A 12-year-old boy died after apparently playing a game of chicken on a parking lot gate in Brooklyn. According to the Daily News, Yakim McDaniels was on the roll-down gate when, around 4:30 p.m., "a car moved to leave the lot and the horrific accident occurred." A witness explained, "The gate is automatic, the car was coming out and the gate started rising." Yakim was trapped—his hand and then apparently his upper body was caught in the gate. more ›

Besides paying higher fares, NJ Transit riders will have this to look forward to: Higher parking lot fees. The agency wants to raise fees by approximately $1/day According to the Star-Ledger, "Agency officials...said fees at many of its 140 parking lots have not increased in more than five years, while utilities, insurance and other costs of maintaining them keep going up." A NJ Transit spokesperson said, "We do understand that these are tough economic times for our customers. [But] we want to be able to provide them with quality facilities, and we need to offset the expense of providing parking." more ›

An Islamic center-owned piece of real estate is causing a controversy in Long Island—and the center doesn't even want to build anything on it! The Hillside Islamic Center wants to expand its currently 19-space parking lot, so it asked the North Hempstead zoning board "for a variance to convert residential property into a parking lot that would create 18 spaces." Cue non-New York candidates to seize this issue and call it a "victory parking lot"! more ›

Sorry, slowpokes: Newsday reports, "The State Parks police closed access to the Jones Beach parking lots at 10:45 a.m., spokesman George Gorman said. The lots filled quickly this morning with heavy beach traffic, he said." Or, as one Twitter user puts it, "omfg its only 10:40 and jones beach is closed cuz the parking lots are full!!!! wow" more ›

Police have charged parents Karill Savery, 30, and Leonardo Reyes, 34, with endangering the welfare of a child after they left their 8-month-old son in a parking lot on East 161st Street in the Bronx yesterday. Ezra Isiah Reyes, left in a stroller, was spotted by sunglass vendors sitting outside the courthouse, who brought him into the DA's office. Vendor Lorenzo Carse told the Daily News, "I'm a father. How could somebody leave their child like that?" Actually, they simply forgot. more ›

If city residents drove as often as the rest of America (or, let's face it, if as many of them had drivers licenses), we'd need a 25 sq. mile parking lot to fit all the cars. According to a new city commissioned study, there would be 4.5 million more cars clogging up rush hour traffic if New Yorkers drove the same amount as folks in other metropolitan centers. Well, maybe it's high time we put that giant useless space in the middle of Manhattan to good use? more ›

Downtown Brooklyn isn't only getting a Barneys, a Trader Joe's and an Urban Outfitters... it's also getting a more artistic mark of gentrification: public art. The Daily News reports that there are plans to turn an old parking lot at Hoyt and Schermerhorn Streets (rendering at right), into an art-themed park, covering up eyesores with installations. But not everyone is happy (of course)—some longtime merchants in the area are reportedly feeling squeezed out. One small business owner said, "Eventually there'll be no small stores left. They're making it harder and harder to operate a business." And about that Barneys moving in? One local said, "When I think Barneys, I think of SoHo and Chelsea and all that pretension. That's one of the things I like about living in Brooklyn, it's not pretentious." Yet! more ›

Police arrested a 48-year-old man suspected of taking over a city-owned parking lot in Lower Manhattan when it was closed and charging drivers to park their cars. Brooklynite Steven Pappas is accused of breaking into the South Street parking facility on at least two weekend days in September, putting a sign outside, and asking motorists for $10 per day for a parking spot, according to the Post. more ›

Earlier today, a small plane—carrying a flight instructor and a student pilot—crashed at the Rockaway Townsquare Mall parking lot in NJ. The Record reports that plane "[crushed] its nose gear... bringing it within 100 yards of JC Penney. The plane departed from Essex County airport and shortly after takeoff the pilot reported a rough running engine. He then tried to put the plane down in the mall parking lot, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said." more ›

Mike Frumin at frumination created this map to illustrate what NYC would look like if there were no NYC subway. Specifically, it would need a lot of parking spaces. He recently wondered, after receiving subway passenger count data, " What would it take in terms of auto facilities to replace the morning rush hour carrying capacity of the NYC subway?" more ›

Police are still trying to figure out where the shot came from and if it was intended for the police officer it struck in the chest in Bed-Stuy (not Bushwick) yesterday. The 34-year-old unnamed cop was stepping outside the 81st precinct when he heard a gun go off and came back into the station to tell fellow officers, "I think I've been shot." The bullet was easily absorbed by the officer's bulletproof vest and no one else nearby heard the shot go off, leading police to believe that this was a pellet gun or low-level firearm. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said, “Metal fragments, or fragments of the projectile, were taken out of the plate of the vest. This is something that did not penetrate the vest.” Police have been searching the area around the station house for any abandoned guns, but did not say that there were any suspects yet. more ›

The Bicycle Access Bill requiring commercial landlords to let office workers bring bikes inside office buildings wasn't the only bike-friendly law passed by the City Council last week. Less noticed was Intro. 780, the Bicycle Parking Bill. If signed by Mayor Bloomberg, it will require the operator of every garage and parking lot with a capacity of one-hundred or more cars to provide and maintain parking spaces for bikes. (And in two years, garages and lots with 51 or more spaces will have to provide bike parking.) The law mandates one bike spot for every 10 motor vehicle spots. more ›

The boss is never going to believe this one: A report just came in over the police scanners about an "unusual occurrence" in a parking lot at East 128th Street between Park and Lex, where police have been summoned because "people are unable to get to their cars due to 10-15 very large rats in the parking lot." And so it begins; the day we've all dreaded when a master race of rats form organized battalions to take over the city once and for all. Well, Gothamist, for one, welcomes our new rodent overlords, and we look forward to seeing them show the current administration how real rats run a city. Viva la Rat! more ›

All good things must come to an end, and so might Darren Miller's decade long scam of turning nearly 10 acres of city land into his own personal cash cow. Brooklyn DA, Charles J. Hynes, addressed the press yesterday (video at NY1) saying that Miller gave “new meaning to the word chutzpah," while Miller himself faces prosecution on charges on trespassing, illegally dumping, and dismantling cars without a license, according to the NY Times. more ›

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. more ›

THEATER: Though some might balk at an outdoor performance in this muggy, thunderstormy weather, The Drilling CompaNY's version of As You Like It, the next installment of Shakespeare in the Park(ing) Lot (directed by Jesse Ontiveros), is bound to exude enough cool to counteract the waves of heat rising from the asphalt. It also helps if you show up with your own chair so you don't have to exert yourself in a scuffle to nab one of the limited number available there. - Mallory Jensen more ›

Last year, getting off the subway and taking the usual shortcut through the parking lot home, we stumbled upon a Shakespearean production. Right there, in the glow of the early evening, in a parking lot. It was part of the annual free summer Shakespeare in the Park(ing) Lot series. more ›