Earlier this week, the Post reported that "high-profile" Bronx Republican Fred Brown, who is a GOP district leader in the Bronx and votes there, actually lives in Battery Park City in lower Manhattan. Which means he's been voting in the Bronx illegally. Now, the Bronx's DA's office is investigating the matter. Brown, who is also chairman of the National Black Republican Council and would have been a delegate for Rudy Giuliani if had stayed in......

An appeals court ruled that a doctor who had been missing before September 11, 2001 died during the World Trade Center attacks. The family of Dr. Sneha Anne Philip, last seen at Century 21 on September 10, had in courts for years trying to do so. Previously, a court-appointed guardian implied the 31-year-old doctor led a dangerous lifestyle, because she, per the Post, "frequented bars (including several bars that cater to women customers) and spent......

Plans to renovate Pier A, the last remaining pier on the lower west side, are staggering forward again. The Victorian-era three-story pier was built immediately after the Brooklyn Bridge, using much of the same equipment, and was once one of the city’s proudest points of entry, boasting visits from boldface names like Amelia Earhart and the Queen of England. Today it’s a dilapidated eyesore that clashes with the rest of the lavishly rehabilitated west......

After months and months of delays, the BAM Cultural District may be moving forward. The NY Times is reporting that city officials have chosen Harlem-based developer and Brooklyn resident Carlton Brown to create what the Times' Terry Pristin calls the "cultural district's centerpiece." This is the first Brooklyn project for Brown, who developed the Kalahari and 1400 on Fifth in Harlem and the Solaire, the city's first residential green building, in Battery Park City. The......

Yesterday morning's rain caused a recently installed sewer main to burst, flooding the basement and parking garage of a Battery Park City luxury apartment building. Water levels reached up to 20 feet. Not only were car owners greeted with news that their vehicles were either submerged or floating on top of sewer water, hundreds of tenants at 90 West Street were evacuated. Fire officials explained that, per WNBC, "rain flooded a re-routed sewer pipe,......

It's the not the first time the government has wasted lots of money and it won't be the last, but the Daily News special investigation into former Governor Pataki's never-built Museum of Women is great proof of how bureaucracy sucks. Originally conceived to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Women's Rights Convention in Seneca, the museum would have been at the south end of Battery Park City. Various grants were directed to the commission (chaired......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck at White Plains Rd. and 219th St. in the Bronx, an animal incident on Rochelle Pl. on Staten Island, and a hate crime at Columbia University in Manhattan. A tour of Jam Master Jay's studio, where the rap impressario was gunned down five years ago. A brief update on the unforgettable case where a man beat the bejeezus out of a grunting and yelping spin class......

Developer Charles J. Urstadt, the man behind the creation of Battery Park City in the 1970s, is eager to duplicate the feat further north up the Hudson by creating an additional 40 to 50 acres of Manhattan real estate. How? Well, by depositing fill dredged from Lower New York Bay. Urstadt estimates that the city could create land for $75 a square foot that could be worth $2,000 to $3,000 a square foot when developed......

The Sundance Institute at BAM Brooklyn Academy of Music For the second year in a row, BAM has teamed up with the Sundance Institute in Park City, Utah to bring a selection of innovative film, theater and music programming to Brooklyn audiences. Last night the series kicked off with a screening of the adorable Son of Rambow, an audience favorite from the '07 festival in January about two English school boys in the '80s creating......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: Reptiles on 39th Avenue and 111th Street in Queens, a person shot at Boyland and Sumpter in Brooklyn and police are searching the water near Battery Park City because a woman threw a baby carriage into the Hudson; it's unclear if a baby was in it, but dietrich on Flickr has pictures of the search Apparently police are investigating whether the children - including a 22-year-old Parsons grad -......

The U.N. invited Pope Benedict XVI to NYC earlier this year and the pontiff just accepted. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon extended the invite recently and the pope agreed to an as-yet-unscheduled visit. The previous pope, John Paul II, visited New York twice, in 1979 and again in 1995. His first visit was frenetic in a manner that belied the man's later physical frailty: He headed first to the United Nations, where he met......

In yet another sign that the state and city government want big business at the redeveloping area near the World Trade Center, the NY Times reports that JPMorgan Chase is "in negotiations...to build a 1.3 million-square foot skyscraper." And not only would thousands of employees move from Midtown (277 Park Ave.; the bank would keep 270 Park), the skyscraper would be at 130 Liberty St. - where the toxic Deutsche Building is being dismantled.Chase wants......

If things have seemed quiet at the usual New York haunts of movie folks like Film Forum or Grey Dog Coffee this last week, it's because practically the whole community is in Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival. The annual launching pad of many subsequently huge independent features (see this year's Best Picture Oscar nom and last year's festival break out, Little Miss Sunshine), Sundance is a crazy week. Parties, swag, deal-making and......

At the Sundance Film Festival, the film Waitress will premiere this afternoon. Written and directed by Adrienne Shelly. Last November, Shelly had been waiting to hear whether her film was going to be accepted by the Sundance Film Festival when she was found dead in a the Greenwich Village apartment building she had an office in. Initially, police suspected Shelly killed herself, since her body was found hanging from shower rod, but her family......

