Over the years we've had lots of reasons to love the folks over at the Red Cross, but this map is a great example of just how much the organization does for our fair metropolis. more ›

The twenty residents that were living in what has come to be known as the Bushwick Trailer Park are now being taken care of by Red Cross. The artist community had set up shop in an empty warehouse in the neighborhood for a year, but were recently issued a vacate order (one month after The Man already came down on them and started towing their trailers out of the space). The FDNY's Frank Dwyer wouldn't go into detail with us about the incident, but told us "there are still conditions which are imminently perilous to human life." more ›

Residents of two dozen apartments at 1204 Shakespeare Avenue in the Bronx were forced to leave when the Fire Department discovered construction debris blocking two fire exits for the building. One resident complained to WCBS 2, "This building is so messed up. They’re fixing stuff, but things don’t really get fixed correctly." more ›

The American Heart Association has issued new CPR guidelines, recommending that when attempting life-saving efforts for adults and children, start with chest compressions—"push hard and fast"—before doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. As the AP reports, "The change ditches the old “ABC” approach - “A” for airway, “B” for breathing, “C” for compressions. That called for rescuers to give two breaths first, then alternate with 30 presses. Under the revised guidelines, rescuers using traditional cardiopulmonary resuscitation should start chest compressions immediately - 30 chest presses, then two breaths." more ›

A note left by Gigi Jordan—the socialite mom who allegedly killed her 8-year-old son in a murder-suicide attempt—suggests child pornography and sexual abuse played a role in the rich woman's desperate act. "I hope Jude is in a better place," wrote the Belgian multi-millionaire, going on to suggest that her autistic son was the victim of rape. more ›

Yesterday it was announced that David Blaine would be setting up shop in Times Square for 72 hours of street magic, all in the name of raising money for Haiti. And before you hate, one commenter who saw him in action today pointed out that a man in the crowd told Blaine that his Mom is currently in Haiti, and he hasn't heard from her yet. He continued, "David truly cared and took the man's contact information to get in touch with people on the ground." more ›

Officials are predicting that deaths from the 7.0 earthquake that rocked Haiti yesterday may be in the hundreds of thousands. "I hope that is not true, because I hope the people had the time to get out," Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN. Haiti’s president told the Miami Herald that the toll was “unimaginable” and reports say that the scene in Port-au-Prince is truly horrifying; most of the city is leveled to the ground, and bodies litter the streets. As many as three million may be left homeless, reported the Red Cross. more ›

Dozens of families that occupied approximately 30 apartments in an East Harlem apartment house found themselves out on the street yesterday, with what little belongings they could gather together as they were hustled from their homes. The Dept. of Buildings condemned the structure on 2nd Ave. and 120th St., noting that several partitions had recently been removed from the building's basement, causing the building's floor to sag in a sign of potential imminent collapse. more ›

A big crowd packed Joe on East 13th Street last night for New York’s first inter-cafe barista showdown, as representatives from some of the city’s top coffee houses competed in a Latte Art Throwdown to benefit American Red Cross relief efforts in Burma and China. In fact, so many spectators turned out to watch the competition – which was simulcast on the back wall – that they had to send out for more beer three times, “devolving from Sierra to cans of Bud Light,” according to event organizer Erin Meister. more ›

Serendipitously coinciding with Obama’s big primary win, tonight’s Latte Art Throwdown at the 13th Street Joe will surely be crawling elitist liberals who love stuff like delicious espresso and college education. The city’s top coffee houses (Ninth Street Espresso, Gimme Coffee, Cafe Grumpy, Everyman Espresso, and Gorilla Coffee) will be sending baristas to the event, which is called "Rosettas for Relief" and benefit the American Red Cross' efforts in Myanmar and China. more ›

Over 150 residents of an eleven-story building at Kent Avenue in South Williamsburg were evacuated yesterday after the Fire Department and Buildings Department found a number of violations. The building had been illegally converted to residences and a matzoh factory, complete with two silos of (highly combustible) grain in the basement. A neighboring building was cited as well, and the violations ranged from non-working standpipes (which firefighters use to deliver water to fires), illegal partitions, blocked exits, inoperable sprinkler systems and others, including the illegal grain silos for the unauthorized basement bakery. more ›

