The Department of Education's new round of school report cards showed 82% of high schools getting A's and B's, "up from 65% last year," according to the Daily News. (Grades of schools K-8 were released in September.) However, there some struggling schools, like Washington Irving near Union Square, which received an F for a second year in a row. You can find the "school progress reports" here. And the Independent Budget Office says it costs......

The New York City Transit Authority, the MTA division that oversees the subways and buses, will be now split up the management of the subway lines and instead assign a manager to deal with a line or a number of lines. The NY Times spoke to NYC Transit president Howard Roberts Jr.:The goal, Mr. Roberts said, is to have 24 subway lines operating in many ways as 24 self-contained railroads. (The number may vary,......

Over 16,000 riders responded to the MTA's call for honest assessments of the 7 line, and the MTA released the results of the 7 Line Rider Report Card. On the bright side, there's a lot to improve. Realistically speaking, they weren't very good: After all the areas were tallied up, the overall grade was a C-. Here are the top ten priorities for improvement:1. Adequate room on board at rush hour 2. Minimal delays......

From the looks of these photos, the commute home for those on the L train was no fun last night. On the same day that riders on the line were asked to rate the service, service came to a halt during the evening rush. Who's to blame? It seems like the MTA actually gets a pass this time. Rumor has it that someone pulled the emergency brake. The MTA is looking for riders to......

After hearing about the tragic rush-hour bridge collapse in Minneapolis that has claimed at least four lives, we wondered what the conditions of New York City's bridges were. Like the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, several of our city's largest bridges are undergoing what seems like constant construction. All the East River bridges are either undergoing repairs right now, have plans for the future, just finished construction, or all of the above. Gothamist looked......

New Yorkers for Parks released a 2006 Progress Report on neighborhood parks that were examined in the 2005 Report Card on Parks, and the news is depressing. While five of the top ten parks are still in great shape, the other five have deteriorated, most dramatically, Tenney Park in Queens which had been given an A+ in 2005, but now warrants an F in 2006. And parks that were in bad shape are just......

The Straphangers have released their annual State of the Subways Report Card for 2006, and like last year, the 6 train rules and the N train is the worst. The W also joined the N train as being the worst, confirming everything Queens residents have been saying. The newer subway cars on the 6 line (as well as the 2/3 and 4/5) help elevate scores in breakdowns, cleanliness and announcement adequacy; other factors include......

NYC Parks Advocates released a report yesterday saying that many parks are actually very terrible, especially those in poor neighborhoods. Saying that it had surveyed all 1,700 city park areas, NYCPA said that Central Park and Bryant Park had the benefit of other funding resources, while parks in lower income neighborhoods aren't maintained as well. And to compound the problem, the Parks Department's funds have been slashed over time. From the NY Times: The Parks......

The Straphangers Campaign has released its annual State of the Subways Report Card and yet again, the 6 train is named the best line while the N is the worst. The other trains, from best to worst, were the 1/9, 7, 4, E, J/Z, L, 5, Q, 2, 3, V, F, A, D, R, M, B, W, C. So, overall, it seems that the crappiest grouping of lines are the B, D, F, V......

The New York City Transit Riders Council announced the dirtiest subways in New York at the 205th Street station in the Bronx, which a NYCTRC spokesman called "the most decrepit station I've ever seen in all my travels across the city." The NYCTRC has released a 2004 Station Conditions Report (PDF) of conditions in 50 city subway stations. Four of the dirty five are in the Bronx (number 1 being Moshulu on the 4) and......

The Hollywood Reporter is running a series of articles about how great New York is for film and TV production. One of them, Location report: New York, gives us some interesting information: "The original "L&O" has contributed more than $650 million to the city during 672 weeks of regular production spanning nearly 15 years." Wow! And that's just ONE of the Law & Order shows. Katherine Oliver, the Film, Theatre and Broadcasting Commissioner, says......

News about one of the city's best resources: Our parks and playgrounds. The watchdog group, New Yorkers for Parks, released their report cards for city parks and while parks have been showing improvements overall, but things could be better: NY4P found that a quarter of NYC neighborhood parks are still failing to meet basic maintenance standards. In addition, the Report Card identified parks features that are “in need” across the board – in all five......

New Yorkers for Parks, a watchdog group for New Yorkers and their Parks, issued their Report Card on Parks, last week. Newsday analyzed the information and says that 40% of the parks flunked, but adds that the report card only looked at small and medium sized parks and might have been extremely tough with its grading. The Parks Commisson says the report is well-meaninged, however, considering it covers 1700 parks of all sizes, Commissioner......