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......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck on Woodward Ave. and Cornelia St. in Queens, a burn victim on West 52nd St. in Manhattan, and a carjacking on 141st St. and Riverside Drive in Manhattan. Chaka Khan joins the cast of the Broadway musical The Color Purple. I feel for you, ticket holders. Tomorrow is your last chance to register for voting in New York's February 5th primary. Using handheld computers to identify......

“I don’t think we should rush to give Columbia University a Christmas present,” city councilman Charles Barron said before voting against Columbia University’s 17-acre, $7 billion dollar expansion plan. But though many council members dissented or declined to vote, the plan was approved yesterday by the city council, who voted a month earlier than expected. The stage is now set for what could be a fierce eminent domain battle between the university and some commercial......

Last year WNBC got up close and personal with the Civic Fame statue atop the Municipal Building, and this week The NY Times looks at the woman who modeled for that statue, and many others -- Audrey Munson, "a long-forgotten New York celebrity whose face and figure continue to grace the contours of statues all around Manhattan."It was Ms. Munson’s eyes that stared stoically from the marble forms of the Firemen’s Memorial on Riverside Drive,......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a stabbing on 168th St. and Hillside Ave. in Queens, a sexual assault at Stanton and Attorney Sts. in Manhattan, and a missing child on Himrod St. in Brooklyn. Artist Eve Mosher is outlining in chalk the high water lines that floods will reach every four years by 2080 if global warming continues unabated. The project can be seen at her site highwaterline. Six-year-old Natalie Shea is now a......

A Manhattan dog walker was charged with stealing more than $50,000 from the 84-year-old mother of a client. According to the NY Sun, the Manhattan DA's office says that Daniel Natale, who runs Luna Dog Service, "allegedly used a checkbook, credit cards, and a debit card to steal cash." Natale met Isabel Zakin through her daughter four years ago. Zakin told the Post that her broken hip "made it impossible for her to walk" Tibetan......

The 2007 FISA Rowing Tour USA makes a stop in New York City today by rowing around the isle of Manhattan. The last leg of the week-long rowing tour is a "Row Around New York" where participants will row 30 miles around the island. The boats began at 6 am today at Pier 40 (Houston St. and the Hudson River) and should finish there at around 5 pm. Participating rowers, there are 70 of them,......

As of last night Jerry Hadley, known as a top tenor at opera houses worldwide, was on life support after shooting himself. This morning it's being reported that he isn't expected to survive. Last year the 55-year old was arrested on Riverside Drive in Manhattan for driving while intoxicated, and even though the case was dropped - he had other problems to deal with. More recently, despite his success, Hadley had been filing for bankruptcy,......

Another wet April day. Friday is off to a rainy start. So much so that the National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning for the city and much of northeastern and central New Jersey. The warning is in effect until 11:00 a.m. as a large area of moderate to heavy rainfall passes over already saturated ground. Taking a cue from Jesse Jackson the Weather Service reminds us "when encountering flooded roads make the......

QueensCrap points us to a good interview with the Adrian Benepe, the City Parks commissioner. In it, he discussed the city's goal of putting a park within a 10 minute walk for every New Yorker:That’s totally plausible. Already, three-quarters of New Yorkers live within a 10- minute walk of a park. We are continuing to build new parks. The problem is what to do about those neighborhoods that are relatively park-less but also suffer......

Sad and insane day on the Gothamist Newsmap: "Baby found DOA in Garbage" in the Bronx, a bank robbery in Cobble Hill, and an unusual incident on Riverside Drive: "2 PEOPLE FIGHTING AND DOUSING EACH OTHER WITH GASOLINE AND ATTEMPTING TO IGNITE IT." Here's an unusual method of pedagogy: New York blogs as assigned reading. Tales of skullduggery at the Idiotarod: "The blonde girl on that team, Rebecca, tried as hard as she could......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a jumper up on West 29th, a DOA on Riverside Drive, and a large fight in the Bronx. There was also a big bank robbery in Queens-- the robbers fled, and attempted to carjack someone, but they were stopped by a police officer. Shots were exchanged-- the officer got hit in the leg, and one of the suspects got shot in the chest. The Daily News follows up on......

Today, the NY Post takes advantage of the built-in outrage of taxi fares by looking at how the new fares stack up. The fare increase, which went into effect yesterday, doubles the amount charged for waiting time from 20 cents per minute to 40 cents. So the Post made a couple trips:[A] ride from Penn Station to the Metropolitan Museum of Art came to $18.50. The 5-mile, 29-minute midday trip would have cost $3 less......

The mention of the Time Out NY 50 Best Blocks in the City article in Extra Extra yesterday really got some conversation started. Here are some of those comments: Hmm, that is a pretty weird list. Other than 20th between 9th and 10th, I can't agree with any of those picks. I have to say it: this is utter and irrational reverse-snobbism. Having grown up on the UES, I am completely aware of that......

