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  • The real Taxi Driver: The Belmore, August 1976

    Thursday May 29, 2008 5:58 PM By Rolando Pujol

    News of the Cheyenne Diner's planned move to Brooklyn inspired me to once again dive into my photo archives for these images of the Belmore Cafeteria from August 1976.

    Known as a locale in the movie "Taxi Driver," the cafeteria on Park Ave. South between 27th and 28th Streets always had a line of yellow cabs parked outside, day and night.

    Sadly it closed in 1981, at a time when it served up to 5,000 people a day. Today a high-rise condominium stands in its place.

    The first image, left, is a taxi driver (not Travis Bickle) after he finished his meal.

    Below is the sign familiar to all as they entered through the turnstile: "Minimum check 25 cents at all times Strictly Enforced" (Note: Click on images for larger view.)

    -- Jefferson Siegel

    Photos by Jefferson Siegel

    Tags: belmore, 1976, taxi driver, old school, manhattan, stuff that's cool, endangered nyc

  • Throwback Thursday: No talking orangutans!

    Thursday May 29, 2008 3:59 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Coronet, the children's furniture store in Westbury on Long Island, had some of the most memorable television commercials in New York City history. They tended to involve the two Coronet brothers, who would tout the store's offerings before telling us there's "no talking orangutans."

    If that wasn't memorable enough, another spot involved the Coronet boys with their mom, who also ably pitched for the shop. Her famous line also reverberates in the memories of longtime New Yorkers. The sons ask mom what's for dinner, and she responds, in classic Long Island dialect, "reservations!"

    Those commercials were remarkably effective. To this day, we know the address: 1111 Old Country Road in Westbury. Alas, no juvenile furniture awaits visitors to that address. Coronet closed in 1997 after a 40-year run.

    First up: The Coronet brothers -- and that orangutan ...

    ... and mom tells them what's for dinner ...

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: throwback thursday, coronet, commercials, terrorism, television

  • Report: Clay Aiken expecting a little 'Claymate'

    Thursday May 29, 2008 2:32 PM By Elizabeth Nielsen

    Who would have thought it was possible?

    TMZ is reporting that the 'American Idol' runner-up and star of 'Spamalot' is going to be a Daddy sometime this summer.

    The baby-mamma is a close friend of Aiken's, Jaymes Foster, a record producer in her late 40s.

    Foster was allegedly artifically inseminated, TMZ says, and Clay has volunteered to be the father.

    Speculation about Aiken's sexual orientation have swired for years, especially after reports of him soliciting sex on the Internet from a Green Beret surfaced last year.

    The baby is due in late August, TMZ says.

    If you're still reading, you're obviously a fellow Claymate so check out these 15 photos of Clay through the years (including from the Idol Christmas specials!)

    --Lizzy

  • A diner's new home on the Brooklyn waterfront

    Thursday May 29, 2008 12:21 PM By Marlene Naanes

    A rail car-style diner that closed its doors after serving customers in Manhattan for almost 70 years will soon serve up home-style cooking on Reed Street along Red Hook’s waterfront, a preservationist told amNewYork today.

    The diner will be elevated for the best views of the water and will be near the Fairway Supermarket on Van Brunt Street, said Michael Perlman, a preservationist who helped save the diner from being destroyed.

    The move could happen in a month. The diner would have to be transported in two sections and put back together in Brooklyn.

    “Not only is the Cheyenne Diner rescue a historic preservation victory, but it also fulfills the trend that more New Yorker’s need to embrace going green by adaptively reusing and acknowledging an establishment's embodied energy over the decades,” Perlman said in an e-mail.

    Mike O’Connell, of O’C Construction and the son of a noted Red Hook developer, bought the Cheyenne Diner, which served comfort food at 33rd Street and Ninth Avenue until closing April 6.

    O’Connell signed a contract last month to purchase the chrome-covered structure for $5,000 and will now work on securing permits to transport it to its new home.

    The Cheyenne closed to make way for a nine-story residential and commercial development. Perlman began working with the owner of the building and the land beneath it, George Papas, in hopes of finding a buyer who would pay to relocate the diner within the five boroughs.

    Tags: cheyenne diner, manhattan, brooklyn, endangered nyc

  • It's SOFA time again

    Thursday May 29, 2008 9:37 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    In case you're not in the know, SOFA is short for the International Exposition of Sculpture Objects and Functional Art.

    This is the 11th year for the show - which showcases all manner of cool home decor stuff - and goes on all weekend at the Armory. There are works from 67 galleries from all over the world on display and the styles range from zany to elegant to earth mother organic. Even if you're nowhere near the price bracket needed to afford some of this stuff for your shoebox apartment, browsing is fun too, right?

    So, check it from May 29-June 1 at the Park Avenue Armory ; 643 Park Avenue.

    - Lauren Johnston

    Tags: museums, manhattan, arts

  • I tawt I taw a putty cat

    Wednesday May 28, 2008 7:28 PM By David Freedlander

    So, you saw our story yesterday and have decided you want to do what you can to save the wild cats of Kennedy.

    Well, first of all, you should be commended. To take in a wild beast, who rips up furniture, scratches, and bites, and expect nothing in return? You are a saint, a prince of a human being.

    Second of all, you are totally out of luck. Humane Society of the United States prez Patrick Kwan informs us that the animals cannot be domesticated, cannot live indoors, and cannot really even live out of doors any place other than their Kennedy-esque surroundings. Such is the lot of the feral.

    However, if you would like to help, he recommends contacting the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals, who are advocating for and (hopefully) instituting the Trap-Neuter-Return program.

    The Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals

    --- David Freedlander

    Tags: cats, spay and neuter, jfk, airports

  • Jimmy Cayne becomes "The Annotated Bear"

    Wednesday May 28, 2008 4:28 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Pedestrians contribute to the "Annotated Bear" Wednesday afternoon. (Photo by Gregory A. Gilbert)

    The Bear Stearns debacle has made its way into the pop art scene.

    “The Annotated Bear” is a portrait of Bear’s former CEO Jimmy Cayne, who was at the top as one of Wall Street’s most storied banks collapsed.

    The portrait is by Geoffrey Raymond, dubbed by dealbreaker.com as Wall Street’s most important artist. He was outside Bear’s headquarters on Madison Avenue yesterday displaying his art and asking passers-by, Bear employees among them, to sign his work and sound off on the bank’s downfall.

    The showing came the day before Bear’s shareholders meeting, when the firm’s fate will be sealed and JPMorgan’s buyout should be made official.

    -- Garett Sloane

    Tags: spitzer, jimmy cayne, bear stearns, manhattan, economy, arts

  • Duly Noted

    Wednesday May 28, 2008 4:25 PM By Rolando Pujol

    A little slice of heaven in Park Slope. (Photo by Rolando Pujol)

    * Residential building permits plunge 50 percent in "yet another sign the city’s building boom is coming to an end." [Crains via Queens Crap]

    * So is the city's real-estate market really catching the national chill? [Brownstoner]

    * Enjoy this tour of the Renwick Ruins on Roosevelt Island. The old smallpox hospital designed by James Renwick will finally undergo a stabilization overhaul following a partial collapse recently. [Roosevelt Islander]

    * In Kensington, a call to clean up a lot. [Kensington (Brooklyn)]

    * A rather repugnant sliver building in Woodside. [Queens Crap]

    * Not even an R&S Strauss -- at 14th and Avenue C -- is safe from development. [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

    * Dunkin' Donuts drops Rachael Ray ad -- because she's wearing what appears to be a keffiyeh? [Eater]

    * Weather is looking good for Manhattanhenge. [Gothamist]

    * Shootings prompt reminder of Harlem's past. [City Room]

    * Yes, it's still plywood in those Coney windows, but boy is it colorful. [Gowanus Lounge]

    * Longtime tailor shop to disappear at Hotel Chelsea. [Living with Legends]

    * And here's a fascinating history of retail on that 23rd Street block. [jameswagner.com]

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: duly noted

  • Catching "SATC" the New York way

    Wednesday May 28, 2008 1:31 PM By Emily Ngo

    Spend this weekend disassociating yourself with wannabes. (AP)

    New York will be inundated this weekend with tourists seeking to catch a “Sex and the City” screening where it all happened. They’ll do it up right: Dress up as their favorite characters, watch the film with 73 girlfriends and top the night off with yummy-tinis at a swank bar. You, resident New Yorker, can do better.

    There’s another route for native fans who want to avoid the bachelorette party-like festivities while remaining true to the essence of “SATC":

    1. Dress like your normal fabulous self. You’ve already got New York style. Mimicking Carrie’s ballgown-with-a-cardigan ensemble screams out-of-towner-with-a-costume.

    2. Schedule brunch with your best friend. The “SATC” crowd bonded over eggs in the morning probably more often than drinks at night.

    3. See the movie in the afternoon. This is a surefire way to dodge the tourists with the matching “I heart SATC” T-shirts. Nice scrunchie, lady.
    4. Take an hours-long walk through the city you already know so well, making sure to point out the women who are so obviously visiting just for the movie. But also make sure to point out the men you would “date” if you had Samantha’s audacity.
    * See all the New York 'Sex and the City' premiere photos here.

    — Emily Ngo

    Tags: sex and the city, entertainment, movies, fashion

  • Last Mitchell-Lama apartment house on UWS saved

    Tuesday May 27, 2008 7:13 PM By David Freedlander

    The city has stepped in to stop a tony Manhattan prep school from selling an affordable housing complex to a private developer.

    The 199-unit Trinity House was built in 1969 and is the last Mitchell-Lama building on the Upper West Side.

    Last year, Trinity School, which has owned and operated the building for the last 40 years, informed tenants that they were selling to Pembroke Properties, Inc., who intended to convert the units to condominiums.

    “We are thrilled,” said Dina Heisler, who raised her two children in a two- bedroom apartment in Trinity House, at 100 W. 92nd St. She has lived there since 1976 and pays a little more than $1,000 a month for.

    “This place was the only way I could have I could have raised my boys in the city. It made it possible for middle income tenants to stay in the city and have good quality housing.”

    Representatives from Pembroke Properties and Trinity School both expressed surprise that the sale of the building—which had been projected for upwards of $30 million—had been rejected, and both said they had yet to be informed of the verdict.

    Neill Coleman, a spokesman for the city’s department of Housing, Preservation, and Development, said that the high sale price made the agency realize that the developers would not have been able to charge affordable rents for the amount they were spending on the purchase.

    Tenants are now looking to purchase the building themselves or find a nonprofit developer to do so.

    Mitchell Lama advocates, concerned about losing the stock of affordable housing, hailed the decision.

    “We see it as the beginning of a policy, hopefully,” said Amy Chan, an organizer with Tenants& Neighbors, an affordable housing group. “We can’t let these buildings fall into the hands of predatory buyers.”

    --David Freedlander

    Tags: trinity school, mitchell lama, hpd, development

  • An icon of 1960s flight, saved pane by pane

    Tuesday May 27, 2008 5:35 PM By Rolando Pujol

    The iconic stain-glassed window is dismantled earlier this year. Below, one of the panels on display at a Chelsea shop. (Credit: Above, chrisl1024 on Flickr; below and after jump, Elisabeth Stuveras)

    When American Airlines decided to demolish its Terminal 8 at Kennedy Airport, the fate of an iconic art piece hung in the balance.

    An enormous red, white and blue stained-glass window had welcomed travelers since the terminal opened in 1960, its 900 panels signaling a new age of jet-set travel.

    Robert Sowers' piece became a beloved landmark, but despite efforts to keep the piece intact, American Airlines had the window dismantled, a project that began this winter and was completed just a few weeks ago.

    Portions of the mural will go on display on Long Island and Texas. But nostalgic travelers who recall the terminal's past can own a piece of that era.

    A salvaging company, Olde Good Things, brokered a deal with the airline to deconstruct the mammoth artwork. Workers removed the panes with the agreement to give American as many pieces as it wished; the rest of the window was left to the salvaging company to sell in its Chelsea store, said American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith.

    The shop received about 750 pieces and is selling them for about $95 a square foot, store employee Diana Harrod said. The pieces are numbered and the store has a map of the original window, so customers can purchase more than one pane and arrange them as they once were.

    Eileen Vasquez Clifford, who created the Save America’s Window foundation to keep the piece intact, is disappointed that the piece was not preserved in its entirety.

    “It’s just so sad,” Clifford said, an American flight attendant for 29 years. “The history of it was so great. It captures a moment in time; it had a certain style to it.”

    Smith, the airline spokesman, said the airline tried to keep the artwork intact.

    “It was a wonderful idea, but after working every possible way that we could imagine, there just was no reasonable financial way to fully preserve it or store it,” he said.

    The American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum in Fort Worth will receive a few pieces, and the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, Long Island, will be receiving four panels.

    “This is just another way for people to see that aviation history that originated in the New York area,” said Todd Richman, chairman of the board of trustees for the Long Island museum. “It’s not a very large piece, but at least there will be a piece at the museum that people can look at and say, ‘that was once a really magnificent structure.’ “

    The airline is also considering ways to use small parts of the window at its new Kennedy terminal. There may be a small display with an explanation of the window’s history, or panels might be used in nonpublic areas such as flight-attendant break rooms, Smith said.

    Still,the glory days of Sowers’ behemoth glass window and the glamorous aviation culture that it symbolized are no more.

    “When people made those airline terminals, it was an expression of a certain era,” Richman said. “Our curators will try to place it so that people can recall and experience the wonder that it was.”

    -- Megan Stride

    Tags: kennedy airport, modernism, endangered nyc, arts, architecture, airports

  • MTA gets props for green efforts

    Tuesday May 27, 2008 5:03 PM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    Our friends at the Sundance Channel send along an exclusive clip from tonight's episode of The

    Green, about how the MTA is trying to be eco friendly and sustainable.

    In it, the gleaming Corona maintenance shop is called "the Taj Mahal of sustainability".

    Check out the clip below; the episode, airing at 9 p.m. EST, looks at how a variety of city governments and groups are trying to get Americans to ditch our environment-killing cars.

    Kind of an interesting mixed metaphor, given that Shah Jahan built the Taj

    Tags: environment

  • Is it Paris -- or is it the Kinkajou?

    Tuesday May 27, 2008 5:00 PM By Linda Perney

    "Kinkajous .. are playful, generally quiet and docile, sometimes aggressive, and they have no noticeable odor." That's the way Wikipedia defines Paris Hilton's newest pet, a tiny endangered animal she calls "Baby Luv."

    Or is that definition for Paris herself?

  • Call them the "Rohans"? Lindsay Lohan rumored to be engaged to Samantha Ronson

    Tuesday May 27, 2008 12:12 PM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad


    Are Lindsay Lohan and D.J. gal pal Samantha Ronson set to take advantage of California's newly minted same-sex marriage laws?

    Maybe yes, and then again, maybe no. The only source that claims to have insider info on the starlet's engagement is Britian’s The Daily Star , which is not exactly anybody’s paper of record. Today’s headline: Dani: I Love My New Boobs. You get the idea.

    For now, the facts: We know the 21-year-old pop tart actress and openly gay club queen, 30, have kissed. We know they've sent steamy text messges and have been inseparable for months. And now the ripping wildfire of InterWeb betrothal rumors.

    But it could very well be a bunch of blog-vomit.

    The Star's tale of Lohan's engagement springs from a big ring spotted on her engagement ring finger at the Dolce & Gabbana party at this year's Cannes Film Festival. According to the Star,

    Lohan told her ex-beau British model Calum Best that the ring is for real, not a publicity stunt, and that the pair are engaged.

    The Star also claims Lohan's friends say she's been referring to herself as 'Lindsay Ronson'. See Gawker's grab of her Facebook page here.

    Lohan and Ronson were recently photographed kissing at a Sean 'Diddy' Combs party in Cannes. And Lohan's estranged father told Us Weekly today the nature of Lohan and Ronson's relationship is "evident to anyone with half a brain."

    Is the engagement for real? If so, is it likely to last? Probably not, so does it matter?

    For now the wheels at the rumor mill are still churning.

    Check out closeups of the ring and 58 more of our favorite Lindsay Lohan photos here. [Warning: at least 1 photo not appropriate for children].

