You may pay obscene rent and/or attend obscene parties on the Lower East Side, but Robert G. Lopez owns the place. Lopez runs a clothing line with the Lower East Side as his trademark, and he's not afraid to take you to court for making money off the LES cachet. Right now he's representing himself in a trademark lawsuit against J. Crew, which has been hawking threads with the Lower East Side signifier. more ›

You may recall the sad, stupid saga of (former) maintenance man Robert Lopez, who was arrested in 2007 while sitting on the stoop of his apartment building with some fake sticks of dynamite he found in the trash. Lopez had brought the cartoonish-looking "bomb" home from work with the intention of making a piggy bank out of it, but when a concerned transit worker called the cops, his ridiculous legal nightmare began. more ›

One day in June 2007, maintenance man Robert Lopez was taking out the trash at the Cadman Towers in Brooklyn Heights when he found some fake dynamite sticks attached to a clock. "I thought it was cool," he tells the Times, and so he took it home to make a piggy bank out of it. That idea landed him in Riker's Island (where inmates called him the "Mad Bomber") and an indictment on charges of "placing a false bomb or hazardous substance," a felony that carries up to four years in prison. A transit worker had spotted him carrying the fake dynamite and called police, who arrested him outside his Fort Greene apartment. Which he no longer rents; he lost his job and he's been homeless for a month. Sometimes he cleans a McDonald's in Brooklyn. Sad enough yet? In a teary interview with the Times, he explains, "On 9/11, from my roof of my building I could see the top of the towers smoking... I’m not a terrorist. I wouldn’t hurt nobody like that. Never." The Brooklyn D.A. isn't convinced, and Lopez is due back in court on Wednesday. more ›

The papers have been wondering about Fernando Ferrer's new tagline, "It's a great city. It could be greater." with the NY Times wonders if it'll even be remembered, the Observer's Politicker guesses its inspiration. It certainly smacks of the "duh" and "whatever" factor (our subways are great...but they could be greater), but Gothamist was actually reminded of city's (and Mayor Bloomberg's) desire to say we're "The World's Second Home." Because, stupid attracts stupid, Gothamist can only assume that the Bad Idea Bears from Avenue Q have been loitering around the slogan-making rooms of Bloomberg and Ferrer. We hope that in 2009 there will be slogans like "Vote or You Will Die In NYC" or "NYC - More Rats, More Cowbell" because we'd understand that, at least. more ›

Gothamist expected the premiere of The Muppets' Wizard of Oz at the Tribeca Film Festival to be star-sutdded, but who realized that it would also mean a huge blowup Kermit in the nabe? This reminded Gothamist of a memorable sighting of a blowup Kermit the night before a Thanksgiving Day Parade: He was caught in a compromising position. Anyone, we invite you to offer a caption in the comments. more ›

Jeff Marx & Robert Lopez, Creators Avenue Q more ›

And as reader Brian Van points out, since favored musical Wicked did not win, we'd like Times public editor Daniel Okrent to make good on his claim that "if [Wicked] loses the Tony I'll eat my black satin jacket from the road company of Jekyll and Hyde." You name the venue, Daniel! more ›