Photograph of a shrine dedicated to Korshunova outside her apartment building submitted by reader Michael Yesterday, Ruslana Korshunova's mother arrived from Kazhakstan to identify her daughter's body at the medical examiner's office. Officials ruled that the 20-year-old model had jumped to her death from her Water Street apartment on Saturday, but with the world ahead of her, many people are wondering what drove to her to suicide. The Post suggests Korshunova was in a......

The medical examiner's office determined suicide as cause of death for Ruslana Korshunova, a 20-year-old model who fell from her Water Street apartment in lower Manhattan Saturday afternoon. Friends gathered outside the building, crying and leaving flowers. Many reports noted that there was a hole in the construction netting outside her building; Newsday reported, the DOB couldn't "confirm whether the fall caused the hole and, if so, why the netting did not prevent her death."......

Police believe that a 20-year-old woman committed suicide by jumping out of her Water Street apartment's balcony around 2:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon. The woman was identified as Kazhakstan model Ruslana Korshunova. Newsday reported, "It appeared she fell from the balcony of her ninth-floor apartment, police said, where a large hole was visible in construction netting hanging on the front of the 12-story building." A Con Ed worker, who had been talking to a cop......

After Union Hall banned strollers (and the little ones who ride in them) -- a line was drawn in the sandbox, waging a full on war between the childless and the stroller pushers. But could there now be a light at the end of the tunnel? The Brooklyn Paper is reporting on a possible solution, at least at Water Street Restaurant in DUMBO. The restaurant has joined forces with Parent Play, a company where you......

Elettaria: Hendrix shredded here once upon a time, when it was a music venue called The 8th Wonder, but now the stage is an open kitchen and South Asian-spiced American dishes are the stars. Decorated by the man behind Allen & Delancey, the seductive 72-seat interior (pictured) features a rustic reclaimed barn-wood ceiling, plush banquettes, old-world paintings and exposed brick walls. Appetizers include a dish of dayboat sea scallops with celery root puree, oxtail, Meyer......

Inhabiting what used to be an old retail shop near South Street Seaport is a new DIY space brought to you by the producers of the Seaport Music Festival. The venue is simply called @Seaport, and it's now up and running. The space will host a wide range of events, from art to music to comedy to readings; from the press release:The producers behind the acclaimed Seaport Music series of outdoor indie music concerts......

Some more details have emerged about the fatal hit-and-run that killed a Brooklyn resident in lower Manhattan Thursday night. Florence Cioffi was fatally struck by George Anderson's Mercedes SUV on Water Street and Old Slip. Anderson had originally fled the scene but later returned, where he was arrested and charged with vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and leaving the scene of an accident. Anderson, who runs a technology firm in the Financial District, had gone......

Last night, a Brooklyn woman was fatally struck by a driver in a Mercedes SUV on Water Street and Old Slip in lower Manhattan. Florence Cioffi, 59, was pronounced dead at NYU Downtown Hospital. The vehicle's driver, George W. Anderson, according to CityRoom, "left the scene of the accident but returned five minutes later" and "refused to submit to a Breathalyzer test to determine if he had been drinking." He was charged with vehicular......

The local papers have some details about the NYU sophomore who was found dead in his dorm room Friday night. Police says 19-year-old Pranay Angara suffocated himself with a plastic bag. Angara, who is from Hopewell Junction in upstate New York, lived in the Water Street dorm at 200 Water Street in the Financial District. The police say he wrote a note for his family and that he pushed a dresser in front of the......

A sophomore at New York University was found dead in his Water Street dorm room on Friday night. The Washington Square News reports that other residents were told about the death on Saturday and that the university did not send out an NYU community-wide email per a request from the deceased students' parents: "The family has asked that they be accorded the utmost privacy, and the university will do its best to honor its wishes......