    - Lauren Johnston

    Tags: lindsay lohan, entertainment

  • About that beeping sound you don't hear anymore...

    Tuesday May 27, 2008 11:42 AM By Marlene Naanes

    (via flickr's DanielleH)

    Garbage trucks are the only sector of this noisy city that became quieter this year, according to 311 noise complaint stats.

    The back story to Tuesday's cover story shows that the Department of Sanitation has been installing technology that shushes the beeping noise made by backing up trucks and hushes the sound of compacting all the garbage you throw out. While noise complaints have gone up 6 percent citywide so far this year, complaints about raucous sanitation vehicles have dropped almost 18 percent.

    The backup beepers, as the department calls them, have sensors that detect the ambient sound and then adjust the beep volume accordingly. A quiet residential street will have softer beeps and a noisy thoroughfare will produce beeps that can be heard about the racket.

    The department has also been installing technology that makes compacting garbage quieter. The trucks can now pack garbage at idle speeds, instead of sending the engine into a loud whir while garbage is crunched.

    The majority of the department's fleet of 6,000 vehicles have been converted, leading to quieter city streets, Rocco DiRico, a sanitation assistant commissioner who manages the fleet.

    "They’re real true to form technological advances that certainly have contributed to a quieter truck," DiRico said.

    Additionally, every new truck has to be tested with a decibel meter to make sure it measures up (or quiets down) to city noise code regulations. And trucks will become even quieter yet: DiRico said the department is in the process of testing less squeaky disc brakes as an alternative to drum brakes.

    "In all likelihood it will be just fine and it will be another feather in our cap," he said.

    Tags: zany

  • Duly Noted

    Monday May 26, 2008 5:06 PM By Rolando Pujol

    The list of places that have closed during the past few years is enormous. This old photo we took of Jahn's in Richmond Hill had us wishing we could enjoy their Kitchen Sink sundae one more time. Jahn's closed last November, and only one outlet of the former chain remains, in Jackson Heights.

    * Endangered NYC is in the air. It's a worthy investment of your time to explore the hundreds of comments about New York's vanished traditions and institutions that two blog posts elicited this weekend. City Room premised the discussion on the planned return of double-decker buses, and Gawker visited the subject, alarmed by the spate of notable places closing of late. Some of Urbanite's ongoing coverage is here.

    * The art of street photography. [Gothamist]

    * If you're a Grey Gardens aficionado, you'll enjoy the tidbits from a woman who lived among Big Edie and Little Edie out in that East Hampton mansion. [Grey Gardens News]

    * Brownstoner reacts to the New York magazine cover story about the blog and its "culture of commenting." [Brownstoner]

    * Woodhaven Lanes is history -- here are the pictures to prove it. [Queens Crap]

    * MAS produces video to help underfunded Landmarks Preservation Commission. [Brownstoner]

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: duly noted

  • Ghost of Madison Square diner, long before Shake Shack

    Monday May 26, 2008 4:06 PM By Rolando Pujol

    For Memorial Day, we celebrate a piece of Americana -- metal soft-drink signs that once graced countless diners and luncheonettes.

    There's still a few around, for sure, but today, we bring your attention to one that is hidden in plain sight in Madison Square, right across from the park on East 23rd Street.

    Preserved under a deli's awning is evidence of a long-ago diner. It's a downright perfect relic: An intact Pepsi Cola sign, coupled with some lettering for a coffee shop.

    Madison Square Park may be home to the Shake Shack, and the neighborhood around it devoid of all the seed its accumulated during the latter half of the 20th century, but we guess that if you look closely enough, it's possible to find traces of the neighborhood's retail past.

    You just never know what lurks underneath those ubiquitous vinyl awnings.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    UPDATE: Jefferson Siegel updates us with the tragic history of this site, and includes a photo that shows the coffee shop sign in question.

    The coffee shop under the awning was just east of the Wonder Drug store, which caught fire on October 17, 1966. When firefighters went inside the drug store to fight the flames, the floor collapsed under them, killing 12, the largest one-day loss of life for the fire department up to that point.

    The fire spread to other buildings. This photo, taken the next night, shows Broadway looking north from 22nd St. as a crane was brought in to demolish what remained of the buildings.

    Tags: madison square park, signs, coffee shops, endangered nyc, shopping, manhattan, gentrification

  • Savor the sunset: Manhattanhenge is this week

    Monday May 26, 2008 3:22 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Manhattanhenge, the celestial wonder that bathes city streets with the sunset’s light, happens Thursday and Friday.

    The solar event causes the sun to set in alignment with Manhattan’s street grid. Sunset on Thursday is at 8:19.

    Friday may be the most interesting day, with the sun in perfect alignment just before it begins to disappear below the horizon. On Thursday, perfect alignment begins just after sunset has begun.

    Either day, though, Manhattanhenge will offer New Yorkers an unusual event that is best appreciated the farther east you stand, said Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History.

    "You want to see the sun set at the vanishing point of the street, and you only get that vanishing- point effect if you're as far east as possible," he said. "You need the grid in front of you, not behind you."

    Tyson, who coined the term for the sunlit alignment in the late 1990s, said he'll probably be watching this year from East 42nd Street on the Tudor City overpass, where viewers can admire the glow without blocking traffic.

    He said that 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd and 57th streets are all good options for catching the sight. So far, the weather looks sunny both days.

    If nothing else, Tyson hopes Manhattanhenge might stir people's interest in the cosmos.

    "I'll take any excuse to get people to look at the sky," he said.

    If you miss it …

    Don’t despair. Manhattanhenge happens again on July 12. And a similar effect takes place, but at sunrise, in December and January.

    -- Megan Stride

    Photo via the idealist on Flickr

    Tags: manhattan, manhattanhenge, astronomy, zany, stuff that's cool

  • Lindsay Lohan and gal pal Ronson kiss

    Friday May 23, 2008 5:24 PM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    It looks like Lindsay Lohan's ready come out of the closet--or else she's just hungry for more media attention.

    She's certainly getting it, after Lohan and gal pal Samantha Ronson were photographed kissing and holding hands while in Cannes this week for the famed film festival.

    The rumors have been out there for a while and Ronson's been living with Lohan, but the very public display--on P. Diddy's yacht, no less!--have the blogosphere in a tizzy.

    The tabloids are all over it, as you might imagine; the Daily News has posted photos, as has the New York Post.

    And check out 56 of our favorite Lindsay Lohan photos. [Warning: at least 1 photo not appropriate for children].

    Celebrityvibe.com photo via New York Daily News website

    Tags: entertainment

  • The double-deckers are coming back!

    Thursday May 22, 2008 6:16 PM By Rolando Pujol

    The MTA provided amNewYork today with this amazing photo from the 1970s showing a collection of double-decker buses in what appears to be Margaret Corbin Circle in Hudson Heights. (Click on the pic to take in that '70s goodness, including what appears like a patriotic, Bicentennial-inspired MTA logo in the middle bus.)

    The double-decker haven't been seen on city streets since around the time this photo was taken. (That's nol counting tourist buses.) But that will soon change. Our transit reporter, Matt Sweeney, has more on the possible return of the buses to their old route:

    The double-decker bus is returning to New York’s public transportation system, expected to travel its traditional route down Fifth Avenue.

    “Back to the future - at least in terms of productivity - is something we’d like to look at,” Howard Roberts, NYC Transit president, said Thursday.

    The argument in favor of bringing back the double-deckers is that they require less maintenance than the long, articulated buses, which have a lot of moving parts at the “joint” in the middle of the bus. Double-deckers can carry up to 100 passengers, slightly more than the articulated buses, and they take up less road space than the long buses, said transit spokesman, Charles Seaton.

    Transit is seeking to purchase a few buses to test on the M1 or other similar Fifth Avenue routes possibly by the end of the year, officials said. They said they could not yet estimate the cost of the buses.

    Double-deckers are used widely in Europe, Asia, Las Vegas and elsewhere in the United States, said Joseph Smith, president of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s bus division.

    From the turn-of-the-century into the 1950s, the Fifth Avenue Coach Company ran double-deckers up and down Manhattan’s wealthiest avenue. Many of the buses had open-air tops, similar to the tourist double-deckers that crowd Manhattan streets today. The company expanded beyond Fifth Avenue during its decades of operation.

    The buses were taken out of service in 1953, done in by General Motors, which offered a single-deck diesel bus with large rider capacity, Seaton said.

    A small group of double-deckers made a brief reappearance in the 1970s, but they were mechanically unreliable and didn’t last long in service, Seaton said.

    Tags: double-decker buses, transportation, transit, mta

  • City accused of Yankee parkland 'shell game'

    Thursday May 22, 2008 5:53 PM By Rolando Pujol

    The new Yankee Stadium, still under construction, right, is seen from the New York Police Department's Super Surveillance Helicopter, next to the current stadium on Tuesday. (AP)

    A parks watchdog group released a study Thursday accusing the city of playing a “shell game” in replacing South Bronx parkland lost in the construction of the new Yankee Stadium.

    NYC Park Advocates say the Bloomberg administration is only making up for 21.78 of the 25.3 acres being taken up by the new ballpark, opening next year.

    “Elected officials sold them [residents] down the river,” said Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates.

    Croft charged that the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation has manipulated its figures to show there has not been a reduction in parkland.

    The parks department declined to comment on the report, but issued its own breakdown of park projects in the South Bronx, which shows a five-acre gain in recreational space.

    -- Ryan Chatelain

    Tags: yankees, development, parks dept, bronx

  • Emily Gould bares more

    Thursday May 22, 2008 3:27 PM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    Well, just how tired are we of reading self-absorbed, oversharing bloggers? Very.

    Bad enough Emily Gould and her tiresome life will be taking up considerable space in print this weekend; the Times has already put the piece up on its website, so now Thursday is wrecked, too.

    Here's what our girl Emily has to say about nailing her job at Gawker:

    "...Maybe my whole life — all the trivia I’d collected, the knack for funny meanness I’d been honing since middle school — had been leading up to this moment." Well, maybe.

    And just in case you were wondering, she's got a few comments about Julia Allison:

    " ...on her Flickr feed she posed, caked in makeup, like a celebrity on the red carpet, always thrusting out her breasts and favoring her good side. But in the midst of this artifice she was disarmingly straightforward about how much she craved the attention that Internet exposure gave her. .."

    -- Linda Perney

    Tags: entertainment

  • Taking the long view on the sagging economy

    Thursday May 22, 2008 3:13 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Theodore Kheel at his Upper East Side home. (Dennis W. Ho for amNewYork)

    All this week, amNewYork has been looking at how New Yorkers at all income levels are coping with the shuddering economy. Our story gallery can be found here. On Urbanite, we've decided to highlight one of those stories that brings some perspective to our current troubles -- an interview with Theodore Kheel, 94, the legendary city labor-dispute mediator who found his first job during the Great Depression.

    There are few New Yorkers with the historical perspective of Theodore Kheel, who at 94 has lived through the Great Depression and today is still active in the city's affairs.

    Kheel, the famous mediator of city labor disputes, knows how to survive in New York during tough times. He was a teenager during the Great Depression, and by the time he graduated law school in 1937, the city was in another recession.

    "It took me several months until I got this job at $5 a week," he said from the comfort of his living room on the Upper East Side, overlooking Central Park.

    Kheel has been a mediator in labor and management conflicts since World War II, when he was a member of the National War Labor Relations Board. Later, he handled some of the city's toughest labor disputes, from transit to newspaper strikes.His life in law and business has been a success, but his early days were as uncertain as those of anyone just starting out in the professional world.

    "I was married. My wife had a job; she was a journalist," Kheel said of his life in 1937. "She earned money. I did get some support from my in-laws, and I had some wedding gifts. It was not exactly that I was living in luxury but I was able to get by."

    Kheel's career path was chosen by necessity: Tough economic conditions didn't afford him the luxury of following passions.

    He became a labor-relations mediator because there was opportunity in that field thanks to President Roosevelt and the creation of the National Labor Relations Board.

    He's a "byproduct of circumstances," he says, and found success through necessity, opportunity and good fortune.

    After the war, he benefited like most people from New York's boom times -- there were plenty of labor disputes to resolve. And one of his biggest successes was on a deal that almost tanked in the late 1960s. He was among a group of investors who paid $200,000 for 30 square miles of land in the Dominican Republic.

    At first there was concern the deal was not going to work out well for Kheel and his partners, and many people wanted to cut their losses. But Kheel convinced wary investors to stick with it. Today, the land -- now developed with an international airport and hotels -- is worth about $700 million and Kheel is the chairman of the board, called Grupo Punta Cana.

    Despite his success, Kheel still shares in the financial stresses.

    "Even when you're doing well," he said. "You have a matter of protecting what you've accomplished."

    -- Garett Sloane

    Tags: theodore kheel, economy, history

  • If congestion pricing fails...

    Thursday May 22, 2008 3:11 PM By David Freedlander

    Try bribery. At least that's the plan in Seattle, where Mayor Greg Nickels is offering gift certificates and prizes for folks willing to go without their cars.

    Those who pledge to drive less can get discounts from an organic grocery delivery service or REI.

    Those who

    commit to reducing commute trips for several months, and receive a $150 cash card. • Sell or donate a car, and receive $200 in gift certificates for bus passes or REI; a $100 discount to Tiny's Organic; $50 off a Zipcar membership; free membership in the Cascade Bicycle Club and Bicycle Alliance of Washington; and a signed proclamation from the mayor.

    And those who already drive can have their names submitted for a quarterly raffle for an IPhone.

    All of which sounds very Seattle to us.

    ---David Freedlander

    Tags: congestion pricing, seattle, gifts, transportation

  • In Park Slope, a gem of a sign -- while it lasts

    Thursday May 22, 2008 2:14 PM By Rolando Pujol

    This Park Slope sign has everything going for it, except a future, given the shop's papered-up windows and "for lease" sign.

    And what a timepiece it is! There seemed to be a moment in the 1960s when just about everything needed to be called a "center," even your corner laundromat.

    The sign is elegantly executed in a cursive font, placed atop faux shingle. And the crowning element? The little washboard sign, which adds a nifty touch.

    Perhaps the new occupants will open up an ironically named restaurant and preserve this sign, but we doubt it.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: park slope, brooklyn, signs, endangered nyc

  • Duly Noted

    Thursday May 22, 2008 1:10 PM By Rolando Pujol

    This Park Slope sign reliably ratchets up our desire for donuts. (Photo by Rolando Pujol)

    * Now this is great news: The MTA may bring back double-decker buses, a commuting treat not enjoyed by New Yorkers (well, except tourists on those red buses) since the 1970s. [City Room] (More on this on amNY.com later today)

    * Sure, demolition work has been stopped at the Ward bakery in the Atlantic Yards zone, but it's too late anyway for the noble structure. [Brownstoner]

    * Another low-rise corner is felled, this time at East 14th Street and Third Avenue. [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

    * A visit to Defonte's, an old-school holdout in Red Hook. It's worth a visit just to savor a 1970s ad influenced by a certain Alka Seltzer campaign. [Lost City]

    * It's anchors way -- again -- at Channel 2. [Gothamist]

    * The Unisphere has a new resident. [Queens Crap]

    * A portion of Bed-Stuy may get the historic-district treatment. [Brownstoner]

    * Thanks to a recent demolition, we can now take in a "generous view" of St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church downtown. [City Room]

    * Jackson Heights' beloved Scrabble sign is missing, just as the board game celebrates its 60th birthday. [Jackson Heights Life]

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: duly noted

  • Happy birthday Brooklyn Bridge!

    Thursday May 22, 2008 10:52 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad


    The bridge turns 125 this week and there's plenty of fun stuff scheduled to celebrated our beloved Brooklyn Bridge. The city's fete goes down tonight at 7:45. We'll have fireworks, music, dancing - and Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz in period garb - woo hoo!

    But of you want to party for the bridge's birthday on through the weekend, here are a few more celebration events from Williamsburg's City Reliquary:

    The Brooklyn Bridge: 125 Years of Inspiration

    What: Art exhibit featuring pieces by NYC-based students aged K-college as inspired by the Brooklyn Bridge.

    Where: The City Reliquary; 379 Metropolitan Ave., Williamsburg

    When: Artists Reception Fri., May 23rd, 7p.m. - 10 p .m.; Show runs through June 15

    Admission: Pay what you wish

    Brooklyn Bridge Birthday Bike Ride

    The City Reliquary commorates the the opening day of the bridge - May 24th 1883 - with a birthday bike ride. Meet at the City Reliquary Museum at 370 Metropolitan Ave. near Havemeyer St. at 12:00 noon on Sat., May 24.

    The ride leaves from the museum and runs 10 miles roundtrip, ending at the Brooklyn Bridge anchorage with birthday cake, drinks and souvenir t-shirts ($5).

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: history, brooklyn

  • Um .. Eliot who?

    Thursday May 22, 2008 10:37 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    Silda Wall Spitzer is a sullen wife scorned no more!

    With sex-scandal leaden hubby ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer no where to be seen, Silda (she goes by Silda A. Wall these days) stepped out last night in a roaring crimson frock for "The Art of Giving" benefit hosted by Children For Children at Christie's.

    You'll recall she looked strained and worn down during those dark days after Eliot confessed to numerous infidelities with the now infamous call-girl-gone-wild Kristen.

    If you don't recall, see our "Shames Wives Club" photo collection [HERE] .

    But no more. It appears Ms. Wall is on the rebound and we say welcome back.

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: politics, manhattan

  • It's "Park" Slope, all right

    Wednesday May 21, 2008 8:24 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Greater prowess is now needed to find a parking space in Park Slope.

    On Monday, the city began suspending the alternate side parking rule in the neighborhood. The suspension is temporary and intended to give the city time to change 9,200 street signs to reflect a new, less frequent sweeping schedule in Park Slope. The city has not said how long the parking rule would be halted, but until further notice, drivers are being allowed to leave their cars untouched for up to a week at a time.

    "There's a big difference this week. Nobody's moving," said Vincent Kolb, 40, who lives in Park Slope and drives regularly. "You used to be able to find a spot in front of your house. Now you circle, and then you have to drag your stuff home. Or you double-park and face a $150 fine."

    "For us residents, we're afraid to move our cars," agreed Brenda Casimir, 46, a resident who also owns P.S. Coffee Tea and Spices on 5th Avenue.But people who drive infrequently may reap the greatest benefit from the rule change, Kolb said.

    "If you don't drive often, you never have to move your car, and you won't get a ticket," Kolb said. "But if you drive more often, then it's much harder to find a spot all the time."

    While the parking changes are the talk of the neighborhood, it seems some people still don't know about it.

    "I've actually mentioned it to a couple of customers, and they seemed to be totally unaware," said Hermian Charles, who owns the Serene Rose clothing store on 5th Avenue.

    -- Megan Stride

    amNY extras:

    A narrated history of Park Slope with Francis Morrone

    Interactive map of Park Slope

    Tags: park slope, parking

  • Muji mania alert: Flagship store opens May 30

    Wednesday May 21, 2008 1:48 PM By Rolando Pujol

    The Muji store under construction last month.

    It's official: MUJI Times Square opens at noon Friday, May 30 in the New York Times Building. The 4,350-square-foot shop represents the second foray into New York for the Japanese purveyor of stylish household and other goods at discount prices. Muji essentially means “no-brand quality goods.”

    The full release is after the jumpNEW YORK - Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - MUJI U.S.A. LIMITED announces that “MUJI Times Square”, the U.S. flagship store of MUJI will open at 12:00 p.m. noon on Friday, May 30, 2008 in the New York Times Building at 620 Eighth Avenue. With 4,350 square feet of retail floor space, the store is along 40th Street overlooking the moss-and-birch-tree garden on the ground floor in Renzo Piano-designed building.

    Following the opening of “MUJI SOHO” at 455 Broadway, NY in November 2007, “MUJI Times Square” is the MUJI’s second U.S. store. The store will offer over 1,750 household items and 420 apparel items at the opening.

    MUJI, originally founded in Japan, offers good quality products at reasonable prices which includes a wide variety of household items, apparel and foods. Mujirushi Ryohin, the name in Japanese which MUJI was originally derived from, translates as “no-brand quality goods”. The value of the MUJI product is in what it is, even without the name of the brand and/or the name of person designing it. The essence of MUJI products lies in its simplicity, flexibility and modesty to fit different life styles and individual preferences. MUJI does not direct its products to be affected by any trends and “isms”, rather does aim to be universally relevant. MUJI products maintain reasonable price levels, not by compromising quality, but by avoiding the waste typical of much product – manufacturing and distribution – in the form of unnecessary functionality, an excess of decoration, and needless packaging.

    Tags: muji, retail, times square, manhattan, shopping, development

  • Saved! St. Brigid's Church

    Wednesday May 21, 2008 12:51 PM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad


    Photo from Save. St. Brigid's web site

    The historic St. Brigid's Church in Manhattan's East Village has been saved by an anonymous $10 million donation, the Archdiocese of New York said Wednesday.

    St. Brigid's will reopen as a parish church following its repair. The donor also has given $2 million to establish an endowment to help the parish meet the spiritual needs of community residents. A separate gift of $8 million will support Saint Brigid's School, and other Catholic schools in need.

    Click here for our complete series on city preservatoin: Endangered NYC

    Endangered: PHOTOS | FLASH The church is named after St. Brigid of Ireland, known for helping the hungry and poor, and once was a haven for Irish famine refugees. In more recent years it has served a largely Latino congregation. Irish heritage organizations were among groups arguing against demolition.

    The church's cornerstone was laid on Sept. 10, 1848, and the construction was completed in about 15 months.

    The vaulted ceiling was fashioned by shipbuilders as an upside-down boat; sculpted faces honor the shipwrights who built the church.

    The archdiocese closed the Gothic-style building in 2001. The parish itself was closed in 2004.

    - the Associated Press

    Tags: endangered nyc, architecture, development, manhattan

  • FLEET WEEK! And other fun stuff too ...

    Wednesday May 21, 2008 10:12 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad


    Newsday photo/Daniel Goodrich

    The men (and ladies) in dress whites flood the streets of New York after this morning's 21st annual parade of ships on the Hudson - so get ready for some crazy.

    [Full Schedule of Fleet Week events HERE]

    In other news and events around town today, pickle-eating contests, a Milk-Bone centennial new lights on the Brooklyn Bridge, and more ... here's the rundown:

    9:30 a.m. to Noon: Fleet Week Parade of Ships and fly-over on the Hudson River from the Verrazano Bridge to the George Washington Bridge.

    11 a.m.: Billy Joel’s wife, Katie Lee Joel, promotes her new cookbook,

    “The Comfort Table,” at One Chase Manhattan Plaza, between Nassau

    and William streets and Liberty and Pine streets.

    11 a.m.: The Carnegie Deli honors “America’s Strongest Man” Derek

    Poundstone with the deli’s biggest sandwich.

    11 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Milk-Bone celebrates its 100th anniversary on the Military Island in Times Square.

    11:30 a.m.: Also at the Carnegue Deli, America’s Eighth Bi-Annual Pickle-Eating Contest

    11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.: New designs unveiled for a multimillion dollar redevelopment project at JFK’s Terminal 7

    2 p.m.: Unveiling of new lighting and signs welcoming visitors to

    Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Bridge on the Brooklyn side.

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: today's check it out

  • The coffee must be good

    Tuesday May 20, 2008 6:23 PM By Marlene Naanes

    As the tenement buildings and old shops around him have been torn down and replaced by towering condos, Lower East Side native Carmine Morales and his Classic Coffee Shop have survived ongoing gentrification.

    Even so, Morales, 56, was happy to hear his shop was smack-dab in the middle of a 12-square-block area preservationists are fighting to protect.

    “It’s crazy how much it’s changed,” he said. “It’s always been a neighborhood of immigrants and poor folk but not any more—you gotta be rich. I always joke, the next thing I know Donald Trump is going to be my neighbor.”

    On Tuesday, the National Trust for Historic Preservation designated the Lower East Side as one of America’s 11 “most endangered historic places” in its annual list of architectural, cultural and natural locations at risk of destruction. The national organization is backing a local effort that began in 2006 to create a protected landmark district in the Lower East Side that would be roughly bounded by Allen, Delancey, Essex and Division streets.

    Morales said tearing down the old buildings and replacing them with sleek, high-priced condos is changing the face of the neighborhood and erasing its history. Remnants of Morales' own history still remain, like his elementary school (across the street from his coffee shop at 56 Hester Street).

    Also enduring the nabe's changes is the tenement-style building he grew up in.

    Like many before them, his relatives took the path of many immigrants. His mother grew up in the nabe after her parents emigrated from Italy.

    After a stopover in Brooklyn, his father met his mother when he moved to the LES. He opened up Classic Coffee Shop in 1976 with Morales.

    Morales moved from his original home but still lives just blocks away from the coffee shop, which is decked out with pictures of his ancestors and ads from the 50s. He said he's been able to stay in the neighborhood even with Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks popping up "on every corner" because of a nice landlord who only increases the rent 5 percent a year.

    Plus, the landlord's dad leased to Morales' father.

    Morales hopes the preservation group helps keep the LES' diversity and its reputation as a first home for newcomers. He said he's seen many different cultures coexisting as they get their feet on the ground in a new country and then move upward and onward, making room for the next wave of immigrants.

    "This was always a stop over for immigrants," he said. "But [developers are] building too high and they're making condos everywhere, asking outrageous money. That’s going to change the whole face of the neighborhood."

    -- Marlene Naanes

    Tags: development, stuff that's cool, old school, manhattan, immigration, history, gentrification, endangered nyc

  • Guitar Hero

    Tuesday May 20, 2008 1:24 PM By David Freedlander

    On Bedford Ave this morning, we found the above, extremely disturbing take on the ubiquitous Dan Smith Will Teach You Guitar flyer:

    Below its doppelganger, instead of talk about playing with confidence in different styles and genres is a bit about an alcoholic and psychotic rage.

    Also of note, we did find this website with links to a map of where all "Dan Smith Will Teach Guitar" flyers can be seen around the city.

    And in case you are interested, the tabs on the bottom say, "Call Clamp At 212.561.0674."

    And if you dare, please let us know how it goes

    ---David Freedlander

  • T-Rex takes on MSG

    Tuesday May 20, 2008 12:21 PM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    T-Rex and dino friend, actually.

    In advance of the upcoming show, "Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience," two very realistic dinosaurs posed for photos, danced and even made friends with the NYPD under the Madison Square Garden marquee today.

    The show will run at MSG from July 30 - Aug. 3. It's based on BBC tv show of the same name and when it runs, 13 more living, breathing dinosaurs will join the two we met today (ok - so there were humans inside the dino-suits), but it's the closest thing we've ever seen to real live dinosaurs -- and we think you can get away with attending the show even if you don't have anyone 10 years old or younger in tow.

    Scenes from the show:

    - Lauren Johnston

    Tags: madison square garden, zany, stuff that's cool, manhattan, arts

  • Today: Major League Eating at Rock Center

    Tuesday May 20, 2008 10:52 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    If you really like watermelon - or if you really like the Wii, today's your lucky day.

    From noon to 3 p.m. today, there's a watermelon eating contest to boost Nintendo's new speed-eating video game for the Wii: Major League Eating.

    The game includes moves like the cram and the toss, and even burp-off challenges.

    We can only hope/assume these virtual moves will be re-enacted at today's watermelon showdown -- with perhaps the apropos addition of distance seed-spitting.

    The gluttonous contest goes down at 10 Rockefeller Center at the Nintendo World Store. No word yet on whether hot dog eating champs Joey Chestnut or Takeru Kobayashi will be present.

    Just for fun: See Kobayashi face off with a bear:

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: zany, manhattan, food, entertainment

  • Want to talk to the president?

    Monday May 19, 2008 5:20 PM By Elizabeth Nielsen

    Got a few thoughts for the next president?

    Sheryl Oring would love to meet you.

    The New York-based performance artist has been touring the country since February, wearing retro clothes and carting a vintage typewriter. She asks people to dictate what they'd like to say to the future commander in chief and types it up on postcards. For the second straight day Tuesday, Oring will be looking to hear from New Yorkers at Bryant Park.

    It's all for a project she's calling "I Wish to Say," and she plans on delivering all of the typewritten cards to the fresh president after his or her inauguration in January.

    Oring's put some of the postcards up on iwishtosay.blogspot.com. There are a lot of heartfelt messages that push the future to bring home troops from Iraq and to fix the crumbling economy, but there are also a few that had to have made Oring smile a little.

    Hillary fans might not take kindly to one message from a woman in San Jose, who tells the next president, "We need someone in the White House who can give a shout out to his wife…We need a president who knows his priorities." (Check out tomorrow's amNewYork story on presidential spouses, by the way.)

    A woman named Alexa begged the president to think of the Earth and to be kind, and also wanted to tell him or her that she "turns 50 this year, along with peace sign."

    But my personal fave is probably the short missive from Chloe in San Francisco, who just wanted the president to know that she "likes doing ballet."

    If you've got a few things to say to Barack/Hil/John, or you'd just like to pick Oring's brain, use your lunch break to visit her and that old typewriter at Bryant Park tomorrow. She'll be there from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.

    --Megan Stride

  • Horsing around at the AMNH

    Sunday May 18, 2008 3:43 PM By Emily Ngo

    Opening day of the American Museum of Natural History's special exhibit "The Horse" was chaotic to say the least. What would you expect with live horses in the garden (including 17-inch Thumbelina, a miniature dwarf horse)?

    Horses are the childhood fascination of many, it seems. And so, I walked though the crowded galleries with the mindset of a child. Thanks to the many interactive features tracing the history of the horse's relationship to man, it was easy. Here's a little of what the child in me learned:

    -- I am but 14 hands high, horsespeak for height.

    -- I rock a 0.15 on the horsepower lever; Scott Rosenberg: a 0.32.

    -- Prehistoric horses were the size of dogs. How cute!

    -- Horses in battle wore gas masks during World War II.

    -- There were folks in history that drank the milk of horses.

    Adults, too, would enjoy this extraordinary look at the dependency between animal and man. More than the companion a dog is, the horse is an instrument. Check it out. "The Horse" runs until January.

    — Emily Ngo

    Tags: horses, museums, history, arts

  • Holding out in Murray Hill

    Sunday May 18, 2008 10:26 AM By Rolando Pujol

    Ahh, the vagaries of New York real estate.

    At this Murray Hill corner survives an attractive old townhouse, housing a longtime neighborhood liquor store that sports a distinctive neon sign -- one of our favorite old-school sights in the area.

    A few years ago, the liquor store received a new neighbor. Built partially above our townhouse is a high-rise hotel, cantilevered oh-so-terrifyingly over its modest subject. The whole low-rise scheme of the surrounding block is thrown off by this aggressive and totally out-of-context intruder.

    Hey, when you can't knock it down, just build around it! Find this only-in-New-York curiosity at East 37th Street and Third Avenue.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: murray hill, development, manhattan, signs, endangered nyc

  • A night at the park

    Friday May 16, 2008 4:54 PM By Liz Esquirol

    So here it is the 84th and last season at Yankee Stadium....or as they have stamped on the ticket "The Final Season." Sounds kind of ominous - even for the nicknamed Evil Empire. I don't much like the end of anything - except maybe the end of the work day.

    Star Spangled Banner

    What I do like is the start of the game - that feeling of anticipation. Getting your hotdog, finding your seat, and standing for the playing of the Star Spangled Banner. This was my view the night I was there. Such a wholesome picture - three of our Yankee players, facing the flag....and a closeup of Jeter's behind in living color on the Diamond Vision screen - boy, do I love baseball!

    It was a chilly Friday night - the stands were full (or relatively) and the fans were hungry for a win. It was the return of the great broadcaster and former outfielder Bobby Murcer to the television booth after a bout with cancer. The young welcomed him back with homemade signs and enthusiastic grins. And the crowd cheered as Bobby waved to the fans below.

    You can see the entrance to the new stadium as you exit the subway - the "Y" and "S" had yet to find their posts on the granite and limestone exterior. Seemed odd to see the virgin stadium lurking in the shadows - to view this gated castle in production.

