To be a young harbor seal taking some time from swimming to sun! A young seal was seen hanging out at the 79th Street Boast Basin yesterday morning the Parks Department. Sergeant Rakeem Taylor told City Room, "He was moving around pretty fine, yawning and sunning himself," and estimated the seal to be "3 to 4 feet long and about 90 pounds." Taylor said that the seal's appearance means the Hudson is clean enough for......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a possible abduction at the Mobil gas station off the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, a suspicious death on Cornelia St. in Queens, and a pedestrian struck at Buffalo St. and Hylan Blvd. on Staten Island. The Dept. of Buildings declined to revoke permits for Donald Trump's planned 46-story Trump SoHo "hotel" on Spring St. near the Holland Tunnel. A State Bridge Task Force completed its inspection of New York's......

Cue up John Williams famous two-note motif! Following Saturday's shark sighting in Rockaway, another shark reached the shores of New York in Coney Island. The summer went out with a bite, not a bang, as city lifeguard Marius Mironescu rescued a 2-foot sand shark from frenzied beach-goers yesterday. And as he swam the shark out to safety...the little guy gave him a bite. "They were holding on to it and some people were actually......

The city encourages people to call 311 to report non-emergency situations (broken traffic lights) or to ask questions (what's that noise). But this anecdote from the State Island Advance's Newslog shows that being helpful can be hard. When 77-year-old Agnes Burney called 311 to report that a contractor had "mowed their trucks over a fire hydrant in front of her South Beach residence and cracked the concrete slab around it," the city did inspect the......

Cops took John Potts to Bellevue Hospital's psychiatric ward for evaluation, after he capped his weekend's worth of crazy behavior by threatening to bash his stepfather's face in with a shovel, then running off and jumping into the Raritan Bay while screaming that he had the bubonic plague. Thursday morning he attacked a peacock in a Tottenville Burger King's parking lot, battering the bird so badly, in front of a crowd of horrified onlookers, that......

It's a flashback to all the stories of hypodermic needles washing up on shores: Over the weekend, a 7-year-old girl was jabbed by an old needle on Staten Island's South Beach. The previous week, a woman at S.I.'s Midland Beach was jabbed by a needle when she was sitting on a sheet. Little Sayyidah Johnson told WABC 7 what happened: "I was playing with my buckets, scooping up sand and making sand castles. I put......

A few weeks ago, the New York Aquarium and Kinsborough Community College went out to count harbor seals in the NYC area. The Staten Island Advance tagged along and found nine seals in mid-March. (Last year, there were 20 seals in the first formal seal count by Aquarium Curator Paul Sieswerda, who says about this year's count, "Likely there are more out fishing at the time we happened to look.") The seals are drawn......

Today, Mayor Bloomberg met with the Bronx fire victims' families and later held a press conference about the tragedy, which is the deadliest fire (aside from September 11) since 1990 . The Mayor has been under fire for leaving the city yesterday - after a Thursday press conference about the fire - for a scheduled appearance in Miami, where he made jokes about "Mayors Gone Wild" in South Beach. In Miami, Mayor Bloomberg explained he......

- Anthony Bourdain unplugged at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. Not as riotous as his post over at Ruhlman on TVFN but worth a peek. (via Snack) - Round-up of the wake left behind the Robert's at the Penthouse Club steakhouse review. Ganda, Bruni Digest, National Review, and Bourdain on Ruhlman (again). Bonus Bourdain: Q&A over at Serious Eats. - Seems the John Mackey (Whole Foods) vs. Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) smackdown......

After taking game one in Miami, the Nets had to think they would be back for game five no worse than even 2-2 in the series. After Sunday's 102-92 loss to the Heat at home, the Nets found themselves in a cruel position: facing elimination when they travel back to South Beach. Not only must the Nets come back from a 3-1 defecit, but they must do it by winning two games on the road.......

So, they're in. After a pretty rough season, the Nets managed at the very, very last moment to grab the #8 spot in the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs. They accomplished this last night with a huge 3rd quarter rally to beat the Boston Celtics 102-93. Cleveland also won their contest in Toronto last night, but since the Nets had the tiebreaker, Cleveland got nothing and promptly fired everyone. The reward for this accomplishment is a......

Former President Bill Clinton, hospitalized since Friday after complaining of chest pains, has been receiving many well wishes as he awaits heart bypass surgery at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York and has been up and seeing visitors, but many doubt he'll be able to help John Kerry campaign or shill his own book. The Daily News looks at what rehab is ahead for Clinton after surgery. And though Clinton has been a recent convert to......

Bob McKee, Local Music Now...

Telling the us what we already knew, a new report says that Manhattanites are thinner than average Americans: Just 34% of white Manhattan residents are overweight, versus 64% of all Americans. The incidence of obesity increases with the other boroughs, leading to hypotheses that white Manhattanites are walking more than their outer borough counterparts or that they are richer and more well-educated, but Gothamist knows why they are thinner - the skinny, Atkins/South Beach/Zone/anorexia dieting......

The last kite Gothamist flew prominently featured Rainbow Brite--but that might soon change. April is National Kite Month, and the American Kitefliers Association has put together a ton of activities in the New York area for kids, amateur fliers, and those, ahem, serious kite aficionados out there. Honestly, Gothamist can't believe the hipsters haven't reclaimed lovable, kitschy kiteflying as their weekend activity of choice. (It's the logical next step after rollerskating.) It probably has something......