The Thursday night fire in a Bedford-Stuyvsant brownstone that left a 3-year-old child in critical condition seems to have been caused by her playing with a butane lighter. There is also a tragic coincidence: In 1992, an apartment fire claimed the life of a 1-year-old sister. more ›

More than 200 people found themselves homeless last night after they were evicted from an enormous industrial building at 17-17 Troutman St. in the Ridgewood section of Queens, with Bushwick, Brooklyn just across the street. The loft residents were told to leave by the Department of Buildings and signs were posted saying that the building was "imminently perilous to life." more ›

At least 27 families were evacuated 305 West 150th Street in Harlem after the Fire and Buildings Departments found the apartment building to be unstable. WNBC describes the building as an "active construction site" - so active that a resident complained to the Buildings Department that the owners were trying to do demolition work, with the residents still there. more ›

Well, there's nothing like having a barely-one-hour blackout on a sultry weekday to make you consider stocking up on flashlights, batteries, water, and maybe a Go Bag. Con Ed is still investigating the cause of yesterday's brief power failure to parts of the Bronx and Manhattan; Newsday reported "the blackout was caused when breakers opened at an Astoria substation and cut off power to stations servicing Yorkville and parts of the Bronx." It's unclear why the breakers were opened in the first place. more ›

After reports of an unstable wall and possible demolition, it looks like the Bedford Street building that houses the bar Chumley's is staying up. But the Department of Buildings must determine whether the building is secure. The owners' construction contractors were doing illegal work: Though they applied for permits, the DOB hadn't approved them yet. more ›

The pseudonymous Lux Nightmare burst onto the alt porn scene as a college student at Columbia where she launched the naked-guy-and-girl site That Strange Girl, featuring stills and video of herself and numerous other models who looked like they could be her fellow classmates. At a time when Suicide Girls and Burning Angel were coming to prominence, That Strange Girl (who, full disclosure, this interviewer posed for) was a homegrown, indie entry in the genre. Cut to the present, where Nightmare has since folded her XXX business and is a member of Gotham Girls Roller Derby, teaches sex ed to teenagers in East Harlem, and runs the smarty-pants sex site Sexerati, where she conducts interviews, explores Dating 2.0, and explains terms like "the pink ghetto." (Warning: many of the links in this interview are NSFW.) Currently, the "non porn star" is working on a book proposal about her time in the alt porn trenches. more ›

Last night, an apartment building in Far Rockaway caught fire, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate their homes in the cold weather. By the time firefighters arrived to Neilson Street, flames were already shooting through the windows. The fire spread to the house next door, and the Long Island Power Authority and Con Ed shut off the power to area customers in order to protect firefighters. more ›

Evil Dead: The Musical officially came to life this month at New World Stages; we caught the show in previews, in a house packed with Evil Dead fans who reveled in every campy moment. The first two rows are given Gallagheresque ponchos and by evening’s end the audience in this so-called “splatter zone” is bathed in enough blood to run the Red Cross for a month. (If you’re grossed out by the amount of blood in Act One, you’ll never make it through Act Two.) more ›

On Friday, NYC freelance journalist Bradley Roland Will was killed while covering a protest in Oaxaca. Will had been reporting on the human rights violations in Mexico for IndyMedia, and it seems that plainclothes paramilitary opened fire on a crowd of protesters. Will was shot in abdomen and died at a Red Cross Hospital; two others were killed and Will's photographer Oswaldo Ramirez was injured. more ›

A three-alarm fire occured in a historic townhouse on East 70th Street over night. The townhouse at 115 East 70th was empty, but residents in other buildings had to be evacuated. One hundred forty firefighters responded and one witness told 1010WINS, "I saw flames going all the way to the moon." The Red Cross set up emergency shelter - even using an MTA bus to keep people warm. Fire officials are investigating the fire's cause, because it does seem suspicious. more ›

