The Daily News reports that two separate incidents of women being raped by strangers yesterday morning. One incident occurred around 7AM, when a NJ woman headed to a Spanish Harlem building where she works as a baby-sitter. The woman was "grabbed," "dragged" and raped in the elevator. Police are not sure if she was followed (she had taken the 6 train to 103rd Street). The other assault occurred on the N train which was waiting......

For decades East Harlem has been the center of New York's Puerto Rican community. Over the years many Mexican and Dominican immigrants have also made East Harlem their home. Now, as the squeeze of affordable housing gets tighter and tighter in Manhattan, more middle-class professionals are moving to the neighborhood. In a tale almost as old as New York itself, the changes have long-time residents worried about the loss of community. The Times describes......

For the love of public broadcasting (the BBC!): The really gross story of the Brooklyn mortician who sold body parts from corpses has taken an even more tabloid spin: It turns out that the famed broadcaster Alistair Cooke's body was handled by the same perps, and could have been harvested for parts, through a Spanish Harlem mortuary. What's more, Cooke was 95 years old - and he was pretty sick when he died of cancer......

Oftentimes we get a little bored with the personal histories that the Times likes to run in the City section. Its the same problem we have with the Lives stories on the back page of the Magazine: We just can't get the necessary amount of upset every single week, so we just stop reading 'em. But then a piece like todays excellent The Fires Last Time by Ernesto Quiñonez show up and remind us......

Leon Williams, Subterranean Electric Guitarist...

And not any old gym: The minions in the fourth season of Donald Trump-Mark Burnett's rat race contest had to create a fitness program for Bally's Total Fitness! Yes, the Bally's that has admitted to using "high pressure sales techniques" and other unlawful practices to attract and retain customers! Ugh. They may be a cheap option month to month, but you'll need to go through about five circles of hell to break your membership.......

Following up on Curbed's post about graffiti artist Chico's tribute to Pope John Paul II, it seems that many people with cans of spray paint want to pay some respect to the late pontiff. De la Vega, who had been the bane of his community, has created a Pope and Jesus-on-the-crucifix mural on a Spanish Harlem security gate that he hopes will be permanent. And reader Marisa pointed us to how someone in Long......

[Ed. note: Coolfer gives us his final set of music picks today; we'll miss him, but thank goodness we'll still be able to read him at his own site.] Last one, folks. At the Knitting Factory tonight is the musical equivalent to wearing a horizontally striped polo shirt with pinstriped slacks--but who knows, it might work. It's an event called Bandages, a montly show of "emerging music, film and art" that covers two of the......

The Times has a good article on James De La Vega, a graffiti artist who was arrested last July for painting a mural on Willis Avenue in the Bronx. De La Vega is one of the city's best known graffiti artist, thanks largely to his sidewalk chalk works. Gothamist first noticed them about six years ago. Lots of memorable quotes like "Your Thumbs Are More Important Than You Think" and "The Rich Control The......

The New York Times takes apart the city's doggie census and analyzes it using animal ownership information to gain insights into New Yorkers. Reporter Susan Saulny notes the variations of dogs in different areas with much humor: "For instance, who would be most likely to own Lucy, a cute little Shih Tzu? (Hint: Lucy often wears her long hair in a high ponytail above her eyes, fastened with a little pink bow.) Thinking, thinking. Someone......