Ok, so we understand the knocks on Gossip Girl. It's an awful, vapid, shallow show...which would be all fine and good if it wasn't for the poor writing, empty characters and boring, predictable plotlines. YET, what trumps all is that it is filmed on location in New York City. The shows shortcomings aside, it is a genuine local show with some great city scenes. So we trudge on... Four weeks in and we're getting ever......

We haven't checked in on Gossip Girl since the show was filming around town and the producer touted New York as a main character in each episode. To summarize: the show is like a New York-based version of The OC (in fact it's another Josh Schwartz creation), except the rich kids don't act like kids, they act like their parents. Meanwhile, the omniscient, omnipresent, anonymous oggler Gossip Girl blogs about it all. So two episodes......

In a real shocker, a City Health Department report released earlier this week shares that people living in Harlem have fewer healthy food options than their counterparts in other boroughs. The full report, available here, found that despite Harlem's many bodegas and corner stores, they were half as likely to carry low-fat dairy products and far less likely to offer as large a selection of vegetables as a grocery store on the Upper East Side.......

Aurora Soho -- This Williamsburg joint has made it across the bridge. Executive Chef Riccardo Buitoni of Piedmont, Italy, brings his Slow Food passion to Manhattanites with an Italian menu and wine list. You'll find some of the Williamsburg favorites on the menu, like 10-hour slow roasted pork belly, and burrata with shaved grey mullet bottarga and agrumato oil, but there are a few newcomers for the new location -- castelmagno cheese raviolini and baby......

Last fall, preservationists failed to prevent the planned demolition of the Dakota Stables on West 77th And Amsterdam Avenue. Though preservationists were trying to have the Dakota Stables landmarked, the Landmarks Preservation Committee denied it landmark status because some of its facade was stripped by the developer - while it was being considered for landmark status! Talk about gaming the system. Now the City Council is reviewing a bill to close a the "landmarks loophole".......

Forget the fawn and focus on the feline: Bambi, the adorable NYC shelter kitty who participated in the Meow Mix House "reality show," was the only cat not adopted out of the ten cats in participating, leaving some to wonder if her solitary attitude (she loved sitting on a leopard print couch and hissed at other cats) was to blame. The Post had first reported that Bambi was the last cat standing adoption-wise (was......

Maria Raha, Cinderella's Big Score author...