Silent Barn (located in Ridgewood, Queens on the border of Bushwick) needs your help, and not just to clean the bathroom. The venue has spent seven years accumulating equipment, tools, and artwork to create a DIY space in the community, but over the weekend they were robbed. They say $15,000 worth of audio equipment is gone, along with personal belongings, adding: more ›

A Canarsie man admitted to beating his stepdaughter to death in broad daylight on the front porch of his home yesterday after she accused him of sexually abusing her. The Daily News has published graphic photographs of the crime scene, showing the front porch stained with blood and the bare foot of 18-year-old Lakeshia Seymour dangling over the edge. Her stepfather, Jean Simon, 54, was apprehended hours after allegedly attacking the teen with a hammer and bashing her head against the concrete banister outside the East 102nd Street home. more ›

Last we checked, the Ridgewood Theatre in Queens had its facade landmarked, and the former owners were seeking partners to help them get the space operational again. The fate of the 17,000-square-foot space—which first opened in 1916 and is the longest-running movie house in the nation—is still uncertain, however. Everything from a retail outlet to condos have been proposed, but now a group is banding together to make sure the historic building doesn't become a typical Myrtle Avenue storefront. To that end, the Friends of the Ridgewood Theatre have started a petition to get the interior of the building landmarked as well (check out even more photos here)—they fear if this doesn't happen, "the rare Adamesque interior by Thomas Lamb will be gone forever, and Queens and Brooklyn will be robbed of a true theater of great potential." more ›

Last week a couple was shot execution style in their car in Ridgewood, Queens (next to Linden Hill Cemetery), and now their killer may have turned the gun on himself. According to the NY Post, the man police were hoping to question—regarding the deaths of Yomarya Santiago and Lenny Archipolo—was barricaded in his Bushwick apartment last night around 6 p.m. The police outside of his Menahan Street residence heard a gun shot around that time, and discovered their possible suspect (whose name is being withheld) dead from a gunshot wound to the back of his head. more ›

Yesterday morning just after 10 a.m. we received word over the newswire that a double homicide had taken place in the Ridgewood section of Queens. The alert noted the incident occurred at Willoughby and Woodward Avenue (next to the Linden Hill Cemetery), where one male and one female were found shot inside of a car. more ›

Silent Barn, the dirtiest venue in New York (unsubstantiated!), recently got a little cleaner. A little. The DIY music venue/art space located in Ridgewood, Queens has one of those bathrooms that make you contemplate adult diapers—it is not a pretty sight. In exchange for a video shoot there, one band "paid" the powers-that-be in one bathroom cleaning. This important moment, which like a total solar eclipse probably won't happen again for another 360 years, was documented: more ›

It looks like a lot of those kids waiting to find Kindergarten spots over the summer are still waiting. A 4-year-old boy in Ridgewood spent the first two weeks of the school year listed as "inactive" at P.S. 75, even though he spent the entire summer in a pre-K program there. After numerous complaints, the DOE gave up on finding him a spot and handed his mother a voucher for a private special-education school. More prying from the Post got him back at P.S. 75, but all we hear is that if you bug the DOE enough your kid can go to private school for free. more ›

This past Tuesday afternoon The Hold Steady came by to perform a few songs for our Live at Gothamist House series. This time we departed our HQ and went over to Ridgewood, Queens—where we watched, filmed and recorded the band on a gorgeous roofdeck-equipped recording studio called Florida Keys NYC. We'll post all of the videos, as well as an interview and downloadable MP3s of the live recording we did, at a later date—but for now, here's one video of them performing "The Weekenders" off their new album Heaven Is Whenever. The band just embarked on a long tour, and won't return to play in the city until October (when they'll be at the Beacon Theater). more ›

Some enterprising young drug hustlers make objectively saavy moves, but others make some pretty dumb ones. Well, we're strictly in the latter camp with yesterday's bust at two apartments on the border of Queens and Brooklyn. Cops netted a $10 million stash of cocaine, as well as a small arsenal of weapons. more ›

