Thanks to the The Little Italy Merchant Association, Mulberry Street will soon have a new mural painted by street artist and toymaker Tristan Eaton. Bowery Boogie reports that the association's goal is to lure a "younger demographic" to Little Italy. But youngs are different, and aren't to be trusted. "That’s not going up in my courtyard," 87-year-old Father Fabian Grifone, told the Post. "It has nothing to do with the Catholic religion or Italians. It looks like pagan art. I don't want it." Yeah, how about something tasteful, like James Gandolfini? more ›

After a tough battle San Gennaro got to keep its length last year and, if a just unsealed indictment in Brooklyn federal court holds true, that wasn't the only thing the unending Little Italy food fest has been able to keep in recent years. According to prosecutors the mob—which Rudy Giuliani so proudly declared the feast to be free of in 1996—is back. Or maybe it never left? more ›

The controversial 11-day San Gennaro festival kicked off yesterday with a new world record. And while some NoLIta neighbors still seem miffed that the Feast is hurting their business, people at the festival certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves. As one manager was moaning to the Post that “There was nothing but hammering and sawing since they set up,” Chicago's Patrick Bertoletti was off breaking the world cannoli-eating record by chowing down on 32 of the desserts in six minutes! more ›

Earlier this year Little Italy/NoLIta neighbors huffed and puffed and threatened to shorten the annual Feast of San Gennaro festival down—to no avail. The 11-day street bonanza just reopened, all the way up to Houston, on Mulberry Street and will be there through September 25. But, on the plus side, the organizers say they've heard your complaints and are trying to spice things up this year with more foodie-friendly fare and shorter hours. more ›

[Update below] Despite the hopes of some NoLIta residents and shop owners Community Board 2 rejected the motion to cut the Feast of San Gennaro off at Kenmare Street. The Villager reports the vote was 20-13 in favor of letting the feast continue up to Houston, but it came with a number of concessions from the organization that runs it. Meanwhile some local Italian-Americans are starting to ask big questions about the direction the feast has been going in the past decade. more ›

This year's San Gennaro festival was offering up more than just zeppoles... it introduced real wild animals into Little Italy! Capital reports that on Mulberry Street, just south of Houston Street, there's "a set of three cages—one empty, one holding a caged baby lion, and a third with a box containing two tiger cubs" (looks like the empty one held a bear). And we're guessing these little guys have the same opinion on street fairs as Bloomberg. The site notes that "the lion's style was kinda cramped," and it appears that the people already spoke on their behalf, because yesterday the exhibit was being dismantled. Did you see them while they were there? more ›

The San Gennaro Festival, the Romania Day Festival and the 6th Avenue Summerfest could all fall under Bloomberg’s latest category of cuts. To save the considerable cost of manning city street fairs with NYPD officers (last year there were 321 fairs costing $4 million in overtime) the mayor wants to reduce their numbers. Bloomberg is a long-time fair opponent—he’s said that they’re too numerous and they they’re all the same—but others argue the festivals are integral to city life. “Festivals give people an opportunity to take back the streets so they can walk, listen to music, see their neighbors and buy something if they want," argued fair producer Mort Berkowitz. more ›

The smell of sausage and zeppole wafting through Nolita has returned: Today marks the start of the Feast of San Gennaro. more ›

Feast of San Gennaro. Manhattan’s Little Italy may be constantly shifting borders and shrinking, but this event seems to get bigger every year. Plunk down $3 for a big plastic cup of Italian bianco with peaches. When you’re done sipping, you can fish out the large hunks of wine-steeped fruit with your straw. It’s worth waiting on the long lines for kettle-fried zeppolis that come by the half or full dozen, shook up in a plain brown paper bag and coated with confectioner’s sugar. Just give them a couple of minutes to cool down before you start eating- they’re about 300 degrees fresh out of the oil. September 13-27, sangennaro.org more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a water main break on Rosedale Ave. in the Bronx, a shooting on 80th St. and 41st Ave. in Queens, and shots fired on Coney Island Ave. in Brooklyn.
• Several firefighters jumped into the Hudson yesterday afternoon to rescue a husband who was trying to save his wife, who had somehow fallen into the river.
• A man and a woman embarked from Hoboken this afternoon on the 70-foot boat "The Schooner Anne". They intend to sail continuously for 1,000 days without resupplying or visiting any harbor. Good luck!
• Julia Campbell, the Brooklyn native and former journalist who joined the Peace Corps and travelled to the Phillipines to teach English, was found buried in a shallow grave Wednesday. An autopsy revealed that she died from multiple blunt traumas to the head.
• A 29-year-old man driving drunk last night crashed into the back of a tractor trailer on the Cross-Bronx Expressway. He ran home, leaving his injured female friend in the car. She died and he is under arrest.
• Somebody must have made the members of Community Board 2 an offer they couldn't refuse, because it reversed its earlier decision and unanimously recommended application approval for the San Gennaro festival.
• A 40-year-old Mets fan sitting behind home plate and near the Mets dugout at last night's game was arrested after he used a high-powered flashlight to temporarily blind or distract the Braves' pitcher and shortstop during the 8th inning. (registration required to view story)
• The Empire Roller Skating Rink in Crown Heights, Brooklyn will close tomorrow after more than 60 years in business. It is considered the birthplace of roller disco.
• Happy 5th birthday to Carl and Clarence Aguirre, the formerly conjoined twins who were successfully separated at Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx in 2004.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a building collapse on West 193rd St. in Manhattan, a car in the water at Ocean Ave. and Lincoln Rd. in Brooklyn, and multiple manhole fires on 45th St. in Queens.
• The NYTimes takes a stroll down one-time Indian trail now known as Jamaica Ave. in Brooklyn.
• Neighbors on Mulberry St. are so fed up with the Feast of San Gennaro that Community Board 2 recommended against approving organizers' application to conduct their block party this year.
• Police arrested a man on suspicion of murder after his girlfriend was found thrown from a fourth-story window and impaled on the fence below in the Bronx.
• Only his dad can speak to him like that! Donald Trump's son is suing his condo association board for $50 million after telling him he was fired.
• A look at how much certain New Yorkers earn annually. At the rate they're amassing their fortunes, our next mayor will probably be Jerry Seinfeld or Dick Wolf if either wants the job.
• The eight-year-old girl who was tied up in the downtown hotel with her family during a push-in robbery managed to wriggle free, telephone for help, and free her parents.
• A car involved in a drunk-driving multiple vehicle accident, flew off the West Side Highway and landed in Riverside Park.
• Charles Rangel is excited about the prospect of a Clinton-Obama ticket in '08.

