Results tagged “readerjohn”

It's become a familiar occurence these days: A swarm of police officers and squad cars descending upon a location investigate "something suspicious." Reader John emailed us with a photograph and story about the police cordoning off an area on the western part of the loop in Central Park yesterday:

I was taking pictures, and the next thing I knew, there was influx of police officers and hardware like I've never seen in the park. They cordoned off the drive, much to the dismay of the cyclists, and wouldn't let anyone get through. At first, seeing a lot of cyclists stopped in the area, I was afraid there'd been a nasty bike accident (I overhead some passersby suspecting the same). One guy asked the police if it was related to "that guy with the backpack," which they denied. The police then told some people that there was a bag left on the drive. Perhaps all those signs saying "Si ves algo, di algo" have had some effect.

John adds that the police allowed people to leave after 10 minutes and were very professional and efficient as the crowd was calm. These events will become more and more commonplace as the NYPD does their best to show they are taking every call seriously, and Gothamist expects the Mayor and Police Commissioner will remind New Yorkers not to be frightened by them. In fact, we noticed the MTA's new signs telling commuters that bag checks can take time, which essentially translates to "Don't blame us if you're delayed in getting to work." And if you're in Central Park, biking or running, just think of the time you spend waiting as part of interval training.

Reader John tells us that he emailed a photograph of the wrapped Flatiron building to the Landmarks Preservation Commission to complain about the H&M ad looming at 23rd Street. They emailed him back, saying the Department of Buildings had "issued nine violations for the illegal advertising." He lists the violations here, but our favorites are: "Prohibited advertising sign," "Installing advertising sign without a permit," and "Sign creates hazardous wind load," and "Failure to get permit from Buildings Department." We wonder if this means the ad will have to go; if there are fines by the day, it might become cost prohibitive, but not as cost prohibitive as a crazy gust of wind blowing the sign down!

Students at Columbia University will probably decide to explore Butler to see if anyone is living there but will probably just come across some people having sex in the stacks. As usual.

Gothamist is lucky because our readers will email us about many Law & Order related things, whether it's a sighting or a show or an idea. And we love you for it. Here's a round up of some that we've gotten over the past few weeks: