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  • The South Street Seaport yesterday, today and tomorrow

    Thursday July 31, 2008 1:17 PM By Marlene Naanes

    (Photo by Tadej Znidarcic/Joseph Pally, Assistant Vice President of Public Affairs at the New York City Economic Development Corporation takes a look at the architectural model of proposed redesign of the South Street Seaport at the Seaport Past and Future)

    The company developing the South Street Seaport, General Growth Properties, teamed up with noted writer and architect James Sanders to create a free public exhibit showing the seaport through the years.

    Seaport Past and Future, which opened yesterday, displays models of the seaport at different points in history along with a model of the new development set to break ground in 2010.

    The future plans for the seaport include a 495-foot retail, hotel and residential tower, a smaller hotel, relocation of the historic Tin Building to the waterfront and open space throughout.

    Check out all the photos here.

    Tags: architecture

  • Hey nerds, get your advanced "Star Wars" fix right here.

    Thursday July 31, 2008 9:15 AM By Scott A. Rosenberg

    Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi, center, and Anakin Skywalker, right, are joined by a clone trooper as they prepare for battle in a still from the upcoming "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," courtesy Lucasfilm Animation

    I had a chance to catch an early screening for "Star Wars: The Clone Wars." Here's some early thoughts on the latest space epic. You'll be able to see my full review on August 15th.

    There were a lot of things I liked about “Clone Wars,” but there were also things that really bothered me.

    I thought opening the film like a newsreel was really clever, and I think the action was well done, especially big battle with the energy shield. I think Kenobi continued to be a great character. And I hesitate to admit this, but I did find the baby Hutt to be kind of adorable to look at, and I think it would make a great plush toy.

    I was iffy on the the animation from the trailer, but it won me over in the film. The painted look provided great atmosphere for the story and I like that it seemed to integrate some of the designs from the Cartoon Network short animated series.

    However, the new Jedi, Ahsoka Tano, was grating to me. I found her to be annoying on the level with Jar Jar Binks. I wrote down during the movie that if I had to deal with her, I too would turn to the dark side.

    Also, and this was carried over from Episodes 1-3, the robots bother me. I don’t remember the exact scene, but there is one robot who can’t do simple math. A calculator can do simple math. I know it’s science fiction and all, but those kind of things really take me out of the movie. Plus most of the jokes fall flat and are childish.

    All that said, I think the movie is certainly worth watching, and Tano is just another gimmicky character that "Star Wars" fans, like myself, are forced to endure in order to get their science fiction fix from this franchise. I just wish she had a diminished role or was just not there at all.

    You can also check out my interview with Karen Traviss, who wrote the novel adaptation of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" here.

    Photos from the Star Wars alternate universes are here.

    And photos on Life After Star Wars are here.

  • "So You Think You Can Lap Dance?"

    Thursday July 31, 2008 8:57 AM By Lauren Johnston

    First they brought you the "Ashley Dupre look-alike" contest.

    And now, those same brilliant marketing minds at the midtown "gentlemen's club" Headquarters are striking again with a pervy take on this blogger's favorite reality show: "So You Think You Can Dance."

    At this late-nite club for ladies of the night, it's going to be "So You Think You Can Lap Dance." Sigh.

    What would poor Nigel say? And what about Mary? The lap dance plan clearly exceeds the parameters of her "Hot Tamale Train."

    But anyway, enough of that prudy sort of speculation and on to the vitals for those of you out there who DO think you can lap dance. And please note: the bulletin on this event doesn't say anything about the contestants being ladies only. Lap dancers, we wish you good luck.

    WHEN: Today at 10 p.m.

    WHERE: HQ, 552 W. 38th St.

    MORE INFO: 212-967-4646.

    Tags: zany, manhattan, entertainment

  • Who Is John McCain? I Mean, REALLY?

    Thursday July 31, 2008 8:40 AM By Linda Perney

    So, Barack Obama is Paris Hilton – or maybe he’s Britney Spears? For all we know, maybe he’s Marilyn Monroe (er, no, she was tied to another famous Democrat…)

    So, if the Democratic spinmeisters were to follow in the footsteps of their Red State brethren, what would they make McCain?

    John Wayne, maybe?

    Or…or… The Manchurian Candidate? I mean, are we SURE the right McCain actually came back from that prison camp? I mean, do we KNOW that?

    Tags: politics

  • The haps around town today

    Thursday July 31, 2008 7:35 AM By Lauren Johnston


    Photo by Lane Johnson

    Lots of protests and demonstrations today ...

    10 a.m.: Opening of “Seaport Past & Future,” a free exhibit showcasing

    two centuries of change at South Street Seaport; 191 Front St.

    10 a.m.: Ribbon cutting for three new elevators at the Kew Gardens-Union

    Turnpike station; southeast corner of Union Turnpike and Kew Gardens Road.

    11 a.m.: Members of Students for a Free Tibet conduct conference call on

    planned Olympic protest activities.

    Noon: Save Darfur Coalition marks failure of the Darfur peacekeeping

    mission by presenting a helicopter to the UN to demonstrate availability of much needed equipment; Second Avenue and East 47th Street.

    Noon to 1:30 p.m.: Codepink display of children’s shoes representing Iraqi war dead; Foley Square, 111 Worth St., at Pearl and Centre streets.

    3 p.m. to 8 p.m.: Open auditions for “City of Fame”; Roy Arias Studios and

    Theater, 300 West 43rd St., 5th floor.

    Tags: stuff that's cool, today's check it out

  • Ed Koch on Everything

    Thursday July 31, 2008 6:56 AM By David Freedlander

    Yesterday, while walking up 8th Avenue, we saw our Favorite T-Shirt of the Summer, this little number waxing nostalgic for the 105th mayor of New York.

    It comes form LES skateboard shop Shut NYC and is the brainchild of former graffiti artist Eli Morgan Gessner, who slightly altered an old campaign sign and used historically accurate Helvetica signage.

    Why Helvetica? According to Gessner, at some point in his youth, the city went all-Helvetica on everything--subways, sanitation, etc.--in order to distract from what a dump it had become.

    The shirt, Gessen said, is less about Hizzoner--though he hastens to add, "I love Ed Koch, he was the death of graffiti writers but I love Ed Koch"--and more about the city he presided over.

    "Even when New York was at its worst and it was filthy and there were street gangs everywhere, it still had more wonderful things than most places on the planet," he said. "You had to be a certain kind of person to put up with it."

    Shut President Adam Schatz said the t-shirts are becoming a phenomenon, and said he sent one to Koch's office.

    No word yet on whether or not Koch will accept the t-shirt's suggestion.

    --David Freedlander

    Tags: ed koch, t-shirts, helvetica, fashion

  • The awesome City Reliquary hosts benefit

    Wednesday July 30, 2008 11:07 AM By Rolando Pujol

    This sign greets you at the museum's front desk. (Photos by Rolando Pujol)

    If you've never been to the City Reliquary, then you're missing one of Gotham's gems. It's a Williamsburg storefront museum that's home to all kinds of New Yorkiana. It's the one place in the city where you can find everything from a salvaged sign for the Second Avenue Deli, to World's Fair memorabilia, to peep-show tokens and subway-station paint "specimens" that display generations of color layers. And that's just a sample of what awaits you.

    Memorabilia from the 1939-40 World's Fair. Find your own Trylon and Perisphere salt-and-pepper shakers on eBay here.

    The reliquary is a compelling reminder that we live in one of the most interesting cities on earth, and it opens your eyes to the history and curiosities -- urban archaeology, as we call it -- that practically every block contains, your own home included.

    We're happy to see this sign found a safe and caring home.

    It's well worth a visit, and equally worthy of your financial support. Thursday night at 7, you'll have a chance to do both, as the reliquary hosts a Summer Benefit Party. Among the offerings: a chance to win a date with a reliquarian! Click here for more details.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    A folk-art portrait of Jackie Robinson is surrounding by seltzer bottles and a can of Piels, a good drinking beer if there ever was one.

    We happen to own a Redbird subway grab, but we never thought of mounting it on the wall thusly. We love it.

    Part of the exterior awning, done in a style common to neighborhood bodegas.

    Just a slice of the impressive collection of Statue of Liberty memorabilia.

    Tags: city reliquary, williamsburg, brooklyn, signs, urban archaeology, stuff that's cool, museums, endangered nyc, education

  • Doggie love to the extreme

    Wednesday July 30, 2008 9:31 AM By Julie Gordon

    You can't walk half a block in New York without seeing one of these little guys. You know what we're talking about: Dogs wearing shoes, dogs wearing sweaters, dogs in baby carriages.

    Well, one New Yorker's expression of the pet couture culture landed him a spot as a contestant on CBS' "Greatest American Dog."

    David Best, 54, threw canine Elvis a "Bark Mitzvah" (that's apparently Hebrew for a Bar Mitzvah, a Jewish coming-of-age ritual). Best, a NYC doctor, last November spent $10,000 (yes, really!) on the party for his Parson Russell Terrier, Elvis. Photos of the Tribeca Grand party nonetheless caught the attention of CBS.

    “I invited 100 friends and family, including Dr. Ruth. We had drinks and dancing. I invited his mother, she wore a corsage, and we had an arf-torah with a video and photography,” Best said.

    Best and furry companion Elvis last week were eliminated from the reality show, which is designed to find an owner best at training his dog.

    When Best and Elvis aren’t hosting galas, they make the most of what the city has to offer, namely Union Square Park, Madison Square Park and Stuyvesant Park and a daily walk up Broadway.

    Their favorite pastime? Restaurants. But only those that are dog-friendly.

    “I love spring to fall because you can eat outdoors. If I don’t have to ask for a bowl of water, they get a 20 percent tip. If I have to, they get a 15 percent tip. If they say they don’t do that, they get no tip and I never go back there again,” Best said.

    What a ruff restaurant critic.

    — Allie Rolnik

    Tags: greatest american dog, cbs, dogs, entertainment

  • Baggage snarl reported at JFK

    Wednesday July 30, 2008 7:27 AM By Lauren Johnston

    Computer software that controls the baggage sorting conveyor belt in the American Airlines terminal at Kennedy Airport malfunctioned Wednesday morning, causing about 20 flights to be delayed between 60 and 90 minutes, an airlines spokesman said.

    American employees were sorting baggage manually while engineers and technicians worked on the software problem, said Tim Wagner, an American Airlines spokesman.

    The glitch prevented baggage from being put on planes before their scheduled departures. The airline made announcements about the problem so that passengers could decided whether to fly without their luggage.

    "Once we get the issue resolved, we'll get the bags that are left behind on their way to the customer's destination and delivered to them," Wagner said in a statement. "Until then, we appreciate our customers' patience."

    -- KEITH HERBERT

    Tags: reality, jfk, queens, airports

  • The L train is top of the lines

    Tuesday July 29, 2008 3:15 PM By Marlene Naanes

    (via flickr's Part-Time Lover)

    L riders largely agree that their train is best when it comes to cleanliness and coming on-time, but in the same breath they add that there’s always room for improvement.

    “It’s pretty convenient, and it always seems to be on-time,” said L veteran Mark Villanueva, 21, of Park Slope, giving extra praise to the message boards and announcements on the line. “You look up [at the board] and they say how long it’s going to take.”

    While many riders agreed with a Straphangers Campaign survey that said the L’s trains rank better than other subway lines, some said the line isn’t perfect.

    “I purposefully time my way in and out of the city so I don’t have to deal with it in rush hour—so I don’t have to wait for three or four trains,” said Mickie Quinn, 36, of Greenpoint. “It’s so packed and some trains will skip your stop, and you’ll have to wait for the next one and the platform gets more crowded.”

    And some riders like Carlos Sanchez, 19, of Bushwick, living 13 stops outside of Manhattan means a crawling trek into the city no matter how on-time trains are.

    “The only bad thing about it is it’s pretty slow,” he said. “It stops at every stop. It’s not like an Express train.”

    Yet some riders will take the G, which scored worst in the survey for cleanliness and breakdowns, over the L any day.

    “Many times there are delays and there are a lot of people fainting on the train..it’s so crowded,” said Justine Najea, 27, of Maspeth. “I was late for my work a few times because I had to wait 20, 15 minutes.”

    Tags: transit

  • Go back in time to see into the future

    Tuesday July 29, 2008 12:54 PM By Ryan Chatelain

    The Mercury Capsule Skyride (Photos courtesy of Astroland and The Coney Island History Project)

    In the early 1960s, Coney Island’s Astroland billed itself as the amusement park of the 21st century. Ironically, now that 21st century is here, many of Coney Island’s critics argue that its amusement parks are outdated (although clearly, many still love Astroland just as it is).

    Regardless how you feel about it now, it’s hard to argue that Astroland was anything but a very cool place in its infancy. Back then, the park included the Cape Canaveral Satellite Jet, a ride that simulated a journey to the moon; the Neptune Diving Bells, which plunged 30 feet deep into a large water tank where passengers could watch fish and dolphins; and the Mercury Capsule Skyride, which transported riders 80 feet off the ground from Surf Avenue to the Boardwalk.

    Starting Saturday, the Coney Island History Project, located directly under the Cyclone, will pay homage to the early days of Astroland and its owners for the past 46 years, the Albert family. The exhibit includes photos and original construction plans for many of the park’s past and present rides.

    The Coney Island History Project’s Exhibition Center is free to enter and is open Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Labor Day from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. The Astroland exhibit will run through Sept. 1.

  • L and 7 top Straphangers report... W is worst

    Tuesday July 29, 2008 8:46 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    The annual State of the Subways report from Straphangers ranking all 22 lines is out.

    The main finding is that breakdowns are increasing across the system--and commuters, like always, still aren't getting their money's worth.

    Startingly, the 7 line rates as the second-best line, behind the L.

    The 7?!

    The line that many call the stepchild of the system, that's always crowded and screechy, that seems to perpetually be down for construction on weekends (and all Asian holidays when tons of people are trying to get to Flushing)?!

    As for the W being Worst, I'm not sure I've ever taken the line in the 5 years I've been up here, so who knows....

    See our list of the best and worst lines for Breakdowns, Cleanliness, Seating, Service, Regularity, and Announcements.

    And add in your thoughts and comments below....

    Tags: transportation

  • MetroCard malfunction update

    Tuesday July 29, 2008 7:54 AM By Lauren Johnston

    We earlier reported a MetroCard vending machine glitch where some straphangers were charged after swiping a credit or debit card, even though the did not receive a MetroCard.

    The MTA now reports the problem has been rectified:

    The recent MetroCard Vending Machine outages that have occured within the past 2 days have been resolved. If you were charged as a result of these outages, a credit will be issued to your account. This credit should appear on your account within 7 to 10 business days. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

    Tags: mta, metrocard, transit, transportation

  • Alert!!! MTA credit card swipe malfunction!!

    Tuesday July 29, 2008 6:14 AM By Lauren Johnston

    Wait -- is this part of the fare hikes? The MTA is taking advance payment for future fares or something? We're not sure what's going on, but please heed this warning this morning:

    DO NOT dip your credit or debit card in an MTA MetroCard vending machine this morning. Due to some kind of "technical glitch" the machines "system wide are experiencing problems processing Debit and Credit card transactions."

    TRANSLATION: This means you dip your card. You get charged, but you don't get a MetroCard. We got this account earlier today from an enraged straphanger at the Bedford Ave. station in Williamsburg:

    First he tried to buy a card at the Driggs Ave. station, but the machine could not process the transaction. So he walked a block to Bedford and the same thing. Two dips. No cards. But a call to his bank confirmed he'd been charged for both $20 transactions. "They are jacking up prices and are resorting to stealing your **** money. Way to go MTA."

    We hope you avoid this fate this morning. But if this happened to you too ... write in and let us know.

    Tags: mta, transportation, transit

  • Lindsay Lohan a fun set addition on 'Betty'

    Monday July 28, 2008 12:58 PM By Julie Gordon

    “Ugly Betty’s” lead actress and the show’s most high-profile guest-star have been having fun on set, said America Ferrera, who plays Betty.

    Lindsay Lohan joins the cast of the ABC series for a few episodes as Betty’s former high school enemy who now works at a fast food joint.

    “They wrote a lot of really fun stuff for [Lohan’s] character and we had a good time,” Ferrera said at the press day for her upcoming film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.”

    Though Lohan is constant tabloid fodder, Ferrera said she stays out of the celeb party scene.

    “I just want to work. I just want to do my job,” Ferrera said. “I just love what I do and have too much respect for the work to ever jeopardize [that].”

    Worker bee Ferrera, 24, said she's loved working the vibe of shooting in New York since the show switched locations this season.

    "When you're filming, it's great to have people screaming out of their windows, 'We love you Betty,' and that kind of welcoming energy. And then we also get the other side of it, too, which is, 'Get out of our way. You're stopping traffic,' " Ferrera said. "But it's New York. You take the good with the bad. It makes you feel like you have your battle scars."

    — Julie Gordon

    Tags: ugly betty, lindsay lohan, america ferrera, entertainment

  • Jersey Girl keeps it JERSEY at the Bruce Springsteen show ...

    Monday July 28, 2008 11:03 AM By Lauren Johnston


    AP Photo/ Bill Kostroun

    Five Brits visiting the States for last night's Bruce Springsteen show at Giants Stadium [PHOTOS] had the good fortune to be seated next to a bona fide Jersey Girl. Jersey Girl was somewhat sauced and struck up a conversation.

    Urbanite had the good fortune to be seated directly behind this group and overheard the following exchange:

    JERSEY: So where are you from?

    BRITS: England

    JERSEY: Oh! Eng-a-land! So is it your first time? For Bruce

    BRITS: No, we saw him last weekend in Spain

    JERSEY: Well let me tell you something about Bruce. I like sex. I like beer. But I LOVE Bruce Springsteen.

    BRITS: [blank stares]

    Then she wished us a "Happy Bruce Day!" Just like the tour's title ... it was "Magic."

    Tags: music, entertainment

  • 500 vie for one open spot on Knicks City Dancers

    Sunday July 27, 2008 3:42 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Photo of the dancer tryouts by RJ Mickelson/amNY. Check out a gallery here.

    Samantha Tuffarelli was hoping her 20 years of practice would pay off big time yesterday at Madison Square Garden.

    Tuffarelli, of the Bronx, was one of more than 500 hopefuls competing for one open spot on the Knicks dance team.

    ”It’d mean everything to me for a spot,” she said.

    Tuffarelli, 22, said the biggest appeal of the job is performing for New Yorkers.

    ”New York fans aren’t generic; they’re crazy diehard,”she said.

    Tuffarelli was one of 500 dancers from across the nation trying out for one spot on the Knicks City Dancers, which perform during the team’s home games and other events.

    The try-outs, lasting six hours with two rounds of cuts, continue Monday.

    After the first round, about half of the contestants were left. including the only male, Jonathan Witkins, 26, of South Carolina. Witkins, a Broadway hopeful, was there for the experience of trying out and bowed out shortly when his friend was cut.

    ”People who train for years don’t always get picked, but the ones with their hair done or a little more eye shadow do because they look the part. But, it’s the business,” Witkins said.

    Kara Kimmer, 23, of Michigan, however, said there’s more to it than looking good. “This is only a small tip of the iceberg of what they’re

    going to ask of the dancers,” said Kimmer, a former dancer for the Detroit Pistons. There’s public speaking and interviews.”

    Others like Laurie Gevertzman, 20, of Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, relied on gymnastic talent, backflipping across the Garden floor, before performing the fast-paced choreography set to the music of Lenny Kravitz and Rihanna.

    Still others like Krystal Dwyer, 22, of Queens, hoped to impress the coaches with their personality. ”I like to be seen, get the crowd going, and I’m loud.”

    Being loud and smiling seemed key to coaches and the choreographers, who urged the adrenaline-filled dancers to not be nervous. One who didn’t seem overly nervous was Felicia Rembert, 23, of Colonia, N.J., who's appeared on MTV’s “America’s Best Dance

    Crew.”

    ”I couldn’t imagine not dancing, but you’ve got to leave your heart on the floor and hope for the best,” she said.

    -- Kathleen Bulson

    Tags: madison square garden, knicks city dancers, dancing, sports, stuff that's cool, entertainment

  • Yuppie scum still told to die, 20 years later

    Sunday July 27, 2008 1:33 PM By David Freedlander

    Neighborhood activist John Penley, with warning

    The week long commemoration of the Tompkins Square Park Riots (or Tompkins Square Park Police Riots, in the argot of the locals) kicked off today with a concert in the park today and will continue next weekend with film screenings and more music from Hungry March Band, Leftover Crack, and others.

    The celebration got off to an inauspicious beginning today. Soon after the "Die Yuppie Scum" chant went up, the skies darkened, thunder cracked, and rain fell, and the few dozen black clad hardcore fans were forced to scatter.

    Check back with amny.com for more on the anniversary later in the week

    --David Freedlander

    Tags: tompkins square park riots, events, history

  • Holy politics

    Sunday July 27, 2008 8:27 AM By Julie Gordon

    Obama and McCain T-shirts are shmatas compared to these nifty new political statement pieces: candidate yarmulkes.

    On the Obama version, one side says "Obamica" (Kippah is the Hebrew word for yarmulke), the other says "My bubby is voting Obama" (Bubbe means "grandmother"). McCain's says "McCippah" on one side and "John McCain is zayer shain" on the other (which means "John McCain is great").

    — Julie Gordon

    Tags: politics

  • Let Urbanite plan your weekend!

    Friday July 25, 2008 10:07 AM By Lauren Johnston

    Not sure what you should do this weekend? Well we are, so here's a list of best bets for this weekend, which by the way is predicted to shine down some of the summer's best weather:

    Hit the beaches: Yeah, in the 1980s there were syringes and other icky stuff, but now they're all cleaned up. [STORY]

    Go to the movies: So maybe you don't like the heat. The beach isn't your thing. Ok, hit the movie theaters. We order you to see "Man on Wire." ASAP! [REVIEWS]

    Drink free booze: What recession? These restaurants will take your money for the food, but they insist on giving you the wine for free. [STORY]

    Go sailing: Who knew there were so many spots around town where you can unfurl the sails and hit the open water? Well, you know now, so get your boat shoes. [STORY]

    Tags: entertainment, music, movies

  • Latest on the Grimaldi's tax flap ...

    Friday July 25, 2008 9:54 AM By Lauren Johnston


    Image from Flickr user Harris Graber

    There was a gasp heard 'round the city this week when news broke that famed Brooklyn pizzeria Grimaldi's had been shut down by the state for unpaid back back taxes. But then it reopened just a few hours later.

    As originally reported by Newsday reporter Anthony DeStefano:

    "For two years the pizzeria, tucked under the Brooklyn Bridge, has been embroiled in a dispute with officials about unpaid state sales and withholding taxes totaling about $160,000, said Tom Bergin of the Department of Taxation and Finance."

    But yesterday, owner Frank Ciolli told The Brooklyn Paper that the ordeal was just “something that got screwed up and we sorted it out.”

    He said: “I’m not at liberty to give you details because my accountant would be upset with me,” Ciolli added. “It was some kind of accounting error. People make mistakes.”

    Accounting glitch? Tax evasion? The saga continues ...

    Tags: grimaldi's, brooklyn, economy, food, pizza, restaurants

  • Calling all 'Star Wars' fans!!!

    Thursday July 24, 2008 12:30 PM By Pete Catapano

    “Star Wars” fans haven’t had much reason to be seen in public together since the 2006 release of “Revenge of the Sith.”

    But on Friday night, wanna-be Jedis can meet up outside the Times Square Toys R Us as the store will be releasing toys and games for the new animated film, “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” at midnight.

    According to the store’s spokesman, hundreds of fans and collectors (some even in costume! Maybe Greedo will be there!) will start lining up at 9 p.m at the store.

    On hand will be Darth Vader himself with an entourage of Storm Troopers.

    “The Clone Wars” will be released on Aug. 15.

    The Anakin Skywalker action figure

    Tags: star wars, toys, movies

  • Williamsburg: Not just for hipsters

    Thursday July 24, 2008 11:58 AM By Lauren Johnston


    Photo by Sam Horine

    Williamsburg really is something more than a hipster hideaway.

    [Full gallery of Williamsburg photos HERE]

    The scene on the neighborhood's main drag Bedford Avenue, however, does not exactly give this away. The sidewalks are thick with roaming twenty-somethings sporting black skinny jeans, huge sunglasses, and very little body fat.

    "It's becoming a youth demographic. I know people in their 40s who say, 'I couldn't live here, I'd feel like a dinosaur," said Gaynor Coté, who has owned and lived in her building on North 5th Street since 1981.

    It's true, there has been a big influx of young artists and musicians in recent years, but this crowded strip represents just one rich slice of Billyburg.It is the connector tissue between two historic areas that offer remnants of Williamsburg's industrial past and are still home to vibrant immigrant communities: Hasidic Jews, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans to the south, Italians and Poles to the north.

    Coté has seen big changes in the 27 years she's lived in Williamsburg. The Bedford stretch was "absolutely desolate" when she arrived.

    "I remember I came outside three or four years ago, there was a traffic jam on Bedford and I just laughed," she said. "When I would go to work in the 1980s, if there were a dozen people on the subway platform, it was crowded."

    The landscape is still changing. The post-hipster wave of residents seems to be affluent young families moving in as entire blocks of old factory buildings vanish and slick glass towers rise up between the shorter two and three-family dwellings.

    Rev. Joseph Fonti, the priest at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church for the past seven years, has had a front row seat to this sort of feverish development. A tall condominium sprouted just a few yards beyond his church office.

    "I've been waving to people on the balconies," he said.

    He's hopeful the church will attract new members, but said several parishioners have been displaced by rising prices as new construction takes over.

    "We really haven't been able to maintain the integrity of the neighborhood because it's constantly moving. I do hope when it quiets down, the Williamsburg that I was privileged to be a part of with its cultural diversity can continue," he said.

    That cultural diversity began decades ago with industry.

    In the mid-1800s, the area was a manufacturing and financial hot spot. Big name companies like Corning, Domino Sugar, Pfizer and Standard Oil all got their starts in Williamsburg.

    And when the Williamsburg Bridge opened in 1903, phasing out ferry service across the East River, the population swelled as thousands of immigrants vacated their Lower East Side tenement buildings in favor of life across the water.

    These days, that life is getting more crowded and more expensive.

    Richard Santiago, 41, an accountant who was born and raised in Williamsburg, remembers when a carton of milk cost $.50. He spent his youth break-dancing with a string of street crews and now devotes three nights a week to teaching free dance sessions at McCarren Park.

    "I can remember a friend of mine bought a property on Skillman [Avenue] for $80,000, a two-family with a nice backyard," he said. "Now that same property is worth approximately $600,000. Welcome to Williamsburg, yo."

  • Throwback Thursday: It's Mr. Pathmark!

    Thursday July 24, 2008 9:09 AM By Rolando Pujol

    James Karen plays Mr. Pathmark in a 1985 commercial for the supermarket chain. (Video via mycommercials on YouTube)

    Last Thursday, we pushed our shopping cart down NYC's memory aisle and pulled the disco ShopRite Can Can commercial off the shelf. Which got us to thinking about another New York supermarket commercial classic: The ads for Pathmark starring James Karen.

    Don't know his name? Not a surprise. But you no doubt know his face. In addition to those Pathmark ads, Karen has had a rich career, often playing rather contemptible characters. On "The Jeffersons," he played a white supremacist who would have rather died than have George Jefferson revive him after a heart attack. On "Lou Grant," he played a heartless real-estate developer who throws an elderly artist (played brilliantly by James Earl Jones' dad) out of a skid-row building he wants to tear down.

    But there was nary a hint of that bad guy in his Pathmark commercials, where he played an avuncular spokesman who eagerly shared all manner of deals that awaited you at Pathmark.

    He represented the chain from the 1970s to, we believe, the early 1990s. The commercial below is from 1985, part of the catchy Pathmark "No. 1" campaign. (Which was even more memorable on the Spanish stations, where it was "Pathmark Numero Uno!")

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: throwback thursday

  • Museum of Sex now focused on animals

    Thursday July 24, 2008 6:25 AM By Lauren Johnston


    Photo by Rune Olsen

    It's like the porno interpretation of "Planet Earth."

    Manhattan's Museum of Sex has apparently run out of ideas for exhibits on human sexual proclivities, and so has moved on to the animal kingdom.

    "Sex in the animal kingdom is just as complex and nuanced as it is for humans," the curators say on the museum's Web site, there they offer peeps at certain items in the show, like this photo tagged "deer threesome."

    The exhibit opens today and runs through Spring 2008. If you're not into animalia, there's also an exhbit on robot sex.

    Tags: museums, manhattan, entertainment, arts

  • Miss Universe visits amNewYork

    Wednesday July 23, 2008 9:40 AM By Julie Gordon

    The amNewYork offices were abuzz with chatter and stares this afternoon, as Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza swung by to chat with us about her recent win.

    [PHOTOS OF ALL THE MISS UNIVERSE CONTESTANTS HERE]

    "I just thought, 'My God,' I thought of my country, and I thought, 'We made it,' " the 22-year-old Venezuelan beauty told us about the moment she was crowned.

    Mendoza has been in the spotlight since age 12, when she was discovered in her home country. By 15, she was working as a model in New York.

    "But then I just decided that modeling wasn't enough," she said. "I wanted something similar but to have more relationships with the people."

    Hence, the pageants (and wins), which she says are an important way to empower women.

    But how about the critics who say pageants do just the opposite?

    "I guess everybody has their point of view, like not everybody likes pasta," Mendoza said. "The most important thing is that we are the ones in the pageant, and you have to be happy with what you do. And we love what we do. Nobody pushes us to be in the pageant."

    During her year of reign, Mendoza will travel around the world, raising awareness for HIV/AIDS. After that, she wants to pursue her other interests, perhaps interior designing, hosting or radio work.

    — Julie Gordon

    Tags: miss universe, entertainment, fashion

  • WD50’s Wylie Dufresne – the Tofu KING – shares his winning recipes

    Wednesday July 23, 2008 9:34 AM By Lauren Johnston

    Chef Wylie Dufresne is now the tofu king - and he wants to share his winning recipes with YOU.

    In classical WD-50 fashion, Dufresne pulled out a few of his many emulsifiers (a strain called A16M and another unappetizingly named gellan gum) to beat back the competition at yesterday’s Tofu Around the World Cook-off at the Astor Center in the East Village.

    Required to make two dishes — one savory, one sweet — ol’ Wylie pulled out the double dose of A16M for whimsical takes on two traditional tofu creations — a thickened miso soup with instant tofu noodles and a creamy tofu custard with caramelized bananas and something he calls granola sleeves.

    If was enough to hold off chef Erik Battes of Perry St. Café, Edward Higgins of Insieme and Akinobu Suzuki of Sakagura to take home $5,000 prize along and the bean curd crown.

    Here are the recipes Dufresne used to with the competition. Suffice to say they are the test of a skilled and patient cook.

    Miso Soup with Instant Tofu Noodles

    SERVES FOUR PEOPLE

    INSTANT TOFU NOODLES

    340 grams firm House brand tofu

    150 grams water

    *6.1 grams methyl cellulose (Type A16M)

    Salt

    Toasted sesame oil

    Bring water to a boil and shear in A16M and blend with tofu. Season with salt and sesame oil to taste and chill to 55 degrees. Once cool, place the mixture into a piping bag and use to fill individual squeeze bottles. Reserve in fridge until needed.

    - Pervaiz Shallwani

    [MORE AFTER THE JUMP]MISO SOUP

    3 liters water

    165 grams bonito flakes

    55 grams kombu

    30 grams red miso paste

    Hold water and kombu at 140 degrees for one hour. Remove kombu and raise heat to 176 degrees and add the bonito flakes, turn off heat. Let the flakes soak for ten minutes and strain out the kombu and whisk in the miso paste.

    TO SERVE

    2 scallions, thinly sliced

    4 shiitake mushrooms, sliced and lightly sautéed

    Warm four soup bowls and place some shiitake and scallion in each bowl. Ladle 4 ounces of soup into each bowl and serve with one of the tofu mixture squeeze bottles. Direct the diner to squeeze tofu into the soup and stir. Tofu noodles will form instantly.

    * Methyl Cellulose forms a gel when heated and melts into liquid when cools. In general, its amount should be 1-1.5% of the rest of the ingredients. Methyl Cellulose can be ordered on www.le-sanctuaire.com.

    Warm Tofu Custard with Caramelized Banana and Granola Sleeves

    SERVES FOUR PEOPLE

    TOFU SLEEVES

    350 grams firm House brand tofu

    70 grams sugar

    35 grams glucose powder

    Blend the above three ingredients together and spread onto acetate sheets 3 by 4 1/2 inches and allow to air dry overnight.

    BANANA GRANOLA

    250 grams rolled oats

    25 grams orange juice

    35 grams brown sugar

    12 grams honey

    Pinch of salt

    125 grams dried banana

    Mix all of the above ingredients, except for the dried banana, together in a bowl and spread onto a baking tray. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and allow to cool. Fold in the dried banana. Using a heat sealer, shape the tofu rectangles into packages and stuff with the granola and seal. Place in 125 degrees oven for six hours until crispy and reserve.

    CARAMEL

    250 grams milk

    *5 grams gellan gum (low acyl)

    125 grams caramelized sugar

    190 grams brown butter

    1.5 grams salt

    36 grams gelatin, bloomed

    Shear gellan into milk and bring to a boil and place in a blender while running. Add the sugar, brown butter, bloomed gelatin, and the salt (in that order). Pour out onto a tray and allow to cool. Once cool, using a ring cutter punch out rounds to fit the bottom of four dessert bowls.

    * Gellan gum can be also be ordered on www.le-sanctuaire.com.

    TOFU CUSTARD

    170 grams soft House brand tofu

    30 grams sugar

    75 grams A16 solution*

    Blend the above ingredients together and reserve.

    *A16 SOLUTION

    200 grams water

    1 gram methylcellulose (type A16)

    Bring the water to a boil and shear in the A16, cool to 55 degrees.

    TO SERVE

    1 banana, thinly sliced

    20 grams sugar

    Sprinkle the sugar onto the banana slices and caramelize with a blow torch. Place a caramel disk into four dessert bowls and ladle 4 ounces of the tofu custard into each bowl. Wrap with plastic and bake at 200 degrees for fifteen minutes. Remove the plastic and top with caramelized bananas and place a tofu granola sleeve into each bowl and serve. Direct diners to crush the sleeve onto the custard and enjoy!

    Tags: chefs, wylie dufresne, food, entertainment

  • HBO doesn’t really vant you to drink blood

    Wednesday July 23, 2008 9:17 AM By Ryan Chatelain

    TruBlood "beverage" ad on West 34th Street at Ninth Avenue.

    Don’t be a sucker (pun fully intended) for those ads plastered around town for a new “synthetic blood nourishment beverage” called TruBlood.

    No, drink makers haven’t gone all creepy on us. There is no such beverage. Instead, these ads are part of a campaign by HBO to generate interest in a new TV series, “True Blood,” which premieres Sept. 7. The ads direct people to a viral Web site, trubeverage.com, which keeps the blood-drink ruse up.

    According to IMDB.com, the series “follows Sookie Stackhouse, a barmaid living in Louisianna [sic] who can read people’s minds, and how her life is turned upside down when the Vampire Bill, walks into her place of employment two years after vampires ‘came out of the coffin’ on national television.”

    Basically, from what I gather, the show is about vampires living among everyday people. “Six Feet Under” creator Alan Ball is the brains behind this series, which some observers are already predicting is destined for success nearing “Sopranos” or “Sex and the City” proportions. We’ll see.

    But you have to admit the advertising campaign is a unique approach and an attention grabber.

  • Doomed Starbucks killing their coffee buzz

    Tuesday July 22, 2008 3:52 PM By Garett Sloane

    Avi Dayan enjoys coffee at the Starbucks at 565 Fifth Ave., which is closing. [MORE PHOTOS] (RJ Mickelson/amNY)

    Avi Dayan is a man wronged.

    His Starbucks, at 565 Fifth Ave., is among 11 in the city targeted for closure by the overextended coffee-shop chain.

    “It’s not right,” he says. Dayan works nearby, comes down “two, three times a day” and knows the people who work there. He asks if there is anything that can be done to save it, and finds no relief in the fact that the Starbucks on the other side of the block at 575 Fifth Ave. has been spared.

    With a Starbucks practically everywhere, it’s hard to imagine that people are attached to any of them, but customer loyalty runs deep. So when the company announced it was closing more than 600 locations nationwide, it was more than just an inconvenience for some people.Another regular at that doomed Starbucks, Professor Joe Omokwe, doesn’t see the logic of the decision. “It’s irrational,” he says.

    The CUNY professor also works at the Ghanese consulate on East 47th Street. He carries a book of Greek letters, but soon he won’t be able to read at his usual spot, the 565 Fifth Ave. Starbucks, around the corner from the consulate. The shop at 575 has no room for reading.

    That won’t be a problem for Sandy Yadad. He was sitting comfortably the other night at a Starbucks at East 36th Street and Madison Avenue, just before closing time.

    “I am very happy,” he says of the survival of his Starbucks.

    Yadad is here twice a week. He studies at the Science Business Industry Library nearby, but sometimes he comes from his home in Jersey City just to work in this well-lighted Starbucks.

    “I like the employees. I like the incredible playlist of music. I like the fact that I can sit here quietly and do my work,” Yadad says as Bob Dylan plays in the background

    It may seem like random forces at work, leading Omokwe and Dayan to shuffle along while leaving Yadad’s routine unhindered.

    Only the “executive and field leadership teams” know the corporate calculus that spared 575 Fifth Ave. but not 565. On the surface, 565 is superior — more tables and better air conditioning. But Starbucks writes in an e-mail that the “teams used several criteria to identify stores for closure” among them terms like “market conditions” and “profitability.”

    A barista at the spared Starbucks at 575 Fifth Ave. agrees, saying there’s more to it than chance. He seems to have faith in the guiding hand of corporate governance.

    “There’s a bigger plan at work,” he says.

    -- Garett Sloane

    Tags: economy, shopping, restaurants, neighborhoods, manhattan

  • amNY.com: The Subway Musician Project

    Tuesday July 22, 2008 11:36 AM By Lauren Johnston

    amNY.com likes our city's subway musicians. Stumbling across a good one can make an otherwise pretty crappy commute into at least a tolerable commute. The problem is, you might not see the same one twice. That's why we want to start keeping a log. [Find it at www.amny.com/subwaymusicians]

    We've started a datasbase of a few we like and we want you to help us out. We're creating a file for each musician we like with some basic information, a photo and audio and video when possible. And don't worry, it's easy, just click and upload.

    But here's what we need you to do first: Next time you see a great musician in the subway, snap a photo, shoot some cell phone video, find out their name, remember the station where you saw them and send it in so the rest of our readers can see them too. Let's get started and see how many we can collect.

    Click [HERE] to check out the project and see how easy it is to add entries.

    Tags: subway musicians, arts, entertainment, transit, transportation

  • Date set for beginning of end of Gottleib empire

    Tuesday July 22, 2008 7:37 AM By David Freedlander

    At least one part of the Gottleib mega-empire, which spans an estimated $2 billion worth of mostly empty and derelict buildings in the historic areas of the West Village and Chelsea, is slated to go on the auction block later this week.

    Vicky and Dan Gabay, who co-owned the property with the Gottleibs received a rare legal victory over the eccentric landowners, who they claim kept them from selling the property by multiple appeals in the courts, and when that failed, changing the locks on the building.

    The rundown, five-story brick tenement is expected to fetch around $5 million at auction.

    The auction date is set for August 20. The legal notice will be published this Thursday.

    Updates TK as we learn more.

    For more on the Gottleibs, check this out. And full photo gallery of the property click [Curbed]

    And more on the Gottleib empire [Curbed]

    --David Freedlander

    Tags: auction, gottleibs, west village, real estate

  • McCarren Park Pool 'Gets into the Groove'

    Tuesday July 22, 2008 7:30 AM By Lauren Johnston

    We're all about observing the ever-shifting landscape of NYC's streets here at Urbanite, and tonight McCarren Park Pool offers a window into some nitty-gritty-city past via a screening of Madonna's first big movie, 1985's "Desperately Seeking Susan."

    It was a time before the A-Rod rumors, a time before bombs like "Shanghai Surprise" or "Who's that Girl," when the appearance of Madge on the big screen spurred fan hysteria and stampedes at movie theaters. And it's chance to check out New York City circa 1985 -- including great shots of Madonna's pre-fame stomping grounds in the East Village and the Port Authority.

    And of course the film gave us the eternally killer dance tune, "Get into the Groove." With the return of the black legging still in full effect, in Williamsburg especially, you might just be able to make believe you're back in 1985 yourself if you hit the pool tonight.

    The film is free tonight at McCarren Park Pool. Directions [HERE] Films begin at dusk.

    Photos of the young Madonna from her brother's tell-all book [HERE]

    Check the original movie trailer below (with a weird bank-teller woman's voice) and the video for "Get into the Groove":

    Oh, and this guy in Toronto who REALLY likes the song:

    Tags: madonna, movies, entertainment, brooklyn, arts

  • Duly Noted

    Monday July 21, 2008 12:07 PM By Rolando Pujol

    A sign we love: Leon's Burger Hut on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg. (Photo by Rolando Pujol)

    * Serious Eats reminds us that today is National Junk Food Day, which means it's as good a time as any to watch Mackenzie Phillips sing "Junk Food Junkie" on a Jacksons family special. [Serious Eats]

    * Here are a few more gems that would fit into our signs gallery, including Phil's Stationery, where you can have "Zerox copies" made. [Ephemeral New York]

    * If you seek to buy a house that Hollywood will want to rent out for a shoot, consider Argyle Road in Victorian Flatbush. Thank Sophie's Choice for that? [Ditmas Park Blog]

    * A worthy old storefront: The Stapleton Shoe Company in the Financial District. [EV Grieve]

    * An interesting pocket of the West Village is losing its charms. [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

    * Savoring the return of the Red Hook vendors to the ball fields. [Gowanus Lounge and Eater]

    * Making the rounds at New York's classic restaurants. [Metromix via Eater]

    * Gate thieves set their sights on Brownstone Brooklyn. [Brownstoner]

    * The Sunshine Hotel, that SRO on the Bowery that's now neighbors with the New Museum of Contemporary Art, will shine on for three years. [Curbed]

    * A delicious look at an old menu from Child's restaurant. [Ephemeral New York]

    * Ugly Betty comes to 21st Street in Queens. [Queens Crap]

    * Con Ed has a great app for tracking power outages. [A Fine Blog]

    * And thanks to Bill Harris for answering a question about the opening credits of "The Equalizer." The Olde Garden was on West 29th Street off Sixth Avenue.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: duly noted, signs

  • In Brooklyn, finding community in composting

    Sunday July 20, 2008 2:53 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Wallace and Karolina of Crown Heights, Brooklyn dump a months worth of organic waste into compost recycling garbage cans. (Photo by Jason Andrew)

    The tree that grows in Brooklyn thrives on potato peels and eggshells.

    In Fort Greene Park each Saturday, locals deposit vegetable scraps, fruit rinds and coffee grounds in six metal garbage cans placed alongside the Greenmarket. Volunteers transport the organic waste to three local community gardens where the leftovers decompose into nutrient-rich compost.

    But first, the raw material has to be moved.

    “It‘s wet, heavy, messy stuff,” said Roy Arezzo, of Fort Greene’s Carlton Bears Garden. “It’s not for everybody.”

    But for those who harvest the food scraps (meat and fish aren’t allowed), reducing inputs into the waste stream is a reward – and an opportunity to give back to the community.

    “You have to be a little crazy to haul compost,” admitted Alice Hartley, another core group member who helped lay the groundwork for the compost transport system in October 2006 and now hauls the food scraps on an industrial trike built expressly for that purpose.

    The vegicycle, as it’s called, has a single speed, foot brakes and a caged front platform to haul 10 garbage bags brimming with food waste.

    Depending on the weekend, it travels between Carlton Bears Garden, Greene Acres Garden in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Hollenback Community Garden in Clinton Hill.

    Charlie Bayrer, a Clinton Hill handyman, has been composting for 11 years at Hollenback. He estimated that food scraps from Fort Greene Greenmarket drop-off account for half of the ingredients used to generate the 20 cubic yards of compost his garden produces each year.Donating leftover food is one thing. Schlepping it and shoveling it and tending to five working compost heaps that generate temperatures of 160 degrees Fahrenheit is another. Bayrer was surprised when someone at the market said dropping off food scraps made him feel better about himself. But the veteran composter is also open to increased involvement on the part of the public.“ It would just be nice if they were more curious about what happened to it after the fact.”

    “It’s a pretty low-maintenance arrangement at this point,” said Alice Hartley, noting

    that the group hasn’t missed a weekend since the project began. Neither rain, nor snow, nor 90-degree temperatures keep them from their rounds. Yet, there is a certain irony in exerting so much human energy to move food scraps away from what could seem like a perfectly good gestation spot.

    Metal trash barrels punctuate pathways in Fort Greene Park’s 30-acre, 161-year-old expanse, but as in most spots in the city, there are no designated receptacles for organic waste. “Fort Greene Park doesn’t want food waste in their park,” said Arezzo, a science teacher who started a food-waste compost project at a Williamsburg school. “The Parks Department has a lot on their plate and they’re very afraid of compost food waste.”

    A department spokesperson said compost piles “benefit the city by diverting organic waste from the waste stream” and noted that Parks composts branches, wood chips and shrubbery clippings on city parkland, for example, the Mount on the east side of Central Park, near 105th Street.

    Hartley hopes her group’s efforts will inspire others. “We hope this program will take off on a bigger scale. We’ve had some talks with Greenmakret people about replicating this model.”

    New York City Greenmarket Director Michael Hurwitz called the compost trek a prime method of small -scale sustainable waste management. “I would ultimately like to be composting in everyone of our markets,” he said. Hurwitz takes his rinds to the compost drop-off site at the market. But occasionally, his leftover vegetable parts end up closer to home. In his windowbox.

    “Sometimes if I’m done eating a turnip,” said Hurwitz, “I’ll just stick it down in the soil.”

    -- Laura Silver

    Veg out: Learn about how to compost your food scraps

    The New York City Compost Project (http://www.nyccompost.org/) works with groups in the five boroughs to offer workshops and classes on converting organic waste into “black gold.”

    Tags: composting, brooklyn, environment, stuff that's cool

  • Con Ed urges some Brooklynites to ease up on the AC use after outages -- no sweat, right?

    Sunday July 20, 2008 2:31 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Con Ed crews work to restore power in Borough Park on Sunday. (Photos by Kathleen Bulson)

    Heading into the sixth day of a heat wave Monday, Con Ed is asking some Brooklynites to conserve power after the scorching temperatures left 2,000 customers without power Sunday morning.

    By the end of the day, Con Ed crews restored power to all but 20 customers in Sunset Park and Bay Ridge. However, the utility company was still reducing voltage to Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, Borough Park and Prospect Park by 8 percent and asking thousands of residents to turn off unnecessary appliances, including air conditioners.

    Failed electric cables were the source of the outages, which were met with a high of 94 yesterday. The heat wave is expected to fizzle out by mid-week, when temperatures drop to the mid-80s.

    Lower temperatures would be a huge relief for folks yesterday who were trying to find creative ways to stay cool.

    “I took the kids to my mothers,” said Jennie Gonzalez, 47, of Sunset Park, who lost power for 19 hours. “It was the worst day ever. I threw out everything in the fridge.”

    -- Marlene Naanes and Kathleen Bulson

    Miriam Aviles, 58, cools off Sunday with her granddaughter Destiny Menendez, 5, in Borough Park.

    Tags: brooklyn, con edison, heat wave, borough park, weather

  • Howard Johnson's may be toast in Times Square, but is still frying clams up in Lake George

    Sunday July 20, 2008 12:01 PM By Rolando Pujol

    The Howard Johnson's restaurant in Lake George Village is one of only three HoJo's left in existence. The chain once numbered in the thousands. (Photos by Rolando Pujol)

    It was three years ago this month that Howard Johnson's closed in Times Square, an event that Urbanite did not take very well.

    For us, the Times Square HoJo's was an miraculous holdout, so special and noteworthy that we always cringed when we walked by, fearing that the great, flashing, turquoise-and-orange neon lights would be turned off for good.

    When news of its imminent demise finally did land, we photographed the place to no end, and even scooped up a few historic gems from the restaurant during an on-site auction a few days after the shutter fell. (We are, for one, a proud owner of a "Cocktail" sign that glowed for decades above the bar that served Brandy Alexanders until the bitter end. It was, indeed, at this bar that we had our first, and most assuredly last, Brandy Alexander.)

    So for us, the very name Howard Johnson's evokes memories of a time and place that we can never touch again. That is, unless you hop in a car and drive north on I-87 to delightfully kitschy Lake George Village. There, you will find some of the most impressive pockets of 1950s roadside Americana still in existence. Call it Wildwood north.

    During a walk along Canada Street, your senses will be overwhelmed with neon-lit, space-age mom-and-pop motels, haunted-house exhibits, schlocky tourists traps of all description, salt-water-taffy joints, and hokey family attractions, one complete with a 1950s giant Muffler Man lording over a miniature golf course set in an ersatz NYC subway system, which manages to get wrong some of the colors for the train lines.

    And, lest we forget, you will find one of three surviving Howard Johnson's restaurants on the planet.

    The Lake George HoJo's is a true thing of beauty. It retains its colonial-style orange roof, and its weather vane featuring the Pie Man holding a plate of goodies before the ever-eager Simple Simon and his faithful pooch.

    Inside, the wall near the cash register still trumpets the various flavors of HoJo's ice cream. Once seated by your impossibly friendly host, you are handed a menu that retains the classic grub items that made HoJo's famous. Fried clams? Got 'em and they're "Tendersweet," just as you would expect. The ice cream? Still a treat. As the menu reminds us, it was Mr. Howard D. Johnson himself who decided to double the butterfat content of the ice cream to make it oh so good. He eventually whipped up 28 flavors, one of the many ingenius moves of a businessman who turned a Massachusetts drugstore he bought in 1925 into what was once the restaurant king of the highway.

    The ambiance of this HoJo's isn't quite as intensely old school as the one in Times Square, or even the one we patronized as a child in Tarrytown, N.Y. But it still retains touches that make it clear you're not noshing at just any diner. One of the dining rooms, for example, has a large wall sculpture of Simple Simon and the Pie Man. Another room has an decades-old mural, a hand-painted map of the historical sites in the Lake George region. Helpfully, the map does include the Howard Johnson's, which may not have been historic at the time of the map's design, but certainly is today.

    We were charmed by the decent people who work there. This restaurant is run by the DeSantis family, who once operated other Howard Johnson's franchises in the area. The hostess immediately noticed our avid curiosity, and indulged our questions and even offered us some memorabilia. And she also shared a newsy morsel: Of the three remaining HoJos on Earth, the one in Bangor, Maine, is for sale. Gulp. The other HoJo's we haven't mentioned is on the other side of the Adirondacks, in Lake Placid, and continues to go strong.

    By the way, as an added incentive to visit Lake George, there is also a Howard Johnson's motel there. (The motels and hotels were long ago split from the restaurants, and remain a viable business.) This particular HoJo's has a must-be-seen-before-it's-gone Polynesian theme, complete with an Easter Island head out on the lawn and Polynesian shows in the evenings. So why haven't you booked a stay yet?

    Finally, we'll resist the urge to close this post on wistful note, because HoJo's aficionados have reason to hope for a comeback. La Mancha Group, the company that now retains the rights to the Howard Johnson's restaurant trademarks, is said to be considering reviving the HoJo's chain. Click here to do your part to put the Pie Man back in the kitchen. Simple Simon will thank you.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: howard johnson's, nostalgia, road trips, restaurants, history

  • Lost New York: Roll film!

    Friday July 18, 2008 1:48 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Can anyone tell us where the Olde Garden, which appears in the opening credits of "The Equalizer," used to be?

    Here at Urbanite and on some of our favorite city blogs, there's been lots of talk this week of a different kind of preservation -- old New York saved on film.

    After Jeremiah blogged about Jim Jarmusch's "Permanent Vacation," we looked at one of our favorite TV shows, "The Equalizer," which preserves in amber what can be inelegantly called "the mid 1980s Bernie Goetz fear and paranoia New York." Blogger EV Grieve also examines the menacing introduction to "The Equalizer," and asks a question we'd like answered, too: Where is/was the "Olde Garden" that appears in the introduction, which you really have to watch if you want some insight into the world's view of New York's state of public safety 23 years ago.

    Jeremiah later checked out "Moscow on Hudson," and hit pay dirt with a scene at the defunct Moisha's Luncheonette, where the egg cream may have first made its acquaintance with Manhattan.

    And EV Grieve did some more sleuthing and provides a handy roundup of TV shows that were filmed or based in New York back in the day.

    Here at Urbanite, expect more posts from time to time on our "Equalizer" discoveries. And somewhere, we have a tape of "McCloud" with remarkable footage from 1970 of First Avenue in the low 60s. There, big as life, you can see the home of the first TGI Friday's, which began as a neighborhood singles bar before co-founder Alan Stillman spread it far beyond its prosaic beginnings in the former old man's bar, The Good Tavern. And, by the way, new to YouTube today are fascinating interviews with Stillman and Ben Benson, whose differing philosophies on franchising their post-Friday's invention, Smith & Wollensky, led them to part ways.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Robert McCall (played by Edward Woodward) does some equalizing with a police source, with the Twin Towers gleaming in the distance.

    Tags: the equalizer, alan stillman, ben benson, urban archaeology, television, film, throwback thursday, restaurants, manhattan, history

  • Rooftop ice skating returning to New York

    Friday July 18, 2008 9:03 AM By Rolando Pujol

    The city will be getting its first rooftop ice-skating rink since the closing of the original Sky Rink on the West Side in the 1990s.

    City Ice Pavilion project had its groundbreaking Thursday atop a Sleepy’s Mattress store in Long Island City, on 32nd Place. It is expected to open in October 2008.

    Jill Feldman, spokesperson for the rink, to be called City Ice Pavilion, said that Long Island City presented a promising venue.

    “With so many real estate developments going up in the area, there will be more families and they saw an opportunity to build a community ice rink.”

    The City Ice Pavilion will have a NHL-sized ice rink and an air dome to protect it from bad weather. It will have public skating, an ice-skating school to teach both hockey and figure skating, and ice-skating lessons for both children and adults. There will also be free skating lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays for community groups.

    Local high schools and intramural leagues will also have access to the rink.

    The developer, Ekstein Development, builds apartments, office buildings, and recreational facilities. They are currently developing condominiums in Long Island City as well.

    The old “grungy” and much-missed Sky Rink was on a much higher location, the top floor of a 16-story building. Check out this Gothamist comments thread for memories of the old joint. And click here to see the last remaining vestige of the old Sky Rink, a fading sign that since this photo was taken has been obscured by large advertising banners.

    -- Simone Herbin

    Tags: sky rink, city ice pavilion, ice skating, history, sports, queens, manhattan, entertainment

  • At Port Authority, get your fruits, veggies and art

    Thursday July 17, 2008 7:05 PM By Rolando Pujol

    New York artist Tattfoo Tan, below, unveiled Thursday his public art project entitled NMS - Nature Matching System art project at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. (Photos: Megan Stride, above; RJ Mickelson, below)

    Fruits and veggies are good for you, and community organizers are hoping they’ll be good for Eighth Avenue, too.

    An enormous, produce-inspired, grid of color now covers the windows of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The art work was unveiled Thursday as part of an effort by the Times Square Alliance and the Fashion Center Business Improvement District to enliven this stretch of streetscape.

    The project, which is called “Get Your Daily Dose of Color” and runs along Eighth Avenue. and wraps around 42nd Street, is the first of a series of public art projects in the area.

    “This is really about the revitalization of Eighth Avenue and rethinking what it could be,” said Barbara Randall, executive director of the district improvement group. “We wanted to mentally and emotionally give pedestrians in the area a lift.”

    Malaysian artist Tattfoo Tan designed the artwork by using Photoshop to match the exact colors of the food to a printed square for the window in what he calls the “Nature Matching System.”

    Interested passerby can match up the number on each square to a legend on the Eighth Avenue side to learn which fruit or vegetable inspired the color.

    “It catches people’s attention, and then when they go the legend, they can learn more,” Tan, 34, said. “There’s more than meets the eye.”

    Pedestrians are already paying attention.

    “I like it. It makes me hungry for fruit,” said Angelia Rorison, 26, after feasting her eyes upon the windows Thursday. “I want a papaya right now!”

    The project will be on display for the next several months.

    -- Megan Stride

    Tags: port authority, arts, manhattan

  • Hank and Willie on the good ol' days

    Thursday July 17, 2008 3:05 PM By Emily Ngo

    From Game Face

    At 74 and 77, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays are far too old to play nine whole innings of baseball.

    But at a town hall edition of “Costas Now,” filmed last night at NYU's Skirball Center, the two legends proved they are never too old to talk baseball ... for hours.

    Aaron and Mays, arguably history’s greatest athletes, shared stories of their Negro league days, the blatant discrimination they faced in the major leagues and even admitted they can’t keep track of this generation’s young players. (Mays didn't recognize the Phillies' Jimmy Rollins.)

    Aaron said he had no problem with the controversial Barry Bonds overtaking his home run record, but asked that Bonds carry the honor “with dignity” as Aaron had.

    Mays, whose charming rambling are reminiscent of most grandfathers with tales to tell, disclosed the iconic images of his cap flying off as he rounded the bases was due to his hitting it off with his hand. He alluded to having taken enhancement medicine from his doctor to keep him going on the road.

    Several other big names stayed after Tuesday's All-Star game to discuss the sport’s most heated topics — performance-enhancing drugs (a subject that crept into every panel) and Hall of Fame honors, the decline of African-American players and the affordability of attending games as newer, more extravagant stadiums pop up around the country.

    Among the town hall’s other participants were: pitching great Jim Palmer, multi-sport athlete Dave Winfield, Bob "Gibby" Gibson, All-Star Evan Longoria and even Billy Crystal, who posed a question as a "fellow player."

    — Emily Ngo

    Tags: baseball, all-star game, hall of fame, sports

  • Ooops of the day

    Thursday July 17, 2008 11:22 AM By Elizabeth Nielsen

    The big, blue City Sights buses are difficult to miss. They always seem to be making tight right turns when I'm trying to cross the street. On my daily jaunt from the subway to the office today, I noticed something a little peculiar about them. I wasn't quick enough to get my camera, but fellow Urbaniter Lauren Johnston managed to catch one while out on her lunch break.

    Rockefeller. R-O-C-K-E-F-E-L-L-A-R.

    Jigga what?

    Anyway, the folks at City Sights may want to run a spell check on the side of their buses.

    We put in a call to City Sights NY offices, and were met with a long silence after we told them of the spelling gaffe. When we got a call back, they said that they're aware of the misspelling and are working to fix it.

    We'll be watching out for that.

    -- Lizzy

    Tags: city sights, spelling, signs, tours, tourists, rockefeller center, stuff that's cool

  • Throwback Thursday: The ShopRite Can Can Sale

    Thursday July 17, 2008 10:20 AM By Rolando Pujol

    A montage of scenes from the famous "disco" ShopRite Can Can commercial. Montage via X-Entertainment.com; commercial below via newlevel7 on YouTube.

    It's a New York television tradition that dates back decades, and yesterday, we were reminded of it when we stumbled upon a commercial for the ShopRite Can Can Sale. Twice a year, the people at ShopRite try to rid their shelves of cans by discounting them, and bombarding the tri-state airwaves with a happy little jingle that plays off the Moulin Rouge Can-Can.

    When I was a kid, the commercial played only in January, and its appearance unofficially signaled the end of the Christmas commercial season. Over the years, a July sale was added, and the commercial itself was updated. One constant has been the voice of "the ShopRite lady," who has been lending her talents to ShopRite ads since the 1970s.

    For our money, though, ShopRite should bring back the version shown below, with the Can Can girls kicking up a storm to a disco beat. The version first appeared in 1980 or so.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: commercials, throwback thursday, shoprite can can, television, shopping, old school

  • Queens' housing rut

    Thursday July 17, 2008 9:55 AM By Garett Sloane

    Housing sales in Queens are down 23.7 percent. (photo by hamishmaccunn on Flickr)

    Queens real estate experienced a sharp decline in sales in the second quarter, dropping 23.7 percent from the second quarter 2007.

    Long Island, however, is showing surprising signs of housing strength, according to the latest report from Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers.

    There was a 5.3 percent jump in home sales in Nassau in the second quarter compared to a year before. Suffolk saw a 4.7 percent increase in sales, according to the report released yesterday, which was compiled by Miller and Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

    The jump in sales activity was the first one reported on Long Island in six quarters, Miller said. The worst quarter in Nassau County was last quarter with a 23.1 percent drop in sales from the year before. Suffolk’s worst quarter was also the last, when sales were down 30.9 percent.

    Miller was not prepared to say the numbers show housing troubles are leaving the burbs.

    “The trend is your friend and one quarter does not make a trend,” he said. “I don’t know if this is an anomaly or the beginning of the bottom.”

    The average sales price in Suffolk was $445,256, up 10 percent from last year. In Nassau, the average was up one percent at $595,015.

    The report on Queens was less robust. Like in Manhattan and Brooklyn, fewer sales are being reported.

    “Queens is showing a commonality between the boroughs, which is essentially modest price increases … inventory creeps higher and a lower level of activity.”

    The average sales price in Queens in the second quarter was $488,431, up 1.1 percent from last year when the average was $482,971. (Garett Sloane)

    Tags: queens, real estate, long island, economy, development, neighborhoods

  • New stamps celebrate history of black cinema

    Thursday July 17, 2008 8:03 AM By Rolando Pujol

    Hallelujah art © Al Hirschfeld, licensed by the Margo Feiden Galleries Ltd., New York.

    The United States Postal Service and the Museum of African American Cinema unveiled in Harlem Thursday morning five commemorative stamps celebrating historical black films.

    The movie posters showcased on the stamps include "Black and Tan" featuring Duke Ellington, and "Princess Tam-Tam" starring Josephine Baker.

    Also included is the first major film to have an all-black cast, "Hallelujua"; the silent film, "The Sport of the Gods"; and "Caldonia," often said to be a predecessor to the modern music video.

    More information on buying the stamps here.

    -- Simone Herbin

    Tags: black cinema, stamps, stuff that's cool

  • Found: Café Boulud's missing Restaurant Week menu

    Thursday July 17, 2008 6:28 AM By Lauren Johnston


    Photo from Eater.com

    The newest installment of New York's Restaurant Week begins Monday [STORY]. In a city that has long been the dining envy of the world, we offer a primer on how to navigate this 238-eatery behemoth with tips from four foodies from places like Gourmet and Eater.com -- including the outspoken "it" chef David Chang.

    Added bonus -- we found out Café Boulud was not listed on the Restaurant Week site, but only because it didn't meet the city deadline. A quick call to the the restaurant's reps revealed it IS participating for lunch, and still has plenty of reservations.

    We were also able to snag a copy of the menu and are salivating over the Lamb Duo -- Keep reading for the menu ...

    -- Pervaiz Shallwani

    Restaurant Week Menu Summer 2008

    Scottish Salmon Tartar

    Crème Fraiche, Capers, Red Onion, Dill

    (OR)

    Vine Ripe Tomato Gazpacho

    Basil, Toasted Croutons, English Cucumber

    (OR)

    Hearts of Palm Salad

    Chayote, Baby Carrots, Diakon Radish, Grapefruit Vinaigrette

    ~

    Seared Sea Scallop

    Romesco Puree, Broccoli Rabe, Fennel Batons, Tomato Froth

    (OR)

    Ricotta Spinach Ravioli

    Confit Cherry Tomato, Parmesan – Mushroom Foam

    (OR)

    Lamb Duo

    Crispy Neck Confit, Grilled Leg of Lamb, Peppers “a la Basque”

    Eggplant Puree, Wild Arugula, Natural Jus

    ~

    Peanut Butter and Jelly Tart

    with Chocolate Ice Cream

    (OR)

    Apricot Crème Brule

    with Apricot Vanilla Ice Cream

    Tags: restaurants, quick bite, neighborhoods, manhattan, food

  • Someone tell Rudy: Squeegee men are back

    Wednesday July 16, 2008 12:16 PM By Pete Catapano

    A squeegee man in action in New York last October. (Photo by Runs with Scissors on Flickr)

    This was a surprise.

    While driving into Manhattan today around 11:30 a.m., I encountered something that I thought was long extinct from our streets: A squeegee man.

    I declined his offer to clean my filthy windows, but gave him money nonetheless as I sat in traffic on 37th Street while heading toward Broadway.

    He was the first "squeegee man" I've seen since Rudy Giuliani and former police commissioner declared war on the windshield washers in 1992.

    — Pete Catapano

    Tags: rudy giuliani, squeegee man, manhattan, history, crime

  • Update: Market diner may open in a few weeks

    Wednesday July 16, 2008 8:05 AM By Marlene Naanes

    The space-age Market Diner in Hell’s Kitchen, once a hangout for Frank Sinatra, could open in a few weeks, according to folks at sister eatery Cosmic Diner.

    The diner, which will feature an outdoor patio and an updated interior was set to open in early June but apparently has seen some setbacks. Owners are still unsure of a solid open date.

    The 1962 diner’s exterior, with its zig-zag roof in the Googie architectural style, will be surrounded by outdoor seating for up to a 100 people. Before it closed in 2006, the diner was known as one of the few businesses in Manhattan to have its own customer parking lot.

    The indoor changes will create a more natural and modern look, an owner has said. The decor will feature a rock sculpture and wooden furnishings.

    The eatery, at West 43rd Street and 11th Avenue, will also feature a bar that will sell frozen drinks. The Market will also add a couple of non-diner items to its classic American fare, such as spring rolls.

    The Tsinias family, which leases the diner from Moinian Group, has been in the diner business for almost 35 years and owns the Cosmic Diner, which moved to West 52nd Street and Eighth Avenue after many years in Columbus Circle.

    Tags: endangered nyc, signs, history, manhattan, market diner, restaurants

  • Rockin' out at Shea

    Wednesday July 16, 2008 7:38 AM By David Freedlander

    Today's Billy Joel concert at Shea marks the last concert at a venue that basically gave the world the stadium show, where tens of thousands of fans pour into a repurposed sports complex in order to rock out.

    The Beatles' show, according to a great piece by Nicholas Wapshott in last week's Sun, played Shea because

    The group's manager, Brian Epstein, turned to stadiums to meet the overwhelming demand from Beatles fans to see their young heroes. Looking for an enormous space to show off his lucrative acquisition, Epstein rejected the old Madison Square Garden as too small. When he was told the Garden was the largest venue in New York, Epstein responded, "Then we'll book football stadiums. We'll fill the largest arenas in the world."

    That concert was followed by one by Grand Funk Railroad five years later, a band known today only by regular listeners of the local classic rock station.

    Jethro Tull followed in 1976, along with the Who in 1982, Simon and Garfunkel in 1983, the Police in 1983, the Rolling Stones in 1989, Elton John & Eric Clapton in 1992, and Bruce Springsteen in 2003.

    And Soundcheck will have a Shea rockrospective on WNYC this afternoon.

    by David Freedlander

    Tags: rock, stadium, shea, concerts, music

  • 'Ko lman' garage could use a tune-up

    Wednesday July 16, 2008 6:54 AM By Lauren Johnston

    The frosty fleet of Koolman trucks have been making the rounds in Williamsburg, business as usual, but it looks like these white and mint green rigs that provide ice cream delights to so many by day are heading home to some shabby living conditions.

    We snapped this shot of the Grand Street Koolman garage in Williamsburg the other day (note the interior walls are painted the same two shades as the truck). And anyway, we're just saying that it looks like old Koolman could use a little love. Hope a makeover is in the works.

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: koolman, williamsburg, brooklyn

  • Gone fishing ... in Prospect Park

    Wednesday July 16, 2008 6:24 AM By Lauren Johnston

    The annual Macy's fishing contest kicks off today at noon at the Prospect Park Audobon Center, near the Boathouse.

    The contest began back in 1947 and lasts a week in July each summer. Participating kids (15 years and under) meet at the algae-covered Boathouse lake, pick up a free pole and start fishing - it's catch-and-release of course. The rules are that all caught fish must be returned to the lake alive.

    There's an extra challenge that will arm the winner with a whopper of a fish story for years to come. One giant fish named R.H. Macy has been tagged and released into the lake. Whoever hooks him wins a prize. There other stuff going on too - lessons in aquatic life and ecology and a "how-to" fishing session.

    We've gone before [VIDEO HERE]. It was fun - and it's great for a day like today [STUFF TO DO IN PROSPECT PARK]. We wish we could ditch the office and head on over .... but today we have to settle for vicarious fishing. If you go, here's how [DIRECTIONS]. And if you need more infor, here's where [CONTACT].

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: prospect park, parks, history, environment, brooklyn

  • Duly Noted

    Tuesday July 15, 2008 3:47 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Flower District greenery lends a tropical vibe to a No. 1 station

    entrance. (Photo by Rolando Pujol)

    * Lion and Tigers and Bears ... SI! Manhattan has the All-Star Lady Liberties, and Staten now has farm animal sculptures running amok. [Curbed]

    * More devastation in the theater district: Strip of buildings that housed restaurants is pulverized. [Lost City]

    * Graffiti makes comeback in Queens. [Queens Crap]

    * Wanna buy a Forest Hills bagel shop? Sure you do. [Forest Hills 72]

    * You can find an ancient A train in Kennebunkport, Maine. [Inwoodite]

    * Serious Eats rates Starbucks' new Vivanno smoothies against the offerings at smoothie king Jamba Juice. [Serious Eats]

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: duly noted

  • Hipsters love America as much as you do

    Tuesday July 15, 2008 2:09 PM By David Freedlander

    Being a hipster is not all about tight pants, indifference, and scorn.

    It's also about drinking beer. Specifically, cheap, watered-down Pilsener whose primary method of consumption is from cans.

    For years, we too thought this was because, as Wikipedia would have it, "its low price and gritty, urban image appealed to the indie and hipster scenes, resuscitating the brand and lending it a great deal of trendy cachet."

    Turns out it was a statement as counter-counter-cultural as Coors.

    As the FP has it, Pabst Brewing Company is now the largest American-owner brewer, even though they outsource the actual brewing to SAB Miller, which is, of course, based out of South Africa.

    -- David Freedlander

  • Doggies strut their stuff for charity

    Tuesday July 15, 2008 1:03 PM By Elizabeth Nielsen

    Tonight the dogs will hit the catwalk in the name of charity.

    The 'Paws for Style' event is being held for the 9th straight year to benefit an area animal shelter.

    Celebrites will walk with their canine companions in matching outfits.

    Co-host Wendy Diamond is Animal Fair magazine's editorial director and a judge on the CBS television show "Greatest American Dog." She says she doesn't promote dogs dressed up and toted around as accessories but she does occasionally dress dogs for charity.

    Celebs expected to attend are 'The Hills' Lauren Conrad and star of 'Hairspray,' Nikki Blonsky.

    When: July 15th, 2008

    Where: Arena: 135 W. 41st Street NY NY 10036

    Time: 7:00-9:30 pm

    Attire: Whatever you would wear on a cat walk or a dog walk!

    -Lizzy

  • 'Popcornsicles' with 'Top Chef's' Richard Blais

    Tuesday July 15, 2008 12:03 PM By Elizabeth Nielsen

    The feisty, faux-hawked Richard Blais is in Manhattan this week doing hawking his latest unorthodox kitchen creation: The 'Popcornsicle.' They involve taking balls of Garrett popcorn, and submerging them in a vat of liquid nitrogen. The final product is a salty and sweet freezing treat that will send clouds of exhaust spewing from your nostrils.

    We caught up with Richard Blais during his visit to New York City this week, and the 'Top Chef' finalist, best known for using unorthodox methods of cooking, talked about everything from liquid nitrogen to his newborn daughter.

    "It makes everything make sense," Blais said of his newborn. "My quick fire challenges now are changing diapers and burping a baby."

    What about teaching little Riley to cook?

    "We're going to try and get her to kick field goals first," Blais said with a smile.

    As for what's next for him? Blais was a little coy with amNewYork, but gave us a little insight as to how his exposure on 'Top Chef' will pay off.

    "I have a resturaunt in Atlanta called 'Home.' And then, knock on wood, I'm here negotiating a few television deals, so hopefully you haven't seen the last of Richard Blais on TV," Blais said.

    Hopefully we haven't, Richard.

    -Lizzy

  • Welcome to Times Square, 1985

    Tuesday July 15, 2008 11:14 AM By Rolando Pujol

    Times Square in 1985, as captured on the CBS series "The Equalizer." Notice Traci Lords' misspelled name on the marquee! This scene was shot before it was revealed that she was underage. As for the "Fascination" sign, there is still a very similar sign in Coney Island.

    Jeremiah over at Vanishing New York checks out Jim Jarmusch's 1980 flick "Permanent Vacation" for bits of the old St. Mark's Cinema, and finds a few interior shots that are worth the curatorial effort.

    Indeed, parsing old movies and TV shows is a great way to find bits of lost New York. A recent obsession of ours has been the first season of the 1980s CBS show "The Equalizer," which was shot almost exclusively on city streets. That season is now on DVD. The shots we've included show Times Square in all its gritty neon squalor, circa the fall of 1985, and give you just a taste of the wonders the show captured on film. We suppose Rudy Giuliani was back then too busy prosecuting gangsters to care much about urban porn.

    So, we ask, which movies or TV shows do you hit up for an old-school New York City fix? Our favorites include "The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3," "The Warriors," "Saturday Night Fever," "Three Days of the Condor" and most anything by Woody Allen or Martin Scorsese. But there are many, many others. On the TV front, old cop shows are a good source for New York street grit. The old NBC Mystery Wheel show, "McCloud," did a lot of street filming in the 1970s, and can still be seen late nights on TV 55 from Long Island.

    Let us know of your old-school favorites -- the more obscure and overlooked, the better.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    The TKTS booth was already there, and, if you look to the top left, you'll see a sign for Howard Johnson's.

    Tags: television, the equalizer, old school, neighborhoods

  • Bravo stars livin' la vida Williamsburg

    Tuesday July 15, 2008 9:21 AM By Lauren Johnston


    Camille Becerra, Christian Siriano and Goil Amornvivat all live in Williamsburg.

    OK, so long ago it became totally routine to see TV on the Radio guy and Brazilian Girls guy hanging around Billyburg:

    So our latest celeb-spotting conquest has been Project Runway winner Christian Siriano. We've been keeping an eye out to spy him cruising around Bedford Avenue ever since the NY Sun reported that he'd dumped his cramped East Village digs for a Williamsburg loft. (and they got a tour!)

    And we finally spotted him last night strolling past the N. 5th street taco truck around 7 p.m. - wearing a knit cap to cover his infamous bi-level hairstyle. So yeah, the taco truck is now officially FIERCE.

    But Siriano is hardly the first Bravo celebrity to call Williamsburg home. By our count, there are at least three and a half of them housed in hipsterville.

    We see Top Design's Goil Amornvivat coming out his is N. 9th street pad to walk his French Bulldog all the time (still sports those adorable pink glasses!), and last fall we interviewed Top Chef's Camille Becerra - who lives hear McCarren Park - in her Greenpoint restaurant Paloma.

    And now for that half-celeb -- we also frequently spot Project Runway TRESemme hair stylist Martin-Christopher - pictured here at right with Siriano - of course, looking fierce.

    Now, those are just the ones we've seen - we're sure there must be more!

    If the rumors are true, coming soon is the entire new Top Chef cast to live in the fancy condos on the edge of McCarren Park. If you've seen other Bravo stars floating around the 'burg, we want to know! So comment and tell us.

    [More Project Runway stuff for the fans: New contestant from NYC | PHOTOS | VIDEO]

    - Lauren Johnston

    Tags: williamsburg, bravo, project runway, neighborhoods, food, fashion, entertainment

  • Recon/NORT opens secret B'klyn discount outpost

    Tuesday July 15, 2008 6:46 AM By Lauren Johnston

    The Lafayette Street sneakerhead mecca Recon/NORT has opened a limited-time-only warehouse outpost on Roebling Street in Williamsburg. We stumbled upon it yesterday in an unmarked garage space between North 5th and 6th streets.

    The exterior is plain Army green when the metal grate is pulled down. It keeps limited hours - as far as when it's open, the people at the Lafayette store said, "It's basically open whenever they feel like opening the gate." According to the sales guy inside, it will be open on-and-off through the end of summer.

    Now the important stuff - the store's signature limited-edition Nikes are on sale for $40. T-shirts on sale for $10. Regular store prices range from around $80 to $160. So we suggest you get one of these, and wait for the metal gate to rise:

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: williamsburg, shopping, fashion, brooklyn

  • All-Star red carpet parade means bus detours

    Tuesday July 15, 2008 5:58 AM By Lauren Johnston


    Yogi Berra will be among the All-Stars to march on Sixth Ave. today. Getty Images

    It's the final day of All-Star madness and it kicks off today with a red carpet parade of All-Stars on Sixth Ave. between 40th and 58th streets.

    That means you'll get to see All-Star greats like Yogi Berra, Willie Mays and Whitey Ford strolling through the city streets. But it also means a lot of traffic disruptions today.

    The parade will run from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., but some streets will remain closed until 6 p.m. So if you're a bus commuter, you could be in for a detour. The MTA will divert the following lines:

    Due to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game Red Carpet Event on Avenue of the Americas between West 34th Street and West 58th Streets, the following buses are being detoured: M5, M6, M7, X1, X6, X7, X9, BXM2, QM1, QM1A, QM2, QM2A, QM3, QM4, QM15, QM16, QM17, QM18, QM10, QM12 and QM22.

    - Lauren Johnston

    Tags: all-star game, sports, manhattan

  • Duly Noted

    Monday July 14, 2008 2:41 PM By Rolando Pujol

    A sign we love: Smith Union Market in Carroll Gardens. (Photo by Rolando Pujol)

    * An all-American road trip (on scooters, no less) along the great Lincoln Highway ends today in Times Square. [City Room]

    * Long Island City's Pepsi Cola signing is moving -- relax, just a few hundred yards -- next Monday. [A Fine Blog]

    * The Harlem Park curse continues: Now the building is getting smaller. No shovels in dirt yet, by the way. [Curbed]

    * Bukharian immigrants, quite proud of their McMansions in Queens, want Councilwoman Melinda Katz to let the teardowns continue apace. [Queens Crap]

    * There's not stopping the senseless demolition of Con Ed's Kent Avenue Powerhouse. [Brownstoner]

    * LPC to consider creating a protected Prospects Heights district. [Brownstoner]

    * Whoops. The city may want to remove the year 1625 from the official seal. [New York Times]

    * "Mad Men" (and Grand Central Terminal's architecture) invade the interiors of shuttle trains. [Gawker]

    * Under cover of scaffolding, a corner building at 12th Street and Avenue A is torn down. [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

    * Renzo Piano is cool with anti-Spiderman design modifications to his easily scalable New York Times tower. [Unbeige]

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: duly noted, signs

  • Giglio priest Father Fonti leaving parish

    Monday July 14, 2008 12:01 PM By Lauren Johnston


    Getty Images

    The annual Festa del Giglio in Williamsburg began last Wednesday - but the first ceremonial lifting of the 80-foot giglio tower wasn't until yesterday afternoon and the streets were packed. Afterall, this is the main event. [PHOTOS]

    It was so hot, the soles of our shoes semi-melted and stuck to the pavement with every step. The giglio lifters were assembled beneath the five-ton structure -- more than 100 of them as usual -- with a brass band, a singer, an emcee and parish priest of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church (which puts on the feast) Father Joseph Fonti perched on top for the ride.

    The feast itself has been going on for more than 100 years, but having the priest ride atop is a more recent addition. It's a tradition Father Fonti started seven years ago when he took over the church - and one he'll pass on to his sucessor when he leaves the church this year. He announced yesterday this would be his last feast with the church on Havemeyer Street.

    "I started the tradition of the pastor riding the giglio," he said. "I did it because I didn't want to be up in the roof far away, I wanted to be with the people especially with the paranza (lifters)."

    The feast lasts until Sunday, June 20, and the "paranza" will lift the giglio again that day, and the evening of Thursday, July 17.

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: giglio, williamsburg, religion, neighborhoods, holiday traditions, history, food, brooklyn

  • Celebrating the street photography of Joe Wigfall

    Monday July 14, 2008 11:56 AM By Rolando Pujol

    Photos by Joe Wigfall, courtesy of WNYC; click on images to enlarge. A photo gallery here.

    The ballet of the street has long fascinated New Yorkers, including generations of street shooters from Robert Frank and Lee Friedlander to Bruce Davidson and Joel Meyerowitz.

    New York’s latest inductee into that art form is Joe Wigfall, winner of “The Street Shots Challenge,” a contest co-sponsored by WNYC Radio and The Camera Club of New York.

    Author and historian Luc Sante evaluated more than 9,000 images submitted by nearly 1,000 photographers before selecting Wigfall’s winning images.

    Wigfall, 51, has been shooting for more than 20 years, but turned his lens to the street only three years ago.

    The Harlem native now lives in Westchester County and commutes to a law-firm job in midtown. When does he have time to shoot? During his lunch hour when pedestrian traffic offers a variety of tableaux.

    “I love that interaction and immediate feedback with the street,” he says.

    The challenges that cause many photographers to shy away from street shooting are what stimulate Wigfall.

    “I can’t get comfortable. I have to think all the time how I have to make this work. It’s a challenge walking in shadowy buildings, and no one is staying in one place,” he says. “And I’m always looking for a moment while all these variables are going on.”

    His personal favorite from the winning selections is “Going Home,” a picture of an elderly woman about to descend the stairs at Grand Central Terminal.

    “When I saw her and I saw the light, I thought it looks like a painting,” he said. “It was a touching moment.”

    The Street Shots Challenge exhibit of all winners opened at The Camera Club of New York (336 W. 37th St.) on July 10 and will be on display until Aug. 8.

    -- Lana Bortolot

    Photo gallery here

    Tags: photos, street photography, wnyc, joe wigfall, stuff that's cool, neighborhoods, arts

  • City Hall Dispatch: New poverty measure

    Monday July 14, 2008 11:09 AM By David Freedlander

    Today's Washington Post, in an article about Mayor Bloomberg's new poverty measure, says,

    But Bloomberg's aides said that while food accounted for a third of household spending in the 1960s, food now accounts for only an eighth of spending, with housing and transportation taking a larger slice of income. The new measurement, put together by New York's Center for Economic Opportunity, takes into account a household's spending on food, clothing, shelter, transportation, utilities and out-of-pocket medical expenses.

    This is interesting. There has been so much ink spilled recently about food prices rising, so it's a bit jarring to read that they have actually dropped as a percentage of household income by nearly 20 percentage points.

    If I had to guess, my hunch would be that all other household expenditures--rent, energy, gas, health care, etc, have been rising pretty steadily through the years, while food prices have just undergone a rapid increase, leading to a similar rapid increase in alarming newspaper articles

    ---David Freedlander

    Tags: media, politics, poverty, city hall dispatch

  • Michael Ian Black reads to you at Bryant Park

    Monday July 14, 2008 9:39 AM By Rolando Pujol

    Michael Ian Black will read from his book, My Custom Van

    (And 46 Other Mind-Blowing Essays That Will Blow Your Mind

    All Over Your Face) (Photo by Getty Images)

    Stella alum and VH1 veteran Michael Ian Black will be in Bryant Park on Wednesday as part of the 2008 Word for Word program, a literary series that includes author talks, writing workshops and storytelling for kids.

    The comedian will be reading from his new book, titled My Custom Van (And 46 Other Mind-Blowing Essays That Will Blow Your Mind All Over Your Face).

    Yes. For real.

    Black will be there from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m., so go, laugh, and be mindful of your face.

    Schedule of other author appearances, including Joyce Carol Oates and Tommy Chong, is here.

    — Megan Stride

    Tags: michael ian black, bryant park, literacy, stuff that's cool, manhattan

  • Of 600 Starbucks shutterings, only 1 is in NYC -- so far

    Monday July 14, 2008 8:32 AM By Rolando Pujol

    When Starbucks announced plans to kill 600 stores there were plenty of coffee drinkers in the city who hoped some of the closings would be here in Manhattan, where Starbucks’ omnipresence can be a bit jarring.

    Well, there will be no relief from the caffeinated hydra in the first round of closings announced Friday. The company named the first 50 doomed stores and only one is within the five boroughs: Staten Island.

    The store at 1756 Forest Ave. will close by the end of the month. Starbucks will continue to announce closings through the first half of next year, so with 550 more to go here’s still a chance a Starbucks near you might be lopped off.

    — Garett Sloane

    Tags: starbucks, retail, development, staten island, real estate

  • A sign we love: ABC television shop on Canal Street

    Sunday July 13, 2008 4:47 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Photo by Jefferson Siegel

    This mid-century masterpiece of a sign can be found on Canal Street at Essex Street on the Lower East Side. With its plastic, colorful lettering and faded wording, it's a worthy holdover from another era in the city's retail. The graffiti on the shutter completes the classic look. Thanks to Urbanite contributor Jefferson Siegel for sharing it.

    While we're at it, be sure to check out our gallery of signs from all around the city. We've added a few new ones. And be sure to check out some great contributions from our readers, and click here to upload your own. Please do!

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: signs, lower east side, neighborhoods, manhattan

  • Star power seeks to polish affordable housing's image

    Sunday July 13, 2008 11:34 AM By Rolando Pujol

    Tiki Barber appears in an ad for the state's affordable-housing campaign.

    Affordable housing in New York has never looked so glamorous.

    Starting Monday, former New York Giant Tiki Barber, actor and filmmaker Edward Norton and former Met Mo Vaughn, will each appear in television and radio commercials asking New Yorkers to take a fresh look at affordable housing and welcome the developments into their own backyards.

    “I think it will go a long way in opening people’s understanding of what affordable housing is,” said Barber.

    Community opposition to affordable housing, or NIMBYism (Not in My Backyard) often results in long delays, additional costs or thwarted plans, according to state officials.

    “You would not be able to tell in the vast number of cases between an affordable housing development, a market-rate development or even a luxury development,” said Deborah VanAmerongen, commissioner of the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal Commissioner.

    Her office, which builds and rehabilitates affordable housing developments across the state, is working on the campaign with Gov. David Paterson.

    All three celebrities are separately involved in affordable-housing development. Barber is investing in affordable housing with his company Tiki Ventures; Norton works with the Enterprise Community Partners founded by his grandfather; and Mo Vaughn started a company called Omni NY.

    The five TV and two radio spots, including ads in Spanish, are an attempt to change people’s minds. They will run for four weeks on broadcast television stations statewide as well as on radio stations mostly outside of the city for now.

    “Affordable housing is critical for the stability of our communities,” Paterson said. “It makes our communities and schools stronger, businesses healthier and neighborhoods more diverse by providing our hard working families and senior citizens with viable housing options.”

    In fact, Barber recently discovered by chance that he himself was raised in an affordable-housing development in Virginia — something he said he never knew because it was well maintained and neither made him feel deprived nor set him apart from the rest of the neighborhood.

    It’s that kind of housing experience, he said, that he’d like to give other people.

    -- Kate Pastor

    Tags: tiki barber, edward norton, mo vaughn, affordable housing, commercials, television, development, real estate, neighborhoods

  • Slurpees .. get your free Slurpees ...

    Friday July 11, 2008 8:11 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    I guess it actually is summer: 7-Eleven is giving away free Slurpees today. Blue Raspberry, Monster Black Ice, Strawberry Twizzler. Whatever.

    Because July 11 is 7-Eleven day.... uh, get it? 7/11 .. on the calendar ... yeah, you get it.

    OK, so it's not quite the same as Tiffany, say, giving away free rings or Apple handing out free I-phones. But, hey, free is free.

    To find a 7-Eleven near you, click [HERE]

    -- Linda Perney

  • iFanatics line up for 3G

    Friday July 11, 2008 7:45 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    They were waiting well before the stores opened, in some cases for days. There aren't all that many things New Yorkers will wait on line for. They make exceptions for Shake Shack. They waited when Trader Joe's was readying to open its doors. But they ALWAYS line up for Apple.

    Check out photos of these Steve Jobs devotees who just had to have the 3G first: [PHOTOS]

    And now comes word that a surprise glitch means all those iFanatics with their new iPhones aren't going to be able to show off their toy quite as soon as they'd like.

    All that hype, laid low by a software glitch!

    That'll surely amuse one old school New Yorker (think Archie Bunker), who was watching the line outside the AT&T store next to the Forest Hills subway stop this morning.

    Asked by a passerby what the line was for, he bellowed, "They're waiting IN LINE to PAY MONEY--for a TELEPHONE!"

    Yeah, we've sure come a long way from Ma Bell's 'you can have your (rented) phone in any color, as long as it's black.'

    - Lauren Johnston and Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    Tags: iphone, technology, manhattan

  • Wacko is backo

    Friday July 11, 2008 7:26 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    Three guesses: Who is it?

    If you guessed Michael Jackson, you're right. The formerly gloved one is now the hatted one, the masked one, and the wheeled one.

    The onetime pop-star, onetime accused child molester showed up in his jammies to go shopping on wheels in a Barnes and Noble in Las Vegas.

    Where, we suppose, no one notices this sort of thing much.

    In addition to his chair wheeler, the London Telegraph says, he was accompanied by: eight security guards and minders, plus his kids: Prince Michael, 11, Paris, ten, and six-year-old Prince Michael II.

    Some things NEVER get better.

    Photos of Michael Jackson through the years

    --Linda Perney

    National Photo Group photo from London Telegraph

    Tags: entertainment

  • Calls for scalping crackdown after Bon Jovi fiasco

    Thursday July 10, 2008 1:06 PM By Pete Catapano

    For die-hard Bon Jovi fans, news of the free concert in Central Park probably sounded like music to their ears…at first. But as amNew York reported Thursday, not all ticketholders can gain entry and some tickets are being resold for more than $1,000. Now, the deal seems a lot less sweet.

    City Councilman Leroy Comrie is pointing to the fiasco as further proof that his Ticket Resale Consumer Fairness bill must be passed when it is brought to the floor in the fall.

    Comrie introduced the bill after fans were unable to buy tickets to see Hannah Montana earlier this year. The bill would make it mandatory for any venue that gets public funding to reserve at least 40 percent of its tickets for sale to individuals, rather than larger companies that can resell the tickets at a higher price.

    "I am confident that our city can find some recourse to level the playing field and afford the average consumer an opportunity to see an event that doesn't require going without lights and gas for a month," Comrie said in a statement.

    — Megan Stride

    (AP)

    Tags: bon jovi, all star game, leroy comrie, politics

  • 9/11 families: Finish memorial by Sept. 11, 2011

    Thursday July 10, 2008 12:52 PM By David Freedlander

    Family members of victims killed in the attack on the World Trade Center released a strongly-worded letter Thursday urging the Port Authority to keep to its original timetable and finish the 9/11 Memorial planned for the site by the tenth anniversary of the attacks.

    "Having the Memorial open and accessible is important to us as family members, especially since so many of us were never able to bury our loved ones and this is the place we will go to mourn and reflect," the letter states.

    "We believe that with the dedicated hearts and minds of all involved in the rebuilding, the Memorial can be publicly accessible and permanently open in three year's time."

    Many observers have criticized the rebuilding of the World Trade Center to be too focused on the need for a patriotic response to the terrorist attacks instead of focusing on the city's needs for one of its most valued pieces of real estate.

    The families still hold great emotional sway with many stakeholders, and many wondered how they would react to news that the memorial would be delayed.

    Some have speculated that if the reaction was tame, other parts of the rebuilding that were announced after the attacks, such as 1,776 foot Freedom Tower, could be scaled back as well.

    "2011 is a realistic date, all they have to do is make the decision," said Thomas Roger, whose daughter, Jean Roger, was a flight attendant on American Airlines 11, which slammed into the North Tower.

    The Memorial can not be completed until work on the PATH station is over with. Roger said that the Port Authority could meet its target date of 2011 regardless whether they decide to go ahead with the soaring Santiago Calatrava designed station or scale it back considerably, as long as a decision is made soon and work begun immediately.

    "They know they can get it done, they don't want to make the hard political decision,," he said. "You can work it down to a cost per day based on their indecision."

    In a statement, Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman responded, "We respect the families position and our working with all the stakeholders to move the Memorial and all the projects on the site forward as quickly as possible."

    --David Freedlander

    Tags: world trade center, 9/11 families, wtc memorial, manhattan, politics

  • 1964-65 World's Fair returns to Queens -- for a day

    Thursday July 10, 2008 12:46 PM By Rolando Pujol

    New York nostalgists, gather ‘round!

    The Holiday Inn at LaGuardia Airport is hosting a 1964-65 New York World's Fair Show and Sale Sunday, July 20 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

    You'll find Fair-related film screenings, book signings, old-timey food and drink, and memorabilia for display and sale from the last New York-hosted World's Fair.

    Also on hand will be BBQ Productions, the producers of the new DVD documentary, “Peace Through Understanding: The 1964/65 World’s Fair.”

    The $10 admission price includes parking, but we say you can’t put a price on this kind of “remember when” bonanza.

    — Megan Stride

    Tags: queens, nostalgia, 1964-65 world's fair, stuff that's cool, old school

  • Throwback Thursday: Meet me at Teddy's in TriBeCa

    Thursday July 10, 2008 12:10 PM By Rolando Pujol

    A screen grab from a commercial for Teddy's restaurant in TriBeCa, before it went Mexican, had a Statue of Liberty crown slammed on its roof, and become world famous as an opening shot on "Saturday Night Live." (Video via trainluvr on YouTube)

    Teddy's in TriBeCa was for many people merely that strange building topped with a Statue of Liberty crown that became an NYC icon through repeated exposure on the "Saturday Night Live" opening credits.

    Well, before Teddy's became a Mexican restaurant, it had many different incarnations. Back in the 1970s, it was one of those old-time Italian joints, with customers streaming in through the nearby Holland Tunnel for a girth-enhancing multi-course meal.

    The ad copy in the commercial below, read by a man whose voice was coarsened by a cigarette or two, invited you to visit "the original Teddy's," which is conveniently just "minutes" from the World Trade Center.

    "Relax, dine in traditional excellence before you seek the nightlife of New York," he tells us. Of which there wasn't much to find in TriBeCa back then, so perhaps, the ad suggests, you might want to stay at Teddy's and hang out at "The Teddy Bear Lounge," where a pianist would tinkle away the standards.

    Sounds like quite a scene.

    Teddy's dated back to the 1920s, when Teddy Bartel operated a German restaurant. At one point, it became a swank steakhouse, drawing the likes of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, which means the duo bickered loudly over their T-bones.

    Of course, you know how this story ends: Teddy's met its maker in 2004 when the condo craze found its real estate much too tempting to resist.The destruction of the World Trade Center down the street helped seal its fate.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    More: Check out this Tribeca Trib piece on Teddy's history. And another piece in Wired NY

    Tags: throwback thursday, teddy's, restaurants, tribeca, manhattan, neighborhoods, television

  • Saved: Murray Hill shoe store escapes the boot

    Thursday July 10, 2008 9:59 AM By Rolando Pujol

    When we first told you there was a chance that Lord John’s Bootery in Murray Hill might survive its rent negotiations, our hopes were dim.

    After all, it’s not often that the integrity of a mom and pop shop triumphs over big bucks in this city.

    Thankfully, the Murray Hill shoe store has bucked the trend.

    After customer outcry and a merciful rent decision by the building’s landlord, the veteran shop will be staying put.

    “When we put up the closing sign, a lot of nice people came in and said, ‘What can we do?’” store owner John Kyriannis said.

    Kyriannis, whose father opened the store, said he made a personal appeal to the landlord.

    “Essentially, they liked us and they decided to give us a concession on the rent and help us out, even with this struggling economy,” he said.

    And the customers are thrilled.

    “They’re happy that we’re moving forward,” Kyriannis said. “Hopefully we’ll be here for another 55 years.

    — Megan Stride

    Urbanite on Lord John's Bootery

    Tags: murray hill, lord john's bootery, small business, manhattan, shopping, neighborhoods

  • Alas, your chance to become Kanye West

    Thursday July 10, 2008 9:45 AM By Rolando Pujol

    Now, you have the opportunity to morph into Kanye West. (Photo by tactiksmag.com on Flickr)

    Wanna be Kanye West? He sure thinks you do.

    The rapper with the infamous ego stars in a fake infomercial for Be Kanye tablets, which allow the user to (you guessed it) totally become the Chicago native. The spot is produced by the sponsor of his recent Glow in the Dark tour, Absolut Vodka, although the liquor company’s name is largely absent from the spot. All we know is that we can only truly be Kanye in “an Absolut world.”

    And it’s not just videos. We were startled to see Kanye’s sunglassed mug smiling at us from an ad on the N train last night, telling us that with just a few Alka Seltzer-like tablets, we, too, could “Be Kanye.”

    It seems counter-intuitive that ‘Ye, who has deemed himself impossible to duplicate, would suggest that bald, middle-aged white men could and should morph into his likeness and reap the benefits of his fame and smoothness with the ladies.

    Then again, this provides another opportunity for Mr. West’s face to be plastered on billboards and spewed all over blogs.

    This one too, obviously.

    —Megan Stride

    Tags: kanye west, entertainment, advertising

  • Manhattanhenge is back!

    Thursday July 10, 2008 9:23 AM By Rolando Pujol

    For the second time this summer, the setting sun will align perfectly on Friday and Saturday with the city’s street grid, setting the skyline aglow and giving even the toughest city cynics something to feel mushy about.

    Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, coined the term when he discovered the coincidence in 1996. And we got the inside scoop from him on how best to take advantage of the solar event.

    He told us it’s best to stand as far east as possible. The clear cross streets of 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd and 57th streets are all good options for catching the light.

    The sun will be right on the grid at 8:24 Friday, and 8:25 Saturday. And so far, the weather is looking good.

    —Megan Stride

    Photo: Manhattanhenge as seen from one of the prime viewing locations, the Tudor City Overpass. (Photo by thehalfshow.com on Flickr)

    Tags: manhattanhenge, stuff that's cool

  • Cig tax hike spurs cries for help

    Thursday July 10, 2008 8:21 AM By Marlene Naanes

    (via flickr's lamarde)

    The number of people looking for help to quit smoking tripled when cigarette prices soared up to $10 a pack last month, the city health department said yesterday.

    More than 2,700 smokers wanting help flooded the city’s 311 line when a state tax hike on cigarettes went into effect in the first week of June. Only 850 people called in the same period last year.

    Higher-priced packs have fueled a surge of people kicking the habit before. Tax increases in 2002 contributed to a 21 percent drop in adult smokers, the health department said.

    Tags: health

  • Freeze frame for peace at Grand Central

    Thursday July 10, 2008 7:51 AM By Lauren Johnston

    United for Peace and Justice will hold a freeze frame for five minutes to promote peace with Iran today during the evening rush hour at Grand Central Terminal.

    At 5:40 p.m., about 200 people wearing shirts and signs that say "Peace with Iran" plan to suddenly stop in their tracks and remain frozen for five minutes, with the hopes that the harried commuters around them will pause to absorb their message.

    "Part of why we chose to do this action is that it’s something that grabs people’s attention. It’s a dramatic action that’s very simple ... and reaches people in a very visual way," said group spokesperson Leslie Kielson.

    If you want to join the group, meet at 5 p.m. at Lexington and 42nd Street. At 5:30, demonstrators will fan out through the commuter crowd in the Great Hall and freeze at 5:40 p.m.

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: today's check it out, politics, manhattan

  • City Hall Dispatch: Fundraiser gone awry

    Thursday July 10, 2008 7:39 AM By David Freedlander

    Urbanite talked to some waaayyy pissed off folks this morning who attended the Dave Chappelle fundraiser last night for Kevin Powell, who is running to unseat 8-term incumbent Ed Towns in the 10th Congressional District covering Fort Greene and Bed-Stuy.

    Besides what attendees describe as an hour-long wait in the rain to get in and cramped conditions once inside, the coup de grace was that headliner Chappelle, expected to make one of his rare stops on the stand-up circuit, failed to show.

    Attendees, who paid between 50 and 100 bucks a pop to attend were told after several hours of waiting around that there had been a plane mishap, but that if they put their name on a piece of paper then they would be able to attend another Chappelle/Powell event, if there is one.

    “It would have been fine if they had just said, ‘Look guys, we can’t apologize enough for this, there was a problem with Chappelle’s plane and we promise we’ll get you in the next time we have an event,’ but instead they just go, ‘If you have a pen put your name down on a piece of paper on your way out and we’ll try to get you credit for another event,”’ said Vic Drabicky, who attended because he saw the event listed in amNewYork.

    “I thought it was going to be one of those cool experiences you only get in New York, but it turned into just being a complete mess. If you can’t get the right message out to 500 people who support you, how are you going to convince Congress to go along with your agenda?”

    The crowd was also told that Chris Rock was there (as were RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan and ?uestlove of the Roots) but Rock didn’t perform. Perhaps the organizers wanted to let everyone know that the celebs in attendance were getting screwed too?

    To make matters worse, and this was shocking and deeply offensive to City Hall Dispatch, apparently most attendees were there not to learn about Powell’s plans for health care and the economy, but to see this Chappelle character, who is apparently a comedian of some sort.

    We’re awaiting word from the Powell campaign.

    Meanwhile, more on Powell can be found in tomorrow’s edition of amNewYork.

    And fortunately, Azi’s got the video of Powell’s speech.

    Tags: fundraiser, comedy, congress, politics, city hall dispatch

  • Murray Hill restaurant back in business after scare

    Wednesday July 9, 2008 12:43 PM By Rolando Pujol

    La Cocina restaurant is up and running again after an electrical emergency Tuesday night sent diners scrambling. (Photo via Martin Ruiz on Flickr)

    La Cocina Mexican restaurant in Murray Hill was up and running again Wednesday after an electrical emergency caused customers to flee Tuesday night.

    At about 9:50 p.m., fire officials responded to a report of smoke at the building at Third Avenue and East 30th Street and deemed the incident an electrical emergency, meaning that there was no major fire on the scene, officials said.

    Miguel Morales, a cashier at the restaurant, said the eatery was crowded when the incident occurred and that customers left with food still on their plates and their bills unpaid. The building was without electricity for the rest of the night, Morales, 32, said.

    As of yesterday, the cause of the problem was not known.

    -- Megan Stride

    Tags: murray hill, la cocina, fdny, restaurants, manhattan, neighborhoods

  • The 1977 All-Star game revisited

    Wednesday July 9, 2008 11:32 AM By Pete Catapano

    Since the Yanks are playing this afternoon, the YES network will be taking a step back in time to show the last midsummer classic played in the stadium in 1977, tonight.

    Taking a look at the box score from the game, here's some observations:

    • NL starter Don Sutton pitched three innings. Nowadays, pitchers throw one at the most

    Rich Gossage

    • The game ended in a duel between Yankee closers. Then-closer Sparky Lyle and Rich Gossage, who was at the Pirates at the time but would be on the Bombers the following season.

    • AL starter Jim Palmer got rocked, allowing five runs and three HRs in just two innings.

    • Yankee 2B Willie Randolph played the whole game, going 1-for-5 with one RBI

    — Pete Catapano

  • Spiritual leader Amma is here to hug

    Wednesday July 9, 2008 10:02 AM By Lauren Johnston

    Mata Amritanandamayi, the spiritual leader and humanitarian known as Amma, will hug more than 15,000 during her three-day visit to New York City this week.

    She’s been stationed at the Manhattan Center on W. 34th St. since Tuesday morning and will be there until late Thursday night, holding “darshan” (the Sanskrit word that means a visit with a saint or sage) for all who wish to attend.

    Wednesday afternoon, that audience included French filmmakers Jules and Gedeon Naudet. Most New Yorkers know these brothers for their documentary film from the 9/11 attacks. They were documenting an FDNY rookie and ended up in the middle of the devastation in Lower Manhattan.

    The two spent a week in an ashram with Amma for their second film, “In God’s Name,” which followed 12 religious leaders and aired on CBS. We met them just after their hug.

    “It’s fantastic. It gives a great sense of calm and peace,” said Jules.

    Amma will turn 55 this year and has been traveling and embracing the world one person at a time for the past 35 years. Often called "The Hugging Saint," she is said to have physically hugged 27 million people so far.

    She hugs to send a message of love and to relieve suffering. There were several hundred people present Tuesday afternoon, some moved to tears after the hug.

    Jackie Coleman, 22, left Amma's side with tears in her eyes. It was her first visit, she said.

    “I can’t quite put it into words yet. It was amazing,” she said

    Others have made a ritual of attending Amma's sessions. Deirdre, 58, of Manhattan was there for the fifth time Friday and said in the past she came for strength before a hospital visit.

    “It reinforced my serenity and courage to go into surgery,” she said.

    Amma will keep on hugging Wednesday until 7:30 p.m. and on Thursday from 10 a.m. until late in the evening.

    Tags: religion, manhattan

  • Advocates question Border Patrol on Greyhound, Amtrak

    Tuesday July 8, 2008 2:31 PM By Marlene Naanes

    (via Syracuse University's Web site)

    On Wednesday, amNewYork looks at a Border Patrol practice of asking for proof of citizenship on Greyhound buses and Amtrak trains within 100 miles of any border, including the Canadian border. We talked to one upstate professor who was questioned by Border Patrol agents four times while traveling by bus. Here's an extended version of a Q&A running in the paper:

    Silvio Torres-Saillant

    Professor in the English Dept. and director of the Latino-Latin American Studies Program at Syracuse University, a citizen originally from the Dominican Republic who was questioned four times by Border Patrol agents.

    What do you think about the fact that you’ve been questioned four times now?

    35 years of continuous residency in the United States, the highest university degrees, a significant job at a prestigious university, some books under my belt including the majority of them in English, will not suffice someone else’s trappings of foreignness and not belonging. Some people continue to be suspect regardless of how they’ve lead their lives.

    Do you feel you’ve been targeted because of your looks?

    I think so.When you were approached where were you?

    I’ve been approached on the bus and I’ve been approached while waiting in the regional transportation center here.

    Do you notice if they ask everybody or if they target people?

    In the waiting area they target people. Once they get on the bus the tendency is to do the whole row. I’ve seen them skip people. In the bus I have seen them skip but I cannot honestly say … I’ve come up with a pattern.

    What did they do when they approached you?

    Mostly they’ve been asking what country are you a citizen of? And they may or may not be satisfied and they ask you for documentation. They ask me for documentation. I’ve had a tete-a-tete with the men in green where I’ve delayed as much as possible furnishing documentation. He said, Sir, the law says you’re supposed to carry documents all the time. Since I know this is happening and since I know it is a lot scarier for people other than me. I can make a call and perhaps have a chancellor come rescue me. In a sense I am upset by the fact that I have to go through this, but what incites me more the thought of what it would be like for other people who are more vulnerable than I am. So I try not to make it easy. I try to engage them in conversation much to their dismay. They want uncritical unqualified obedience.

    What have you seen on buses?

    On one particular trip I went from Syracuse to Buffalo. There is a rest stop at Rochester. Before anybody steps down at the rest stop, the driver leaves and Border Patrol comes in and checks everybody. This happened on the 11th of December. This happened on the way there and the way back. This happened when my wife was going to the citizenship office for her exam. On the way there a young man was escorted by a Border Patrol guard who treated him rather brutally, no kindness of any kind. Grabbed the man put his arms behind his back. Had him identify his luggage. I saw this happening and I decided I would say something so I asked the driver if the young man would he get his money returned and if he knew when he was boarding the bus if he knew this would happen to him. The driver got defensive. …saying this is government business sir I cannot interfere. On the way back, a lady in the back apparently was unable to produce the kind of identification that they were looking for and they escorted her out and took her to the luggage compartment to identify her bags so she could be detained. You know this is not the border of Mexico. This is internal travel. This speaks much to moveable borders. And of course, I saw the lady with a kid. Border patrol has no obligation whatsoever nor does it have the humanity to inform relatives [of where people are taken].

    Who do they target in the bus station?

    If you are a teenager, white female, college age wearing your jeans or something you’re likely to escape and the person wearing who is wearing a jacket who has a go-tee who’s dark is likely to be approached.

    When you were approached in the station what did you say to them?

    First I showed my Syracuse [University] faculty ID, and this guard didn’t think that was enough. And I said sir that is all I can show you. He said you have to show me some verification of your legal status. He said the law said you are required to carry your papers on all times. In the end I showed him other things but nothing connected with immigration. I do not carry a driver’s license. I ended up showing other things, I did college id, I did credit cards, the thing I had with me at the time that had a picture and had a name. in the end the guy felt to just leave me alone.

    Would they be satisfied with your identification?

    They would be satisfied with my passport. Some lawyers have been saying all we need to do is make sure what information we give such as our names. We cannot lie to the officers. A regular American citizen doesn’t have to prove your citizenship all the time. Part of the privilege of being an American citizen is you don’t have to prove your citizenship all the time. You have a civil right to not reveal information. Of course that’s the kind of option I could pursue but even a person with a green card may be hesitant to pursue that route.

    What happened in the end when you’ve been approached?

    In the end, I’ve shown what I had to show and I’ve been let go. I’ve been treated differently by different guards. I’ve been told spare me the explanation sir. When they ask me where I’m from I say planet earth. On the bus it’s better. I say sir is this what our tax dollars pay you to do? I’ve been told shut up and sit down. I say I cannot shut up… because as an American I am required to defend freedom for all.

    What do you feel about this practice, in general?

    In general, the persecution of migrants, which is just on the grounds of national security is actually a threat to national security. Because the amount of resources that is spent on policing every bus, the incarceration of the people that are detained…if you do the math you end up with huge sums of money that are being invested in the persecution of migrants. If you look at the yield you find that it is minuscule insignificant figure that the people that are arrested are connected in any way with a national security situation. It’s resources that are being taken away were concern is warranted and therefore putting the country in danger.

    What areas do you think are warranted?

    Anything that has to do with explosives. Mexican farm workers who are looking to pick tomatoes for companies that pay them pennies are very unlikely to bring down a tower in New York. the guy exploding the tower could be a foreigner or a national and could be of any color. To me this is pure theatrics. It’s looking to demonstrate it’s doing something in the fight against terrorism. You say the largest case, 120 migrants are surrounded and captured, and you see the proud officers there. But those people, they just wanted to pick the tomato. They’re just volunteering to be exploited in the United States because it was better than whatever was back home. That’s not a victory against terrorism.

    Tags: immigration

  • The writing on the windows (of Lord & Taylor)

    Tuesday July 8, 2008 2:12 PM By Julie Gordon

    A TATS CRU mural in the South Bronx that pays tribute to Mad Mark and Big Pun (Flickr)

    Graffiti goes mainstream yet again, as the art-form will take over Lord & Taylor's windows July 9 to 27.

    Work from five graffiti artists (all members of Bronx-based graffiti/muralist group TATS CRU) will be featured: Bio, Nicer, BG 183, How and Nosm. Each of the artists will create their murals live in the windows the morning of July 9.

    We recently reported on Greenpoint graffiti-art supply store Alphabeta, which caused quite a stir when it opened. Click here to read the story.

    — Julie Gordon

    Tags: lord & taylor, graffiti, manhattan, shopping, old school, fashion

  • Salsa legends kick off CityParks Concert Series

    Tuesday July 8, 2008 1:46 PM By Rolando Pujol

    The CityParks Concert Series will kick off tonight at 7pm with Orquestra Broadway, taking the stage at St. Mary’s Park in the Bronx.

    “They’re the most well-respected salsa bands right now. We’re excited to bring them to the Bronx, “said Erika Elliott, director of music programming, “Salsa music is really rooted in the South Bronx.”

    The band is known for its eclectic use of instruments including the conga, violin, keyboard, bass, and their trademark five-key French wooden flute.

    More than 100 performers will be playing in parks spanning all five boroughs over the summer. The parks will host several dance, theater, and musical performances. The event is presented by Verizon.

    “They’ll be a lot of salsa, classic hip-hop, and gospel this year,” said Elliott.

    Christina Daigneault, spokeswoman for City Parks Foundation, said “ I think city parks is about connecting performances with different communities.”

    Hip-Hop Hall of Fame inductees, Whodini will be playing in their hometown of Brooklyn in Von King Park on July 10. Other hip-hop legends on the bill will be Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick, and Naughty By Nature.

    “We really try to get a diverse line up to represent the diversity of New York,” said Elliott.

    See the schedule here.

    -- Simone Herbin

    Tags: cityparks concert series, bronx, hip hop, salsa, arts

  • Put on your (swing) dancin' shoes!

    Tuesday July 8, 2008 12:22 PM By Lauren Johnston

    That's right, the outdoor dance party we call Midsummer Night Swing is back at Lincoln Center for three more steamy weeks this summer - and this year is special because it marks 20 years of twirls, two-steps and salsa grooves. The dance party kicks off tonight from 6:30 to 10 p.m. and resumes for Swing Tuesdays and Salsa Saturdays until July 26.

    Of course our favorite part of this annual dance party is the morning report on NY1 from roving reporter Roger Clark. Every year, he shows up bright and early for an awkward lesson and bumbles through a few steps on-air. For that Roger, we salute you.

    And we're not the only ones who love the affable morning news man. This blog salutes Roger just for being Roger. The "I Heart Roger Clark" blog. Yes, we've just proved there is a blog for everything.

    Tags: arts, manhattan

  • TriBeCa Whole Foods opens at 8 a.m. Wednesday

    Tuesday July 8, 2008 12:07 PM By Rolando Pujol

    The TriBeCa Whole Foods will have check-out conveyor belts, unlike its other locations in the city. Photo by street scenes on Flickr

    If there’s one things residents of TriBeCa routinely complain about, it’s the lack of grocery stores.

    They’ll be hard-pressed to complain starting at 8 a.m. Wednesday, when a ribbon-cuttng marks the opening of a Whole Foods at Greenwich and Warren streets.

    “TriBeCa is an underserved area when it comes to grocery stores and we’re happy to give them a supermarket selling high quality food at competitive prices,” Fred Shank, a spokesman for Whole Foods, told Urbanite.

    The store will try to cater to the young families living in the neighborhood, Shank said.

    It will be the only Whole Foods in New York City to a have a suburban-style checkout, which has a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt will make for a faster, easier checkout for families who may want to do their bulk shopping at the new store, Shank said.

    The store will also feature a "kids aisle," which includes children-friendly snacks from juice boxes to frozen waffles.

    “It’ll have all the treats moms are looking for for their kids,” said Shank.

    -- Simone Herbin

    Check out Racked's comprehensive coverage.

    Tags: whole foods, tribeca, grocery stores, shopping

  • Let the weight-dropping commence

    Tuesday July 8, 2008 12:07 PM By Pete Catapano

    Lively Brooklyn BP Marty Markowitz launched his second "Lighten' Up, Brooklyn" campaign today, with a "Soprano" on hand.

    Joe Gannascoli, who played Vito Spatafore on the show, lost 100 pounds a few years back and is apparently looking to drop more.

    We wonder is Spatafore, who hails from Gravesend, Brooklyn, will lay off the Johnny Cakes.

    Below are (left to right): Joseph Gannascoli; Michael Harrell, American Heart Association; Miguel Centeno, Aetna; BP Markowitz; Yvonne Graham, Special Assistant to the Borough President; Dave Brioso; Camille Socci, Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff at Borough Hall; Mickey Heller; Gerald Davis

  • Today

    Tuesday July 8, 2008 11:42 AM By Lauren Johnston

    10 a.m.

    City Council speaker kicks off summer greenmarket season and

    highlights electronic stations that allow use of food stamps; Poe

    Park Greenmarket, Grand Concourse near East Kingsbridge Road and

    East 192nd Street, Bronx.

    —Contact: Anthony Hogrebe, 212-788-7116 or 646-263-1487.

    10 a.m.

    Mata Amritanandamayi holds spiritual program and hugs people;

    Manhattan Center, 311 W. 34th St.

    —7:30 p.m. — Evening session begins.

    —Contact: Rob Sidon, 415-505-1410.

    10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

    City health department and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn

    help kick off farmers’ market season; Poe Park Greenmarket, 192nd &

    Grand Concourse, Bronx.

    —Contact: Jessica Scaperotti/Celina De Leon, 212) 788-5290.

    1 p.m.

    Former New York Yankees Bucky Dent and Roy White participate in

    home run challenge; East Fourth Street between LaFayette and

    Broadway.

    —Contact: Philip Crimaldi, 212-981-5131.

    6:20 p.m.

    Estee Lauder spokesmodels Elizabeth Hurley, Gwyneth Paltrow,

    Carolyn Murphy and Hilary Rhoda unveil newest fragrance;

    Bloomingdale’s, 59th Street and Lexington Avenue.

    —Note: Check-in 5:45 p.m.

    —Contact: Lance Enger, 310-450-3884.

    6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

    Midsummer Night Swing in Damrosch Park; Lincoln Center, 62nd

    Street between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues.

    —Contact: Kate Merlino, 212-875-5101.

    7 p.m.

    Orquestra Broadway with DJ Louie JR perform free concert to kick

    off CityParks Concerts series; St. Mary’s Park, 146th Street and

    St. Ann’s Avenue, Bronx.

  • Hitchens on the Village

    Tuesday July 8, 2008 8:04 AM By David Freedlander

    Photo by Fred W. McDarrah, courtesy of Vanity Fair

    In this month's (last month's?! Urbanite's snail mail is sloooow) uber-columnist Christopher Hitchens drops in on a local real estate dispute, namely the efforts by St. Vincent's hospital to pave over much of Greenwich Village to build their own 1 million square foot hospital/condo tower complex.

    Per Hitch:

    Like two huge toads, these ugly and tedious and uninspired structures would impede the view and block the light of one of New York’s historic neighborhoods: a district that in a previous generation survived even Robert Moses and his plan to slam a neo-Brutalist urban highway through Bohemia. (The story of that battle is told by Jane Jacobs in her classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities.)

    New York is supposed to have learned from that and from similar errors of the past, and to have understood that Brobdingnag is all very well—indeed is very desirable and impressive—in Wall Street and Midtown, whereas a touch of Lilliput is necessary on the Lower East and West Sides.

    Hitchens pivots though from that story though to discuss the role of Bohemian quarters in urban life--San Francisco's North Beach, the Left Bank in Paris, etc.Hitch again:

    It isn’t possible to quantify the extent to which society and culture are indebted to Bohemia. In every age in every successful country, it has been important that at least a small part of the cityscape is not dominated by bankers, developers, chain stores, generic restaurants, and railway terminals. This little quarter should instead be the preserve of—in no special order—insomniacs and restaurants and bars that never close; bibliophiles and the little stores and stalls that cater to them; alcoholics and addicts and deviants and the proprietors who understand them; aspirant painters and musicians and the modest studios that can accommodate them; ladies of easy virtue and the men who require them; misfits and poets from foreign shores and exiles from remote and cruel dictatorships. Though it should be no disadvantage to be young in such a quartier, the atmosphere should not by any means discourage the veteran. I

    It is nuts when you consider how central the Village has been to American arts and culture ever since the days of Hart Crane and Edna St. Vincent Millay up through Madonna and Basquiat, and how for all intents and purposes those days are basically over.

    Sure, people for over a century have been proclaiming the Village dead, but it's hard to imagine any poet or oboe player decamping from their suburban confines to West 4th Street now, not unless they made a fortune in finance.

    And yes, they'll just go to Williamsburg or East Williamsburg or Canarsie or wherever, but, much like if the Banks moved out of Wall Street, adding a tombstone to Village bohemia should give all of us, at the very least, pause.

    --David Freedlander

  • The noise that's driving Murray Hill nutty

    Monday July 7, 2008 5:00 PM By Rolando Pujol

    In this refined pocket of Murray Hill, residents tolerate the normal din of city traffic. But since last month, a particularly annoying sound has turned some sleep-deprived apartment dwellers into mad-as-hell community activists.

    “It’s a high, squealing noise, like a machine that’s not oiled,” said resident Sarah Alison.

    But it was Stephan Banica, the superintendent at 288 Lexington Ave., who finally did something about it. From the roof of his apartment building, he surveyed his neighborhood and identified the source of the ungodly clatter.

    “It’s the belt for one of the central air [conditioning units] on top of one of the brownstones between Lexington and Park,” Banica told Urbanite.

    That brownstone, at 124 E. 36 St., has been the target of complaints by several residents, including an anonymous person who placed signs around the neighborhood urging others to call 311. Attempts to reach the owner Monday were not immediately successful.

    Michael Lang, president of the co-op board at 120 E. 36 St., lives next door to the brownstone.

    “The sound is so mysterious. I just thought, ‘Where is it coming from?’”

    Plino Torres, the doorman at 120 E. 36th St., knows all too well about the racket.

    “For the past month, 24 hours a day, seven days a week you hear it. At the nighttime people can’t sleep.”

    The city Department of Environmental Protection is on the case.

    “We have an inspection scheduled for this week because several people from different offices have called about some machinery, so we’re sending someone to check the location,” said a spokeswoman for the agency.

    Lizandro Limongi, a doorman at the Carlton Regency at 137 E. 36th St., said many people in his building are complaining, too. The board director called 311, as have other residents.

    “Now, during the day you can hear the noise, imagine in the night?”

    -- Simone Herbin

    Tags: murray hill, noise complaints, manhattan, neighborhoods

  • Hey Brooklyn, would ya lighten up, already!

    Monday July 7, 2008 1:39 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Brooklyn native Joe Gannascoli, who played Vito on HBO's "The Sopranos," will be urging Brooklynites to slim down.

    Brooklynites are being asked to put down their forks once more.

    Borough President Marty Markowitz is leading the “Lighten Up, Brooklyn” campaign for the seventh year in a row to get residents to lose weight and get healthy.

    Markowitz will be joined by Joe Gannascoli, a Brooklyn native who played gay mobster Vito Spatafore on "The Sopranos," at a news conference at noon Tuesday to announce the borough-wide diet and a walk-a-thon to take place this Saturday and Sunday.

    Markowitz first asked his constituents to slim down in 2002. In that eight-week campaign, Markowitz dropped 11 pounds and Brooklyn lost a whopping 82,655 big ones.

    Since then, “Lighten Up” has eschewed weigh-ins and cut the length of the campaign to a few walking events, but the focus is still on obesity awareness, a spokesman from Markwotz’s office said.

    Brooklyn’s prez is familiar with the health risks of excess weight. After a 2006 surgery to insert two stents into an artery, Markowitz had to further clean up his eating habits and lost more weight.

    Gannascoli knows a thing or two about the great weight struggle as well. He was a contestant on VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club and has lost 100 pounds in recent years.

    — Megan Stride

    Tags: brooklyn, diet, marty markowitz, sopranos, health, food

  • Harlem's M&G Diner: On vacation for good?

    Monday July 7, 2008 11:29 AM By Rolando Pujol

    The M&G Diner has one of New York's greatest signs. (Photo by boxchain on Flickr)

    One of Harlem's long-standing fried-chicken joints may have served its last meal.

    Yesterday, Eating in Translation posted an e-mail from a long-time employee of the 125th Street's M&G Diner which said the joint was shuttering.

    We called over to M&G to find out if the news is true, but we weren't able to wrangle out a definitive answer.

    The woman who answered our call said that every year the restaurant takes a vacation for the month of July.

    "All I can say is that we're on vacation, like every year," she said.

    When pressed about whether the restaurant would return to business come August, there was no yes or no answer to be had.

    "One day you're up and another you're down, so who knows?" she said. "All I'm sayin' is we're on vacation."

    — Megan Stride

    More coverage on Jeremiah's Vanishing New York

    Tags: m&g diner, harlem, development, manhattan, restaurants, signs

  • Roxy to rise again?

    Monday July 7, 2008 8:39 AM By David Freedlander

    Photo from Brooklyn Vegan

    The Roxy nightclub, that famed spot of disco and hip-hop and Saturday nights has been shuttered since last year when word went out that a developer bought it and wanted to convert the space to (what else) condos.

    Now it appears as if rumors of the Roxy's decline were greatly exaggerated. The owners will be appearing before the business license and permits committee of CB4 in an effort to get re-open theirs.

    Whether or not the west side is open for more late night clubbing remains to be seen.

    Check back for updates as we learn more

    ---David Freedlander

    Tags: roxy, chelsea, nightlife, real estate

  • In Williamsburg, it's Giglio time again!

    Monday July 7, 2008 5:48 AM By Lauren Johnston

    If you happen to live anywhere near the intersection of North 8th and Havemeyer streets in Williamsburg, then you know what that means: Love it or hate it, the two-week street festival put on each year by Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church to honor its patron saint is nearly here.

    The high points of this celebration, called the Feast of the Giglio, are the three days (this year it's July 13, 17 and 20) when roughly 125 of the parish's strongest men lift a five-ton, 80-foot tower and heave it to-and-fro and back-and-forth on Havemeyer, dancing to the Giglio anthem and turning the structure according to commands barked out in a centuries-old Italian dialect born in the tiny town of Nola. The feast is set to run this year from Wed. July 9 – Sunday July 20.

    The hulking aluminum Giglio frame has been sitting on the roof of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel church for a few weeks now. Tinsel flower ornaments have been hoisted up atop the streetlights. This morning, the twirling strawberry ride was spotted on N. 8th, just waiting for the calliope music and hot sausage trucks to arrive.

    Last summer we were obsessed with the feast. We studied it. We filmed it. We photographed it. We researched its Sicilian roots and marched along with the Giglio boys as they heaved and danced a huge, towering monument to St. Paulinus down the street on a sweltering 100+ degree day last July. See the fruits of those labors here:

    Feast of Faith in Williamsburg: Story

    Dancing the Giglio: Flash

    Religion, food collide in the streets: Photos

    If you haven’t seen this feast in action, you should. Before the tall glass condo army chases it out of town.


    View Larger Map

    -- Lauren Johnston

    Tags: williamsburg, religion, neighborhoods, holiday traditions, food, brooklyn

  • Guest column: At WTC, honoring victims of 7/7/05

    Sunday July 6, 2008 7:35 PM By Rolando Pujol

    A commuter injured in the London terrorist attack is aided on July 7, 2005.

    By Joseph Daniels

    President of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center

    This morning, as we return to work after the July 4th holiday and go about our daily lives, we should take a moment to remember the 52 innocent people in London who were doing much the same thing, three years ago to the day, when they were murdered in bombings perpetrated by Islamic extremists.

    That day was a horrible reminder of what we experienced here in New York City on September 11, 2001, and February 26, 1993. In the wake of the London bombings, many did whatever they could to show support for the British, just as the world community had done for Americans after 9/11. As the U.S. Army band played God Save the Queen in Washington, DC, condolence messages, tributes, and flowers were left at British embassies and consulates around the world. Our thoughts and prayers centered on the victims, their families, and the survivors. It hit home that the acts perpetrated in London were an assault on all those who treasure the freedom to live without fear.

    But what can we do today, three years later? What can we do to help prevent something like this from happening again?

    We can start by remembering the victims. We can remember Carrie Taylor, who said goodbye to her mother with a kiss on the cheek just minutes before boarding a London underground train that was bombed that day. We can remember Philip Beer, another bombing victim, who was known for his fun-loving spirit and brightly colored hair. And Atique Sharifi, also killed in the bombings. He was an Afghan national whose parents were killed by the Taliban, and had fled his country in order to live his life freely in the United Kingdom, sending money he earned home to support his sister in Afghanistan.

