Charles Mee is renowned for his distinctive approach to playwriting, which synthesizes disparate pre-existing texts into startlingly new theatrical creations bursting with music, dance, video and other inspired surprises. The superb Signature Theatre is now in the midst of their season devoted to his plays; the first production, Iphigenia 2.0, was a devastating depiction of America’s Iraq catastrophe as seen through the prism of classic Greek tragedy. The current show, Queens Boulevard, is a funny,......

Even though winter’s barely a week old, many folks in the city have come down with a doozy of a cold, perhaps due to the sharp temperature drop that marked the end of an otherwise moderate fall. Our nasty respiratory bug is finally on its way out, largely because we’ve been treating it with a variety of potent soups available in Queens. Whether you're sick as a dog or just in need of a warm......

The 69-year-old woman who was burned over 90% of her body in a gas explosion in her Sunnyside home died yesterday. City Councilman Eric Gioia said, "It is with great regret and sadness that I announce the passing of Kunta Oza. My deepest condolences go out to her entire family, and I ask that all New Yorkers keep them in their Thanksgiving prayers." On Wednesday afternoon, calls were made to 911 about a gas smell......

Yesterday afternoon, a gas explosion in a Sunnyside home burned a 67-year-old woman over 90% of her body. Six other people were also injured, as over 200 people needed to be evacuated and over a hundred firefighters responded. Kunta Oza, who lives in a three-story at 41st Street and 48th Avenue, is at New York Hospital Burn Center in critical condition. WNBC reports that she "sent her grandchildren outside as a precaution. The move might......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a woman fell from a building at 35th St. and 5th Ave. in Manhattan, a body part was found on 20th Rd. and 18th St. in Queens, and a pedestrian was fatally struck at 50th St. and 6th Ave. in Brooklyn. Architects may lose the 408 foot spire that tops off the Freedom Tower because giant antennas may be technologically obsolete. An alliance of broadcasters are considering moving to......

New Yorkers like to joke about the spread of chain drugstores, bank branches, and Starbucks in the city, but residents of Sunnyside, Queens can claim bragging rights in a shining example of the phenomena. Greenpoint Avenue is home to two adjacent Rite Aid drugstores, which sit literally right next to each other. According to the Daily News, it initially appears to be one giant store, but, in fact, they are two separately owned and operated......

At the Ethnic Market highlights international specialty foods and ingredients that you're very unlikely to find at your local Gristedes. Euro Shop, a small store whose window is decorated with the flag of the European Union has always intrigued us. Among other things it offers a half dozen types of paprika paste; a meat counter filled with bacon, sausages and pork crackling; and a plethora of Hungarian junk food. Now that we’ve had their homemade......

On Thursday night, a fire broke out in a Sunnyside apartment. Firefighters were able to save three children - 1-year-old twins and a 6-year-old - as well as their 59-year-old grandmother Carmen Ospina, who had been watching them. However, they were not able to save their 2-year-old brother C.J., a fact that Opsina lamented, "There's one missing. I barely had enough hands to rescue them." Sixty firefighter had responded to the scene, which took an......

On Friday, Brooklyn blog Brownstoner was alarmed about a Clinton Hill resident on Grand Avenue who was painting a brownstone's archway white. Though the second comment wondered "are you sure it's not primer?", the comments thread turned into a heated debate about the rights of owners of buildings in landmarked neighborhoods, calling the painting a "disgrace" and a "mortal sin," and whether publicly outing the owner was appropriate. Well, the Daily News' Michael Daly headed......

The Landmarks Preservation Committee unanimously approved designating Sunnyside Gardens a landmark. However, amNew York reports that the preservationists who supported the measure were outnumbered by residents of the Queens enclave. One expressed dismay by saying, "It's going to cause a lot of problems for the low-income people We are disappointed. This process is not a democratic system." It was a heated issue: The LPC said it received "hundreds and hundreds" of letters with opinions on......

AM New York's cover feature is on the landmark debate amongst neighbors in Sunnyside, Queens. Some residents want the 77-acre area, made up of houses and park area, to be landmarked, while others are worried about the problems landmark status can cause. Sunnyside Gardens, created by the City Housing Corporation in the 1920s, was meant to be affordable housing (there's a nice write-up at Forgotten-NY). Residents who oppose landmark status worry about being able......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a North Fork Bank was robbed on Union St. in Queens, a Sovereign Bank on Ave. A in Manhattan was also robbed, and a stabbing on Chauncey St. in Brooklyn. A man and his cow return to New York City after 68 years (it's a different cow). Al Sharpton doubts that poor minorities would be let out of jail on request, and is upset that Paris Hilton is getting......

Some 30 years after Landmarks Preservation Commission officials first explored landmarking Crown Heights, the Commission has granted landmark status to the architecturally-rich neighborhood. The Commission voted unanimously today to protect 472 buildings in Crown Heights North. The new district will run from Pacific Street to Dean St., Prospect Place and St. Mark’s Ave and from Bedford to Kingston avenues. The buildings in the district were built from the 1860s to the 1930s and the......