    Yankee Stadium Gate

    Since 1923, Yankees home games have been played there (with the exception of the '74 and '75 seasons when it was undergoing renovations.) That's a lot of games and an impressive number of championships. It will be bittersweet to see the old stadium go - but change is good, right? But please, please don't tell me it's the final season for the always entertaining grounds crew YMCA dance? There are some traditions that must remain.

    -- Liz Esquirol

    Tags: baseball, yankees, sports, bronx

  • Garment District: From hardware store to cafe

    Friday May 16, 2008 7:19 PM By Rolando Pujol

    2007:

    2008:

    We present Simon Greenspan Hardware, which had been at 314 W. 36th St. since the 1930s and was much older. The shutter came down around 2007. Blink and its 2008, and all that's left of the hardware store is the old frame for its sign, which now promotes something more relevant to the increasingly residential neighborhood -- 36 West Bar & Grill.

    The hardware store got its print send-off a few years before it closed, in the pages of The New York Times, which in 2002 described it thusly:

    The history of New York City's garment district is on display -- or at least jumbled in a heap in a corner -- at Simon Greenspan Hardware ....

    Garter-belt clips? Got 'em. Button-making supplies? Got 'em. Hangers that predate plastic? Kerosene lamps? Window-screen patches? Parts for machines no one has used since the Hoover administration? The shelves are brimming, and you should see the basement.

    ''Why throw it out?'' said Ronald Bernard Wittie, the proprietor, holding a circular piece of steel that he thinks dates from before 1931 (he has a boxful). ''I keep it in case some 90-year-old comes in and needs it.'' He added, ''I haven't sold any yet in 20 years.''

    A business changes in the blink of an eye, especially in the New York of the past seven years or so. We've learned to take nothing for granted -- we passed the hardware store many times and never indulged our curiosity to poke our head inside. This we do regret.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    MORE:

    Garment District Past for Sale; Hardware Store's Shelves Display a Bygone Era [NY Times, 5/3/02]

    Tags: garment district, midtown, gentrification, hardware stores, endangered nyc, restaurants, manhattan, entertainment, signs

  • City Hall Dispatch: Words are slippery things

    Thursday May 15, 2008 7:05 PM By David Freedlander

    Three days after the mayor's umbrage on our colleague Michael Frazier's use of the word maintain

    and two days after the mayor's umbrage denial and one day after Bloomberg press spokesman Stu Loeser put forth the following account:

    like most New Yorkers, and most people, the mayor doesn't like being called a liar. If we need to go over the meaning of the word maintain, I can. It's exclusively used to refer to an allegation that is either not backed up by facts or in contrast to facts, as in: The courts has ruled seven times that Mr. Jones is a pedophile, but he maintains they are all cases of mistaken identity."

    The pictured sign made its way onto the walls of Room 9:

    as well as:

    And as our sister blog Spin Cycle put it:

    What it does show is that Loeser lacks an understanding of both language and logic. In the sentence he has constructed, Loeser could use "says," or "contends," or "insists," or "argues." Because he has set up a scenario in which the pedophile is obviously lying, any word he inserts will be infected by the implication.

    The word "maintain" is neutral, not accusatory -- it neither disputes nor endorses the pedophile/Bloomberg position. It expresses no opinion. Which is precisely what professional reporters are supposed to do.

    ---David Freedlander

    Tags: bloomberg, michael bloomberg, maintain, city hall dispatch

  • Gotcha, 'Made of Honor!'

    Thursday May 15, 2008 6:45 PM By Julie Gordon

    Jerry's, via Front Studio on Flickr.

    I unfortunately saw the movie "Made of Honor."

    But one good thing about watching the flick was catching its editors in a New York slip-up. In the beginning of the film, the cameras panned around to classic Soho spots (where the action started out). And then I saw ... a close-up of Jerry's!

    Jerry's, once a great little restaurant, closed last summer. Though I understand that making a film takes a while, I don't think edits were totally finished before Jerry's closed. Sigh.

    — Julie Gordon

    Tags: jerry's, soho, restaurants, movies, entertainment, endangered nyc, manhattan

  • Rocket Man, the Shatner version

    Thursday May 15, 2008 6:30 PM By Rolando Pujol

    We've already posted our weekly tribute to old school TV, but with the appetite for news about the Swiss Rocket Man, we couldn't help but think of William Shatner.

    Why? Simple, because of his epic spoken-song performance of Elton John's "Rocket Man" during a syndicated 1978 science fiction award show.

    If you've never seen it, click below. If you have, you know you want to. And it's going to be a long, long time before you get it out of your head.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    And Stewie Griffin's version cannot be missed:

    Tags: william shatner, television, rocket man

  • Seven strangers, lots of questions

    Thursday May 15, 2008 6:16 PM By Julie Gordon

    Will "The Real World: Brooklyn's" roommates be party people like Vegas'? (Getty)

    So, "The Real World" is heading to Brooklyn. How great! (That can be read sarcastically or straight -- your choice).

    Jim Johnston, executive producer of "The Real World," answered our questions:

    Why Brooklyn?

    Brooklyn right now is this vibrant, diverse community. It’s fun to live in. It’s close to manhattan. It’s been affordable as opposed to manhattan. So young people can pursue a career in manhattan and live in Brooklyn. There are fabulous neighborhoods.

    Do you have an exact location nailed down? If so, which neighborhood?

    No we don’t. We’ve looked mostly at the neighborhoods that are close to Manhattan: Greenpoint, Williamsubrg, DUMBO, Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens, Red Hook. We even got as far as Coney Island.

    So is Coney Island a real possibility?

    We don’t know. We haven't locked anything down.

    What's the process of working with NYC on a production like this?

    In new york, you’ve got the mayor’s office and governor’s office. It's great with working with them. When we finally do settle on a place, one of the things you do is meet with the neighbors. You tell them what the process will be like and try to address concerns.

    What's the timeline?

    We're going to get it on the air January 2009. Casting, we're working on it. We're really close but haven't selected the final individuals. The process takes about 3-4 months.

    How will you deal with neighborhood restaurants, bars and stores, some of whom might not be so happy to have cameras around?

    We’ll want to go to all those places. In advance of a camera ever going in there, [we get an] agreement signed to shoot the establishment. We'll eventually send people out in the neighborhoods and get those clearances.

    Some Brooklyn residents are wary of "The Real World" coming to the borough. How do you respond?

    We understand it. We see it every place we go. We’ve done 20 productions of this. Our approach is that it's like a documentary. It's not like you hear directors screaming. It's very low-key. Our goal is going to be as anonymous as possible.

    Partying and drinking have become a big part of "The Real World" in recent seasons, garnering some criticism. Will it continue to be a focus?

    That age group will always do that. We will always follow that. Really what they do with their time is up to them.

    Will the roommates have a job?

    We don’t know if they’re going to have a job. We want them to follow their career paths, much like we’re doing in the Hollywood. It brings the show back to its roots.

    — Julie Gordon

    Tags: real world, brooklyn, entertainment

  • Player Pianos (think old-school iPod) haunt 10th Avenue

    Thursday May 15, 2008 4:30 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Photographer Jefferson Siegel sent along this interesting post on a ghost sign for "Player Pianos" in Hell's Kitchen. We looked at this stretch of 10th Avenue recently. Here are Jefferson's musings:

    On the SW corner of 52nd St. and 10th Ave. is a solid red brick building. Many of the words on the side of the building have faded into history, but the words "Player Pianos" are clearly legible over the sign for Sonny's Grocery.

    For those unfamiliar with the term, a player piano was a precursor, though less portable version, of the iPod. A roll of paper would turn inside a mechanism, moving the keys so that a tune could be played without a pianist.

    According to the book, "Schlegel's American Families of German Ancestry in the United States," in 1902 one Jacob H. Becker opened a piano manufacturing company on 14th Street and 10th Avenue. The business was so successful that, two years later, he bought the building on 52nd Street., # 767 10th Ave., for Becker Bros.' Pianos. By 1917, as business prospered, they manufactured 3,500 pianos a year.

    An interesting side note to the building is the ground-floor business, Sonny's Grocery. According to the Web site of the Vocal Group Hall of Fame Foundation, in 1950 the deli shared space with the small office for Eddie Heller's Rainbow Records, a label that signed such early 50's groups as The Clovers and The Five Crowns, which would later become The Drifters.

    -- Jefferson Siegel

    Tags: player pianos, hell's kitchen, 10th avenue, endangered nyc, signs, manhattan

  • History of the horse

    Thursday May 15, 2008 4:19 PM By Emily Ngo

    A horse lover living within New York City's confines, I'm resigned to petting police horses in reminiscence of my childhood. (There's a police horse that hangs out on Broadway near Houston who's best trick is kissing ladies' hands.) But there is a light.

    Starting Saturday and lasting until next January, "The Horse," a new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, will show the "enduring bond between horses and humanity." The horse's role in history has been monumental, and visitors will understand so after learning how these gorgeous animals were used in warfare, work, sports, spirituality and more.

    Opening day on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. will feature none other than Thumbelina, the world's smallest horse (that's her on the right)! I'm totally there. More to come.

    — Emily Ngo

    Tags: horses, history, arts

  • Throwback Thursday: Roger Grimsby is No. 1!

    Thursday May 15, 2008 3:13 PM By Rolando Pujol

    One of the funniest moments in NYC TV history is on this clip: Fast forward to 8:06.

    The Sue Simmons f-bomb fiasco got us to thinking about another New York anchor, who in his day ruled the New York airwaves with his wry wit, knowing smile and no-nonsense delivery.

    Roger Grimsby.

    The name conjures the golden era of Eyewitness News in New York, with Grimsby, Bill Beutel by his side, delivering the news. "Here now the news" he would intone before launching in. His copy was always processed through a "Grimsby filter," and you often knew precisely what he thought of whatever tomfoolery he might be reporting.

    The reason we bring up Grimsby this week is his magical handling of a similar on-air goof in the early 1980s. A reporter named Mara Wolynski was about to introduce a story on Black History Month when she was caught on camera -- as a stunned Rose Ann Scamardella looked on -- giving the finger to somebody out of view. Wolynski was totally unaware the New York tri-state area was watching along with Rose Ann.

    In Grimsby's world, who needed an on-air apology? He ended a broadcast that night with that classic line: "As Mara Wolynski would say, we're No. 1!" The studio erupted in laughter, as was often the case when Grimsby would end his newscasts with a zinger. (Wolynski's finger and Grimsby's reaction are in the embed above; fast forward to 8:06.)

    We offer a few more examples of Roger Grimsby's magic after the jump.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: throwback thursday, television, roger grimsby, sue simmons

  • Richard Simmons: Suspicions confirmed

    Thursday May 15, 2008 2:11 PM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad


    AP photo by Mary Altaffer

    Earlier today, we wondered what happens when you cross perpetually wound-up Jazzercise king Richard Simmons with a high-power energy drink. He's promoting a new cranberry-green tea drink for Ocean Spray called Cranergy.

    We met him today at Penn Station and he cofirmed our suspicions: Utter Madness. See for yourself:

    After he went nuts, the aerobics dynamo got political. And then he got nostaligic -- in between hugs and photo ops with adoring fans, of course.

    We asked him why he's still "Sweatin' to the Oldies'" after all these years (the Penn Station selection was "Route 66") and he said it's about leaving a legacy. And about fighting childhood obesity.

    Simmons will turn 60 this year, and hawking the health drink is part his master plan to leave a legacy of good health for kids.

    “Our kids are just getting bigger and bigger,” he said. “I hope we find a president who is a warrior for our problems and wars here United States and one of them is childhood obesity.”

    And now -- we know you've been waiting -- see Richard step-touch and grapevine through Penn Station:

    - Lauren Johnston

    Tags: richard simmons, zany, manhattan, entertainment

  • The No. 1 person who doesn't need more energy: Richard Simmons

    Thursday May 15, 2008 11:22 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad


    Photo by Jason Winslow

    So in some ways, it couldn't be more appropriate: Richard Simmons, the face of a new energy drink. With his frizzed-out hair halo - he looks electrified (literally) at all times.

    In fact, we challenge you to find video footage where he refrains from jumping, screaming, cheerleading, Jazzercising and otherwise "Sweatin' to the Oldies."

    But when you think about it, of all people, does Richard Simmons really need an energy drink? I think we'd be more convinced if someone notoriously dour, like say .. Dick Cheney drank it, then started acting like Richard Simmons.

    Anyway, Simmons is at Penn Station today to promote this new energy drink from Noon til 2p.m. Could it be his next Deal-A-Meal venture? Down-A-Drink?

    We're heading over to Penn to find out. Video interview coming soon!

    For now, let's watch the magic man in motion, doing a little step-touch-grapevine to Spencer Davis Group "Gimme Some Lovin'" ...

    - Lauren Johnston

    Tags: fitness, richard simmons, zany, manhattan

  • Council members back bike-to-work day

    Thursday May 15, 2008 9:18 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad


    Photo by David Freedlander

    Nothing raises eco-awareness like a City Council member straddling a bicycle.

    Tomorrow is "Bike-to-Work Day" (May is national Bike Month, by the way) and to help promote this green initiative, City Hall spokespersons reported earlier that various City Council members would be "straddling their bikes" just outside the gates of City Hall Park along Centre Street today at 11:30 a.m.

    The bike roster was:

  • John Liu (District 20 - Council Member - Democrat) biked to City Hall from his district in Flushing, Queens

  • David Yassky (District 33 - Council Member - Democrat) was supposed to arrive on a bike but walked

    This entire week has been designated Bike-to-Work week by the League of American Bicyclists - so if you've got a bike and have always wanted to be one of those traffic-savvy city-dwellers doing your part to reduce smog on a daily basis - there's no time like tomorrow to try it out.

    Click [HERE] for bike path maps from every borough courtesy of NYC Bike Maps.

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: environment, politics, parks, manhattan

  • WTC update: JPMorgan backing out?

    Wednesday May 14, 2008 8:26 PM By Rolando Pujol

    There appears to be new confusion about construction at Ground Zero.

    Reuters' is reporting that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said his company would save $3 billion by not having to build at Ground Zero thanks to its deal with Bear Stearns.

    That’s news to the Port Authority, which owns the site. Officials at the authority told Reuters that as far as they know, JPMorgan remains interested.

    JPMorgan was supposed to build a tower for a new headquarters at the World Trade Center, but the plan was threatened when the financial giant made an offer to buy out Bear Stearns. The merger of the two firms meant JPMorgan would assume control of Bear’s prime offices on Madison Avenue and it has been unclear if the World Trade Center project would go forward.

    A final twist: The mayor’s own budget seems to lay any uncertainty to rest and says JPMorgan won’t build at Ground Zero.

    It’s pretty clear on page 28 of the Executive Budget Fiscal 2009 Budget: “J.P. Morgan decided to forgo building a new tower at the WTC after the purchase of Bear Stearns. Instead they will now occupy Bear Stearns’ five-year-old on Madison Avenue.”

    -- Garett Sloane

    Tags: jpmorgan chase, world trade center, manhattan, development

  • City Hall Dispatch: It depends on what the meaning of "maintain" is

    Wednesday May 14, 2008 6:25 PM By David Freedlander

    Video via Azi

    At the mayor's Q and A today, he was asked about his dressing-down of our Newsday colleague (and weblebrity) Michael Frazier.

    The Youtube video has apparently gotten 10,000 hits so, naturally, the mayor denied anything of the sort had ever occurred.

    Frazier meanwhile, in a pointed swipe, asked the mayor about the "maintenance" of a new playground at a morning ribbon-cutting, and the mayor, apparently used the word "maintain" himself.

    For what it's worth, we asked Frazier yesterday how he was holding up in the whole thing.

    He shrugged it off.

    "I'm fine, man. Everybody's coming up to me like I need to go see Dr. Phil or something."

    ---David Freedlander

    Tags: city hall dispatch

  • City Hall Dispatch: The Race for NY-13

    Wednesday May 14, 2008 4:35 PM By David Freedlander

    As we remain on Day 7 of the Fossella death-watch, it is worth taking a look at who is lining up to replace Vito, should he decide to go.

    Steve Harrison, a Brooklyn lawyer gave Fossella something of a race in 2006, garnishing 43% of the vote, and has become something of a hero among the Netroots, who love his down-the line progressive instincts.

