Results tagged “sidewalk”

Since the Department of Transportation can't fix all the cracked sidewalks in the city at once, they came up with a new system in which locals can pay their way to the front of the fix line. First off, even though sidewalks are city property, they are the responsibility of homeowners, who can be held liable for injuries. When a homeowner is issued a violation, they have to repair the sidewalk via a private contractor, or through the DOT, which may take a while.

Game 6 will now be played tomorrow night at 8:20 p.m... up against the Giants-Cardinals football game.

                     

When Gothamist reader Wayne sent us a picture of a rat stuck in a sidewalk, apparently trying to emerge, others readers decided it was depressing, hilarious, tempting, disgraceful, an opportunity for considering ethics and morals, and time to bait other commenters. Finally, we have an update from Wayne plus a number of Photoshop renderings of the Sad Rat:

     

Reader Wayne sent us this photograph and explains, "I was walking along and texting. Not really paying that much attention. Then something caught my eye. I thought I was about to step in dog shit, but quickly realized it was a rat stuck in the sidewalk. A big rat. It had tried to squeeze through a crack in the sidewalk and failed."

All of the trees in Queens are leading to a ton of problems lately. First the decision to chop down a 600-year-old tree nearly tore a community apart, then trees were falling on top of houses during the great wind storm of early October, and now MyFoxNY reports that a group of angry homeowners in the borough are up in arms about a tree stump.

Apparently the residents of Boerum Hill got themselves some fancy sidewalk extensions to make the place more pedestrian-friendly (jealous, UWS?)—but then the added sidewalk added "a huge swatch of ugly gray to the neighborhood." Will people ever be happy? Anyway, to combat this problem the Boerum Hill Blog reports that artist Christina Kelly "has submitted plans to the city to plant native northeastern varieties of corn throughout Boerum Hill, where Native Americans used to grow corn. The first spot she has submitted is for the northwest corner of Smith and she expects the planters to be raised off the pavement in 5′ x 5′ planters." If approved the corn will be sprouting by next May; but won't this make the sidewalks less pedestrian-friendly again?

First the Upper East Siders were ranting about sidewalk congestion, and now the Upper West Side is joining in on the complaint chorus. A writer for West Side Spirit has a bone to pick with enclosed sidewalk cafés; because what else are you going to get worked up about these days? La la la, there are really no other problems except dining establishments jutting out on to public property. Really, nothing.

In a radical move, the DOT will begin prohibiting cops from parking on the sidewalk outside the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station in Brooklyn. Officers at Transit Bureau District 30 have parked on the sidewalk for years, but a new pedestrian plaza set to open next month will mean the end of a longstanding police privilege. Pedestrians and straphangers are rejoicing, with Jameer Henson, a law clerk, telling the Daily News, "In the mornings it always bottlenecks at the top of the steps because there's only like half a sidewalk for the people coming and going to the subway. I won't be sad to see the cars go."

Is there room for a soapbox on this sidewalk? The latest complaint box on City Room is filled with street clutter grievances; as we know, newspaper condos and sidewalk dining are shrinking our already crowded sidewalks. The site posts a complaint from Julia F. Willkie, who resides on East 79th Street; she states: "What really upsets and infuriates me is how cluttered the streets, avenues and sidewalks have become. I live on the Upper East Side, west of Third and four blocks from Mayor Bloomberg’s residence. At the intersection of Third and 79th, three corners host 18 'honor boxes.' Between 77th and 79th on Third are an additional 13 boxes." Those pesky publications aren't all that's in the way, though, she also lists off phone booths, street vendors and newspaper stands as her personal public enemy #1. Finally she declares, "Good Heavens! My head tilts back so I can clear my vision, and street banner advertisements, approved by New York City’s tourism officials, are hanging from lampposts." Does Willkie need to move to greener pastures, or are our sidewalks becoming too much of an obstacle course?

A tipster sent us this photo of the aftermath of an accident yesterday on the Upper West Side, in which a cab jumped the curb on West 86th Street and struck four pedestrians. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured; paramedics took two men and a street vendor to St. Luke's with minor injuries, and a fourth pedestrian refused medical attention. Cabbie Hafiz Faheem tells the Daily News that a beer truck clipped him as he turned off Amsterdam Avenue: "He came behind me so fast, and he hit me. He was not paying attention or he was doing something." It's not yet clear what brand of beer was involved, or if any of the precious cargo was damaged in the incident.

Newlywed Rebecca Padro had just moved to Flatbush from Philadelphia, so when her husband Miguel, a grad student, went missing on his way to work two months ago, she got a little panicked. According to Fox News, Miguel had left the apartment on his bike to ride over to his part time job at the Prospect Park tennis center, but never made it work and wasn't returning her calls. After some hours passed, she notified Miguel's parents. His brother Juan rushed down from Massachusetts, and she called the 71st Precinct, where the person who fielded the call wasn't aware that Miguel had been arrested and booked that day in that very precinct.