At first glance, Matthew Ortiz's lawsuit makes sense: He was shot in the leg at an Italian street festival in Ridgewood back in 2008, and wants the NYPD to pay up. But the thing is, the police didn't shoot Ortiz; he caught a bullet from random gunfire in the crowd. Nevertheless, his lawyer says the cops, not the perps, are to blame. "There were a number of mini-riots, and the police presence was practically nonexistent," attorney David Harrison tells the Post. "If stuff going on gets worse and worse... it's negligence. " If Ortiz cashes in, expect future lawsuits against the NYPD for failing to save New Yorkers from such dangers as flying pillows. more ›

What does one do with an old, now landmarked, theater in Queens? That's the big question for the owners of Ridgewood Theatre—in January the facade was landmarked, but the interior can still be renovated—leaving a few options on their hands. more ›

A Medical Examiner has ruled the cause of death for Edelbuerto (Amanda) Gonzalez-Andujar: homicide from compression to the neck, and detectives believe she was killed by a man she had been dating. Her body was discovered on Tuesday in her Ridgewood apartment when a concerned relative asked the building's superintendent to open her apartment, having not heard from Amanda in three days. Friend Milagros Ramirez told ABC News, "She was such a sweet person, you know? She was loved by everybody, so I just can't figure who would do this." more ›

Edelbuerto Gonzalez-Andujar, a transgender woman who went by Amanda, was found dead in her ransacked Ridgewood apartment yesterday afternoon. Around 4 p.m. acquaintances came looking for the 29-year-old, only to find her naked and lifeless on the bed. "Everything in the apartment was destroyed. All her Marilyn Monroe pictures were destroyed," Barbara Vega told the Daily News, adding that she'd been trying to reach her friend since Friday. Gonzalez-Andujar had been stabbed several times in the neck and chest; the Times reports that her laptop was missing from the apartment, but so far cops aren't sure whether there was a break-in and don't have any suspects. "She never had any problems with anybody...We need to know who did this to her," said Vega. more ›

Last year there was some lobbying to get the longest-running movie house in the nation landmarked after word got out that it would reopen under new ownership. Now, the 91-year-old Ridgewood Theatre in Queens has had its facade granted landmark status. There was not a lot to save of the interior, so as the new owners renovate the space into a theater/retail hybrid, that will likely change significantly — though 1010Wins does report that they "envision a historically sensitive plan." Yesterday it was announced that another old theater, the Loews in Chinatown, would also get a new lease on life — albeit a non-landmarked one. more ›

MTA surveys are so fun, because we pretty much just find out that everything is the worst, everywhere. But wherever you are, rest assured that it really could be worse. Unless you are in Ridgewood, Queens—then consider yourself gold star winners in the most dilapidated subway station contest! more ›

The New York State Pavilion, just one part of the decaying 1964 World's Fair in Queens, won state landmark approval! A designation that the Daily News says "opens it to desperately needed rehab grants." (Plans to do something with the site have been in the works for years.) It's also been nominated as a national landmark. In related news, Jenny 8. Lee pens a breathless piece on city landmark status granted to 100 middle-class residential buildings in Queens and on Staten Island; "The bulk of these buildings, 96, are modest century-old three-story buildings in the Ridgewood North Historic District." It looks like everything is coming up Queens today! Perhaps they'll take another gander at Kerouac's old house. more ›

Officer Rodney Lewis and his partner Mark Bublin were responding to a domestic dispute in Ridgewood early Sunday morning when a suspect's handgun accidentally discharged during a scuffle, wounding Lewis under his left arm. According to WABC, it all started around 11 p.m. Saturday during a family party, when Marcello Campana, who identifies herself as a woman named Hazel, got into an argument with her reportedly violent boyfriend Carlos. more ›

