New York City residents send 5.2 billion plastic bags to landfills every year, according to a 2009 report by the Department of Sanitation. Though most of them are recyclable, they can't be included with the rest of the plastics put out for curbside recycling. In 2009, Mayor Bloomberg proposed a 5-cent fee on every plastic bag used by shoppers, but that died on the vine because City Council Speaker Christine Quinn opposed it. Now a state Assemblyman from Manhattan wants to up the ante to 25-cents a bag. more ›

It's been months since we last heard about Bloomberg's plastic bag tax plan, which was officially proposed last week—and since November the fee has gone down one cent (from 6 to 5 pennies). As the mayor seeks approval from Albany, CityRoom takes a closer look at some questionable figures estimating just how many plastic bags we use in the city. more ›

Will the plastic bag controversy ever end? With the recent news of Bloomberg pushing a plastic bag tax, The NY Times is the latest to take a look into the sordid grocery packaging habits of New Yorkers. Perhaps as some believe cigarettes should be, instead of a tax, they just need to be made illegal; even reusable grocery bag users are finding they accept a plastic bag here and there.

“I’d pick up 50 bags a week instead of 2 or 3 if I wasn’t conscious of it,” said Mr. Thrasher, 31, a freelance writer from Fort Greene, Brooklyn. “You’re always having a plastic bag put in your hand.”

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3. Brooklyn Bar Lures Drunks With Prizes: What will happen with Pacific Standard's Frequent Drinker Card Program? more ›

The best way to reuse plastic bags is to let your young children play with them! They make wonderful and amusing toys. A great favorite of all children is playing 'Spaceman', using a plastic bag as a make believe Flash Gordon style helmet!

Not everyone got an over-hyped "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" when it hit Whole Foods last year, so the powers that be had to step in and put an end to the bag's nemesis: The Plastic Bag! more ›

Yesterday the NY Post warned non-recyclers that they'd have to don a "scarlet litter" if they didn't clean up their acts. We hoped this "scarlet litter" would be a hat hand-crafted by a Freegan and worn atop the heads of the environmentally-challenged, but instead it's something much more sensible: a clear bag for all of your garbage that leaves little to the imagination. New York, we don't really want to see your trash, so please try to figure out this whole recycling thing, m'kay?

If warnings and summonses do not induce residents to separate their recyclables from the rest of the trash, the city will force them to put all their garbage into clear plastic bags and endure routine inspections. more ›

Robert Chambers, whose privileged Upper East upbringing earned the tabloid nickname "The Preppy Killer" when he killed a woman in 1986, was charged with 14 counts of selling and possessing drugs. Since two of the counts are for first-degree sale, which the Daily News reports carries 15-30 years, Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau said, "I would expect he would spend the rest of his life in jail." more ›

Clarence Dean, a registered sex offender in Florida and Alabama, was charged in the murder of a young woman whose body was found at a Times Square hotel. While cleaning a room on Thursday, a housekeeper at the Hotel Carter, on West 43rd Street near 8th Avenue, noticed some plastic bags under a bed and realized there was a body inside. Dean had checked out of the room on Wednesday. more ›

The police are questioning a man who had been registered a room in a West 43rd Street hotel where a woman's body was found on Thursday. Clarence Dean, a 35-year-old "fugitive" sex offender from Alabama, had checked out of the room 608 at the Hotel Carter, an inexpensive hotel near 8th Avenue popular with tourists. He was not charged with any crime, but police picked him up after seeing him at Park Avenue and East 55th Street last night. more ›

Every morning, Bobby Fish parks his busted up maroon Dodge van at the edge of a Hess Express parking lot on West 207th Street. He unloads his signs and opens his Coors Light umbrella. “Bobby Fish,” the signs proclaim, “El Rey Del Ceviche.” People call him the King- it's not just his own posterboard. The King pulls a few lawn chairs out of his van and sets them on the sidewalk. Behind him, a Harlem River breezes makes plastic bags fly through the air or snag on the barbed wire coil running the perimeter of the nearby subway yards fence. Finally, Bobby Fish sets up a folding table and cutting board; he readies his cooler near the tailgate for a day’s work. Amidst all the Tupperwared fresh neon juices carted around in bicycle baskets, kids with $1 Poland Spring waters running into traffic at stoplights, and the spiral-peeled oranges in ziploc bags claptrap is Bobby Fish with the most improbable summer street food of all: the King’s cooler is filled with clams. El Rey Del Ceviche is one of the very last raw bar street vendors in New York- $1 a piece for iced, medium sized cherrystone clams on the half shell. With minimal condiments (hot sauce, lime), a few bushels, and a perpetual smile, he manages to stay busy all day. more ›

Yesterday we mentioned London designer Anya Hindmarch's I'm Not A Plastic Bag was finally arriving at Whole Foods today. The canvas tote was made popular by a combination of things including celebrity and unavailability. Hindmarch told the NY Times “To create awareness you have to create scarcity by producing a limited edition. I hate the idea of making the environment trendy, but you need to make it cool and then it becomes a habit.” more ›

Scientific American has an fascinating feature An Earth Without People, not to mention these renderings of what the city might look like sans humans. The drawing above is what Fifth Avenue/St. Patrick's Cathedral would look like and the drawing below is what the subways would look like after just two days. more ›

Just in time for summer in the city, Time Matter Energy offers this Con Everyone shirt. It's a great gift idea for any friends who live in Queens! Con Ed did say they would have enough energy for this summer, but do you trust them? more ›

There's a fascinating NY Region op-ed in the NY Times. Written by Colin Beaven, Worms in the Apartment looks at how, for the first time in his life, Beaven has changed his life to reflect his belief:

For the year beginning last December, my wife, our 2-year-old daughter and I, while living in the middle of the city, are trying to survive without making any net impact on the environment. This means we’ll get as close as we can to creating no trash (so no takeout), emitting no carbon dioxide (so no driving or flying) and pouring no toxins in the water (so no laundry detergent), as well as mitigating impacts we can’t avoid (so planting trees). Not to mention: no elevators, subways, buying products in packaging, plastics, air-conditioning, TV or toilet paper.