A grate over a window shaft collapsed, injuring over two dozen children at a Brooklyn yeshiva. According to NY1, "Fire officials say several students fell after a grate collapsed during a class photo shoot outside the Torah Elementary School in Kensington." Yikes! 1010WINS reports, "At least five students...were rushed to hospitals, two of them with serious injuries." Twenty-seven others were treated on the scene; the students were all girls, ages 10-12. The collapse is being investigated. Two years ago, a woman fell through sidewalk grating in Midtown; while that grate protected Con Ed equipment, it seems a private garbage truck may have compromised the grate's integrity by driving up on the sidewalk over it.

Though his lawyer argues that a "vehicular malfunction" caused the crash that killed a pregnant woman on a midtown sidewalk in March, the van's driver admitted to police that he was drinking before the horrible accident. Keston Brown, 28, first told cops he'd only consumed two Bud Lights before getting behind the wheel, but six hours later he admitted to imbibing more than double that amount at an Upper West Side bar: "We stayed 30 to 40 minutes. I had about three or four bottles of Bud Light and one shot of Hennessey." But Brown maintains that he wasn't drunk, and that the van mysteriously "turned off" before he careened onto the sidewalk and killed Ysemny Ramos, who was two months pregnant. Police sources say that moments before the crash, Brown and his coworker in the passenger seat had been driving alongside Ramos and her friend, "shouting come-ons at the two women from his window before losing control of the delivery van." Yesterday Brown pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide, manslaughter and assault charges, but a Supreme Court judge refused to lower his bail.

A reader sent us this image of an ambulance, the fire department and police at East 37th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues. Apparently a truck jumped a sidewalk, hit two pedestrians and hit a building. According to initial reports, one person was killed. More details as they come, but, unfortunately, there was another incident of a car hitting a building uptown: A cab crashed into a pizzeria on Amsterdam between 106th and 107th, injuring several people, one critically. Update In the Midtown incident, the driver was and the woman who was killed was 29 years old and pregnant.

A tragedy is unfolding in Chinatown: One child is dead and others are injured after a minivan jumped a curb and struck them. The incident occurred around 38 East Broadway, near Catherine Street. WCBS 2 reports, "Police say the van apparently backed up onto the sidewalk, striking the children. At least two of the victims were pinned below the vehicle."

  

In a 1996 article about the ultra-rich, the NY Times points out that Billy Cosby's Manhattan sidewalk is heated and therefore "remains opulently snow-free," which also leaves him lawsuit-free. The ultra-non-rich use the archaic shovel, but the job still gets done, and you may even receive a thank you for your hard work. Not everyone does their duty of de-icing, however.

Eric Davis, the twenty-year-old man who fell through a broken sidewalk subway grate in Bed-Stuy on Friday morning has told his story to the Daily News from the confines of his bed at Kings County Hospital, where he's convalescing after plummeting ten feet into a filthy shaft: "I don't feel like it's bad luck ...because I survived. The one thing I did [was] I made sure I didn't bump my head. The lady paramedic made sure I was 100% comfortable while I was on the way to the hospital. She deserves a raise." Davis declined to say whether he plans to sue the MTA, but if a Daily News reporter can get in to talk with him, you can bet Jackie Chiles has already slipped Davis his card.

Four more people can be added to the total number of New Yorkers who have been run down by drivers finding it difficult to stay on the road this weekend. In the fourth incident in two days, two toddlers were badly injured when a 16-year-old driver swerved onto the sidewalk in Flatbush, Brooklyn and injured two children and two young women. Both of the toddlers needed to be hospitalized--one in critical condition and the other in stable condition.

Forget about street furniture -- as far as sidewalk finds go, finding a metal wheel is the new finding a mid-century armchair! Restless spotted this gem in Greenpoint and reports that it's gone unclaimed for months. It's likely too heavy to throw over ones shoulder, but apparently metal is the hot commodity of sidewalk scavenging these days (he reports that people are often seen "walking from Long Island City across the Pulaski Bridge early in the morning with strange metal articles").

The badly injured survivor of the incident where a garbage truck ran onto a Midtown sidewalk, killing a vacationing British couple, figures his New York instinct to bypass slow-moving tourists ultimately saved his life. Hollis resident Abayomi Henderson told the Daily News he had just finished working out at a nearby gym when he saw Jacqueline Timmins and Andrew Hardie (pictured) on West 35th St. near 6th Ave. Tuesday night.

Two sidewalk Christmas tree salesman are accusing the "company" they worked for last year of leaving them out in the cold on Christmas Eve, waiting for thousands of dollars in wages that never appeared. The yuletide stiffing apparently was in retribution for either 1) skimming sales revenue, or 2) talking publicly about the shadowy figure who allegedly is the kingpin of sidewalk Christmas trees. Last year, an experienced tree-seller and longtime employee of Kevin...