A video artist and teacher visiting from San Francisco claims she’s the latest victim of police harassment of photographers in New York – and this time the overzealous cop may have been acting on behalf of Forest City Ratner, the corporation behind the controversial Atlantic Yards project in downtown Brooklyn. Katherin McInnis tells Atlantic Yards Report that she was on the Pacific Street sidewalk shooting “blurry, arty video” of the rail yards on Sunday when......

The NY Post has a terrifying story of a Brooklyn man acting out his on-screen horror fantasies in Crown Heights. Back in November, Joseph Swaby, 22, attacked his roommate Jason Dixon (who he met in jail)...with "razor-fingered gloved hand à la Freddy Kruger"! The nightmare on Pacific Street began when Swaby thought Dixon had stolen for him. As one does when they think their roommate has lifted their money, he made him strip and then......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired on 166th St. and the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, a pedestrian struck at Berry St. and Division Ave. in Brooklyn, and a found body on Richmond Valley and Arthur Kill on Staten Island. Still searching for the Staten Island ninja burglar, police questioned New York Post photographer Ron Romano because of his ninja-like ability to tightrope walk. A huge hole in the middle of Brooklyn's Pacific......

Some 30 years after Landmarks Preservation Commission officials first explored landmarking Crown Heights, the Commission has granted landmark status to the architecturally-rich neighborhood. The Commission voted unanimously today to protect 472 buildings in Crown Heights North. The new district will run from Pacific Street to Dean St., Prospect Place and St. Mark’s Ave and from Bedford to Kingston avenues. The buildings in the district were built from the 1860s to the 1930s and the......

A NY State Supreme Court judge ruled that Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner must return two properties after deciding that the properties' tenant had improperly given them to the developer. You ask, how can a mere tenant sign over properties he doesn't even own to a developer for demolition? So do we! The properties in question are at 762-766 Pacific Street and 535 Carlton Avenue, an office building and a parking lot, owned by......

It’s another defining week for the Atlantic Yards. On Wednesday, the 8 million square-foot project faces one of its last hurdles: approval by the Public Authorities Control Board, the state oversight body that monitors Albany’s fiscal commitments to projects like the Yards. PACB votes have derailed large-scale projects before, most notably last year when Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver and Joseph Bruno, the Senate majority leader, killed the West Side Stadium plan. Of course, it’s no......

+ Architecture Research Office's climate change-influenced entry is a finalist for the History Channel's "City of the Future" design contest (right). Flooded pockets of Manhattan are called "Inundation Zones." + 250 Bowery, designed by FLAnk, has a "haunting, post-industrial vibe." The exterior's made of corten. + The battle over Washington Square Park's redesign continues. At issue: Was Department of Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe's verbal promise to make the fountain plaza no less than......

The ING New York City Marathon is just five days away, and many people are probably thinking about their viewing strategies. The marathon website has different suggestions for watching the professional marathoners and friends and family. If you're cheering someone on, the ING NYC marathon suggests:Mile 8 in Brooklyn , where the three starts converge, is a great place to catch runners looking fresh for photographs. A variety of subways can get you there:......

Time Out New York came out with their Cheap Eats issue this week and they certainly took no shame in taunting New York Magazine. Time Out's cover is virtually identical to NY Mag's, with reversed colors, down to the box highlighting their star rating system, except that Time Out calls it's issue "The Real Cheap Eats." TONY gleefully notes that "absolutely everything" on their list is under $20, clearly taking a stab at NY Mag's......

Public hearings tend to be impassioned and last night's Atlantic Yards gathering was no exception. With three community board hearings held simultaneously in different locales, we opted, sans body armor, for the homey confines of Community Board 6 (where we happen to live). And yet, sitting among a crowd of just 60 in the sterile Long Island College Hospital conference room with pale pink walls, a blank blackboard and a television with AV-style accouterments......

-- Life imitates Sleepless in Seattle-- but people still get more play in Brooklyn. -- Young professionals are flocking to post-college dormitory in Harlem. Prediction: suicide rate in Harlem is about to skyrocket. -- Here's a classic Travis Ruse shot of a cute girl at the Pacific Street station. -- It's Guiliani time: Rudy "seriously considering" run for president. -- Paaaaaaardon? Soup Nazi is opening 50 restaurants in Britain! -- High gas prices are......

An interesting article in the Daily News about how investigators are still pursuing other arson cases that have plagued Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Six fires from January to April claimed four lives and displaced 100 people, and many theories abound - from mortgage fraud to redevelopment fever. And three fires on Pacific Street were all started by an accelerant. Some people have claimed that these fires aren't getting enough attention (apparently some resources......

The Times has a good article about the traffic nightmare that occurs at the intersection of Flatbush, Atlantic, and Fourth Avenues in Brooklyn, and comes up with some great facts: During the commuter rush, as many as 4,600 vehicles pass through the intersection every hour, according to the city's Department of Transportation. Hundreds more join the flow toward the intersection from Fourth Avenue, which cuts across Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues to the west, servicing......