Photograph of someone determined to get around in the snow by Charley Lhasa on Flickr After January hype - which resulted in rain - and a brief moment of snow last week, a winter snow storm finally made an appearance this year. Two weather disturbances resulted in many inches of snow falling in the region: By 2PM, more than 6 inches fell in the city, which is the biggest snowfall in two years and......

Photograph of sledders, inside Prospect Park on the long meadow Convince your boss to let you take an extra long lunch today: The Parks Department just sent out this press release: Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe invites New Yorkers to come out to a neighborhood park for some winter fun. White-capped hills around the city are open for sledding, snowman-making and more. Parks & Recreation will provide sleds and hot chocolate at selected......

With McCarren Park Pool soon becoming a place where one will hear children splashing in the water instead of hipsters sighing whilst listening to their new favorite band, the search is on for a new outdoor concert space. Of course, the venue simply wouldn't do unless it was in the mecca of indie rock, Williamsburg/Greenpoint. Renderings of the watefront park via New York City Department of Parks & Recreation NYMag reports that "a leader of......

Last night the first of two meetings to discuss the future plans of (the recently landmarked) McCarren Park Pool took place. The NYC Department of Parks & Recreation and architects Rogers & Marvel unveiled their plans and how they will spend Mayor Bloomberg’s $50 million. The initial press release listed: renovating McCarren Park Pool for swimming, creating a year-round recreation center, and preserving and restoring the historic bathhouse building and entry arch, as top priorities......

Photograph of a section of the Texaco map by Sybil Young/NYC Parks & Recreation For the 1964-1965 World's Fair, architect Philip Johnson designed the New York State Pavillion in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Besides the well-known observation towers (think Men in Black) and the Theaterama, he commissioned a "130-foot-by-166-foot terrazzo replica of a Texaco New York State road map." However, after vandalism and weather, the past decades have damaged the map to the point......

The city's last privately owned island was sold to the federal government for $2 million. South Brother Island, a 7-acre island (just west of Rikers Island), will be turned over to the city's Parks and Recreation Department and will remain, as amNew York reports, "significant nesting colony for several types of shore birds, including Egrets, Cormorant, and Night Herons." According to the NY Times, the deal, which was "brokered by the Trust for Public......

Yesterday, Deutsche Bank and the Parks Department unveiled a 9/11 memorial fountain on Wall Street. Four Deutsche employees died on September 11, 2001, and the CEO of Deutsche Bank Americas Seth Waugh said, “Wall Street is Deutsche Bank’s home in the Americas, and this fountain will be a beautiful focal-point for the neighborhood as well as a reminder of the family, friends, neighbors and colleagues we lost on 9/11." Deutsche Bank security guard Francisco......

The person who hung a noose on the doorknob of a professor at Columbia's Teachers College the other week seems to have been a catalyst for NY metro idiots, who have been been copy-cating or otherwise emulating public displays of hateful symbols. Most recently, Parks Dept. employees were appalled to find 10" nooses wrapped around the necks of their clothes when they opened their work lockers in Queens Saturday morning. Kenny Clark and Michelle Rouse-Williams......

With craptastic weather hitting us today and a clear forecast for tomorrow, why not plan some fun activities for tomorrow when the weather is nice. The weather is cool, there's still some Fall foliage upstate, and there's even fall fun in Queens.Storm King Art Center: Head up to Mountainville, NY to visit the 500-acre outdoor sculpture park and museum. There are huge sculptures by artists like Isamu Noguchi, Mark di Suvero, Alexander Calder, Richard......

Yesterday we visited the New York Transit Museum’s new exhibit “Show Me the Money: From the Turnstile to the Bank" which details the fare cycle, from buying the fare instrument to the sorting of the money. If you haven’t been to the museum, it is located in a disused 1930s vintage IND subway station in Brooklyn Heights. The new exhibit was perfectly placed in the museum, next to the display of vintage turnstiles and......

We love Open House New York - it's a wonderful opportunity to venture into usually off-limits buildings and places and learn more about them. We tried to take advantage and managed to go to six different sites this year across three boroughs. We would have done more, but the weekend subway work threw a monkey wrench into things. Given what we wanted to see, we skipped everything that needed reservations, since we knew that......

There are many fun events today, like Ecofest at Lincoln Center and Atlantic Antic in Brooklyn, but for those interested in our fine feathered friends, we recommend you head to Central Park to check out the Parks Department's Falconry Extravaganza with the Urban Park Rangers. The Urban Parks Rangers are bringing a number of falcon species, such as the Saw-whet Owl, Screech Owl, Eurasian Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, Barn Owl, Turkey Vulture, Harris Hawk, and Adrian......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a two alarm fire at 80 Washington St in Lower Manhattan; an aircraft emergency at JFK this morning; two pedestrians struck on E. 53rd St.; and a "possible A.I. job" (whatever that is) in Woodhaven. The NYCLU objected yesterday to the number of cases the Civilian Complaint Review Board substantiated. The board, which investigates police misconduct, only substantiated 5% of the cases, but that's actually higher than that of......

Yesterday we took a National Park Service tour of Governors Island. The tour was just of the sites controlled by the Parks Service known as the Governors Island National Historic District and not of the whole island which is under the control of various local, state and federal agencies, so all the good stuff on the southern end of the island like the abandoned PX, bowling alley and Burger King weren’t on the tour.......

This Labor Day weekend is not just the unofficial last weekend of summer - it's the official last weekend to enjoy the city's beaches and pools. After Monday, the 14 miles of beaches and 52 outdoor pools (including the Floating Pool - which will be heading to the Bronx for the summer of 2008) will be closed. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe says, "There’s no better way for New Yorkers to wrap up the summer than......

