Results tagged “topstories”

- While injury rates are lower for taxi passengers than for occupants of other vehicles, the severity of injury is greater for those passengers who are injured in a taxicab. Low rates of seat belt use and the presence of the safety partition account for this disparity.Definitely buckle up when you're a cab - we know someone sitting in the back of a cab when it was rear ended and her face was seriously bruised and needed plastic surgery. The city's Taxi and Limousine Commission did not ask for the study, but the NY Times reports they were "happy to receive it," with TLC Commissioner Matthew Daus saying, "This is one of the most important studies we've seen."

Police believe one man is responsible for seven sexual assaults in NYC and NJ over the past year. This past Friday, he grabbed a woman who was leaving the club Cain in Chelsea, and then dropped her off in Elizabeth, NJ, after raping her. This incident occured at 4AM, at West 24th Street and Tenth Avenue; Cain is on West 27th near Tenth. This MO is similar to an incident last Halloween, when a woman leaving Crobar was grabbed into a car and raped. Another woman was attacked last September, when she was walking to work at 5:55AM on West 28th Street. The description of the attacker has been similar in all incidents, as well as NJ attacks: A white or light-skinned Hispanic man in his mid-20s, about 5-feet-6 with a thin build. Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers, (800) 577-TIPS.

Times Square, the crossroads of the world, wants to be a little less roady and more of a place for pedestrians to cross. The Times Square Alliance has a ten point plan to further improve Times Square, namely to make it look more beautiful and for pedestrians to have an easier time of it. Times Square Alliance president Tim Tompkins said, "While Times Square is gorgeous from the neck up, it needs a makeover from the neck down." Word - you can't walk more than five steps without bumping into someone who has suddenly stopped to be conned. Main goals of the plan: Rebuild and expand Duffy Square; increase the sidewalk space and reduce sidewalk clutter; redesign newspaper boxes and stands; do not let cars "cross over" where Broadway and Seventh Avenue meet; install new signal timing for traffic lights. Now, the problems with Times Square are familiar to all, from sidewalk planters in front of buildings to slow moving packs of tourists. Gothamist is intrigued by this plan, because we're all for keeping pedestrians a priority, but the idea of Times Square as anything but a logjam of people trying to get from one place to another (look at 1957's Sweet Smell of Success - all Sidney Falco does is elbow his way around) seems like a pipe dream.

Yesterday morning, a vaccuum train was derailed near the Smith and 9th Street stops in Brooklyn, causing a huge problem for commuters who take the F and G trains yesterday. The train was being returned to Brooklyn after cleaning up various subway tracks, but it ended up getting derailed in the early morning, causing grief for commmuters and possibly more damage to the train tracks. The NY Times notes the extent of the derailment:

It took more than 60 track and car maintainers and other workers until 3:22 p.m. to get the train moving again. It was removed to a rail yard near Coney Island for repairs. Transit officials rented two large cranes, one to deliver materials to the site and the other to lift up the middle car so it could be placed back on the tracks.

Continue reading "Yesterday's (and Today's?) F Train Headache"

Gothamist doesn't want anyone to turn into one of those crazy cat people with fifty feral cats running around the apartment, requiring the ASPCA to come and set things straight, but the Animal Care and Control of NYC center has a spring cat adoption special: Adoption fee of $45 for two cats, and $30 for one cat. The city's shelters are overrun with cats born during the breeding season. One shelter representative told NY1, "I've been doing this a long time and I haven't seen a season like this yet. It's kind of scary."

start today, with a Parade of Ships at 10AM today, and runs through Memorial Day, Monday, May 30th. There are different events throughout, including public tours of the different ships coming to NYC, with many activities on the Intrepid, including the Tug of War on Saturday and Best Chow on Sunday (Intrepid schedule).

NY1 reports that the WTC Memorial, Reflecting Absence, has been tested by a fountain consultant. The consultant constructed a "full-scale mock-up of some fountain configurations" to look for "potential problems with freezing and winter conditions"; the design has two pools in the footprints of the old World Trade Center Towers, with waterfalls around them. Outgoing Lower Manhattan Development Corportation President Kevin Rampe says that memorial groundbreaking is still "on track" for 2006, even in spite of the Ground Zero issues. You can learn more about Reflecting Absence at the LMDC.

