Results tagged “race”

For the first time ever, black, Latino, and Asian politicians will outnumber white politicians in the City Council. In last night's election, minority candidates secured 28 seats while white candidates won 23, according to the Daily News. Currently in the Council, white politicians outnumber minorities 26 to 25.

In the wake of Meb Keflezighi's stunning NYC Marathon victory on Sunday — the first win by an American citizen since 1982 — a battle has erupted in the running world over whether or not the Eritrean-born athlete qualifies as an American runner. Though he didn't start training or running competitively until he immigrated to the United States at age 12, many claim the Keflezighi should be considered an East African runner because of his heritage, the Times reports.

The Rent is Too Damn High Party just cannot catch a break. Besides being shockingly omitted from last night's debate, Mayoral candidate Jimmy McMillan has had to stand by and watch the Board of Elections cut the d-word from his party's name, stripping it of all its cachet. And now an internal rift in the party has forced McMillan to turn his back on the Rent Is Too Damn High nominee for comptroller—and instead endorse his Democratic rival.

President Obama attempted to quiet down the intense discussion over his remarks about Harvard academic Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s arrest by making a "surprise" appearance during a press briefing and telling reporters that he called Cambridge police sergeant James Crowley, who arrested Gates, "I have to tell you that, as I said yesterday, my impression of him is that he was an outstanding police officer...and that was confirmed in the phone conversation... In my choice of words, I unfortunately gave the impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sergeant Crowley specifically." He also apparently invited Crowley to the White House for a beer—with Gates as well.

After pointedly saying he believed the Cambridge, Massachusetts police acted stupidly to arrest Harvard academic Henry Louis Gates Jr. for disorderly conduct in his own home, President Obama only ended up fanning the flames of the controversy. The GOP and police officials criticized him while questions were raised about how much racial progress has been made in the country. Obama defended his remarks last night on Nightline, saying, "I have to say I am surprised by the controversy surrounding my statement, because I think it was a pretty straightforward commentary that you probably don't need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane, who's in his own home."

In an Op-Ed in today's Times explaining his aborted mayoral campaign, Rep. Anthony Weiner explains that, unsurprisingly, Mayor Bloomberg's godly fortune had a little something to do with it: "The Supreme Court decision in 1976 in Buckley v. Valeo, which allows candidates to spend however much they want on their own races, makes it possible for billionaires to swamp middle-class candidates. In this case, a sports analogy is apt: If one football team has 110 players on the field, the team with 11 has a hard time getting through the blocking and tackling on the crowded turf."

After suspending his mayoral campaign in March, representative Anthony Weiner has decided to drop out of the race for the Democratic nomination, according to a scoop in City Hall News. Democratic Party officials have been increasingly throwing their support behind Controller William Thompson—with the notable exception of Long Island Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat, who today announced her endorsement of Mayor Bloomberg. Weiner spent Memorial Day weekend attending three parades, a burst of activity that could have been interpreted as campaign appearances, but a source tells City Hall News that Weiner will formally announce his withdrawal tomorrow. His exact reasons for dropping out are not yet known, but Bloomberg's God-like affluence certainly played a factor. Though the Post had been gleefully attacking the six-term congressman in recent months, it's doubtful their smears broke his will to run; as the Daily News puts it, Weiner "wakes up in the morning looking for a fight." His withdrawal leaves just Thompson and Council Member Tony Avella to fight over the Democratic nomination.

      

Every year Transportation Alternatives holds a commuter race to Manhattan between a cyclist, a subway rider, and a motorist to promote the efficacy of cycling. And every year the cyclist wins. When will the gaming commission investigate T.A.? The only difference today between the outcome of last year's race was that this year the car commuter came in dead last, taking 47 minutes, 11 seconds to get from Sunnyside to Columbus Circle in a taxi. Coming in second was NYC transit rider Dan Hendrick, who crossed the finish line in 35 minutes, 16 seconds.

