,000 New Yorkers quit smoking, but Gothamist isn't sure if there's follow-up after that; he......

The wrinkle in the wonderful news that NYC schools do deserve billions of dollars in extra funding gets more focus today, as the media wonders how NY State will shoulder shelling out billions more each year to the state's (and country's) largest school system. Besides deep budget cuts, other possibilities involve raising or keeping taxes, like raising the surcharge tax on incomes of more than $100,000 ($150,000 for couples) or keeping the sales tax......

According to preliminary findings from the World Trade Center Health Registry, people who were near the WTC on September 11 or worked in the recovery effort have had respiratory and/or psychological problems. Yes, it's no huge surprise considering what happened (the city's two tallest buildings, two commercial airplanes, thousands of people), but the NYC Department of Health calls the findings confirmation that "tens of thousands of registry enrollees reported significant respiratory and mental health symptoms."......

This is one excellent way the city is using old tax records: The city took photographs of every house and building in the five boroughs between 1939 and 1941, and now these photographs are for sale. Go to the NYC Department of Records Tax Photographs page and learn how you can get a picture - you need to know the exact lot number and official block number of the building (of course that information isn't......