    Dominic Recchia, meanwhile, a congressman from Coney Island, had also indicated he wanted the seat, and had much of the party establishment behind him and a big edge in fundraising.

    The district is still pretty conservative, especially for New York, but with Democrats winning seats in deep-red Northern Mississippi heaven help the state party if they can't take this one away from the GOP.

    A couple of problems though. The district is 2/3rds in Staten Island, and both Recchia and Harrison live in Brooklyn. And in the Yugoslavia that is NY politics, Staten Islanders have about as much an inclination to vote for someone across the river to represent them in D.C. as Conservative party members do to vote Maoist.

    The party meanwhile is scrambling for a local Islander to move in on this thing...We'll keep you posted...

    ----David Freedlander

    Tags: congress, vito, politics, city hall dispatch

  • MTV's 'Real World' invading Brooklyn

    Tuesday May 13, 2008 2:31 PM By Elizabeth Nielsen

    MTV announced today that the 21st season of 'The Real World' has set its sights on Brooklyn.

    Though no specific neighborhood has been named yet, the folks over at MTV News have placed their money on Williamsburg as the likely backdrop for this season.

    The first-ever season of the 'Real World' was set in New York, SoHo actually, and the series also returned there for its 10th season.

    With a member of the current cast in rehab and the steady decline in quality since the Las Vegas season, it'll be interesting to see how the hipsters react to having TV cameras everywhere.

    -Lizzy

  • Excuse me, I've got Shatner on the line

    Tuesday May 13, 2008 11:40 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    The phone rings. You pick it up.

    “Hello, amNewYork.”

    “Uhhhhhhhh, Scott?” a deep baritone voice says.

    “Speaking,” you reply.

    “Bill,” the voice says with a pause. “Shatner.”

    William Shatner, 77, is truly unique, from his staccato vocal pattern to his numerous memorable acting roles to his contributions to the musical world. There’s just no one like him.

    Listen to Scott's conversation with Shatner [HERE]. So it should be no surprise that his autobiography, “Up Till Now: An Autobiography,” written with David Fisher, is a riveting, hilarious read. This is a man who has really lived, and even if you think you know something about him, you don’t know the half of it.

    From his early days working on the stage in his native Canada, to his latest unforgettable character, Denny Crane on “Boston Legal,” Shatner delivers an honest and forthright account of his life and work, interspersed with random thoughts, restaurant recommendations, anecdotal stories and plugs for his current projects.

    So why would Shatner, who is as busy working as he ever was, decide to get his life story out now, when new pages are being written every day?

    “Well, the answer is really it’s time to put down, in some sort of form, some interludes in my life, so my kids and my grandkids can read about it at some point,” Shatner says. “Sort of a legacy.”

    Of course, you have to wonder whether he might be concerned with some of the more risque parts of the books — some are kind of dicey and some are a little racy.

    “Dicey is good, racy is uh,” Shatner says, inserting another pause. “Depends what race.”

    Shatner is a funny man. As you read further into the book, you encounter both his comedic half and his dramatic half, often side by side. When he’s discussing his work on “Rescue 911,” he mixes stories about saving lives with an anecdote about getting sprayed by a skunk. This mix of tone keeps the book light and inviting.

    And somewhere in the middle of all of that, he’ll literally stop whatever he’s talking about to mention his Web site — www.william-shatner.com — to point out what corresponding merchandise is available for fans. Remember, one of Shatner’s many faces is the Priceline Negotiator.

    If you learn only one thing from this book, which, by the way, is available as an audio book read by the man himself, it is that Shatner is an honest, upfront guy. He’s totally on the level.

    “I don’t have any deep secret that I’m trying to disguise,” he says.

    So, you’re wondering, is this story on Shatner really not going to mention “Star Trek” at all. Don’t be silly. Shatner’s most famous role, Captain James T. Kirk, is certainly discussed ad infinitum in this book and a million other places, but the more significant news is that the role has gone to another actor for director J.J. Abrams upcoming — and completely recast — “Star Trek” film.

    Strangely, and unfortunately, Shatner is not involved in that movie, but he did get a chance to meet his successor, actor Chris Pine, who he says “is on the road to good fortune.” And no, he’s not really worried about passing over the reins.

    “I’m OK with that, except that he’s younger,” Shatner says, laughing. “I don’t feel good about that.”

    -- By Scott A. Rosenberg

    Tags: media, entertainment, books, arts

  • Sue Simmons - You're not alone ...

    Tuesday May 13, 2008 11:07 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    Take heart Sue Simmons -- you're just one in a long line of television anchors to drop the F-bomb, go live while drunk or stoned or otherwise just totally freak out and meltdown on air.

    In the spirit of misery loving company -- Sue, this video round-up of newscasters behaving badly goes out to you:

    1. Arthur Chi'en drops the F-bomb on CBS. Status: Fired

    -- Lauren Johnston2. CNN anchor drops the F-bomb

    3. F-bomb written on the traffic screen

    4. ESPN f-bomb

    5. CNN Weatherman has a hurricane tantrum

    6. On-location freak-out

    7. Jessica Savitch: Just very angry...

    8. Live stand-up with a little F-bomb

    9. She meant to say "top cop," but instead she said .....

    10. Total Tourette's weatherman

    Tags: media

  • James Frey's "first" novel. Your thoughts welcome

    Tuesday May 13, 2008 10:48 AM By Rolando Pujol

    James Frey's first -- well, some would say second or third -- novel is out, and is stirring up the waters all over again.

    How many of those fun facts are true? Does L.A. really have a banana museum?

    We're not getting all hot under the collar about that; all we want to know is: How good is the book? The LA Times hated -- hated -- it, but maybe that's just hometown prejudice. Janet Maslin gushed her way through a NY Times review.

    So let us know what you think in the comments below.

    Tags: james frey, books

  • TV Bloopers: Sue Simmons edition

    Tuesday May 13, 2008 9:31 AM By Rolando Pujol

    If you haven't seen it yet, click above to watch Sue Simmons' big on-air flub, dropping the F bomb during a live news break shortly after 10 p.m. Monday night. It would appear she thought they'd cut to commercial. Her outburst accompanies what seems to be an image that didn't match the news script (it was a cruise ship, during a blip on rising food prices). Then there's dead silence for a few more seconds (hello, control room!)

    Yep, she goofed, and she apologized during the 11 p.m. news, and, as inexplicable as this incident is, we hope that's the end of it. The years of viral-video torture that await her seem to be punishment enough.

    Sue is, after all, a New York institution, and has been co-anchoring with Chuck Scarborough at 11 p.m. since 1980. We'd hate for WNBC to pull a WCBS and boot her, as Channel 2 did with Arthur Chi'en, who, thinking he was off air, cursed at some hecklers. (He's since landed at WPIX.)

    To show our support for Sue, we've put together a little video gallery of Sue classics after the jump.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Sue falls out of her chair while bantering with Brian Williams about good oral hygiene. The spill is at 2:14.

    A fire alarm interrupts Sue's delivery.

    Here's a Sue tradition Gothamist alerted us to: Her annual groundhog imitation.

    Nothing too weird here, except watching Chuck and Sue on May 1, 1980.

    The 6 p.m. news begin, with Chuck and Sue at the desk. Check out the pipes of Don Pardo handling the outro from Live at 5. Aside from his "Saturday Night Live" work, Pardo was a staff announcer for NBC and WNBC for decades.

    Jack Cafferty and Sue Simmons are introduced by Don Pardo, with a report on a 1983 subway derailment in Inwood.

    Frank Field (Storm's dad) delivers the weather, with an amused Jack Cafferty and Sue Simmons off camera.

    And a cool Live at Five promo from 1981 ...

  • City Hall Dispatch: Mayor goes postal

    Monday May 12, 2008 2:56 PM By David Freedlander

    Video via Azi

    Mayor Bloomberg, never one to miss a chance to get snippy with reporters, unloaded on our Newsday colleague Michael Frazier at today’s Q and A.

    Frazier asked the mayor, “Mayor, you maintain that you kept a dialogue open with the Sean Bell demonstration–”

    And Bloomberg cut him off, ‘Maintain’ is a word I don’t think is appropriate, sir. Next time you have a question, you want to insinuate that I lie, just talk to the press secretary. I don’t think we have a question for you.”

    Frazier tried to jump in, but the mayor cut him off again, “We’ve finished it. ‘Maintain’ is a word that has an implication,” and was then heard muttering under his breath, “Got some nerve,” as he called on another reporter.

    We checked in with Frazier about what he intended to ask the mayor, and he said that his question was, “You have maintained that you kept an open dialog with Bell supporters. Do you intend on speaking at a Bell public forum held by a house judiciary committee or sending Ray Kelly or someone from the police department?”

    He said he wasn’t sure what set the mayor off, but that he had been waiting for days for an answer from the press office.

    “It’s really bizarre,” Frazier said

    --David Freedlander

    Tags: bloomberg, press conference, journalism, city hall dispatch

  • Duly Noted

    Monday May 12, 2008 5:20 PM By Rolando Pujol

    * Hey you guys! The Electric Company is back and filming in the city. [Gawker]

    * And a Gawker commenter dug up this child-mind-twisting Electric Company jewel.

    * And while we're on the subject of '70s television, Norman Lear just bought a $15 million pad at 15 Central Park West. Your years of watching "All in the Family" helped him pay for it.

    [Real Deal]

    * Farewell to the Tower of Toys. [Jeremiah and Times]

    * An old water tower collapses on West 54th Street, atop the old Sony Studios building. [Gothamist]

    * Nathan's Famous is now posting calorie information ... the damage isn't as bad as you think. [Kinetic Carnival]

    * Why do New Yorkers love to wait in line? We wait and then we are? An interesting essay. [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

    * And soon, they'll have a new place to wait in line. TriBeCa's Whole Foods opens July 9. [Racked]

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: duly noted

  • The last trace of Longchamps vanishes

    Monday May 12, 2008 1:41 AM By Rolando Pujol

    The site of the Longchamps on Sunday (Photo by Elisabeth Stuveras)

    And the sign as it looked toward the end of its life on Madison Avenue, in June 2006. (Photo via everystreetinmanhattan on Flickr)

    The massive Art Deco neon sign at 423 Madison Ave. was a beautiful reminder -- certainly the last we know of -- of the old Longchamps chain of restaurants. They once dotted the city until being absorbed decades ago by Reise Restaurants and the locations rebadged.

    The persistence of the Madison Avenue sign prompted a Lost City blog post in 2007, and back in the late 1990s, mentions in New York Times articles, one of which offered this morsel from a Longchamps insider in 1998:

    ''As a former Longchamps restaurant employee, I am familiar with the background of this sign. It was one of the earliest neon signs in the city, erected by the Claude Neon Sign Company over 50 years ago, and was for a time the only illuminated sign on Madison Avenue. The Department of Buildings should be called in to order the sign removed before it collapses!''

    Well, you know where this is going. The sign is indeed no longer there, having disappeared at some point in the past year or so. We plan to make a few inquiries about its fate -- if ever there was a sign that had been worth saving, this was it -- but we can't help but fear that it was destroyed.

    It wasn't that long ago that we'd happily crane our neck to take its measure whenever we'd pass by, and wonder about the lost wonders of this restaurant chain, whose space at 423 Madison Ave. is now occupied by a Pax sandwich shop.

    The sign, however, did leave a little reminder of its long tour of duty above Madison Avenue. As you can see from the photo above, the old sign took a big bite out of this townhouse's cornice. It's gone, sure, but definitely not forgotten.

    In fact, Longchamps does not rest easily in the annals of New York restaurant history, having a funny way of reasserting itself in the streetscape.

    A few years ago, long-concealed Art Deco neon signs for Longchamps, below, re-emerged at the corner of East 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, at the base of one of the most Art Deco of buildings, the Chanin Building. After signage for Houlihan's restaurant was stripped, and before a K&G Fashion Superstore sign could replace it, these Longchamps beauties came to light. Whether they were eventually destroyed or simply covered up again, we do not know. But these relics looked stunning beneath Renee Chamberlain's masterful frieze that gleamed right atop them. For a few days, another era held court at 42nd and Lex.

    We can't help but think about Longchamps whenever we pass this corner, as we always will a little farther uptown, where a chomped cornice serves as a quiet reminder.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: chanin building, longchamps, art deco, endangered nyc, signs, restaurants, manhattan, advertising

  • Frank's stamp: Sinatra can still deliver

    Sunday May 11, 2008 7:44 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Ten years after his death, Hoboken’s very own Frank Sinatra is being commemorated with a new postage stamp. The 42-cent stamp’s release will be celebrated Tuesday in three places close to Sinatra’s heart.

    One ceremony takes place at Gotham Hall in New York, New York, where Sinatra’s daughter Nancy and son Frank Jr. will be present at the 10 a.m. dedication.

    The two others will be at the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas, the city where he famously ran with the Rat Pack, and another will happen across the river, in Sinatra’s hometown of Hoboken, at 3 p.m. at Pier A Park. Frank Jr. will be on hand again. If you go, check out these useful tips for a Sinatra tour of Hoboken.

    Kazuhiko Sano designed the stamp, which features Ol’ Blue Eyes with a big smile and iconic fedora hat circa mid 1950s. Sinatra’s signature is scrolled across the bottom.

    -- Kathleen Bulson

    Tags: frank sinatra, hoboken, manhattan, history, entertainment

  • Show your veggie pride in first-ever parade next week

    Sunday May 11, 2008 6:01 PM By Rolando Pujol

    What do you get when you cross a seven-foot peapod with an equally tall smiling carrot? Why, a veggie wedding. The nuptials of Penelo Pea Pod and PeTA’s Chris P. Carrot will cap the first U.S. Veggie Pride Parade next Sunday in Greenwich Village.

    The parade starts at noon in the Meatpacking District, where Ninth Avenue meets Gansevoort, Greenwich, and Little West 12th streets. It ends at Washington Square Park.

    “I like going through Greenwich Village because I respect it for its legacy with progressive ideas, and vegetarianism is a progressive idea,” said Pamela Rice, parade organizer and founder of the sponsoring VivaVeggie Society.

    Rice, inspired by a similar event in Paris, has been organizing and planning for more than 10 months. “It is really going to be bigger than I thought. Mostly it is because of Facebook, MySpace and other online social networks rallying every vegan New Yorker to be there.”Already receiving angry emails, Rice said the event is supposed to be a fun and does not anticipate much protest.

    “We will be chanting and some people do get huffy about it. That’s our right to go down the street and carry our signs,” said Rice.

    Representatives from veggie-friendly restaurants and vegans dressed in fruit and vegetable costumes will also march to the park. Vegan friendly exhibitors like Wild Wood Organics and PeTA will provide free literature and food. And prizes will be given for best signs and costumes. Speakers will include Karen Davis, the founder of United Poultry Concerns, and Odette J. Wilkens, the executive director of the Equal Justice Alliance, a coalition of animal rights and social justice groups.

    Rice says she hopes the event will allow vegetarians to come out of the shadows while dispelling misinformation about vegetarianism.

    With the “go green” movement gaining prominence, Rice says, “We’ve lost our orientation to our food. There remains a conspicuous silence toward animal products that we need to examine.”

    -- Kathleen Bulson

    MORE: Parade blog

    Tags: veggie pride parade, manhattan, vegetarian, entertainment, politics

  • Urban archaeology: Liquor sign, but where's the booze?

    Sunday May 11, 2008 2:27 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Several years ago, we happened upon this great "liquor" sign in the West 20s, marveled at it and moved along, failing to make note of where it was. So we were pleasantly surprised to stumble upon it again this weekend -- still intact and still promoting a long-vanished liquor store. Indeed, nowhere in the immediate area could we find a liquor store that would be logically attached to it, which makes this orphaned sign all the more interesting and mysterious.

    Orphan signs are an interesting subcategory of city signage. We plan to have another post on this subject soon. In the meantime, the curious may find this sign along West 24th Street, near the southwestern corner of Sixth Avenue.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: signs, chelsea, urban archaeology, manhattan

  • Brooklyn Heights: Richard Upjohn's heavenly calling

    Saturday May 10, 2008 3:43 PM By Rolando Pujol

    That Richard Upjohn sure knew how to build churches. His name has been in the headlines of late -- Upjohn was the architect of the recently saved St. Saviour's Church in Maspeth -- but in any architectural guides to great American churches, his name always front and center. His range was impressive -- consider the Carpenter Gothic beauty of the country church that is St. Saviours.

