The wild turkey population out in Staten Island just keeps on growing—bad for neighbors but great for folks looking for an illegal Thanksgiving bird with some serious New York City terroir. In this economy, why bother with an expensive overfed industrial turkey when you can get one that most likely has never set foot on mainland America? more ›

Looks like Miamist will have to come out of hiatus... the Jersey Shore cast is moving to Florida for season two! South Beach, to be exact. How will America's Favorite Guidos & Guidettes do in a city that's probably a bit more class than trash (at least in comparison to dirty Jersey)? Stay tuned! Filming starts in May, and in the meantime, TMZ has been intercepting letters from the show's producers to find out some of the locations they're scouting. more ›

It took Alex Rodriguez some 13-plus seasons to have the scheduling gods grant his first ever regular game season to be played in his hometown of Miami against the Marlins. How did Joe Girardi celebrate the homecoming? By giving A-Rod the first two games of the series off due to "fatigue." But is A-Rod exhausted from leftover effects of off-season hip surgery—or being linked to Hollywood starlets? The Post says that Rodriguez was able to get enough leverage out of his recovering hips to make a night of it with new romantic band-aid Kate Hudson in South Beach until 2:30 in the morning after spending Friday night's game on the bench. Despite sitting out, A-Rod had 100 tickets put aside for friends and family to watch the Yankees win without their slumping third baseman, who is hitless in his last 15 at-bats and hitting .212 for the season. The doctor who performed A-Rod's hip surgery said that he was happy to see him rest and wished the slugger had already sat more, instead of playing all of his first 38 games back, with only three as DH. more ›

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. more ›

• 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 49 steel deck-truss bridges and found them all to be structurally sound. Still, a bill before the Senate to boost federal spending on bridge maintenance would direct 10% of a $1 billion increase, or $100 million, to New York State.
• A Coast Guard vessel conducting a routine homeland security patrol came upon a 27-year-old man treading water without a life jacket about 400 yards southeast of Staten Island's South Beach.
• Gridskipper has a guide to establishments that brew, distill, and ferment all kinds of potent potables right here in NYC.
• The Gowanus Lounge reports that an F train express line could arrive as early as next year. Or maybe around 2012 or early 2013.
• The New York Times describes the run of the vintage six-car 'A' train yesterday on the line's 75th anniversary.
• IvyGate reports that bars surrounding Columbia University will all be getting ID scanners to keep out underage patrons, and Columbia itself will be picking up the tab for the devices.

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 hitting him, smacking his face. Well, I wasn't going to let them hurt the poor thing," he said. more ›

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. more ›

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 had to be euthanized. He was yelling then that he was killing a vampire. more ›

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. more ›

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 to the peaceful isolation of Hoffman and Swinburne islands just off the coast of South Beach, in view of Coney Island Park, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and passing cargo ships destined for one of the country's busiest ports. more ›

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. more ›

- 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) more ›

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. Given the Nets' play at home, Gothamist finds that prospect unlikey. more ›

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. more ›

More about the heart programs at NY Presbyterian and the Mayo Clinic on heart bypass surgery.
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Bob McKee, Local Music Now more ›

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 socialites and magazine editors are throwing the whole study off. more ›

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 to do with the near-impossible task of finding a safe place to fly a kite in the city. more ›