EVENTS: Both Open House NY and The New Yorker Festival are upon us. You can check out more of OHNY's event here, and The New Yorker Festival here. Some picks: The New Yorker Festival hosts a conversation with Errol Morris tonight. He'll be talking with staff writer Philip Gourevitch about Abu Ghraib, with clips shown from Standard Operating Procedure -- his new film is a study of the prison-abuse scandal. Friday // 8pm // Directors......

If you were checking the Gothamist Newsmap yesterday, you may have noticed that there was a possible Hazmat situation at 55 Water Street in lower Manhattan. Apparently someone fell ill when opening a letter that contained an unknown substance and then other people were sickened as well! According to the Post, the letter was sent to Standard & Poor's. The envelope was not addressed, and a worker tried to smell the contents (!). Though other......

Here's some feel-good news, courtesy of the MTA. It's a set of peregrine falcon chicks at the Throgs Neck Bridge! A wildlife expert from the DEP, Chris Nadareski, examined and tagged the chicks, all of which are female. And while the baby falcons are super cute, they are getting ready to grow up: The Throgs Neck chicks have been growing steadily, and eat about four or five times a day. Their diet consists of......

What happens when young assistant district attorney sees a brick he can't resist? The Post reports that 27 year old Matthew Knouff, a prosecutor in the Brooklyn DA's office, was arrested after throwing a brick through the window of the Water Street Restaurant & Lounge in DUMBO. During the office holiday party, no less. Knouff got into an argument with someone else at the party (a source tells the Post, "It was an alcohol-fueled dispute......

MUSIC: Tonight is the first night (of four) that Lou Reed will perform Berlin at St Ann's Warehouse. Expect a "theatrically realized concert version of Reed’s stylized rock paean to life outside the circle, the orchestrations filled with the lyrics of the broken hearted and willfully disabled...the drifting tormented addicts of love formalizing their own downfalls in the outskirts of the divided city." 7pm // St Ann's Warehouse [38 Water Street] // $65 THEATER: Prolific......

READING: Head to the New School to join the New York Times and their moderator, critic William Grimes, as Carl Hiaasen reads from his latest crime caper, Nature Girl, which chronicles the exploits of volatile Honey Santana who meets a wild cast of characters while en route to the Ten Thousand Islands. Show up early for a good seat - Hiaasen is a popular draw. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras 6:30pm // The New School [Tishman......

By now you’ve probably heard about the hellacious goings-on at Saint Ann’s Warehouse in DUMBO. (If not here’s an in-depth Gothamist interview with the producer of Hell House, Aaron Lemon-Strauss.) A brief summary for the uninitiated: The script for Hell House comes from Pastor Keenan Roberts, a Colorado evangelist who has sold thousands of Hell House how-to kits to church groups around the world. Hell House visitors are escorted through a series of vignettes......

-- Award for best opening sentence of the day goes to the Post: "In hundreds of city public-school lunchrooms, the three R's stand for roaches, rodents and rotten food." -- The city is spending $15m to spruce up Flatbush Avenue in downtown Brooklyn-- complete with a puzzlingly modern sculpture! -- Further up Flatbush, some good news: The Loew's King Theater is not going to be demolished after all. -- DumboNYC visits the Walentas Carousel,......

THEATER: Previews start tonightfor the first U.S. production of Australian Gordon Graham's play The Boys, ferried here across the bigger pond by Outhouse Theatre Co. The title characters aren't boys in age, but they certainly are in their attitudes toward women: at a party celebrating one man's release from jail, he and two buddies grow increasingly angry at their girlfriends, and leave in a misogynistic huff. The next day a woman is found raped and......

THEATER: Both the Fringe Festival and the wildly successful, but once Fringe-y, 24 Hour Plays are celebrating their tenth anniversaries this year, so why not do it together? Starting tonight, some of the original cast members and plays from the series that proved that a gimmick (conceive, write, rehearse and perform a play in a day) can produce fresh theatre, reunite in five totally different sets of five. - Mallory Jensen Lucille Lortel Theater [121......

