alphabet city no. 3, by nschaden at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on 120th St. and 3rd Ave. in Manhattan, a stabbing on West 31st St. in Brooklyn, and a fall victim at MoMA in Manhattan. The New York Yankees took first place in franchise spending, with a total payroll of $218.3 million last year. The World Series-winning Boston Red Sox payroll totalled $155.4 million to finish a distant second. The......

After questioning the future of Red Hook, we decided to interview someone who can tell us what's really happening in the 'hood. Molly Franklin is the manager of Lido Bar (pictured), and has a thing or two to say about where she spends her days and nights. Give it to us straight: is Red Hook on the up, on the way out, or somewhere in between? Red Hook is somewhere in between. The neighborhood has......

July 15: Bastille Day at Bar Tabac If you've never played petanque, head on down to Smith Street for North America's largest petanque tournament -- the two block stretch betweeen Bergen and Pacific will be shut down and covered with sand just for the occasion. While your'e watching the action, enjoy special cocktails from Ricard and other drink specials ($5-6), nibble on grilled merguez and chicken sandwiches ($5) and groove to Jazz band Blue Orchid......

There's a fun NY Times City section article about the Queens Museum of Art's Panorama Challenge. The Queens Museum of Art's panorama is a to-scale model of New York City: One inch equals 100 feet (the Empire State Building is 15 inches tall) and the model was originally designed for the 1964 World's Fair, as a "helicopter" ride over New York City. (And, yes, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses commissioned the panorama in 1964, just......

With all the craziness going on in South Brooklyn recently -- Jason Neroni leaving Porchetta (law suits, arrests, excitement!), and with recent news that the Brooklyn Inn may be closing (converting into a bistro?) -- it'd be easy to miss the little slip about Vegas. During a short message on the Brooklyn Record, a commentator "confirmed" that the rumors about the Brooklyn Inn were true and then added that "Vegas, on Smith st. is also......

Did you ever wonder what Red Hook looked like one hundred or two hundred years ago? Well, the map above won't really show you, but Corie does think it explains why much of Red Hook becomes flooded when it rains. Ever the research fiend she is, Corie found an article from the April 19, 1896 issue of Brooklyn Daily Eagle which had an overlay of South Brooklyn in 1776 and 1896. She then took......

The Times has a good article about the traffic nightmare that occurs at the intersection of Flatbush, Atlantic, and Fourth Avenues in Brooklyn, and comes up with some great facts: During the commuter rush, as many as 4,600 vehicles pass through the intersection every hour, according to the city's Department of Transportation. Hundreds more join the flow toward the intersection from Fourth Avenue, which cuts across Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues to the west, servicing......

David clued us in to this great set of pictures of the Kentile sign in Gowanus. Check out the slideshow for a "23 Views of South Brooklyn" experience. Sadly, we could only track down one photo of the Eagle Clothes sign on Flickr-- it gets a lot less attention than the Kentile sign because it is harder to see from the F Train as you come in from Manhattan. And for more Gowanus goodness,......

Last year, when everyone else was reading The Fortress of Solitude, we picked up Motherless Brooklyn, Jonathan Lethem’s previous novel, about a South Brooklyn detective with Tourette’s. Given our general suspicion of It-books and buzzy fiction, we were pleased to find that it was good—really good, in fact, intelligent and true, more entertaining and earnest and linguistically acrobatic than anything we had read in ages. Even more surprising was the way strangers would approach us......

Finally, the Post has an expose on what we thought would happen with the introduction of sleek, highly-coveted gear from Apple: The city's school kids are being targeted for their iPods. It seems that South Brooklyn transit police have seen a rise in the number of iPod-related thefts, citing many muggings on the subways - one teen needed 44 stitches after being stabbed on the Q for his iPod! And three Stuyvesant students were "jumped"......