The New York City Transit Riders Council will be having a President's Forum meeting tonight at 6PM. The President's Foum "focuses on subway issues and is attended by the NYC Transit President and senior subway division staff." In other words, this is your chance to give some constructive criticism to NYCT President Larry Reuter. You can see what was discussed at last year's meeting and what President Reuter said in this PDF. [Via reader Allison; image from Laney B]

It must be nutty at the Mayor's posh campaign headquarters, because both a NY1/Newsday poll and a Marist/WNBC poll show Fernando Ferrer leading by considerable amounts. The NY1/Newsday poll shows by a Ferrer lead of 14 points (49% to Bloomberg's 35%), and the WNBC Marist poll has Ferrer with 49% and Bloomberg at 42%. Mayor Bloomberg would beat all other Democratic challengers after Ferrer; Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields leads the others. However, while Ferrer's numbers look great against Bloomberg, he still doesn't have the 40% of the Democratic vote that would eliminate the need for a Democratic runoff: According to NY1, he's got 35%, with Fields at 15%, Weiner 8%, and Miller 7%. Damn, Weiner and Miller are really low. Anyway, Fields' campaign says that Fields would probably win a runoff, and Ferrer may suffer some backlash from his remarks about Amadou Diallo's death.

Demonstrators hit the streets yesterday, to protest the second anniversary of the Iraqi war. One protest started in Harlem, followed by a rally in Central Park featured words from Representative Charles Rangel ("It's one thing to go to war; it's another thing to mislead the American people") and other politicans. Protestors also went to Mayor Bloomberg's Upper East Side townhouse. One protest organized by United for Peace and Justice stopped traffic in Times Square when they laid down next to coffins; police arrested 27 of the protesters there. Manhattan resident, David McReynolds, age 75, told WNBC 4, "This country was founded by acts of civil disobedience," as he marched with the UPJ group.

" and "I feel badly for him. I don't believe he's a horrible person. I don't believe he's a racist. He made a reckless mistake, but I respect the other jurors for their opinions, too." Plus, it turns out that the majority thought Conroy was guilty, with only one holdout, when the jury was deadlocked last Friday; then, another person joined the holdout.

The NY Times has an interesting explanation of this accident, adding that if the train had crashed into the concrete bumper at a higher speed, the train could have "pushed the front car of the train upward, possibly striking the metal beams above the tracks." The media says there were only minor delays yesterday, but with one of those shuttles out, Gothamist knows it must have been a bitch to get to work because those cars are packed with people trying to get to the East Side from the West Side. And remember last December's F train derailment and fires? And there was a big subway derailment in 2000 on the B train that had about 60+ injuries. Also: Abandoned Stations has an interesting look at a proposed platform at Grand Central.

For some reason, maps of the subway reminded us of wandering the subway tunnels for fun.

City Council Speaker Gifford Miller is staging an event in Brooklyn to "receive" support from various politicians there today. The Post reports the Brooklyn locale was a deliberate choice to one-up fellow Democratic candidate wannabe Congressman Anthony Weiner, a Brooklyn boy.

The city's guide to tax free shopping.

And while snow plows didn't kill him, they certainly prevented people from realizing that a cab driver was dead inside his cab. It seems that the 70 year-old driver suffered a heart attack on Saturday, while still inside his car (parked in front of his building). Then snow plows covered the car, blocking people's views until the snow melted yesterday. Gothamist generally likes snow plows (Mr. Plow!), but we take these stories as warnings: No more playing in snow drifts on the road and try not to have a heart attack in a car during a blizzard.

Also in the school news, five schools were taken off the most dangerous NYC schools list, including Washington Irving High. A pregnant woman walking along Irving Place was hit on the head by a stool that was thrown out of the school two years ago. With a 43% reduction in major crime, and given the Mayor's school security initiatives, this too will become a statistic the mayor uses a lot this year.

The NY Times on Guy Velella. And Gothamist wonders if Shyne will incorporate Velella into his next album.

Gothamist wishes everyone a Merry Christmas as well as a Happy Last Saturday in December if you don't happen to celebrate Christmas. We loved this Reuters photo by Chip East which celebrates two of our favorite things: Gus the polar bear in Central Park and holiday gift giving. Here, he has just received "trout with peanut butter and chocolate sauce, topped with whipped cream in a large cardboard barrel decorated with drawings of a Christmas tree and lights." Awesome.

Senator Schumer on diplomat scofflaws.

- Service cuts, including closing over 160 token booths

toilet paper, soap, and paper towels are not making it from point A to point B."