The state Senate really wants to get down to working on the people's business, but they have something they need to discuss first. Namely, where everyone is supposed to sit. LoHud explains that "the four-member independent Democratic conference led by Sen. Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, was given preferential seating by the Republican conference." Which, according to Sen. Eric Adams, means that Republicans discriminated against black and female senators by giving them bad seats and rooms. The fighting starts around 38:30, and goes on for way longer than it should: more ›

Forget the days of colorful, clunky seating filling up the subway cars—the future is here, straphangers, and it looks mighty uncomfortable. The new flip-up seats arrived late last year, and we finally spotted them this morning on the E train (as you can see, the perfect line to test the rush hour seats on!), so we thought we'd check in with the MTA on their fleet of ten testing cars. Deirdre Parker, Deputy Director of Public Affairs, tells us they were brought in for "a test to see if it would add capacity on crowded lines during rush hour. Those seats are locked in the down position and will remain that way. There is no plan at this point to run those cars in the up position." Parker wouldn't answer why the seats were remaining locked, or if they would ever be unlocked, so for now we'll just assume they had some extra cash burning a hole in their pockets. more ›

While the MTA starts taking seats out of the subway cars, the Take a Seat project is continuously building up their public furniture installation which brings in more seats to subway stations. "Perfectly functional chairs are rescued from trash piles and reassigned to stations where limited seating options leave subway patrons no choice but to stand for extended periods of time." Great idea as long as the rescued furniture isn't infested with bed bugs (like some street finds and subway benches can be)! more ›

Work is well underway with the Department of Transportation plan to narrow Broadway in midtown Between 42nd Street and Herald Square, four lanes of Broadway will go down to two lanes--and a bicycle lane and pedestrian walkway, complete with seating, tables, umbrellas and flower-filled planters, will emerge by August 15. Reader carolita took this photograph of workers dusting off the pebbles on the esplanade-- exciting! more ›