At 11 o'clock Saturday night—while the bourgeois sheep are filing their nails watching whatever season of Mad About You Netflix delivered to keep them meek and complacent—a group of cyclists are going to be living life to the fullest by competing in a gnarly unauthorized brakeless bike road race through Red Hook. According to Bike Blog NYC, the 2nd annual Red Hook Criterium will be held on a "quarter-mile course which features several hairpin turns, a fast sprint through the parking lot of a chain retailer, a cobblestone stretch, and a sprint finish." Organizer David August Trimble elaborates: "Last year was perfect. Not too big but the racing was intense but safe without any crashes. I couldn’t believe the pace that we completed the race at." The winner after 16 laps gets $300, but because "bus and automobile traffic on the course... is a near-certainty, " anyone who survives should be considered a winner. As for the exact location, you'll have to do some digging, or just follow that distinctive bike messenger smell. (And study this crazy video for a warm-up.)

            

Yesterday around 2 p.m. New York's first Ice Box Derby went down in Central Park. Sure, it didn't have Idiotarod's attendance (only about nine competitors showed up with their make-shift vehicles), but those who were there really embraced the race. No winner was announced, the riders just kept going back down the hill (you know, for fun!) as spectators cheered them on. Sounds like there will be a 2nd annual derby, so get thee into the imagination laboratory and start working on the ultimate ice box racing machine.

     

While we were sipping lattes in the elevator ride to our fifth floor office this morning, thousands of over-achievers were making us look like pathetic sedentary blobs by racing up all 86 flights of the Empire State Building. Hundreds of fitness buffs from 17 different countries competed in the 32nd annual "Run-up," climbing a vertical distance of 1,050 feet and ascending over 1,500 steps. For the third-straight year, the women's winner was Suzanne Walsham of Singapore, with a time of 13 minutes and 26 seconds.

                    

Another Idiotarod has come to an end, kids. The race began around 11:30 a.m. at the East 60th Street heliport and ended sometime around 3 p.m. in Greenpoint, with an after party and awards ceremony held at Public Assembly in Williamsburg. Did you run in (or run into) the race today? Here's our coverage from earlier, as the carts made their way to the finish line. If you have any photos, tag them with "Gothamist" on Flickr, we'll be adding photos as they come in.

            

Watch your back for adorned shopping carts today, the Idiotarod has officially begun! Seems like just yesterday that Team Danger Zone was running through the streets blaring Kenny Loggins and channeling their inner-Top Guns, but can they top themselves this year? We got our hands on some video (courtesy of NFGTV) of their shiny new carts, and it looks like the other racers have some major competition again. They're literally bringing the fire, with a pair of torch-led carts called Remus and Romulus.

As the annual Idiotarod approaches, last year's "Best in Show" winners, Team Danger Zone, have a Public Service Announcement aimed at this year's participants. Their message: "We all love running Idiotarod, but the people whose neighborhoods we run through hate us. Let's change that without being any less awesome." Which is all a long way of saying: "Don't Litter, Thetans!"

One of the young men accused of participating in a violent election night rampage against black people on Staten Island pleaded guilty today. NY1 reports that 21-year-old Brian Carranza admitted to joining two friends, who styled themselves as a gang called the "Rosebank Krew," in a series of assaults that left one man with brain damage and in a coma for over a month. That victim, 38-year-old Ronald Forte, is white; Carranza and his cohorts allegedly drove over him after mistaking him for a black man. The group is also accused of beating a teenage Liberian immigrant with a metal pipe and shoving another black man to the ground, all in response to President Obama's victory. Carranza faces up to 10 years in prison; two other suspects remain free on bail after pleading not guilty. According to SI Live, a fourth suspect, 18-year-old Bryan Garaventa, pleaded guilty three weeks ago to the same charge of conspiracy to interfere with voting rights.

The annual Idiotarod is just around the corner, taking place on January 31st, and registration is now open (a spot costs $25). Free Williamsburg (whose scribe was part of a team called Kraftwerking for the Weekend last year) points to the good and the bad about the event, saying: "the Idiotarod is kind of fun because you get to act like an idiot but also kind of lame because people make a giant mess in other people's neighborhoods and don't clean it up." Clean up your acts this year, kids!

Last night Michael Phelps (aka World's Greatest Swimmer) faced off with Anderson Cooper (aka Middle-aged Mortal) in the pool, for what had to have been the most well-worth watching segment in 60 Minutes history. The race lasted seconds, but the memories will surely last forever.

