A two-alarm fire broke out at a 6-floor apartment building on West 148th Street and Riverside Drive around 8:40 p.m., and a man and a 5- or 6-year-old boy died after jumping from the sixth floor. The man, believed to be the boy's godfather, was pronounced dead at the scene while the boy apparently went into cardiac arrest and died at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital. FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief John Scudnik said they couldn't get to the......

A doctor who practices in NJ with admitting privileges at New York Presbyterian Hospital. His 94-year-old mother. Her $832,453 savings. And a wall collapse in Upper Manhattan. In a case Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau called "a mini-Astor case," Dr. Robin Motz was accused of stealing his mother's savings since 2003. Motz, who pleaded not guilty to grand larceny and money laundering, assumed power of attorney for his mother, Minnie Motz, a retired librarian. According to......

A follow-up to the Census Bureau's data that most New Yorkers rent: The NY Times crunched the Census data and found that, yes, a "large percentages of residents see more of their income go to their mortgages and rents." The Times has a chart that shows that 31% of Brooklyn homeowners spend more than half their incomes on mortgages while almost 33% of Bronx renters spend more than half their incomes on rent. There's also......

Residential parking permits in Long Island City and Brooklyn Heights? Park and Ride areas near train stations? Eliminating government parking placards? The NY Sun has a look a what the Bloomberg administration is considering to "sweeten" the congestion pricing proposal as it works to gain support for the plan (it's up for consideration in 6 weeks) and it includes all of the above. Reporter Annie Karni writes: Residential parking permits could be established in Brooklyn......

Mayor Bloomberg's plans for making the city more habitable over the next 25 years include more than just planting a million trees in the next decade. They also involve reopening the High Bridge in Harlem and the McCarren Park Pool, which has lately served as a summer music venue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The High Bridge, the city’s oldest standing bridge, will get a $65 million face-lift over about two years beginning in 2008, said......

Subway riders from Inwood to the Rockaways should steel themselves, because those delays they experienced yesterday were planned and should continue for the next five weekends. The A and C lines are undergoing track work to replace 70-year-old rails. Over the long term this should result in smoother rides and safer service. But over the short term expect no C trains between Upper Manhattan and Brooklyn's Euclid Ave. on Saturdays and Sundays. The A train......

This Sunday, Time's Up! is organizing a 2006 Cyclist Memorial Ride that will honor all cyclists who were killed on NYC streets last year. There are two routes - one for Queens/Brooklyn/Manhattan and one for Bronx/Upper Manhattan - that will converge at West Houston and LaGuardia Place, where Derek Lake died in June and then visit other spots where cyclists were killed. More information after the jump; additionally, here's a list of Ghost Bike Memorials......

Mayor Bloomberg announced that the city will move the homeless out of street encampments and work with city resources to ultimately move into permament housing. Here are the Mayor's remarks:"Today, I want to announce that we're launching the next major step to end street homelessness in New York. Over the past six weeks, our newly named DHS Commissioner, Rob Hess, and his team have identified the 73 sites around our city where some 350 homeless......

Monitoring the city's job postings can pay off! Luckily, Streetsblog has been doing just that and pieces together how the city is serious about developing "comprehensive transportation and land use strategy for New York City."The first signal came at the beginning of Mayor Bloomberg's second term when DOT Commissioner Iris Weinhall was knocked one rung down the Administration's org chart. She is now reporting directly to Doctoroff. Next, DOT's creative, competent Lower Manhattan Borough Commissioner,......

City infrastructure stories rule. The NY Times went to the Wards Island Wastewater Treatment Plant and found out what gets flushed or swept into sewers. A third of the city's waste goes through the Wards Island "grit chamber" (apparently the Upper East Side and Upper Manhattan generate a lot of crap), the wastewater gets cleaned, and then the purified water goes into the East River. Superintendent John Ahern tells some amazing stories to the......

Yes! It's that time of year againwhen the Straphangers Campaign announces the winners of the Pokeys, for the city's slowest buses. And that Manhattan warhorse, the M34, is the winner again, clocking in at a pitiful 3.4 MPH in its crosstown journey on 34th Street. Here are the winners in each borough:Brooklyn: B63, at 5.2 mph - between Bay Ridge and Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Bronx: Bx19, at 4.9 mph - between Fordham in the Bronx......

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......

Accelerating his bid to be the next governor of New York, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer tackles another important-to-constituents issue - besides nailing white collar criminals - prescription drugs. The Attorney General's Office has developed a website to let NYers find the best deals of 25 prescription drugs. The site is AG Rx, and Gothamist did a couple searches to see how much we could save. We've included the lowest and highest prices, as well as......

In New York City schools, attendance drops on Halloween. Yesterday was no different, as the Times reports from empty schools with few students. Students tend to skip school (1) to trick-or-treat or (2) because Halloween is the day when kids feel it's free license to throw food and other objects at fellow students. Not much dressing up occurs at the public schools. Except at LaGuardia High School, a.k.a. the school from Fame: "But at......