    And then, consider these two churches, just blocks away from each in that great neighborhood for churches, browstones, small businesses, small parks and all the things that made Jane Jacobs blush: Brooklyn Heights.

    First up is

  • Tabloid Tour: A jaunt down Flatbush Avenue

    Saturday May 10, 2008 10:25 AM By Rolando Pujol

    It's hard to miss this sign -- and the store's purpose is exceedingly clear. Below, The Loews Kings, closed in 1977 and still awaiting a redevelopment plan. Barbra Streisand was an usher here once.

    We took a long tour the other day through the Flatbush and Midwood sections of Brooklyn, beginning with lunch at Di Fara's and ending with dinner at Picket Fence on Cortelyou Road. In between, we found lots of noteworthy stuff, including some of New York's most charming residential neighborhoods. A few of us will be dropping occasional posts on our experiences. Here's some highlights from a short stretch of Flatbush Avenue we traversed. On a late Saturday afternoon, it was teeming with vibrant street life and interesting shops and sights. Our photographic highlights continue after the jump.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Just a perfect neighborhood stationery store sign, with plastic lettering and a corrugated metal background.

    A wonderful detail from the facade of the Loews King.

    It's still the Kings, but the "Loew" sign is long gone.

    From the look of this relic sign, the discounts were perhaps too deep.

    Windows? We don't need no stinking windows.

    The Cookie's department store sign is colorful and fun, and the Tudor elements on the building add a touch of the bizarre.

    Right off Flatbush, on Synder Avenue, lies the fantastical Crown Center Banquet Hall, which makes its rooms available to weddings, church functions, luncheons and much more.

    Dating to 1875, here is the seat of what was once the town of Flushing. It's also on Snyder Avenue.

    bowl2.JPG

    bowl3.JPG

    We were taken by the retro goodness of Diplomat Bowl on Synder Avenue.

    ebin.JPG

    And next to the bowling alley is a sign for the Ebinger Baking Company.

    Back on Flatbush, the great Erasmus High School produced many a famous Brooklynite.

    A peek inside the courtyard at Erasmus, where the original school, which dates to the 1700s, still stands.

    Here's a great old plastic sign, made better by the missing letters.

    Old stationery stores often have generations of interesting stickers on the front window. Here's a gem from the late 1970/early 1980s for Lotto, then part of "The Empire Stakes."

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: flatbush avenue, tours, brooklyn, signs, old school, development, tabloid tours

  • Giant Hello Kitty invades Park Avenue

    Friday May 9, 2008 12:17 PM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad


    Photo by Liza Johnston

    More than one giant Hello Kitty figure, actually. They are the work of artist Tom Sachs, known for his eccentric artistic explorations of consumerism, and also a strange fascination with the saucer-eyed cartoon Hello Kitty cats.

    He even created a Hello Kitty nativity for the Barney's holiday window in 1994.

    These cats are part of a show at the Lever House on Park Avenue at 53rd Street, and are displayed in the open-air street-level space. There are two 10-foot fountains that appear to be crying visible to passersby in vehicles or on foot. And without further ado, a look at the Park Ave. cats:



    Photos by Liza Johnston

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: art, manhattan, entertainment, arts

  • You (yes YOU!) - are a walking work of art

    Friday May 9, 2008 10:37 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad


    Photo from the Every Person in New York blog

    Artist Jason Polan is trying to draw every person in New York.

    He may have already drawn you. He could be drawing you right now. He's started a blog to document his progress on this behemoth of an art project, posting simple line portraits as he finishes them. It's appropriately titled "Every Person in New York."

    He's always drawing, according to the blog, on the subway, on the street, in museums. Everywhere. But come on, there are 8 million people in this town, so it's understandable that the guy wants some help. He wants to draw you. So if you'd like your likeness sketched, zap him a note at: art@jasonpolan.com

    Here is Polan's plea for subjects, and instructions on how to meet up:

    "If you would like to increase the chances of a portrait of YOU appearing on this blog please email me a street corner or other public place that you will be standing at for a duration of two minutes (I will be on the corner of 14th street and 8th avenue on the North-east corner of the street from 2:42-2:44pm this Thursday wearing a bright yellow jacket and navy rubber boots, for example)."

    Additional instructions: Give him 24 hours notice, and don't go out of your way in case he can't be there. Work those two minutes into something that's part of your normal routine -- he might not be there -- or he might be, and you just may not notice.

    It's a huge ambition - but if anyone can do it, we think Polan can. Our pals at Boing-Boing note he's already drawn every piece of art in the MoMA.

    And what better do you have to do this weekend than become part of a living work of art?

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: art, arts, museums, manhattan, entertainment, brooklyn, bronx

  • Saving the environment's in the bag

    Thursday May 8, 2008 10:54 AM By Emily Ngo

    Eco-conscious New Yorkers aren't strangers to hauling their groceries in reusable totes.

    Well, stores like Target have made it even easier to reduce the use of plastic and paper. This sturdy tote, made from recyclable polypropylene fabric, folds into itself to become the size of a billfold. Unfolded, it's large can hold several melons or several pairs of shoes. Plus, the design doesn't shout Target; it's kind of cute and discreet.

    Carry it around in your purse or pocket.

    I snapped mine up for 99 cents at the Atlantic Center Target.

    — Emily Ngo

    Tags: environment, shopping

  • Throwback Thursday: I Love NY (and the Citi Never Sleeps)

    Thursday May 8, 2008 9:13 AM By Rolando Pujol

    Two longtime New York-centric campaigns were infused with new life this week. First off, New York has rolled out a revamped campaign centered around that reliable chestnut "I Love New York," a campaign that originated in 1977 at one of the low points in the city's history. Like the original set of commercials, the new campaign is aggressively promoting the state as a whole. Click here for a superb example of the original campaign, with great shots of New York in 1977 and that catchy Disco jingle penned by Steve Karmen. And click here for a nifty short documentary on the campaign's origins.

    Later in the week, we learned that Citigroup was bringing back its "Citi Never Sleeps" campaign. The slogan, trotted out in 1978, served the financial giant well for a good chunk of the 1980s, before being dropped for other approaches, including "When, Where and How to Succeed". Our examination of our usual sources failed to turn up an example of the original "Citi Never Sleeps" jingle, but we did find a commercial with a memorable theme and effective use of the Citicorp Building, which you couldn't miss in many of the company's ads of that vintage.Click below.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: throwback thursday, television

  • Breaking: Congressman Vito Fossella admits child is his

    Thursday May 8, 2008 7:19 AM By David Freedlander

    AP Photo

    According to a statement just released:

    "I have had a relationship with Laura Fay, with whom I have a three-year-old daughter.

    "My personal failings and imperfections have caused enormous pain to the people I love and I am truly sorry.

    "While I understand that there will be many questions, including those about my political future, making any political decisions right now are furthest from my mind.

    "Over the coming weeks and months, I will to continue to do my job and I will work hard to heal the deep wounds I have caused."

    Wow. Fossella was picked up drunk driving last week and told officers he was going to pick up his daughter, even though he was far from his home but near the home of Fay.

    What was believed to have just been a lame excuse turns out to have been technically correct. Sources tell us that reporters did the math--Faye broke up with her husband five years ago, met Fossella three years ago, wouldn't reveal who the father was, etc. etc. and pieced this one together.

    Fossella of course, has a lovely family on Staten Island, where he serves as a congressman, one of the few Republicans in the House in the entire northeast.

    Yesterday the lefty blogosphere was abuzz with the notion that due to the DWI, and likely jail time for Fossella, this was a strong opportunity to pick up a seat.

    We'll follow this throughout the day. In the meantime, let the Fossella deathwatch begin?

    ---David Freedlander

    Tags: democrats, fossella, politics

  • How to help cyclone victims

    Wednesday May 7, 2008 4:00 PM By Emily Ngo

    Here are some groups through which New Yorkers can help victims of the cyclone in Myanmar, where the death toll is projected to reach 100,000:

    The American Red Cross at 800-RED-CROSS or

    redcross.org

    UNICEF at 800-4UNICEF or unicefusa.org/ myanmar

    Mercy Corps at 800-852-2100 or mercycorps.org

    — Emily Ngo

  • Woody's filming in Murray Hill

    Wednesday May 7, 2008 12:35 PM By Rolando Pujol

    The yellow sign from the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting -- or Mayor Lindsay's 1966 curse upon car owners -- is certainly a common sight, and Murray Hill saw a bunch of those just last week for the "Taking of Pelham 123". But this week, the placards are accompanied by a polite note from the locations department at Perdido Productions, informing residents of the hood -- ever so politely -- that filming for the mysterious "Woody Allen Summer Project 08" will be affecting several streets.

    That's right, Woody the anglophile is once again shooting in the Big Apple. He said earlier this year that New York simply isn't as interesting as it once was, except for somewhat untouched pockets like Carnegie Hill and Tudor City. Well, he's just a few blocks from Tudor City here. Some of the streets affected in Murray Hill, BTW, are quite attractive -- perfect backdrops to capture that "Woody's New York" look -- including West 38th Street between Third and Lexington avenues.

    Click on the photo to read the letter.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: woody allen, movies, entertainment, manhattan, media

  • Now open: Sports Museum of America

    Wednesday May 7, 2008 10:07 AM By Rolando Pujol

    Olympic track star Carl Lewis looks at a display during the opening Wednesday of the Sports Museum of America in New York. AFP/Getty Images

    amNY's Kyle Stack spoke with Phillip Schwalb about his quest to open this museum. Here's his file piece.

    Phillip Schwalb's dream began during his first visit to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., on Sept. 10, 2001.

    Schwalb's thinking that day went like this: What if there were a smaller, more accessible version of the basketball hall in New York City? And what if this museum of artifacts and interactive exhibits encompassed other sports?

    Take an insider's video tour of the museum


    The destruction in lower Manhattan the following day only emboldened the longtime sports and entertainment executive's dream of starting a sports museum. On Wednesday, the Sports Museum of America (SmA) opened at 26 Broadway, becoming "the nation's first and only all sports experience," as its Web site touts.

    "I thought we could build something in New York City that would be both its own museum of all sports and an endorsement to get people to visit the actual Basketball Hall of Fame," said Schwalb, SmA's 45-year-old founder and chief executive officer. (The "m" in SmA's acronym is lower-case, officials said, to call attention to the museum's claim that it offers more than a traditional, gallery-based museum.)SmA is located, appropriately, on the Canyon of Heroes ticker-tape parade route. Its collection of more than 800 artifacts, 1,100 photos, 24 interactive exhibits and 20 original films will cover more than two dozen sports. The SmA is also the new, official home of the Heisman Trophy and the Billie Jean King International Women's Sports Center.

    "For people to be able to come in and touch the original Heisman trophy that sat at the Downtown Athletic Club," Schwalb said, "I think that's going to be a huge draw."

    Visitors will be able to cast their votes for the next Heisman winner, who will be awarded the trophy at SmA every December starting this year.

    The Billie Jean King Center will house the Women's Sports Foundation International Women's Sports Hall of Fame, the first of its kind. The gallery will offer interactive exhibits and educational databases to inform visitors of the impact women have had on American sports.

    "Every single sport has women that have been involved in playing at times when they got no attention," said author and sports historian Ernestine Miller, an SmA adviser. "These women who have never been recognized in any way will now have their opportunity."

    That opportunity is there because of SmA's initial partnership with the Basketball Hall of Fame. Schwalb's willingness to work with one hall of fame led to partnerships with dozens more single-sport halls of fame.

    "I thought it would end up being five or six," Schwalb said of these partnerships, "but it's turned out to be 62. ... I just think it [SmA] would be really inferior [without the partnerships]. You can build it, but it wouldn't truly be the national museum for sports."

    "Done in the right way, sports should be as good a subject matter for a museum as art or science," he added.

    The partnerships brought in artifacts such as Jesse Owens' diary from the 1936 Olympics and letters written by basketball inventor James Naismith. SmA, which will charge visitors $20 to $27 (children under 4 get in free), has also planned several innovative features.

    "You'll be able to feel a lot of things that you would never feel in sports otherwise," Schwalb said. "You can put your face inside of a goalie's mask and then you're going to be seeing hockey pucks coming at you 100 miles per hour."

    Another feature invites visitors to feel the intensity of driving in a NASCAR race.

    "We specially filmed two walls," Schwalb explained. "On one wall, cars are coming at you, and on the other, they are going away from you. The sound and the motion of the floor will make you feel like you're in the middle of a NASCAR race."

    Schwalb wanted SmA to be a part of lower Manhattan's revitalization, so he applied for Liberty Bonds. The tax-exempt bonds, of which SmA was awarded $52 million, are meant to encourage corporations to build their headquarters in lower Manhattan.

    SmA was awarded the bonds after Ernst & Young conducted a study asserting that the museum had the potential, in its first year, to attract one million visitors and have a $100 million impact -- including construction costs and tourism -- on the area's economy.

    Tags: sports museum of america, entertainment, museums

  • City Hall Dispatch: New poll show no one cares about new poll

    Wednesday May 7, 2008 11:40 AM By David Freedlander

    Quinnipiac just released their latest poll on the '09 mayoral contest which seems to reveal that no one much cares about the '09 mayoral contest.

    And why should they? Spring is in the air, the presidential election is consuming all the political oxygen, Water Taxi Beach opens in 2 weeks.

    And despite a few months of real news since the last QU poll was released two months ago--the Sean Bell verdict, the council slush fund scandal, etc---no real movement in the numbers.

    Police Commish Ray Kelly, who has said he is not and will not be a candidate, still tops the field, despite a diminishing approval rating among black voters. U.S. Rep Anthony Weiner, who has been upping his public appearances, is the choice of 16%, following by Brooklyn BP Marty Markowitz at 13 and comptroller Bill Thompson at 10.

    Speaker Christine Quinn has suffered slightly with the council shenanigans, dropping from 13% to 10%.

    Still, and we've said it here before--it's hard to picture the commish as Hizzoner. As we see it, he's Wesley Clark with a badge.

    Regardless, NYers still seem to love Mayor Mike, giving him a crazy-ass 70% approval rating.

    And many insiders tell us the real sleeper in '09 is some other billionaire businessman who can carry on the Bloomberg legacy, paying for the campaign himself and governing in a similar post-partisan kind of way.

    Who that will be, however, no one seems to know.

    ---David Freedlander

    Tags: politics, polls, ray kelly, bloomberg

  • Troubled by filth from idling buses, two boys launch blog

    Tuesday May 6, 2008 3:34 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Eugene Varnedoe and his friend Muhamed Rahman created a blog. They're environmentally conscious and wanted to let the Internet community know that the idling buses parked in front of their school emit dangerous fumes that can cause asthma.

    Eugene and Muhamed are each 10 years old

    The best friends helped create the blog, after Muhamed was diagnosed with asthma, a problem that may be connected to the pollution outside the elementary school he attends in Queens.

    Tuesday, the two boys and several of their classmates at PS 122 in Astoria took the day off from school today to stand on the steps of City Hall as part of an awareness campaign aimed at getting drivers to turn off their engines instead of allowing them to idle while parked. The event was organized by the Asthma Safe School Zone, a nonprofit organization trying to bring attention to the harmful effects of idling vehicles.Exhaust fumes are a well-documented cause of asthma, and according to the American Lung Association, the asthma rates in the five boroughs are twice as high as the rest of the country. One in eight New Yorkers is diagnosed with asthma in his or her lifetime and in 2008, New York was ranked as the eighth-worst city for smog pollution. Idling also costs money – lots of money. According to the Idle-Free NYC campaign, city drivers spend an estimated $30 million a year on fuel wasted while idling.

    Representatives of the American Lung Association and the Environmental Defense Fund, as well as Councilwoman Rosie Mendez (D-Lower East Side), also attended the event to bring attention to the need to designate the area surrounding all city schools as asthma-free school zones.

