Photograph of someone determined to get around in the snow by Charley Lhasa on Flickr After January hype - which resulted in rain - and a brief moment of snow last week, a winter snow storm finally made an appearance this year. Two weather disturbances resulted in many inches of snow falling in the region: By 2PM, more than 6 inches fell in the city, which is the biggest snowfall in two years and......

Yesterday the NY Post warned non-recyclers that they'd have to don a "scarlet litter" if they didn't clean up their acts. We hoped this "scarlet litter" would be a hat hand-crafted by a Freegan and worn atop the heads of the environmentally-challenged, but instead it's something much more sensible: a clear bag for all of your garbage that leaves little to the imagination. New York, we don't really want to see your trash, so please......

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and City Council member Peter Vallone presented a proposal withnew requirements about grocery stores' use, recycling and storage of plastic bags. Stores bigger than 5,000 square feet would need to:Use recyclable bags Have bins where customers can return bags Print "Please return this bag to a participating store for recycling" in 3"+ high letters on bags Provide reusable bags for sale (this can also mean more durable plastic) Record......

Hot on the heels of 6-year-old Natalie Shea being caught and fined for chalking up her sidewalk, a second chalker has been nabbed! This one, Ellis Gallagher, is older -- so his punishment was a bit more serious. Seriously! For chalk! The dusty, porous sedimentary rock that leaves markings which wash away in the rain. The Brooklyn Paper reports:The city’s crackdown on sidewalk chalk “vandals” is officially out of control! It was bad enough when......

Ah, City Councilman Peter "I hate graffiti" Vallone weighs in on the chalk "graffiti" made by 6-year-old Natalie Shea on her home's front stoop. Back in 2005, Vallone introduced the law that requires property owners to clean up graffiti, so when a neighbor called 311 to complain about Natalie's drawings (again, mind you, on her own stoop, not a neighbor's stoop), her parents got a warning letter from the Department of Sanitation. The Daily News......

Five architectural firms have banded together to brainstorm ideas for adding green space to the far west side from the Village to Tribeca, also known as Hudson Square. A plan to add more garbage trucks to the neighborhood, writes Downtown Express's Patrick Hedlund, led local stakeholders to elicit architectural visions. Five firms - Arquitectonica GEO , FLAnK, LTL Architects, SPaN and Zakrzewski + Hyde (in association with Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners) - were......

After pointedly saying that it was easy for drivers to move their cars during the midweek snow-and-ice storm and that parking tickets would stand, Mayor Bloomberg backtracked and said tickets issued for alternate side of the street violations on Thursday and Friday would be forgiven (the message is also there on 311). The Mayor begrudgingly said he was sorry during his radio program yesterday:I’m sorry for the inconvenience to people, but you know you have......

Today's City section that brings up another problem with the development boom that has covered our fair city the past few years: Where to put the local old folk. Specifically where to put their nursing homes. For instance, the city currently has plans to build 250 low-income apartments on the parking lot of the old Greenpoint Hospital. Building those apartments will help fulfill low-income quotas that developers need in order to build more luxury......

Mother Nature, you did it! You made sure that there was enough snow to make meteorlogists - and local news crews - in the region thrilled beyond belief by dumping over 2 feet of snow in New York City - and more in outlying areas - which makes this a brand new record. Sure, Gothamist was laughing at newscasts touting the "Blizzard of 2006" as having the second highest snowfall, but when we took......

I have an old air conditioner that hardly works anymore. I need to get rid of it, but have heard that it's illegal to just leave it out with the trash. I don't have a car so I can't bring it anywhere. What should I do? Sondra, LES Yes, it's illegal to throw an air conditioner out with your garbage, but it's not a hanging crime. Still, if you are caught dumping an AC outside......