Look out, Jones Beach regulars. Trump’s moving in. The NY Post is reporting that a $40 million complex called Trump on the Ocean, will be completed in 2009. The restaurant, including a lounge and catering facility for up to 1,500 people, will replace the former Boardwalk Restaurant. It’s the developer’s first stand-alone public facility purely for events. According to a New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation press release, the lease between......

The marshlands in Jamaica Bay that make up a portion of the Gateway National Recreation area and includes the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge are disappearing so quickly that some estimate all of the marshes could disappear in as few as five years. The New York Times reports that recent satellite images indicate that about 33 acres of tidal wetlands in the bay are disappearing annually, almost double the prior estimate of 18 acres per year......

That big empty cement pool in Greenpoint has become a landmark. The recently rejuvinated (but still dry) McCarren Park Pool was designated such by the Landmarks Preservation Commission yesterday morning. McCarren was the 8th of 11 huge pools built by the Works Progress Administration, it was opened in 1936 with a dedication ceremony on July 31st of that year (making it the ripe old age of 71 in a few days). With an original capacity......

A while back we reported on possible changes at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, more widely known as "the birthplace of hip hop." Tenants of the apartment complex, as well as its supporters, have been fighting to get the building landmarked. Just as important, they want to keep the apartments rent stabilized. At 9:30 this morning DJ Kool Herc, who is credited with inventing the genre in the building's rec room, rallied the troops......

New York's own floating pool is opening tomorrow! The concept was that of Ann Buttenwieser, founder of the Neptune Foundation and a former manager of City Parks. The water on water can be found at Brooklyn Bridge Park, it's free and open from 11am to 7pm (the beach is open from 9am to 9pm) - seven days a week. The park's website tells us how to have fun whether you're floating or land-bound: "Take a......

The Gateway National Recreation Area is a dual-state and tri-borough national park meant to showcase the Greater New York Harbor for all area residents. It includes the Sandy Hook peninsula of New Jersey that is the outer boundary of New York's Harbor, Long Island's Jamaica Bay that is a wildlife refuge, and Staten Island's parks that offer opportunities to visit historic forts and wildlife nature areas. All together, the group of parks is known......

Thanks to a donation from Target, the city will be distributing free cycling helmets throughout all five boroughs in coming weeks, as part of a program called "GET FIT-TED." That's not an admonition for some guy named Ted to get in shape; it has to do with a dual emphasis on properly fitting cyclists with their helmets and encouraging physical fitness among New Yorkers through cycling and other outdoor activities. Dept. of Transportation commissioner Jannete......

One can hear plenty of trees falling in the forest in Staten Island these days, as the Parks Dept. is on a massive tree-killing spree after the notice of a few dozen Asian longhorned beetles. The insect is a scourge and first appeared in Greenpoint, Brooklyn about a decade ago, after possibly being imported in a wooden packing crate from China. The female of the species lays its eggs in a tree and the larva......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A stabbing at Canal and Broadway, a naked EDP in Brooklyn, and a car into scaffolding at 54th and 8th in Manhattan Interesting story about the state NOW endorsement for the Democratic candidate and the city NOW endorsement for the Republican candidate in today's special election for an Upper East Side Assembly seat The soaking NYC got from tropical storm Barry may have caused a wall collapse in Staten......

Thinking about playing hooky in a city park with your laptop? The Parks & Recreation Department has created a Google mash-up of parks with WiFi. There is even a live status update for the hotspots - looks like our plan to blog from the polar bear area of the Central Park this afternoon is foiled! Very important: Here's information about connect your laptop to city parks wireless.......

This Saturday, the City Parks & Recreation Department will open the first official mountain biking trail at Highbridge Park in Inwood. According to the Parks Department, the "new trail system includes black diamond features, a BMX track, and a challenge trail for younger or newer riders," as well as "trailhead kiosks, trail markers and interpretive signage, natural resources monitoring, landscaping material to replant denuded areas, trail building tools, and educational pamphlets that advocate safety......

As part of his Earth Day address, Mayor Bloomberg is expected to announce a citywide plan to plant one million trees over the next ten years. The New York Post says that plan would involve tripling New York's tree-planting budget to $37.5 million annually. They would be planted along streets, and in parks and vacant lots - "every single place where it is possible to plant a street tree," vowed Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff yesterday.......

With much fanfare, the city announced a new public space recycling pilot program last month at the Staten Island Ferry Terminals. Six locations across the city are getting blue and green recycling bins to encourage people to separate their glass bottles and newspapers from regular trash. Not a groundbreaking idea, an important step for the city to expand its recycling efforts. We hope the pilot program works, but there's some doubt about New Yorkers'......

For the second time in a year a patch of radioactive land has been found in the Great Kills Gateway National Recreation Area on Staten Island. The contaminated area is in a wetland area that was made accessible after a wildfire last week. The radiation levels are extremely low and pose no health risk according to National Park Service spokesman Brian Feeney. An expert from the US Department of Energy said the radiation was......

Earlier today, the city's Parks & Recreation department and the Central Park Conservancy cut the ribbon on the restoration of Central Park's Bethesda Terrace Arcade. As we mentioned yesterday, the tiles were removed from the Arcade's ceiling more than 20 years ago due to severe damage. While two panels were restored in 1998 and 2002, it wasn't until the Central Park Conservancy was given $3.5 million by Evelyn West that the rest of the......