    Currently, idle-free zones have been designated outside 60 schools Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx. Those schools have seen a dramatic improvement in student attendance, with students taking fewer sick days for all types of illness, said Mendez, adding that "absenteeism went down and grades went up.”

    Representatives from city Department of Transportation also attended the event, which was held in conjunction with World Asthma Day. "Our goal is to reduce emissions across York City by 9 percent per square mile by 2015 and 39 percent by 2030," said department commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan.

    Muhamed Rahmen said that since his asthma diagnosis, he gets scared when he is near an idling bus or car. "I feel like I can't breathe and I start to panic, " he said. His mother, Hasifa Rahmen, said that while her son has never had a full-blown attack, he must keep his inhaler with him at all times just in case.

    Muhamed and his classmates were all smiles as they told the crowd about their blog, and the results it brought about. "My school bus driver stopped idling," Muhamed said, beaming.

    -- Martina Guzman

    Tags: environment, blogging

  • The true meaning of cheap and chic

    Tuesday May 6, 2008 3:17 PM By Julie Gordon

    It feels like every big designer whose pieces are sold at stores like Barneys is doing a line for Target. But the same items sold at Barneys and Target? That's a different story.

    This weekend, Rogan for Target be available for three days at Barneys before heading to Target May 18. The eco-friendly collection is priced $14.99-$44.99, and includes dresses, hoodies, tanks and bathing suits.

    Shopping hours:

    May 9 - Sunday, May 11

    Friday, 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.

    Saturday, 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.

    Sunday, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.

    — Julie Gordon

    Tags: barneys, rogan, target, fashion, shopping

  • Breaking: Call to abolish Buildings Dept.

    Tuesday May 6, 2008 2:01 PM By David Freedlander

    Lou Coletti, the president of the Building Trade Employers Association, has something of a new idea for improving the woeful record of the city’s Department of Building’s: Getting rid of the agency all together.

    The proposal came during today’s city council hearings on increasing building safety.

    “We are facing a crisis which requires bold and creative action,” Colleti said. “What is needed is radical reform.”

    He added, “Government needs to reform in a way that will allow this industry to continue to be the economic engine that fuels this city’s economy and does so in way that doesn’t compromise safety. They are not mutually exclusive goals.”

    The proposal calls for the establishment of a public benefit corporation, a “New York City Construction and Standards Authority,” that would act much as the School Construction Authority does, and would lead, backers allege, to streamlined bureaucracy and greater safety.

    “There are some 30,000 police officers, 15,000 firefighters, and 450 building inspectors,” Coletti said. “Building inspectors receive virtually no professional training, are underpaid and work primarily Monday—Friday 8 a.m –4 p.m.”

    The proposal seemed to unsettle some members of the council, but councilman Erik Martin Dilan (D-Brooklyn), who chairs the buildings committee, said he was anxious to hear more.

    “They cited the School Construction Authority as an example, but they didn’t call for getting rid of the Department of Education,” he said. “Some of what they said makes sense. We certainly need to improve the DOB, I’m just not sure the solution is to totally abolish it.”

    Tags: development

  • NY Burmese say junta limiting storm aid

    Tuesday May 6, 2008 1:51 PM By Emily Ngo

    The scene Tuesday in Yangon, Myanmar

    Kyu Dawsan has known tragedy at the hands of Myanmar’s military junta.

    Her father was tortured, and her nephew kidnapped.

    Now, as the cyclone death toll surpasses 22,000 and continues to climb, Dawsan blames the junta for not doing more to stem losses.

    “It’s not a government; it’s dictators only,” said Dawsan, an activist with the National Burma Action Committee in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.

    Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar — also called Burma — early Saturday, leaving low-lying villages underwater and devastating the country’s rice industry. Foreign assistance began to trickle in yesterday, but Burmese supporters in New York worried the ruling junta would limit aid.“They’ve said, ‘Give us the money and we’ll distribute it,’ but they’re human rights abusers,” said Maureen Aung-Thwin, director of the Burma Project with the Open Society Institute in Manhattan. “They should just accept the aid. They can go back to being dictators later; they should save their people first.”

    President Bush yesterday announced the United States would send more than $3 million to help storm victims and pleaded with the military junta to allow disaster assessment teams into the country.

    Bo Hla-Tint, an elected official with the exiled Burmese government, was angered the junta had not done so already.

    “It’s a very outrageous that they’re not showing full cooperation with the U.S. and the South Asian community,” he said, speaking from Washington, D.C. “In our history of Burma, this is the very worst disaster situation.”

    The junta should have warned residents about the storm, Aung-Thwin said.

    “They have radios, they have state TV, they have other ways of reaching people,” she said. “They had plenty of time. That storm was brewing for weeks.”

    Most Burmese expatriates, most of whom live in the Sunnyside, Jackson Heights and Elmshurst neighborhoods in Queens, agreed the junta’s preparation and response were simply not enough.

    Of as yesterday, Dawsan, in Brooklyn, still had not been able to contact family members in Myanmar to confirm they were safe.

    “I’m scared for my people,” she said. “I’m scared for my country.”

    — Emily Ngo

    How to help

    Donations can be made to the American Red Cross at (800) RED-CROSS and redcross.org.

  • Trump SoHo a go, for now

    Tuesday May 6, 2008 11:58 AM By David Freedlander

    The city’s Board of Standards and Appeals voted unanimously today to deny an appeal by preservationists and neighborhood groups to halt the construction of the towering Trump SoHo condo-hotel.

    Residents opposed to the construction of the building have said that it subverts area zoning requirements by masquerading as a hotel that will permit owners to stay there for a limited amount of over the course of a year.

    “It would be in one of the few quiet parts of the neighborhood that reminds you what it was like before the pioneers moved here,” said Sean Sweeney, president of the SoHo Alliance, a local advocacy group. “The sheer enormousness of it is completely out of scale with the neighborhood.”

    Sweeney and others dismissed the BSA’s dismissal as unsurprising. The ruling cleared the way for the case to be brought before the New York State Supreme Court.

    Phone calls to the Trump Organization were not immediately returned.

    ---David Freedlander

    Tags: trump soho, donald trump, real estate

  • Rent hike framework set

    Tuesday May 6, 2008 11:17 AM By David Freedlander

    Landlords and their tenants found a rare point of agreement in their mutual panning of the Rent Guidelines Board’s suggested increases on apartment leases.

    The board set the range of hikes Monday night on rent-stabilized properties from 3.5 percent to 7 percent from one-year leases and from 5.5 percent to 9.5 percent for two-year leases. The board is scheduled to hold public hearings on June 11 and June 16 and will set a final number within the framework at a meeting on June 19.

    Property owners said that the potential hikes are woefully small to cover cost increases, and would force many property owners to sell their buildings or delay maintenance.

    “We are very disappointed that the board chose such a low range,” said Jack Freund, president of the Rent Stabilization Association, which represents landlords. “We can’t keep on giving owners half of what they need to stay in business. What ends up happening is that a long-term owner who has a relationship to tenants and loyalty to the property sells out to someone who many be a speculator who may not treat the property the way it should be treated.”

    Tenant groups said that the increases, particularly if on the high end of the guidelines, would spell disaster for residents of the city’s more than a million rent-stabilized apartments. The increase covers leases signed between Oct. 1, 2008 and Set. 30, 2009, will likely be larger than this year’s, which amounted to 5.75 percent on two-year leases and 3 percent one-year leases.

    “It’s higher than raises tenants got last year, it’s more than the increase in income that people on social security got last year,” said Jenny Laurie, director of the Metropolitan Council on Housing.

    She dismissed the idea that property expenses make rent increases necessary.

    “Their pockets are rising as well. Net operating incomes have been going up steadily year after year.”

    State Sen. Tom Duane (D-Manhattan) has introduced legislation in Albany that would change the make-up of a board that many believe to be unfairly biased toward property owners.

    He said Monday’s 5-4 vote highlighted the need for reform.

    “Everyone realizes the New York City Rent Guidelines Board just doesn’t function in an appropriate way.”

    ---David Freedlander

    Tags: rent increases, rent guidelines board, real estate

  • Duly Noted

    Monday May 5, 2008 1:27 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Neon signs and homegrown businesses: Some of Ninth Avenue's irreplaceable treasures. (Photo by Rolando Pujol)

    * Jeremiah has coverage of Saturday's protest to draw attention to a strip of Ninth Avenue shops that is poised for extinction. [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

    * Did "Sex and the City" kill old NYC? The cast defended the show in an amNY cover story today. Here's an counterpoint from Jeremiah. And check the comments on the story: They reflect a similar view [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

    * A tour of Broadway-Flushing: All is well, with a mix of lovely homes and traditional styles, until .... [Queens Crap]

    * The "strangest building in the East Village." [Lost City]

    * The Bossert, one of the architectural gems of Brooklyn Heights, is being sold by the Watchtower Group. [Brownstoner]

    * Another nadir in city's construction boom: Myrtle the turtle becomes "the last condo victim"? Be warned: It's not a pleasant photo. [Curbed]

    * Protesters gather to seek a time out on Atlantic Yards demolition work. [Gowanus Lounge]

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: duly noted

  • Philippe Petit is alive and well and still walking the wires

    Monday May 5, 2008 7:47 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad


    WTC photo/AP; park photos/ Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    A man dressed in black from top hat to canvas slippers strode through Washington Square Park Sunday afternoon, wheeling a unicycle and lugging a leather knapsack loaded with wooden pins.

    After scanning the crowd of picnic-table chess players and college students splayed across the grass, he unpacked his bag and promptly began to juggle. Off in a shady corner, he attracted little notice - even when he removed the hat from atop his ginger hair and balanced it perpendicularly on the tip of his nose.

    The petanque players kept their eyes on the court. The chess players kept theirs on the game. A couple sitting on a bench nearby chattered on. After all, outbursts of artistic expression and sudden fits of street performance are quite the norm in this park. But this wasn't your average asphalt circus act.

    The fluid body tossing pins and dancing them through the air was none other than French high-wire artist Philippe Petit, the man who on August 7, 1974, stunned the city by stringing a tightrope between the World Trade Center Towers and walking back and forth across the wire eight times in 45 minutes.

    See photos of Philippe Petit herePetit had just come from the Tribeca Film Festival's final screening of the documentary, "Man on Wire," which traces the back story of his wondrous and devilish feat.

    The movie, directed by British filmmaker James Marsh, tells the tale like a classic heist story, introducing a motley cast of accomplices who joined forces to pull off the amazing stunt.

    Don't worry if you missed it at Tribeca. The film, released by Magnolia Pictures, will be released in select New York City theaters on August 15.

    After Sunday's morning screening, Petit appeared to booming applause and a standing ovation, then took questions and quietly announced he'd later perform his classic street act in Washington Square Park.

    Petit said he fell in love with the intimate interaction of street performance as a teenager, and now nearly 60, he's still at it. "I will never abandon the street performing. I love it. It's the hardest kind of theater because it's never the same show," he said in an interview after the performance.

    Sunday's show bounced from juggling to pantomime to unicycling to wire walking. He draws a circle on the ground then silently commands the crowd to hover round the outside. As though drawn by some super power magnet - they do. And they stay.

    "In terms of his ability to draw and maintain a crowd without any cheap tactics, he's probably the best that I've ever seen," said Brian Dube, who makes juggling equipment and has known Petit since the 1970s.

    "The way he controlled the audience without any words was really, really powerful," said Vicky Virgin, a Greenwich Village resident who brought her 12-year-old son Danny Brosh to see Petit.

    "I was always wondering what it would be like to know him and see him perform," Brosh said. "I didn't even know he was still alive until today."

    He's not only alive, but plotting his next big feat of wire-walking. "My next performance will be a high-wire walk on Easter Island," Pettit said.

    See photos of Philippe Petit here

    Click below for an interview and to see Philippe Petit walking the tightrope

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: tribeca film festival, wtc

  • Go green with a free canvas tote

    Monday May 5, 2008 6:29 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    Down with the dastardly plastic bag! New York City students want shoppers to go green and use cloth instead. So three students have designed eco-friendly canvas tote bags and you can get them today - for FREE!

    The giveaway is today at 12:30 p.m. in the Union Square Greenmarket, and Council Members Gale Brewer and Simcha Felder will be on hand to pass them out.

    The bags were designed by Yiufat (Benny) Lam, Giorgia Poperhem, and Melissa Mercado, who are public school students from LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in Lincoln Center.

    The designs were chosen from hundreds of submissions from local high school and college students. After a viewing of the finalists at City Hall, these three came out on top.

    A City Council spokesman says there are 5,000 bags set to circulate at greenmarkets, supermarkets, and other areas throughout the city. So get one while you can.

    FOR A BAG: Go to the Union Square Greenmarket at Broadway b/w 16th and 17th streets at 12:30 p.m. today.

    For more on NYC's tangled relationship with the plastic bag - read this: Ian Frazier's "Tilting at Tree Bags," the story of how he tried to conquer the problem of plastic bags stuck in city trees.

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: environment, greenmarket, today's check it out, stuff that's cool, manhattan, fashion

  • Mr. Big Preservationist

    Monday May 5, 2008 4:11 AM By Julie Gordon

    As a long-time New York resident and actor, Chris Noth loves the city. But he has one major issue.

    “I think we shouldn’t give over to what I call greedy, unscrupulous builders,” Noth said at a recent press event for the “Sex and the City” movie, in which he reprises his role of Mr. Big.

    Noth wants people to pay more attention to neighborhoods’ characters and historic icons, mentioning his support of a movement to keep the 13th Street Repertory Theater alive and his distaste for many of the gigantic new structures going up around the city.

    “It wouldn’t hurt the mayor to realize that they made a lot of money building these buildings and they might want to keep an eye on what the character and essence of this town is. It’s neighborhoods. Its smaller businesses and smaller buildings,” Noth said. “I don’t necessarily think a glass tower that’s 40 stories high [is representing that]. We’re not Dubai. Were New York.”

    What does he really miss? Stoops and coffee shops — traditional meeting places.

    Guess there’s still the movie theater, albeit most likely an AMC or Regal.

    — Julie Gordon

    Tags: endangered nyc, sex and the city, chris noth, movies, manhattan, fashion, entertainment, arts, architecture

  • Mark your calendars: Victorian Flatbush house tour

    Sunday May 4, 2008 4:12 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Victorian Flatbush: The yellow cab is the only hint you're in New York City.

    We're big fans of Victorian Flatbush, a gem of an area that routinely leaves even longtime New Yorkers gape mouthed upon their first visit This slice of suburban splendor will become a little more accessible next month during the annual Victorian Flatbush house tour. It's on June 8 from 1 to 6 p.m. Advance tickets are $16, and $20 if purchased on the day of. Call 718-859-3800 or visit here.

    MORE: Click here for an amNewYork tour of the neighborhood. We'll also put up additional posts in the next few days from a more recent visit to the area, as well as nearby Midwood. And this Thursday's City Living profile will be on Flatbush.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: victorian flatbush, walking tour, bronx, architecture, history

  • Five Boro Bike Tour update

    Sunday May 4, 2008 1:26 PM By Marlene Naanes

    (photo via flickr.com's seth_holladay)

    A cyclist in the Five Boro Bike Tour yesterday went into cardiac arrest on the Queensboro Bridge, Fire Department officials said.

    The incident occurred just before 10 a.m. during the tour that drew approximately 30,000 cyclists. The biker, who was not identified, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens and was awake and conscious at the time, according to fire officials.

    It is unclear if this incident is related to a crash reported earlier in a Gothamist post, but by the looks of the comment section, there were a few tumbles during the tour.

    Tags: queens

  • New York Frame and Picture Co.

    Sunday May 4, 2008 11:59 AM By David Freedlander

    As seen from the Williamsburg Bridge, peaking out from under some graf, is this advertisement for the New York Frame and Picture Co.

    The company was founded in 1894 by Charles Horowitz and operated out of Fulton Street downtown.

    Apparently, Mr. Horowitz was quite keen on plastering advertisements for his framing business all over town.

    The website 14to42 has this shot from 3rd Ave and 21st

    helpfully placed for max visibility from riders on the 3rd Ave El.

    Horowitz apparently also ran one of the first ads in the New York Telephone Directory

    Life wasn't all about fine upstanding business life for the Horowitz clan, however.