Tired of wasting their talents on such frivolities as Wii tennis tournaments and water gun wars, equities lawyer Franz Aliquo and Thrillist editor Steve Bryant have gotten serious with an ambitious “Rental Car Rally,” which will pit 60 teams of drivers in a road race from New York City to Montreal this August. Because with gas costing over $4.50 a gallon and global warming leaving civilization almost certainly doomed, what could be more amusing than a gratuitous waste of energy? In the organizers’ words, “It's the tits, son.”

Don Imus, who was fired from his CBS morning radio show after insulting the Rutgers' women's basketball team, is back in the spotlight today.

Streetfilms had five camera operators covering yesterday’s suspenseful rush hour race between a cyclist, driver and MTA commuter, and they’ve quickly edited together a video of the competition, which takes a bit of inspiration from Mike Figgis’s split-screen movie Time Code, sometimes showing the contestants battling it out simultaneously.

Pigeon keeping and racing has been a part of the city for a while, and finally someone has poured over all the ink that has been somewhat-recently spilled on this other American Pastime. Bed-Stuy Banana's rundown finishes with a link to Overlooked New York, which features profiles on some of the top pigeon keepers in the city. All 40 or older, they each seem to have a long, quirky history with pigeons (not street pigeons, mind you, which they refer to as "rats").

"I’ve had pigeons since I was a kid, but we didn’t have a coop on the roof back then; my mother wouldn’t let us up on the roof. So my brother came home one day with two milk crates, and he manufactured this thing and he put it on the window, and that was our pigeon coop." - Orlando

Continue reading "Brooklyn's Pigeon Racing Craze"

The 7th Annual “Great NYC Commuter Race” went down this morning, with three commuters racing to see who could get from Fort Greene to Union Square during rush hour in the least amount of time. Social worker Jamie Favaro traveled by bicycle; April Green, who works at an art foundation, took a foolish bus/subway combo; and photographer Emmanuel Fuentebella made irresponsible carbon footprints with his car.

                

Perhaps now more than ever, New York City residents create homes for themselves in vastly different ways. Are there any bad neighborhoods anymore? Or are there just places that immigrants and long-time residents subsist next to high-rise hotels and luxury condos?

The specter of a Mormon multimillionaire as president has been lifted; Mitt Romney announced his withdrawal from the Republican primary race this afternoon. Romney used his speech to the Conservative Political Action Committee to declare: “If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win.” Wonkette liveblogged the speech to great comic effect.

As of 8 this morning the starting points for this year's Idiotarod had already been changed twice. As with every year, the effort to dodge police and the scramble to find the most updated starting line is still underway, but the carts should be off soon...and we'll keep you updated. In the meantime, check out Team Danger Zone's ride!

After the national debate about race turned into the national debate about how race discussed in the Democratic presidential campaign, Senators and Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have declared a truce. The stir was caused by Clinton's remarks about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s efforts ("Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act...It took a president to get it done.") and when Obama criticized Clinton for belittling King's achievements...which then lead to Clinton accusing Obama of making mountains of molehills.

That's what Senator Hillary Clinton told Tim Russert on Meet the Press yesterday, but no matter what anyone says, race and gender are obviously factors in the hotly contested Democratic primary race.

Over the weekend, a jury found a black man guilty of second degree manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon in the August 2006 shooting of a 17-year-old on Long Island. The defendant, John White, grabbed a pistol when a group of teens (who were white) swarmed around his home. The teens were angry at White's son and in the standoff, White shot Daniel Cicciaro in the face.

Rudolph Giuliani's apparent health scare that caused his campaign jet to turn around and land back in St. Louis, Missouri was allegedly not as serious as it was made out to be. The Presidential candidate and former Mayor of New York is begging ignorance as to why his staff members said he had flu-like symptoms, when he says he just had a bad headache. Someone told the press that Giuliani blacked out at some point, which he denies ever happened.

“You’re going to have to ask them,” he said, when asked about their statement. “I’m telling you what actually happened. I had a very, very bad headache. It got worse on the plane. I then got checked out. Went through a lot of tests. All the tests came back 100 percent normal. That’s the bottom line.”

The NYPD detectives working the homicide investigation of Carol Simon have identified a suspect in her killing, although they are not publicizing his identity. Simon was shot as she was returning to her car where her son was waiting for her at a gas station. The killing occurred Saturday evening in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, as an argument between two men turned violent and one of the men pulled a gun.