Yesterday afternoon, part of the East Village came to a standstill as emergency workers tried to secure a construction crane after a big chunk of its rigging fell onto a cab. Amazingly, the cabbie and passenger were not seriously hurt, even though the front of the cab was insanely crushed (see this picture). The crane itself became unstable, and the workers inside the crane's cab were thrown around, leaving them injured. Police officers had to climb up 20 stories to rescue the workers, who suffered bruises and broken bones. more ›

We feel it is especially appropriate to launch the national tour of our "A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City" exhibit in New York, home to thousands of people who have fled violence and persecution in other parts of the world. The launch of this public education initiative represents a major effort on our part to bring attention to the plight of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) worldwide -- issues that we feel are relevant and interesting to New Yorkers. A staggering 33 million people are displaced from their homes today, having fled violence in more than 60 different countries around the world--and the response to their plight remains inadequate. Until conditions improve, we must continue to raise awareness of the challenges faced by populations who have been forcibly displaced. more ›

How many ways can we write that power has still not been restored in Queens? Cause it still hasn't. What else can we say? The papers are having a good time with this one, what journalist wouldn't love to write a story about a hair salon in Astoria that can't do a blowout? But good news stories doesn't bring the power back on, and neither, it seems, do all the mayor's horses and all the mayor's men. more ›

- Fifty-eight percent of New Yorkers polled say they are prepared for an emergency that would require them to evacuate their homes and leave the immediate area for up to three days, yet 32 percent indicated that they don’t have emergency go bags ready with the necessary supplies to take with them. On the upside, 17% of people feel that they are more prepared than last year, so at least they feel good, even if they're going to be struggling in a waterlogged taxi. NY Times talks to a number of disaster preparedness experts, like 's National Center for Disaster Preparedness director Dr. Irwin Redlener, who says recent disaster have "not wake-up calls, but more like snooze alarms, where we get aroused briefly and then drift back to sleep." Fine - you got us: Gothamist bought a handcrank radio at Radio Shack, but we still haven't Ziplocked any cash or credit cards...we have a "maybe we're going somewhere" bag. more ›

The latest new design (the fourth!) for the planned Moynihan train station at the James Farley Post Office on Eighth Avenue was revealed yesterday, and while it is less dramatic than previous incarnations, it seems like this design might actually be the one that's built. Funnily enough, the Empire State Development Corporation can't quite keep up, as the images it has are old designs, but architect grubbykid analyzed the drafts of the general project plan and environmental impact statement, which have more accurate images. One of the changes is that the ceiling of the main space will be barrel vaulted, versus undulating - but still glass-topped, for a glorious view of the sky (we predict it'll be a romantic setting for cafes, places to meet for first dates, and movies). And Curbed points out the potato chip-like skylight is back in. While patience might be a great virtue, Gothamist is too excited for this project and cannot wait to take the NJ Transit or LIRR from here, versus the horror that is the current Penn Station. more ›

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The exact cause of brain cancer remains unclear. While several types of brain tumors run in families, most are without identifiable risk factors. Radiation, certain chemicals, and, yes, cellular phones, have been suggested andecdotally, but remain controversial. more ›

Fake tilt-shift of Prospect Heights by Michael. more ›

Three young children and an elderly man were killed in their Queens home yesterday evening. Newsday says the fire was started by a child playing with matches. Two of the children, 5 and 6 year old brothers, were found hiding with each other in the closet of their basement apartment, while their 1 year old baby daughter was found in her crib; the 88 year old man was found outside their door and fire officials suspect that he was trying to save them. The Red Cross says that twenty-one people lived in the house, with eight in the basement. The fire took almost three hours to put out, because a locked gate blocked firefighters from the cellar door. FDNY Response time was six minutes; the NY Times notes that is within the national average, but NYC response time is more like 4.5 minutes. The city is also investigating whether or not the building's basement dwelling was legal; basement living is only legal when at least half of it is above ground. more ›