Yesterday morning a driver reportedly lost control of his car and smashed into the play area at a Utica Avenue McDonald's, denting the jungle gym and leaving the driver with minor injuries. Luckily the driver crashed at around 10:40 a.m., before there were any children in the area. more ›

A Crown Heights gas station manager fended off a crook on Tuesday and locked him inside his Utica Avenue convenience store until police showed up. At around 2 pm, Nick Ali was inside his Gulf station's glass-enclosed cashier's booth when he spotted a customer tossing cell phone chargers into a Burberry bag, according to the Daily News. "I came out of the booth. Usually that's a bad idea," said Ali, who purportedly told the perp: "I'm busting my a-- here 18 hours a day so you can rob me?" more ›

Last Thursday afternoon, Darnell Williams was at the Utica Avenue subway station in Brooklyn, heading home from Frederick Douglass Academy, when he was shot in the knee. The gunfire came from two police officers' struggle with a reportedly schizophrenic subway panhandler, who had stabbed one of the officers in the chest with a screwdriver. The panhandler was reaching for one of the cops' guns, so the cop fought for control (the gun went off twice) and then the stabbed partner fired three times, wounding the panhandler—and also hitting Williams. The 17-year-old told the Daily News, "I ran as soon as I heard the fighting. I was still running when I felt a sting in my leg," and added that people on the platform were reassuring, "People were saying, 'Just relax. Everything is going to be okay.' I just fell down when I saw the blood." Williams' father, who said a police lieutenant visited to apologize, noting how his son is hobbling around on crutches, "It's going to take quite a while before he can go back to school." more ›

Police are searching for two suspects in a robbery that turned deadly in Crown Heights on Wednesday night. The Utica Deli's owner Mohammed Mansoor Abuzaid, 50, and his son Abdul, 18, were killed in the basement of the store. more ›

The pedestrian, bicyclist and sensible transportation advocacy group Transportation Alternatives has just launched a new website, Crash Maps: CrashStat 2.0, which maps intersections and streets where pedestrians and bicyclists have been hit by vehicles. It's an updated version of their previous map, and when the information is presented different depending on how closely you zoom into the map. For instance, at one level, it shows crashes (those with injuries as well as the fatal... more ›

Yesterday morning, two men riding bicycles were killed in separate accidents. Both occurred in Brooklyn. Around 4AM, the a 26-year-old at Union Avenue and Ten Eyck Street in East Williamsburg was hit by an oil truck. WABC reported that he was cycling in the wrong direction. The cyclist, identified as Craig Murphy [sic] who is a member of RightRides, died at the scene. The truck driver was not charged. more ›

If you take the Shuttle at Grand Central around 8AM on weekday morning, study this photograph and find this man - it's MTA CEO and Executive Director Lee Sander, and he'll be at the Shuttle platform tomorrow morning! more ›

And in Williamsburg, a van hit a 10 year old girl who was riding her bike at Scholes and Leonard Streets. The Post says Natasha Ayala had "darted out from behind a parked car when she was hit." She was taken to Bellevue; the van's driver stayed at the scene to help.
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"One doubles," a lady in line was ordering at the counter of Ali's Roti Shop. Is this some sort of code language that only Caribbeans know? How can you have just one doubles? It turns out that doubles is the essential snack food of Trinidad, and doubles is/are delicious. It starts with a small biscuit-sized disk of fried bread that is slathered with a thick chickpea curry and then topped with another round of bread. This finger sandwich of sorts may sound like a vegetarian dainty, but it packs a wallop. Especially if you ask for the hot sauce, and you should. The turmeric-colored bread is as soft and comforting as a pillow, and at first you might think you're taking a bite out of the Pillsbury dough boy. Then you hit the warming, earthy chickpea mixture, spiked with tamarind, cilantro, and cumin. more ›

I was on the phone with my best friend and we thought it would do. Only now do I realize that it's something I actually want to be. more ›

- Vintage trains run on the 42 St Shuttle. more ›