August 5: A Walking Chocolate Tour of New York This Saturday and every Saturday at 1:00 pm, Chocolate Zoom presents a chocolaty view of our fair city. The first leg of the tour starts off in Soho, where you will get a chance to sample treats from Mariebelle, Vosges, and Kee’s Chocolates. Next, a quick jaunt uptown for five more chocolatiers. More details provided at the Chocolate Zoom website. $50.00 per person (adult or child).......

THEATER: Untitled Intentional Exercise #1, a "wild trip through desire and isolation" that combines the talents of Stuck Pigs Squealing, http://www.stuckpigs.com.au/ an Australian theater collective, with those of Mac Wellman, Oliver Butler, and Banana Bag and Bodice, http://www.bananabagandbodice.org/ has a fascinating show-specific website http://stuckpigs.multiply.com/ where the creators have been posting rehearsal videos and notes; check it out for a taste of the improvisational whirlwind you'll enter if you go, though even thus prepared it will......

Developer Joshua Guttman was in Brooklyn court yesterday, but not for anything related to the Greenpoint Terminal Market fire or any of the other arson cases at buildings he's owns (he's never been charged with arson). Actually, this case is about a tenant, a basement, and some missing equipment. According to the NY Times, tenant Onias Pacheco had been moving out of a Guttman building, and Guttman agreed to store Pacheco's screening equipment in the......

A five-alarm fire at the abandoned Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse/Market is being fought this morning in dramatic fashion: News choppers show that the FDNY's marine units are at work - the warehouse occupie a 200' by 600' lot along the East River. (WNBC's Vivian Lee, on location, said the fire was making it feel like a 100 degree day even 50 yards away.) Last year, Tien visited the terminal market last year and found a......

...this week has got it all. Kick it off tonight at the South Street Seaport Museum (Melville Gallery, 213 Water Street), as the New York Review of Science Fiction Readings presents Robert Freeman Wexler (his latest novel is Circus of the Grand Design) and Gregory Frost (with his latest, Attack of the Jazz Giants). The reading starts at 7PM and the suggested donation is $5. Tomorrow night (4/5), head down to KGB Bar (85 E.......

Before we get to the weekly events which are sure to dazzle and amaze, Gothamist would like to note the passing of one of the great science fiction writers, Octavia Butler. Butler died after falling down the stairs outside her home this weekend, and will be sorely missed. She's the only science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur grant, and in a field dominated by men, Butler was a woman notable not only for her strong......

The Department of Homeland Security want to help New Yorkers - New Yorkers who can afford $140 helicopter rides from downtown Manhattan to JFK Airport that is. It seems that the Downtown Heliport at Wall Street will be the offering 9 minute rides to JFK for seven sweet Andrew Jacksons. The Downtown Heliport will be "federalized," with federal screeners and everything which will enable rich people or people with generous expense accounts to bypass security......

After yesterday's posts about Google Map's satellite capabilities and the bi-plane on top of 77 Water Street, we can't get enough. Reader Jeroen sent in this from along 48th Avenue in Long Island City. This makes Gothamist wonder if the proposal took place in a helicopter - or from a neighboring building with a view of that rooftop. At any rate, we admire the proposer's tenacity and hope all worked out well. Have you......

In our earlier post on the new Google Maps satellite images, one of our amazing commenters pointed out this curious bi-plane on the roof of a building at 77 Water Street, and asked for help identifying it. Quick as lightning, another commenter found the answer on NYC-Architecture: The biplane on the roof sculpture was designed by some guy named Rudolph de Harak and executed by the sculptor William Tarr in 1969 (thanks Jack Ryan).......

Mom always said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That's why we're a little disappointed that the new, hip franchise Cereality has yet to open in the Big Apple. A cafe solely devoted to the love of Froot Loops, Cap'n Crunch, Cocoa Puffs and the like, Cereality sounds like the perfect compliment to the diner, pushcart and coffee house options we New Yorkers currently enjoy. That said, one New Yorker -......