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. more ›

No more Drown the Clown? No more zeppoles, chased down by some gelato? Or walks through Little Italy in a crushing sea of humanity? The Daily News reports that Community Board 2's street events committee is recommending that the board reject permits for San Gennaro. more ›

Chimney, by Sixeight. more ›

Yesterday afternoon, a crowd of people excitedly waited on a line along Elizabeth Street. No, they had not missed the San Gennaro Festival - they were there for fashion. Emmett McCarthy, a season 2 designer from Project Runway, was having an event at his store, EMc2, featuring clothing and appearances from Project Runway designers like Chloe Dao, Kara Janx, Alison Kelly, Nick Verreos, and Emmett himself....plus Tim Gunn! more ›

Space Invaders, by Absolutewade on Flickr. Tag yours "Gothamist" if you want us to use them! more ›

Mort & Ray Productions—organize more than 200 of the fairs. Vendors pay $100 to $400 to participate in each event, with profits split between the production company and the nonprofit sponsor. The city receives 20 percent of the total vendor fees, which is used for police overtime and other expenses. more ›

This week's New York Magazine has a nice little piece about the death of Nolita. Basically rents have gotten so out of hand that all the little boutiques are being forced out of business, and replaced by mini-chain stores like Ralph Lauren and Nike ID. More than twenty-four stores are currently empty in the neighborhood, and people aren't sure what's going to happen next. Apparently the high rents aren't the only culprit:

And then there’s the nabe’s previous claim to fame: September’s spumoni-and-beer-fueled San Gennaro Festival. “It’s crushing,” says Lindsay Cain of Femmegems, a do-it-yourself jewelry lab on Mulberry. “Those two weekends in September are really important—everyone is back from the Hamptons and women are excited to get shopping again. We tried to stay open during the festival our first year, in 2002, and there were horrid sausages and rats outside our door every morning, so now we just close."

- And, uhm, San Gennaro ends tonight. more ›

Gothamist has a friend who, about once a month, announces that he desperately wants an oyster. He then wanders the city until he finds one, though most of the time they disappoint him. The last place he got one was at San Gennaro the other night (uhm, not recommended). Personally though, we just never think to eat them let alone think of them as a standard New York food. So it was with real interest that we read an Op-Ed in the City section today on the history of the Oyster and the City (funny thing, the Op-Ed was written by a guy named Mark Kurlansky who has a book called, get this, "The Big Oyster: New York on the Half Shell," coming out in February...). Some things we learned: All five boroughs and the islands in the harbor were once famous for their oyster beds, some biologists think that 17th-century New York contained half(!) of the world's oysters, oyster stands were by the turn of the century as ubiquitous as hot dog stands are today, finally the city's oyster beds have been closed since 1927 due to pollution. But now that pollution in the harbor is way down, Kurlansky argues, isn't it about time we start replanting New York's waters with oysters? Sure, we say, why not. more ›

Nolita (and LIta) residents will reek of sausage and zeppole for the next ten nights - it's San Gennaro time! Part Heartburn Row, part boardwalk midway, tonight, you'll be able to waste money as you try to win a Nemo plush and stuff yourself with Mozzarepas galore. Gothamist hasn't heard many stories about how the NYPD is securing the area, but we guess that's because the NYPD is concentrating on the UN. Maybe the mobsters will keep the peace! more ›

- New York magazine's new subway poster ad push will involve new, timely creative every day... the September 15 posters will have the "calorie counts of favorite [San Gennaro] festival foods like calamari, cannoli, pizza and zeppole" which sounds like a reason to revolt - Gothamist don't wanna how bad it is for us to go to Little Italy more ›