A drunk driver hit a livery van on Queens Boulevard early Sunday morning, killing a van passenger - a 28-year-old new mother. The van was carrying a family (six adults and three children; the van did not have seat belts) who had been celebrating in Brooklyn. Paula Serrano was killed, and she had been holding her 3-week-old baby in her lap (the baby was not seriously injured). Serrano's husband and 6-year-old daughter, as well as......

If the clear skies hold out, and that's a big if, tonight is our first chance in three years to see a total lunar eclipse. At 3:18 EST this afternoon the Earth will start passing between the sun and moon, casting its shadow upon the moon. By 5:43 the moon will be completely covered with the Earth's shadow. Sunset occurs a few minutes later, after which the moon will turn a deep orange or red.......

On May 25, 2006, there was a power outage along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor line, a heavily traveled route that stranded over a hundred trains from Amtrak, NJ Transit and other transit companies. Now, nine months later, Amtrak has revealed what went wrong - and it's a doozy. The NY Times reports:A 4-year-old computer in Philadelphia failed to execute a single command given 36 hours earlier, after maintenance had been done on the evening of......

Tofu is like chopped liver in the world of haute cuisine—overlooked and undervalued. A handful of restaurants are challenging that attitude though by presenting dishes with tofu front and center. A few even take the next step and make tofu from scratch. At En Japanese Brasserie in the West Village, the menu makes a big deal over the homemade tofu, listing the timeslots that the kitchen makes up a batch each evening. It may seem......

Mayor Bloomberg finally made his way to Astoria yesterday to be briefed on the situation leaving thousands of Queens residents and business owners have been with little or no power. Yet he nor Con Ed could not explain why power had been out for four days. Mayor Bloomberg did say, “I cannot explain why we’re in this situation. It’s an intolerable situation.” And the Mayor and Con Ed don't know when power will be......

Before the City Council approved a $52.9 billion budget yesterday, they got their desert, aka Schedule C. Also known as the Fiscal Year 2007 Adopted Expense Budget Adjustments Summary[PDF], Schedule C is the list of all the Council's pet items that successfully were restored or added to the budget. And what a crazy list of pet items got through! It's going to take a bit of time to find the goodies in the 70-odd......

Walker Fee, Tape Artist Extraordinaire ...

What's in a name? People are always nosy about the new business opening up near them, but this Sunnyside, Queens story is especially amusing as the detective work basically stems from the restaurant name. A restaurant named "Punto G" is under construction, and neighbors are furious. Because Punto G's translation is "G Spot," and that has people suspicious that a strip club is opening up. The owners claim it'll be a family eatery, but maybe......

Today, the NY Times revisits a series of articles it did in 1955 that predicted what the city might be like in the coming years (you know, until, as La Bamba from Conan O'Brien voice, woudl sing, "In the year 2000..." or maybe even in 2005, when the Times decided to get around to digging them up from the archives). Titled "Our Changing City," a 20-part series of articles in The New York Times painted......

What the hell is happening in Queens? Two women were attacked by the same man yesterday morning, while a man fleeing someone was shot in a diner. In the first incident, Queens reading teacher Jill Brogan was outside PS 86 in Jamaica when Frank Cabrera demanded her purse. Brogan only had keys to a Dodge Durango SUV and handed them over, and Cabrera took them but knifed her twice in the abdomen anyway. He drove......

On Sundays, Gothamist runs opinion pieces on issues relevant to life in New York. The views expressed below belong entirely to the author. Sunday’s Opinionist columns are meant to be snippets and ideas about New York life, but you’ll permit me a slight diversion from topic to discuss something also fundamental to New York life – reading. Get on any subway or bus at any time of day and you’ll find about twenty people with......

Warren Leight, Playwright and screenwriter...

The Straphangers have announced the slowest buses in NYC and congratulations, Manhattan, you take the top honors, the Pokey, again! The M34, which travels crosstwon east-west on 34th Street, has an average speed of 4 MPH. Damn. Of course Manhattan buses are among the slowest, given the traffic they are dealing with, but stopping every two blocks - sometimes EVERY block - has always smacked of "huh?" to us. However, some people make the best......

Today's NYT profiles Angon on the Sixth, the new addition to the East Village's row of Indian restaurants on Sixth Street, which calls itself an "Indian Culinary Den." As anyone who peruses the Chowhound message boards on a regular basis knows, Angon is the new home of Mina Avad, formerly of Mina Foods & Restaurant in Sunnyside, Queens. Gothamist hasn't visited her former or current homes, but after hearing all the buzz about Mina and......

The Queens County Farm Museum, the only working farm in the city, is planning on starting a vineyard. The Post reports that the Farm would be "bottling Chardonnays, Cabernets and Merlots as early as 2007." It seems that the climate in Queens is better suited for wine production than Long Island. Joshua Wesson, CEO of Best Cellars, gives this optimistic yet guarded quote, "It will be interesting to see if Queens wine can capture the......

The Mayor got a flu shot during his visit to a retirement home in Sunnyside Queens last week. The city has been encouraging New Yorkers to get their flu shots. You can get a flu shot from your doctor or a free one from the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene - call 1 866 FLU LINE (358 5463). The CDC on the influenza vaccine......