brooklyn bridge traffic, by Idle Type at flickrToday on the Gothamist Newsmap: a crime scene/hanging at East 13th St. and Shore Parkway in Brooklyn, a child mauled by a dog in the area of 91-43 Gold Rd. in Queens, and a possible escaped prisoner on Wards Island across from Manhattan. Asbestos removal at the Carroll St. F and G line station appears to be a non-issue. Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn received a note......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pursuit at 95th St. and 2nd Ave in Manhattan and two pedestrians were struck, a hanging at the D.E.P. plant on Wards Island, and a pipe explosion on 4th Ave. and 2nd St. in Brooklyn. Perhaps the early bird lunch for seniors at the Fort Greene Masonic Temple should be all-ages, because we hear that James Brown impersonator Black Velvet rocks the house. The several-thousand-pages-long environmental impact statement......

We were glad to see The New York Times giving front-page treatment (of the Metro section anyway) to a group of city employees who probably don't get as much recognition as they deserve. The Times' Ellen Barry was on hand for the 20th Annual Operators' Challenge yesterday, where six teams competed to determine who was the best of the best among city sewer workers. The OC is run by the Dept. of Environmental Protection's Bureau......

Clearly it's Thanksgiving when a wild turkey tries to hightail it out of the city by way of the Triborough Bridge. A 10 pound female bird was loose around the toll plaza on the Manhattan side, and six MTA workers chased her! After fifteen minutes, a construction worker helped catch the bird. The Triborough's General Operations Manager Ray Bush said, "Watching it unfold on our cameras, it seemed the only thing missing was someone playing......

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......

Yesterday morning, police arrested a homeless man for three separate stabbing incidents on Tuesday afternoon and early Wednesday morning. Four cabbies who witnessed Kenny Alexis stab two women near the Times Square W Hotel called 911 and followed him until police apprehended him at a McDonald's. Alexis's brushes with the law started before the first stabbing on a downtown C train - he was stopped by the police are trying to enter the 42nd Street......