    A 1912 article in the Times details how the family paid someone to torch their Fulton Street storefront for $55 in order to collect on the insurance money.

    The company survived until the mid 1990's in their home on John Street, and achieved fame in the frame and picture world for providing the framing for those gold and platinum records that the RIAA hands out when a half million or a million record sales are reached

    ---David Freedlander

    Tags: signs

  • Brooklyn Heights: Sabrett sighting

    Sunday May 4, 2008 11:10 AM By Rolando Pujol

    We've been seeing fewer Sabrett hot-dog cart umbrellas, (and more for banks and other advertisers that buy up this valuable space) so this sticker for the purveyors of the street-food classic caught our attention -- and made us smile.

    It's in the subway entrance at the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn Heights, which itself is a decidedly unique and refreshingly unpolished portal to the subway. Right outside is a wine shop with fantastic neon, and inside you''ll find a mix of retail, a sushi restaurant, and then, an elevator ride down to the 2 and 3 trains, where some very 1950s flooring awaits you. A few more photos after the jump.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: sabrett's, st. george hotel, small business, transportation, brooklyn, advertising, signs

  • Adaptive sign use

    Sunday May 4, 2008 11:07 AM By David Freedlander

    Close readers of this blog know that we got kind of a thing for old-timey signage and the removal of a decent sign is cause for much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

    Mad props then to Desert Island, a new Indie comic store on Metropolitan Ave in Williamsburg for keeping the old name out front and for the tasteful addition naming the storefront's new purpose.

    For more on what goes on inside, check out this from alterna-comics obsessives The Daily Cross Hatch.

    ---David Freedlander

    Tags: signs

  • Brooklyn Heights: The ghost of Armando's

    Sunday May 4, 2008 10:21 AM By Rolando Pujol

    We swung by the site of Armando's on Friday during a hours-long exploration of Brooklyn Heights. The iconic Armando's sign was standing guard, and the interior, as seen from the sidewalk, was largely the same, and looks as though the restaurant is closed for perhaps renovations, not forever. One token that saddened us was the discovery of an "Open" sign, sitting by the window never to be used again.

    A pleasant counterpoint was our visit to the very much open Lassen & Hennigs, another Brooklyn Heights institution on Montague Street. From the moment we saw the sign, we were intrigued, and ordered the L&H Express, a roast beef-cheddar extravaganza on a roll. The sandwich choices -- many named for Brooklyn neighborhoods and streets -- were overwhelming. But the atmosphere was pleasant, the place was packed, and the staff was friendly, just what we like in a neighborhood joint, in this case one that dates to 1949.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Lassen & Hennigs

    114 Montague St.

    718-875-6272

    Tags: lassen & hennigs, armando's, brooklyn, restaurants, endangered nyc, development, signs

  • 10 films to see on Tribeca Film Fest's final weekend

    Friday May 2, 2008 6:23 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    As the Tribeca Film Festival ends its run on Sunday, we present our 'ideal viewing experience' for this weekend: Ten interesting films (plus a short) that seem worth the sacrifice.

    Sacrifice? What sacrifice, you ask?

    Well, advance tickets are pretty much sold out at this stage of the festival. So if you wanna catch anything at Tribeca before it closes, you're going to have to stand in line for 'rush' tickets.

    Tribeca holds quite a few tickets back for each film; generally, they advise if you get there early--an hour early has worked for us in the past--you should be able to get in.

    Especially for films earlier in the day, and films that sound unexciting to the average viewer.

    But you're no average viewer, and neither are we--so below are the films that caught our eye.

    Since Urbanite is a collective entity, we may even wind up seeing all of them this weekend--look for us with our amNY.com glow-in-the-dark pens.

    * See Celebrity photos here; Tribeca videos and trailers are here

    * List of Tribeca Film Festival competition winners is here, with full weekend schedule here(Unless we provide a link, all capsules are edited from the Tribeca Film Festival description).

    Friday, May 02

    -9:00PM: Playing for Change: Peace Through Music

    AMC Village VII 3

    "When you play on the streets, you don't have a particular audience--you have all the world coming to you," says Clarence Bekker, a street musician from the Netherlands.

    And I think all the world should see the opening sequence of this global music documentary--it's absolutely one of the best things I've ever seen in a movie theater. Read more of our review here

    -9:00PM: Ramchand Pakistani

    Village East Cinema 2

    The most haunting frame of Ramchand Pakistani may be its first. Over a black screen, the words appear: adapted from actual events. The world is full of mad facts, but among the maddest is that in 2002, as Indian and Pakistani troops massed against each other on the countries' border, an eight-year-old boy named Ramchand wandered over the invisible line separating his own side of the desert from that of India's and was taken prisoner. Going in search of Ramchand, his father followed him across and was captured as well

    Saturday, May 03

    -10:45AM: Baghdad High

    Village East Cinema 4

    'Baghdad High' is one of those films you know will be good as soon as you hear the concept: Two journalists gave four Baghdad teens video cameras to capture their senior year of high school. Who knew, though, that it'd be the breakout hit of this years festival? Read more of our review here

    -11:00AM: My Marlon and Brando

    How far would you go for love? The real-life heroine of My Marlon and Brando was willing to slip into Iraq at the start of the 2003 war.

    The film, which won director Hüseyin Karabey the Tribeca Festival's award for best new narrative filmmaker, is based on the frustrating and poignant struggle of the leading actress, Ayça Damgaci, to be with her Kurdish beloved. Read more of our review here

    -2:30PM: Gunnin' for That #1 Spot

    AMC 19th St. East Theater 1

    Throughout the year, in parks and playgrounds around the country, boys of all ages try to show each other up on the blacktop, invoking the likes of Michael, Magic, LeBron, and Kobe. Some of them possess a talent that rises above the others, and united with unparalleled determination, focus, and strength of will, they go on to excel in high school, becoming potential stars of tomorrow. In the fall of 2006, 24 of these top prospects were brought together at one of the most legendary courts in America: Rucker Park.

    -5:00PM: Bart Got a Room

    AMC Village VII 1

    All you need to know about this father/son fable is William H. Macy has a Jewfro in it. See our interview with director Brian Hecker (and yes, see that hair) by clicking here.

    -7:45PM: Head Wind

    Village East Cinema 4

    How can authoritarian governments defeat their citizens' hunger for knowledge in the era of the "information revolution"? Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof takes a candid and searing look inside the Islamic Republic, revealing its losing battle for control over the flow of information into the country from the outside world.

    Sunday, May 04

    -10:45AM: Man on Wire

    AMC Village VII Theater 4

    On the afternoon of August 6, 1974, an international group of conspirators, disguised as construction workers and armed with fake IDs, snuck into the World Trade Center to perpetrate what would be called "the artistic crime of the century." The following morning, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit walked on a cable strung between the Twin Towers-not once but eight times over a 45-minute period.

    -1:45PM: A President to Remember: In the Company of John F. Kennedy

    Acclaimed director Robert Drew recut his documentaries from the 60s to create 'A President to Remember: In the Company of John F. Kennedy,' in part because of all the interest and comparisons surrounding Barack Obama's campaign. It's almost eerie seeing the similarities--and differences--unspooling in this record of a more innocent era. See our interview with Robert Drew here.

    -4:00PM: Fighter

    AMC 19th St. East Theater 1

    Fighter is an affecting girl-power fable set amid the Turkish émigré community in Copenhagen. Natasha Arthy's film centers on Aicha, a spirited high school senior whose conservative parents expect her to become a doctor-but this girl dreams in kung fu. Dutiful to her family demands, it's only on the kung fu mat that Aicha feels truly at home. Aicha secretly enrolls in an elite, co-ed kung fu school, where she meets and falls for Emil, the sweet and challenging Dane assigned to her as a training partner.

    -7:00PM: Great Genius and Profound Stupidity (short film program)

    AMC 19th St. East Theater 1

    This experimental documentary-which includes interviews with Avital Ronnell, Oliver Sacks, and Merce Cunningham-explores pilgrim mathematician Paul Erdős, Hellen Keller, and the philosophical ideas of genius and stupidity.

    * More Tribeca blog coverage here

    Images from Fighter, Bart Got a Room, and Ramchand Pakistani courtesy Tribeca Film Festival/filmmakers

    Tags: tribeca film festival, movies

  • Jersey deer invade Staten Island

    Thursday May 1, 2008 12:45 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Staten Island is being invaded by residents of New Jersey -- residents with antlers to be more specific.

    Apparently, the deer population in Staten Island has been going up, and Friday, for the first time, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation will release its first ever count of deer in the borough.

    And these clever creatures aren't taking the ferry or Verrazano like the rest of us, they're swimming over.

    "We suspect that they they are swimming over from New Jersey, deer are strong swimmers and the Arthur Kill is a narrow body of water," said Arturo Garcia-Costas, of the NYSDEC.

    He added: "In recent months there have been a couple of accidents, and an increase in sightings and because of this, we decided to conduct this survery to help the state and city department of transportations to put up signage and get a handle of the situation. Our report finds that the population has gotten self sustaining."

    -- Pete Catapano

    Tags: deer, staten island, new jersey, environment

  • Lighting up MePa

    Thursday May 1, 2008 12:16 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Grids of lights projected on buildings all around the Meatpacking District in the early morning today had passers-by intrigued. What did they mean? And who was the team with walkie-talkies setting up the bizarre installation? And why?

    It was a crew from Obscura Digital, a San Francisco-based applied visual technologies company. They were calibrating their equipment at around 3:30 a.m. and the set-up itself was an interesting show: Grids of lights on about 10 buildings around Little West 12th across from Pastis. But that was only the set-up.

    Tonight at 9 p.m. comes the show. If you’re in the Meatpacking District, look for the buildings to be turned into six-story projector screens for a multi-media presentation that the Obscura team was being very coy about.

    -- Garett Sloane

    Tags: advertising, meatpacking district, manhattan

  • The magic of Helen Levitt

    Thursday May 1, 2008 11:48 AM By Rolando Pujol

    All photos: Helen Levitt, published by powerHouse Books, used with permission

    Think you’ve seen a lot of changes in the urban landscape? Helen Levitt has photographed an ever-changing New York for more than seven decades.

    Long-vanished corner luncheonettes, neon “liquor” signs and second-floor button-and-notion shops are still readily accessible through her work. These old-time urban institutions and the people who frequented them are immortalized in a square, record-album-sized volume (Helen Levitt, powerHouse Books, 2008) recently released in conjunction with a retrospective exhibition at Germany’s Sprengel Museum Hannover.

    An unsentimental souvenir of a grittier city, the collection includes images from the 1930s to the early 1990s. Before Starbucks and Duane Reade storefronts punctuated Manhattan, Levitt chronicled Sabrett’s hot dog cart awnings, old-time Coca-Cola signs and kids who amused themselves with tricycles and cast-off picture frames.

    Born in Bensonhurst in 1913, Levitt has often directed her camera toward the edges of the city and the fringe of society. Today, she continues to peer beneath the patina of a bustling metropolis to chronicle New Yorkers’ everyday lives. In one iconic black-and-white image, an infant squeals with delight as a young girl immerses her head in the blankets of his baby carriage. Similarly Levitt urges the viewer to look beyond conventional scenarios on city streets, infiltrate strangers’ lives and draw their own conclusions.

    The coffee-table collection presents Levitt’s images without captions. A small note on the book’s copyright page explains that with a few exceptions, all photos were taken in the city: black-and-white images were taken from 1937 to 1948 and in the 1980s; color photos from 1971 to 1991. Viewers must scrutinize the images – and their own memories—for clues to the photographs’ location and time period.

    In a black-and-white photo, a girl clad in a white party dress, bobby socks and sandals, clutches the stomach of a wrinkle-faced, man in a suit and a tie. He looks amused. She is giggling. Behind them, an iron base of a street lamp supports a sign, “Never Sweep Refuse into Street.”

    In another image, Levitt captures a more modern embrace. Against a backdrop of 20-story housing project towering above leafy trees, a middle-aged woman reaches toward a teenage boy, “Lee” label visible above back pocket of his jeans, tilted slightly backwards, as if to resist the hug. Behind them a yellow-orange New York State license plate with dark blue letters clings to the front of a car. Is this the Bronx? Brooklyn? Upper Manhattan?

    Ultimately the frozen moment trumps the need to pinpoint an exact location.

    -- Laura Silver

    Tags: helen levitt, arts, endangered nyc

  • Throwback Thursday: The Eleventh Hour

    Thursday May 1, 2008 11:33 AM By Rolando Pujol

    Oh, the wonders of YouTube. Two recent postings will be of particular interest to New Yorkers with an interest in the city back in the 1970s. Both were recorded in 1973 from WNBC-TV Channel 4 and are in superb condition. This is impressive in and of itself, considering the rarity of over-the-air recordings from this era, before Beta and VHS began to make inroads.

    The first clip, from February 8, 1973, includes a bumper for the Bobby Darin show (he died later that year), and then a news update for "The Eleventh Hour." That was Channel 4's 11 p.m. newscast before it morphed into Newscenter 4, anchored by a name we don't hear much from these days -- Jim Hartz. Among the headlines: Rush-hour trouble on the Penn Central (what we call Metro-North today.) Hartz anchored the report from 1967 to 1974 before heading to the "Today" Show for two years. Also in this clip is a commercial for Tropicana (check out the old container designs) with Sandy Becker of Channel 5 children's show fame. It had been a few years since Becker left the station.

    The second clip is from later in 1973, and includes Hartz doing a news promo again, Becker pitching Tropicana again, and an NBC promo for an "exciting Ann-Margret special, with Bob Hope and George Burns." Did the writer of this tag appreciate the hilarity of those words?

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: throwback thursday, wnbc-tv, jim hartz, sandy becker, television, old school

  • Updated: Do you look like Ashley 'Kristen' Dupre?

    Thursday May 1, 2008 8:36 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    If you do - pleasure chest nightclub Headquarters New York wants to see you tonight.

    The club, located on West 38th Street, will hold an "Ashley Dupre Look-alike Contest" tonight at 10 p.m. So, if you're feeling like a girl gone wild -- or a guy gone wild for that matter -- we'd like to see a drag version of the infamous call girl who felled Eliot Spitzer - anyway, the point is, show up at Headquarters tonight.

    The club describes itself as such:

    "The classic plush interiors of Club HQ continue to attract photo shoots for models of Playboy and Penthouse, runway shows, music video shoots for artists appearing on MTV, VH1, Fuse TV, and millennial celebrities like Tila Tequila."

    This just in on the judging panel: We'll have The Naked Cowboy of Times Square, Dan Grimaldi (small role on the Sopranos) and emcee Cabbie from The Howard Stern Show.

    And we're keeping our fingers crossed for a surprise appearance by Eliot Spitzer -- I mean, wouldn't he know best?

    The prize is more than prestige ladies. The winner gets $500 and a two-week dancing engagement at the club.

    Friday 5/2/08 Update: On our way out to the Tribeca Film Festival, we put in a quick call (no, it wasn't on our speed dial) to Headquarters New York to find out who won.

    A regular dancer at the club, Michaela, was the big winner, according to an employee. Michaela apparently didn't even need to dress up or do anything special, her natural charm was enough.

    If you happened to have attended, feel free to post a first-hand account (or, zap us photos).

    * Click here for gratuitous 'Kristen' photos and video

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: zany

  • 'American Idol' - subway style

    Thursday May 1, 2008 7:53 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    The stage is set in a yawning hall in Grand Central, the judges panel comprised of Arts for Transit people and often local musicians (in past years we met Corey Glover of Living Colour on the panel) -- yes, it's the annual auditions for Music Under New York.

    Every year street performers show up lugging dozens of different kinds of intruments from just as many countries. You get amatuers, self-taught protiges and and even polished Julliard grads, all vying to be part of the MTA's program to promote music underground.

    The evaluation is based on more than talent: They have to have a sound that will rise above the roar of city transit, and they have to come equipped with a self-contained amp system. No outlet plugs allowed.

    The auditions are going on today until 3:30 p.m. and anyone passing through Grand Central is free to watch. In the meantime, here's a video and photogallery from a past audition:

    VIDEO | PHOTOS

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: subway, transit, arts, transportation, today's check it out, manhattan, entertainment

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