    We owe it to the victims to ensure they are remembered, and to prove that the terrorists did nothing to erase the memories of their vibrant lives.

    The National September 11 Memorial & Museum represents our country’s promise to remember the victims of the 2001 and 1993 attacks. That is why we must do everything possible to make sure that this national tribute is realized.

    Last week, a report was released that candidly outlined the many challenges we face in rebuilding the World Trade Center. While we have to be realistic about the complexities of this project, we must also be aggressive. The Memorial is an opportunity to reinforce our nation’s core values. It’s our chance to make a statement to the rest of the world about the tremendous importance we place on individual lives. By working together, we believe the Memorial can be opened to the public in time for the 10th anniversary of the attacks in 2011. When that day comes, we will be able to take pride in saying we fulfilled our promise to preserve the memory of each victim with common purpose.

    Tags: london bombings, world trade center, wtc memorial, terrorism

  • A punchy commuter tradition

    Sunday July 6, 2008 1:42 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Conductor John Mancinelli, 45, a 26 year veteran of the Metro North Railroad, with his ticket punch. (amNY photo by Dennis W. Ho)

    Before a Metro-North conductor retired to Italy, he made sure his beloved heart-shaped ticket puncher -- his sidekick for many years -- lived on in a young conductor's hands.

    Like passing a torch, the man's punch was passed down to Sharon Carlquist, who used it until it broke. Now a year away from retirement, Carlquist, a conductor for more than 30 years, hopes to get her hands on a heart-shaped punch to pass onto a new, young assistant conductor.

    "We love our punches," said Carlquist, whose current punch looks like a lopsided star. "We get very attached to them, and you don't want them to break."

    Carlquist and many other conductors have punched through sandpaper -- done anything, really -- just to keep their punches working well.

    More than 1,000 punch shapes are used on the Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road. Almost as unique as fingerprints, the shapes identify which conductor punched a ticket to keep customers from reusing tickets from other trains.

    "It's a part of you," said conductor Annie Murphy Kelly.

    Read Marlene Naanes' entire story here. And see more photos here.

    Tags: metro-north, hole puncher, commute, mta, suburbs

  • Throwback Thursday: It's an Astro Blast!

    Thursday July 3, 2008 9:12 AM By Rolando Pujol

    Photo by Lane Johnson/amNY

    The long Independence Day weekend is upon us, the perfect time to sample the delights of Coney Island, Nathan's Famous, Totonno's and, of course, Astroland. With the prospect of the amusement park's extinction ever looming, this weekend is as good a time as any to go.

    Since this is our weekly Throwback Thursday feature, we'd be derelict if we didn't point park-goers to this memorable, rhyming, disco-beat-driven commercial for Astroland. It must date to the early 1980s, and is full of great shots of Astroland taken well before Thor Equities, the company that wishes to remake the area, even existed.

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: throwback thursday, coney island, brooklyn, real estate, neighborhoods, endangered nyc, development

  • Badlands is back!

    Wednesday July 2, 2008 12:43 PM By Ryan Chatelain

    Eric "Badlands" Booker (left) in the 2003 Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest (Photo by Getty)

    Eric “Badlands” Booker, the competitive eater/rapper/No. 7 train conductor, is returning to the Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest on Friday after nearly two years away from the “game.”

    We talked to him about his return, how he dropped some weight and, of course, hot dogs.

    Why did you decide to retire in the first place?

    I wanted to re-evaluate my game and drop a little weight and just take steps to get better at the game so I could come back strong.

    So have you dropped some weight over the past two years?

    Yeah, I actually dropped 100 pounds since then.

    Wow! What are you down to now?

    I’m at 380 right now.

    What was the most you ever weighed?

    I was 470. I had did a show called “Wife Swap,” and we filmed that right after Nathan’s [in 2006]. During the course of the show, they got me on the scale. I said, “Let me just take a little break and try to slim down and try to get my eating game better.

    How did you lose the weight?

    I think through a lot of cardio, and I drank a lot of water.

    Changed your diet any?

    Yeah, I just stopped eating all that McDonald’s and all that Chinese food.You had the event down in Camden, N.J. this weekend. Have you found that dropping the weight has helped your game?

    Yeah, it helped a lot. Just the fact that I feel lighter and my capacity has grown a lot since then. Once I dropped the weight, everything just started to feel a lot better.

    Why is that? You would think that bigger people could eat more hot dogs, but we look at Kobayashi or Sonya [“The Black Widow” Thomas], who are pretty small people, and they put down a ridiculous amount.

    Actually, a lot of people think that the bigger you are, the more you can eat. But size actually doesn’t matter. It’s basically how you train. If you train your stomach to eat large amounts of food, it doesn’t matter how big or how small you are. The stomach muscle is the same size. It’s just how you train it. The stomach doesn’t really stretch like a balloon. It just unfolds. It’s kind of like an accordion. It’s just like a muscle in the gym. The more stress you put it under in the gym, it adapts to it.

    How did it feel to win the event in Camden and earn a spot in the Nathan’s contest?

    That was the best feeling. It solidified me coming back to the game. There were some good eaters there. … Just the fact that I put up a decent number – I wanted to do a little more, but 27½ is pretty decent. The conditions were pretty hot; it was 98 degrees, and we were on two flatbeds. The heat from the flatbed was radiating up. It was really hot. The elements were against us.

    Explain to me your training regimen.

    Basically you need four things in order to do well as a competitive eater. You need stomach capacity, of course. Most of the time what I do to train my stomach is to eat large amounts of vegetables, whether it be cabbage, cucumber slices, stuff like that – lots of low-calorie food. You definitely don’t want to train by eating hot dogs twice a week. That’s not the way to train. You have to get your stomach used to having lots of food in it, but you don’t want to train with high-calorie, high-fat food.

    You’ve got to have stamina. I do my little treadmill, and I go work in the gym to keep my stamina up for the 12 minutes or 10 minutes or the six minutes that are involved.

    You have to make sure that you have a good eating strategy. I make sure I have a game plan as far as eating the hot dogs or the burritos or strawberry shortcake or whatever. I basically take the food like a week before … and analyze an eating strategy. See what’s been done in the past and try to figure out something new.

    And most importantly to have a strong focused mind. Basically, try to block out everything that may distract me at the table. Pretty much, you need those four things, and if you have that then you’ll be what I call “hungry and focused.”

    Can you share what your game plan will be?

    My eating style, I call it the “Double Japanese.” Basically, it’s similar to what Takeru Kobayashi does. What he does is he separates the hot dog and the bun. He eats the dog first, breaks it in half and then he eats both halves. Then he breaks the bun in half and dips it in the water and then gets it to the point where he can just swallow the bun. It has lots of names. They call it “Japanese” … and all types of things. But I figured out, since I’m a little bigger than he is, why snap them in half? So what I do is I take two dogs, eat them, then I take two buns, and I soak them and I drink the buns down. It’s a little quicker than his method.

  • Reports: Cynthia Rodriguez has left A-Rod....for Lenny Kravitz?

    Wednesday July 2, 2008 12:38 PM By Elizabeth Nielsen

    Man, it must blow to be Alex Rodriguez this week.

    Just when it appeared that the saga of A-Rod couldn't get any more bizzare, Perez Hilton is reporting that the Yankee slugger's wife, Cynthia, has left him...for LENNY KRAVITZ.

    Hilton reported that while A-Rod is up in New York, Cynthia left her two children in Miami in order to go on a romantic getaway with Kravitz in Paris.

    A-Rod made headlines (again) yesterday when reports surfaced that he had been spending a great deal of time with Madonna, sometimes leaving her apartment "as late as midnight."

    Now here's the kicker. Madonna's spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg, released a statement yesterday saying that "the two share a manager and are just friends." Said manager, Guy Oseary reps both the slugger and the Queen of Pop....and has worked with LENNY KRAVITZ.

    Kravitz is crediting with co-writing Madonna's 1990 hit "Justify My Love," and rumors of a romance swirled around the two at the time. Talk about six degrees of separation!

    Madonna has been under scruitiny lately, as it was reported that she's hired a divorce attorney, and that she was planning on ending her seven year marriage to Guy Ritchie after the end of her upcoming tour.

    A-Rod is no stranger to the front and back pages to the New York tabloids. The New York Post published photos of him with a “masculine-looking blonde woman,” who was not his wife, during a Yankee road trip to Toronto last year. The woman was later identified as Joslyn Noel Morse, an ex-stripper at Scores Las Vegas.

    * Click here for Lenny Kravitz photos

    * Here are photos of Madonna's looks over the years

    * Here are a bunch of photos of A-Rod, at work and at play

    * And here's photos of athletes and their celebrity girlfriends

    -Lizzy

    Tags: entertainment

  • Greenpoint graffiti store is welcomed by some

    Wednesday July 2, 2008 10:34 AM By Rolando Pujol

    Shop owner Leif Mcilwaine in his Greenpoint graffiti store, Alphabeta shop. More photos of the shop here. (amNY photo by Jason Andrew)

    Spray paint, boom boxes, and retro sneakers. The Alphabeta shop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, the subect of our amNY cover story today, is filling a niche of sorts for graffiti artists, offering a variety of spray paint and other street-art materials, such as wheat paste and stencils.

    “It’s convenient because it’s close to get paint when you’re out in 5 Pointz. I’d have to go out to Corona, Queens or the Bronx. Brooklyn is a perfect location,” said “Repo,” while he tagged the wall in the back of the shop, which offers space for graffiti artists to work.

    The new shop has been getting mixed reactions from businesses and residents.

    Danielle Demos, a musician living in Greenpoint doesn't have a problem graffiti.

    "The architecture can get very monotonous and have no character and when people spray paint it’s like taking back the city. I think a lot of people will use [the shop].”

    Christine Onorati, owner of Word Books on Franklin Street, thinks the shop will fit in well with the neighborhood.

    “It’s a pretty artistic neighborhood. One of my most popular books is ‘Brooklyn Street Art,’ so why the hell not?”

    The shop isn’t completely welcome by everyone, including a neighborhood dry cleaner.

    “I really don’t like [graffiti]. It makes the streets look dirty. They spray paint my door a couple of times, it takes a lot of time to erase,” she said, declining to give her name.

    -- Simone Herbin

    Tags: graffiti, greenpoint, alphabeta, brooklyn, arts, neighborhoods

  • Score free Bon Jovi tickets

    Wednesday July 2, 2008 9:03 AM By Emily Ngo

    That's right. Bon Jovi's playing a show in Central Park on Saturday, July 12. Hosted by the city and the MLB in conjunction with the all-star break, the show is free. Here's where to score tickets (because you need one to go to the show):

    Starting today until the show:

    — Yankee Stadium (here's where the bulk will be)

    — Shea Stadium

    — KeySpan Park, Brooklyn

    — Staten Island Yankees (9 p.m.)

    On Friday, July 11:

    — DHL All-Star FanFest, Javitz

    — Emily Ngo

    Tags: music, yankees

  • Duly Noted

    Tuesday July 1, 2008 1:22 PM By Rolando Pujol

    A delightfully rusty QMT sign, still in service on Roosevelt Avenue.

    * Mimi Sheraton remembers her years working for Clay Felker, the founder of New York magazine who has died at 82. [City Room]

    * A 15th century sculpture of Saint Michael the Archangel fell overnight at the Met, but museum officials say it may not be a total loss. The museum will inspect how it mounts its precious antiquities. [Unbeige]

    * File under pretty cool: A piece of paper with Raymond Loewy's doodlings sheds light on the birth of the Exxon logo. [Kottke]

    * Jeremiah visits the Iron Triangle, and disagrees with the city's view that it's a slum. [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

    * R&L Restaurant reopens tomorrow in the space Florent called home for 23 years. [Eater]

    * This is neat: The Bullit car chase scene is now available for you to follow on Google Maps. Try re-enacting it next time you visit SF. [Boing Boing]

    * We're all about saving great dining architecture. In NYC, it's railcar diners that periodically need a hero; in Toledo, Ohio, it's an old White Tower hamburger stand, and it can be yours for a buck if you have the acreage to give it a home. [Serious Eats]

    * The trans-fat ban took effect today. [Serious Eats]

    * Meet the new 110 Third Ave., and take a moment please to compare with the old. Your thoughts? [EV Grieve]

    * Forget the House that Ruth Built. Take a moment to reflect on Hilltop Park on 168th and Broadway, where the Highlanders (today's Yankees) once played. [Ephemeral New York]

    * Kobayashi, sporting a new colorful do, is ready to wrest the hot-dog title from Joey Chestnut. [Serious Eats]

    -- Rolando Pujol

    Tags: duly noted

  • Check out Live at the Gantries, tonight at 7 in LIC

    Tuesday July 1, 2008 12:28 PM By Rolando Pujol

    Live at the Gantries, a free summer concert series, continues tonight at the Gantries Plaza State Park in Long Island City.

    Though the concerts will exclusively showcase Queens-based artists, the diversity of the acts is hard to deny. The performances range from traditional Irish music to Chinese Folk, with Indie Rock to boot.

    Tonight at 7, The F# Miners bring their traditional Irish music to the series. They play at Maguire's Pub in Woodside on Thursdays.

    Rachel Gordon, regional director at the NYC Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historical Development, came up with the idea for the series.

    “My hopes have totally been realized. I wanted to showcase the great Queens artists in a great Queens state park,” said Gordon, “with a beautiful view of Manhattan and the sun setting in the background, it’s going to be great.”

    Chris Henderson, arts service director of the Queens Council of the Arts, is most excited about the last performance on August 16, a Japanese acoustic punk rock band by the name of Noirceur and Uzuhi.

    The Queens Council of the Arts consulted many cultural institutions to find top cutting-edge acts, as well as neighborhoods to dig up hidden musical gem.

    “Our goal is to get everyone out for at least one show,” said Henderson, “We go international just by looking in the borough.”

    -- Simone Herbin

    Tags: live at the gantries, queens, music, neighborhoods

  • Con Ed talks down to the wire

    Tuesday July 1, 2008 10:41 AM By Rolando Pujol

    Updated 7:05: With a midnight strike deadline looming, talks between Con Edison and a union representing 9,000 of its workers are coming down to wire.

    If talking seems futile later tonight, the union is prepared to walk.

    "It’s much too early to get our arms around it right now," said Joe Flaherty, a spokesman for the union, in an interview with amNewYork around 6:30 p.m.

    A mediator is sitting down with Utility Workers Union Local 1-2 and power company representatives at 345 Hudson St.

    Wages are one of several issues the two sides have been unable to agree upon. Late last week, Con Ed offered a 4 percent raise over the next three years. Some additional pay increases required approval by employees' supervisors.

    The union had rejected the offer as an insult and accused the utility of negotiating in bad faith.

    Michael Clendenin, a spokesman for Con Ed, said negotiations "can go either way." The company wants "a settlement that would be fair to our employees and something that would hold down costs for our customers."

    "We're not their yet," he said.

    Asked if the clock would be pushed back, Clendenin said it's possible.

    “We are prepared to work as long as it takes to get a settlement,” he added.

    Clendenin said customers won't notice if workers strike.

    “If there is a strike the power will continue to flow. Our managers are prepared to keep our electric, gas, and steam running."

    Some routine maintenance won't be done and there will be curtailing of meter reading in the event of a strike.

    “Any emergency or outages that occur we're prepared to respond to," Clendenin said.

    Flaherty disagrees with the idea of a strike without an impact to service.

    "You think that 9,000 workers can walk off the job and it would have no effect? Does that sound reasonable to you?”

    -- Matthew Sweeney

    Tags: con edison, strike, politics

  • Statuesque all-stars

    Tuesday July 1, 2008 9:10 AM By Emily Ngo

    The Statue of Liberty adorned with White Sox logos in Union Square

    You'll be seeing a lot of these around town with the 79th All-Star Game but days away (July 15!!!) at Yankee Stadium. Forty-two lifesized statues will celebrate the Big Apple as host.

    The Statue of Liberty covered in the colors of various non-New York teams may be startling, but it serves its purpose: To catch your eye and psych you up for the all-star break.

    — Emily Ngo (Go, ChiSox)

    Tags: baseball, advertising, sports

  • Alex Rodriguez and Madonna affair report triggers tabloid frenzy

    Tuesday July 1, 2008 6:08 AM By Jamshid Mousavinezhad

    In what could be the perfect storm of celebrity gossip, Us Weekly is reporting that Alex Rodriguez has been making late-night visits to Madonna's Central Park West apartment.

    Wow--finally, something sports-obsessed guys can noodle over with their celebrity-addled girlfriends!

    The mag says A-Rod has made "numerous solo nighttime visits to Madonna" and afterwards would sneak out "as late as midnight."

    As late as?

    The source, in the ultimate New York touch, tells the mag that "all the doormen are talking."

    It's unclear who the source is--a 'friend' of Madonna? of A-Rod? a building resident? a doorman? Derek Jeter? Britney Spears?--and neither Madonna nor A-Rod's people are talking, so it's difficult to judge the credibility of the story.

    And Perez Hilton weighed in this afternoon with this: "As for the whole Alex Rodriguez thing, sources reveal exclusively to PerezHilton.com that Madonna and the baseball player are friends and nothing more.

    'They have mutual friends in common.'"

    Madonna's marital troubles with Guy Ritchie have been well-chronicled, and A-Rod's faced stripper-gate and allegations in Jose Canseco's book (plus claims that he likes well-muscled women; anyone seen Madonna's biceps lately?)

    And hey, there's this bit of sleuthing from Us Weekly: "Rodriguez attended Madonna's April 30 NYC concert; the singer sat in his seats at a Yankees game on June 22."

    Awww, they appreciate each other's work!

    (Note: A-Rod had a below-average game that day, going 1 for 4 with no RBIs, leaving 3 men on base in a 4-1 Yanks win over the Reds. Maybe he was nervous? No word on how well Madge sang that night.)

    Whether this Madonna/A-Rod thing pans out or not, Us Weekly has to be congratulated for bringing all its resources to bear on this tsunami of a story.

    The mag leaves us with this last tidbit: Madonna's son, Rocco, 7, "also sported Yankees gear on June 25 while playing in Central Park."

    Whoo-hoo! Can you imagine Woodward and Bernstein staking out the park for that scoop?!

    * Click here for a fun photo gallery of Madonna's looks over the years

    * Here are a bunch of photos of A-Rod, at work and at play

    * And here's photos of athletes and their celebrity girlfriends

    Tags: sports, entertainment

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