-- Phillip McKelvey of Riverside Drive was arrested on suspicion of committing a series of rapes in Harlem-- the victims were homeless women. -- Mary Kate Olsen doesn't wash her hands after using the bathroom. Isn't she supposed to be the good one? -- The first lawsuit in the Bartha explosion case has been filed. -- Here's a big pile of kittens. Not cute enough? Check out Pepper! -- Bruno Kirby, the famous character......

Erich Fuchs and his neighbors are angry with their landlord. They think that he's been gussying up the building in which they live, 230 Riverside Drive, so as to raise the rents. That's an understandable issue to have, but then Fuchs went and took it to a gross new level. He poured a bucket of urine onto a construction worker from his 10th-floor balcony. Think about that. He poured a bucket of urine from......

COMEDY: If you missed Paul Scheer, Rob Huebel and Aziz Ansari at Summerstage last night - you can catch them all together tonight as Human Giant takes over UCB tonight. What to expect?: "Each week they present a collection of sketches, short films, and presentations that have all been pre-approved by the other "human giant" - Michael Clarke Duncan. In addition, if anyone leaves the show unsatisfied, Mr. Duncan has agreed to go to......

Worrying about being hit by a car while walking is one thing, and worrying about being hit by a drunk driver is another. Diana Tafur was ejected from a minivan taxi when it was hit by drunk driver in a BMW. The BMW driver, Harzem Sendogan, ran a red light on East 84th Street at First Avenue, and Tafur was "ejected from her seat in the back of the van through a side window and......

The NY Times tackles real estate and class in two articles that span two boroughs. First, architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff gives his thoughts on the Brooklyn waterfront plan, saying the park will be a "major civic asset" but a proposed hotel-residential complex have the potential to devour parkland and glorious views: "We live in an age, sadly, when little public benefit arises before a developer takes a cut." It does seem like the future of......

It was a kinder and gentler time back when Donald Trump started to build Trump Place south of West 72nd Street and Riverside Drive. Sure, it was pure bombastic Trump, battling neighborhood groups and neighboring apartments to develop Trumpland, even if he was going to extend Riverside Park by 21 acres, but it was a time when we didn't know the phrase "You're fired" was just scary, not funny in a yooge way. Now, Trump,......

The city was able to clear two lanes of the Henry Hudson Parkway last night, which was strewn with dirt and debris after Thursday's retaining wall collapse that closed the immediate area, and the first car drove by at 10:18PM. Over 25,000 cubic yards of dirt and rubbles from the area were removed by city construction crews around the clock. However, what caused the accident (probably water), what could have been done to prevent......

Yesterday afternoon, a 150 foot part of a 600 foot long retaining wall collapsed onto the Henry Hudson Parkway, sending city officials and nearby building residents into a frenzy. The City evacuated residents of 1380 Riverside Drive, the building just south of the wall, as they inspected the collapse, which poured tons of dirt, stone, and trees over a thankfully empty stretch of the highway and empty cars. It's unclear how long the northbound......

A retaining wall near the George Washington Bridge collapsed, creating a landslide of dirt onto the Henry Hudson Parkway. Dirtslide, we guess, since it's not quite the California kind. The firefighters were called to the area below Riverside Drive and 181st Street to remove dirt, which has buried some cars. No word on injuries yet, so we hope no one was near the cars. So, if you're headed back home and take the West Side......

The war between restaurants leaving their menus in buildings and the building's residents has become violent: A building super and resident of a building on 128th Street and Riverside Drive were arrested for beating up a Chinese food delivery guy over the delivery man's attempts to leave menus at the co-op. Chen Zhen Ping, who works at his parents' Chinese restaurant, Ming's Wok, says that super Naim Shala told him to leave the building, which......

While reading the New York Region > The City > Wild Things" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/nyregion/thecity/10cats.html">feature about feral cats in the city, Gothamist started to have visions (frightening ones, at that) of a cat version of The Warriors or Gangs of New York. One particularly vivid description:Ferals have formed a little outlaw civilization in Riverside Park, just south of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. Every morning before dawn, while most humans in the neighborhood are still asleep, the......

The Post reports that a woman riding her bike last night was hit twice by the same driver on Lafayette Street, near Canal. Sunday night, around 10PM, a car hit a cyclist, and then, "[w]hen the driver realized she hit somebody, she backed up and accidentally ran over the woman again," according to the Post's police sources. The cyclist is in critical condition. Please be careful when you're riding your bike. Yes, the weather is......

This is like a plotline from Oz: A doorman on the Upper West Side, who while in prison, had fallen in love with another inmate. While out, he plotted to kill the inmate's girlfriend, who would have been his romantic rival. According to the Daily News, Norman Spencer Gary took an old tenant's credit card to pay for a hitman to kill the woman, who has a 5 year old with the 25 year old......