Yesterday, people headed to to Battery Park City to sign one of the steel beams bound for Freedom Tower. Dina LaFond, whose daughter died on September 11, told NY1, "This is going to be part of the structure that's supporting the building. So those names are going to be forever inscribed in the way the building's actually holding up. It's not just the physics and steel that's holding the building up but people's ideas......

In another sign that progress is being made at the World Trade Center site, the first of the steel beams to be used in the building of the Freedom Tower will be on display at Battery Park City tomorrow. Starting at 10 a.m. relatives of 9/11 victims and first responders will be able to sign the thirty-ton beam. Between noon and 3 p.m. the public will be allowed to also sign the beam, which......

The NY State Commission on Healthcare facilities recommended closing nine hospitals in the state in order to save $1.5 billion. Five are in New York City: St. Vincent's Midtown and Cabrini Medical Center in Manhattan; Victory Memorial in Brooklyn; New York Westchester Square Medical in the Bronx; and Pakway Hospital in Queens. In addition to the recommended closures, the panel recommended that some facilities (ten of which are in the city) be merged with other......

Sometimes we think deputy mayor Dan Doctoroff is a little nuts. Take for instance his newest brain-child: The New York Harbor District. Whereas most official districts in the city are defined by geographic proximity and commercial interests the Harbor district, which recently formed an advisory board and is seeking a director and consultants to help define it, will include Governors Island, the Statue of LIberty, Ellis Island, parts of the Brooklyn waterfront and Battery......

-- Some amusing news from John Gotti Jr's third trial-- he's been working on a children's book: "On one page, a cute tiger locked in a cage weeps at the site of a steaming cauldron that burns before him." -- Here's a never-before-released video of the WTC attacks taken from a tower in Battery Park City North. But beware: it's very graphic. -- Celebrities and fashionistas commemorated 9-11 the only way they know how:......

Or, as in the amNew York cover story, it's G for "Good Grief," but we think it's also G for "Gosh Darn It" or "Godawful" or "Give Me a Freaking Break." The article lists a litany of the sadness that is the G line: - Only 4 cars - "Only runs its full route after sunset and on weekends" - Lots of track work on the weekends, further screwing up service - Smells like sewageAnd......

-- Some horrible New Jersey douchebags massacred 50 seagulls on Tuesday night. Let's hope the gulls figure out a way to get even. -- Speaking of massacres, the P.S. 64 facade is being hammered off this weekend. The demolition of St. Brigid's, however, has been stayed by a judge. -- Huzzah: Jesse Oxfeld is no longer sleeping in the gutter! He's now going to be sleeping in the offices of New York Magazine. --......

Today's NY Times article about the current shaping of Hudson River Park and how it was inspired by the failed Westway project. Westway would have meant a landfill extension into the Hudson along the West Side Highway much like Battery Park City (and with its mix of residential and commercial space) - and the highway would have been built underground, as the highway was crumbling. New York Voices has a good site explaining it,......

Nearly two inches of rain fell on Central Park during the wee hours this morning. We are getting a break until tomorrow morning as the long tentacle of rain plows up against the ridge to our east and stalls out. The Weather Service is saying drizzle, showers and maybe a thunderstorm are on tap for tomorrow. The Weather Channel says "no way", calling for cloudy skies in the morning and a peak of sun tomorrow......

- The Tram is running again. Without passengers, of course. - The Archdiocese has spared 6 schools, but 9 will still close. - And we quote: "Here's one garbage man who's got junk in his trunk." - In March Hillary Clinton "doled out $213,000 to fellow Senate candidates and Democratic parties in key states." - Meanwhile, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn wants a raise. - In other news, the Battery Park City Authority is......

It's been a busy week out in Park City, Utah as the 2006 Sundance Film Festival draws to a close this weekend. Most New Yorkers are uninterested in the daily screenings and sales at Sundance unless you're in the "industry," but Gothamist finds the whole spectacle sort of fascinating because the festival is such a great prognosticator of what will be hot in indie cinema in the coming year. A few premieres we've been excited......

If it's January, it must be Sundance when the city's movers and shakers in the film industry descend into Park City. And why not, since there are tons of art house cinemas here, as well as indie movie companies and indie movies being shot here. However, the Reeler, aka S.T. VanAirsdale, is out in Sundance and posted this photograph of a car over there that shows how the other half lives - that is,......

Josh Selig, Little Airplane Productions...

We enjoyed last Sunday's "The Hunt" column in the NY TImes about Cragslists once again bringing roommates together. And we loved the photograph of one roommate's cat, Belvedere (right). Then we started to realize that we see lots of cats in "The Hunt" - as well as other pets, but mostly cats. A few felines we found Jorge the cat (and his owner James) in Greenpoint, Gabriel the cat (and owner Martha) on the Upper......

I need a few large pieces of plexiglass for a project I'm working on. Don't ask, but I'm talking big. Short of hauling my butt out to some godforsaken suburban Home Depot, do you know of any place in the city where I could get something like this? - Pat, Battery Park City While many people are aware of places such as Restaurant Row or the Garment District, not too many people realize that......

So this had already been kinda mentioned, but in case you were worried what Bloomberg and Dan Doctoroff were going to focus on next now that the West Side Stadium and the Olympics are dead (and assuming Blooms wins the election) the Daily News has the answer for you: Governors Island. Doctoroff has told the News that development proposals for the 172 acre Island, separated from Brooklyn by the buttermilk channel (you learn something new......