One of the wonders of a nice fir tree for the holidays is that they can stay beautiful for a while. But the bummer is getting rid of the tree. The Department of Sanitation encourages city residents to clear out their trees by mid-January, as its annual Christmas tree curbside collection starts on Friday, January 5 an runs through Tuesday, January 16. Here's how it works:

Residents should remove all tree stands, tinsel, lights, and ornaments from holiday trees before they are put out at curbside for removal. Trees must not be placed into plastic bags. Clean, non-bagged Christmas trees that are left at the curb between Friday, January 5th and Tuesday, January 16th will be collected, chipped, and then mixed with leaves to make compost. The compost will be processed and subsequently spread upon parks, ball fields, and community gardens throughout the city. more ›

With free kayaking, many public events, a bustling boat basin, and runners, bikers and pedestrians on the move, Riverside Park is a vibrant destination - up to a point. The NY Times has an article about how the Frederick Olmsted-designed park seem much dingier, dirtier, and more dangerous above around 125th Street:

The park’s southern tier, which stretches some 266 acres along the river from 59th Street to 125th Street, has among its highlights immaculate lawns, sand volleyball courts, a preserve for bird watching, and tennis courts and baseball and soccer fields that have been resurfaced in the past 18 months. more ›

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One of our most commented-posts was the one about various scams that are pulled on people, especically on susceptible people unused to New York City-style hustle, grifts and cons. And many con artists do like to stalk areas that are flush with tourists and students. So we were pleased that all of the tips and scams our commenters had given us the first time around could benefit other people, such as reader Josh who sent us this email:

So I was hurriedly walking uptown on Broadway from 96th street to make a meeting with a professor--i was already late because they were running the 1 trains express and I decided it would be faster to walk to 116th rather than to go to 145 and then down again, local. As I passed 104th st, there was this couple, looking kind of down and out, he had a suitcase, and they were headed towards this payphone (ahead of me, to my right). As I sped up to pass them, the man bumped into me and dropped the black plastic bag he was carrying in his right hand. As I was on my phone at the time, i kept walking after saying sorry as I passed--it seemed like his fault. But I heard the lady calling, "Excuse me, excuse me!" after me... more ›

Jason Kottke has been travelling in Asia for the last week, and we've been following along via Flickr and his blog. All of his travel coverage is interesting, but he's doing particularly well spotting weird beverages-- including this Pepsi Coffee soda, and Fanta in a bag. The latter is particularly interesting: apparently street vendors in Bangkok pour the soda into a bag and stick in a straw-- this way they get to keep the recycling deposit. Something about this stuck in our head, and then Matt pointed out something similar in Canada: milk in a bag. Hmm! At Gothamist, two is definitely a trend, so we're going on record and predicting that by the end of 2006, all beverages in NYC will be served in plastic bags. Environmentally speaking, this is probably not a great step forward-- since plastic bags are just as terrible for the planet as plastic bottles. But maybe someone will come up with a biodegradable bag! That would be awesome, and then we could say "Hey dude, pass me that bag of Coke" and not worry about being misinterpreted. more ›

On Sundays, Gothamist puts its own opinions aside, and asks friends and strangers to write Op-Ed pieces for us. If you want to submit one, email Jake. Here's a review of Ian Frazier's new book, by Ben Cosgrove-- sounds like a winner to us: more ›

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Good morning, fellow commuters. In this new era of pro-active policing, we'd like to know your experience was taking the subway this morning (or last night, as we hear some searching starting then) - were you checked, did you see others checked, did it take any longer. Overall, subway riders realize they need to be checked and are okay with it, even though civil liberties groups question the legality of doing so. According to the Daily News, searches at Union Square took 5 to 30 seconds. Many of our readers felt similarly yesterday, even if some pointed out it "security theater": It's sort of like Homeland Security telling people to buy duct tape in case of biological attacks; what the duct tape will really do in the end, but if it makes you feel better to have some duct tape, by all means, buy some. more ›

Why do bodegas insist on putting everything in a brown bag, and what's with sometimes putting one item and its brown bag inside a plastic bag? more ›

The seamy details of murders were examined in the NY Times article about some recent discoveries of murdered bodies. The big news is that murderers are utilizing plastic bags more (versus steamer trunks in the old days), and that actually helps the NYPD identify the victims, not to mention figure out who might be behind the crime. Gothamist found this explanation from former chief medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden fascinating:

The plastic tends to preserve them for longer periods of time than if it had just been buried in the ground. A lot of destruction to a body comes from insects, maggots, rats and vermin, depending on where you are. The plastic is very good at preserving the tissues for longer periods of time. They can't tell the odor or they can't get to it. There are a lot of myths. In the old days they used to put bodies in lye. It turns out that lye, rather than destroy the body, preserves it, because it kills the bacteria and any insects. Plastic does the same thing.

- Robots are also helping out at the Convention, and they don't seem to be the evil I, Robot or HAL 2000 kind: The Coast Guard will be using new sonar to scan for suspicious activity underwater. Underwater - man, a new place to worry about. more ›

Laurie Woolever, Cook/Food Writer more ›