A police officer is in stable condition after being shot by a stray bullet while responding to a domestic dispute call in Ridgewood early this morning. According to NY1, Officer Rodney Lewis was reporting to a call around 5 a.m. of a domestic dispute involving a gun inside a Queens apartment on Menahan Avenue. When cops arrived on the scene, they spotted a bald man who appeared to fit the description of one of the men involved in the altercation. Police noticed a gun in his waistband and apprehended him, only to have the weapon go off and strike the 40-year-old Lewis in the side of the chest. Lewis was rushed to Wyckoff Medical Center while police arrested 33-year-old Edwin Santana, who was wanted for parole violations and is believed to have obtained the gun illegally. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg have already visited Lewis at the hospital where he is recovering and reportedly in good spirits. Bloomberg told reporters, "I joked with him that we had a budget crisis and we wanted him back on the job." more ›

Many diehard dumpster divers would delightedly devote a down day to digging for a diamond in the disposable rough. But for 39-year-old Queens rubbish remover Nick DiMola, he was actually hired for a task that led him to discovering "treasure in another man's trash," treasure worth over $16,000 and all his to keep. DiMola was brought in almost five years ago to clean out the apartment of the late abstract artist Clinton Hill, who despite his name had lived in SoHo. After keeping one barrel of Hill's Mexican artifacts stored in a warehouse for years, DiMola recently decided to have it appraised and learned of the their high price tag. The Ridgewood man thinks that he'll sell the pricey art, telling the News, "I don't see the beauty in this, to be honest with you. I like things about history, but this pottery doesn't grab me." More surprising than the cleaner's good fortune is that the foundation formed by Hill's friends and family are not fighting him for possession of the goods. A lawyer for the group said, "If he is given a contract by the owner of property to remove and dispose of certain things, if the owner makes the mistake, that's the way it is. I'm not happy for him." more ›

Could the beloved, longest-running movie house in the nation be saved? The NY Post reports that the 91-year-old Ridgewood Theatre in Queens, on the block for $14 million last year after closing (a price that went down), will reopen partly as a theater. more ›

26-year-old teacher Hwi Wu died last night after she was struck by a city bus while crossing the street. The accident took place near the end of the line for the Q58 bus outside the Myrtle-Wyckoff subway station, right on the border of the Bushwick section of Brooklyn and the Ridgewood section of Queens. Wu was crossing Palmetto Street when the bus struck her and trapped her underneath it. A witness told NY1, "The bus was turning, when it was turning, it hit her first on the left and she stumbled and she fell on the floor, and it ran over both her legs." The spot of the accident is a complicated one, six-way intersection where the elevated M train meets the underground L train and more than one bus line terminates. The Q58 in question appears to have been out of service and no charges are expected for the driver. Wu came over from China in 2002. had graduated from LaGuardia College last year and was working with autistic children at a Queens day care center. more ›

A corrections officer was seriously injured when a large tree fell on her yesterday afternoon. The incident occurred around 4:35 p.m., at Fresh Pond Road and Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens. It's believed the tree was rotting, so when a train on the elevated track rumbled by, it finally fell. According to WABC 7, witnesses (the street was closed for a street fair) "saw the thick trunk breaking off, hitting the woman, who had been walking on the sidewalk with her sister. It struck her right in the head and trapped her under its weight." The woman is in critical condition at Wychoff Hospital. more ›

The Sun’s Paul Adams is the latest critic to get around to Hundred Acres (pictured), the meticulously-sourced, farm-to-table restaurant which used to be Provence. While the Daily News was haunted by the ghosts of the old restaurant, Adams says “the transformation is a delightful blast of fresh air. A sultry Southern accent marks the restaurant's menu… where "seasonal" isn't just a buzzword, but where you actually look forward to returning season after season to see what new ideas are blossoming.” more ›

Another pot farm bites the dust: A small fire in Queens led the Fire Department to over 200 marijuana plants growing inside a home. more ›