Staten Island Ferry, by General Erin at Flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: missing children on 12th Ave. in Brooklyn, an overturned tractor trailer on the eastbound BQE in Queens, and an armed robbery on West 42nd St. in Manhattan. The contraband room at JFK International: it's like a freegan's vision of heaven. The clock atop the former Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower (now One Hanson Place) started ticking today at noon. A man was......

No More Bolaris in the Forecast You won’t be seeing John Bolaris anymore on WCBS. He was last seen this past weekend and his bio has been taken down from the CBS 2 website. He will be starting at Fox owned WTXF in Philadelphia next month. We should mention that before the Long Island native was basically run out of town on a rail down there after predicting a blizzard that never happened, although he......

Graffiti: Pastry Chef Jehangir Mehta, who has spent time at Aix, Jean Georges, Vong, and Union Pacific, takes a stab at the world of the savory. He has opened a restaurant and bakery in the East Village with a "global bistro comfort food" menu. Offering breakfast, lunch, dinner, Graffiti serves up baked goods, coffee and tea, and a dinner menu where the dishes range in size from "nibbles" to "all mine." For the kicker, the......

At long last, after more than a year suffering behind black netting, the four-faced clock and gilded dome of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building are back in (almost) full view. But don't rely on it to tell time. The hands don't move yet! The NY Times has a write-up of the restored clock, which the building's owner, the Dermot Company, began renovating in 2006. Certainly, the four-faced clock of Brooklyn's tallest is now a......

After almost 15 years on the air, consumer reporter Asa Aarons was let go Friday by WNBC in the latest of the NBC 2.0 cuts. In an e-mail to TV Spy, Aarons said the parting was “amicable” and that he was told that "with NBC 2.0 budget cuts there is no longer room for a full time consumer reporter." Aarons told the Daily News, "It struck me as simply a numbers game." He also mentioned......

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a......

Band of Horses at the Pool, Another Great Show It’s getting a bit repetitive. Every week it seems like we rave and rave about how impressive the Pool Party was. This week brought Band of Horses back to New York for a big free happy show, alongside last year's premiere blog buzz band, Annuals. While there were few complaints about last Sunday, Jelly's got themselves quite the tall order coming up this week. TV on......

Yesterday saw the release of The Walk, the 7th studio album from Hanson. Yes, that Hanson. Over a decade has passed since "MMMBop" hit the airwaves, and now the Hanson boys are all grown up into men. Men who rock! Gothamist sat down with Taylor Hanson recently to discuss crazy fans, drag queens, and raising kids. Tonight he and his brothers play Webster Hall. What's some of the craziest fan behavior that you've encountered over......

New York City (and Mayor Bloomberg’s 2030 strategists) now can breathe a sigh of relief: Gotham is getting its first luxury green hotel. Starwood Capital Group today announced in a press release that a “1” hotel will be replacing a parking lot on West 40th St. between Fifth and Sixth avenues, across from Bryant Park. The building, which will comply with LEED standards, will be a 31-story mixed-use tower that, in addition to the......

Paris Je T'Aime (directed by various filmmakers including Olivier Assayas, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuarón, Chistopher Doyle and Nobuhiro Suwa): There have been nearly as many cinematic love letters written to Paris as there have been to New York, but that doesn't mean that moviemakers aren't still falling hard for the city of lights. 21 directors made 18 short films for the new omnibus movie Paris Je T'Aime which comes to New York theaters this Friday.......

MUSEUM: UnCoolkids point us uptown for a journey in to the deep blue sea. "Two-thirds of our planet is covered by water, and home to both salt and fresh water giants. Learn about the apex predators of the sea, massive sharks (past and present), as well as the largest bluefin tuna ever caught (1,496 pounds), and extinct giant fishes.” Author and Research Associate at the Museum, Richard Ellis, will be on hand to "discuss what......

CBS 2 World Exclusive Monday night at 11 p.m. WCBS finally aired what they have been touting as a world exclusive interview with Golan Cipel. In the interview he denied claims that he was the lover of former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey and claimed was the victim of sexual harassment at the hand of the former governor. Anchor Jim Rosenfield conducted the interview that included a visit to the Woodbridge condo, which was the......

READING: Here's something awesome to spice up your week - from Housing Works Used Book Cafe's website: "Jest Fest 06, a celebration of the 10th Anniversary of David Foster Wallace's INFINITE JEST. Join John Krasinski (The Office), Todd Hanson (The Onion), Lev Grossman (Time Magazine), and Laura Miller (Salon) in reading from and talking about the book. Audience participation strongly encouraged!" Nerdy goodness abounds! - Krissa Corbett Cavouras 7pm // Housing Works Used Book Cafe......

ART: Local artist Jen Dunlap is having an art show tonight. It's called Yeep! Yeep!, so it's sure to be fun. Check out her work here, then head over there to see it all up close, while enjoying some free drinks! 7 to 10pm // Riverfawn [11 Harrison St #1] // Free THEATER: Anne Washburn’s The Internationalist begins previews tonight. Originally presented in 2004, it’s about a young American businessman assigned to an unspecified foreign......

+ What would Olmsted and Vaux say about the complainers in Prospect Park? We're just happy there's been no violent crime there lately. + The Gatehouse: "First new performance space to open in Harlem in a generation." The 1890 Romanesque Revival building was restored for $21 million. + Peck Slip redesign should include green space and a piazza, urges community board. But cobblestones are tricky, says area man. + The "long-neglected" Flatbush Ave. corridor from......

Get ready to explore the city this weekend - it's open house new york time! There are various homes, parks, landmarks, studios, and more open for the public to visit and learn more. open house new york has programs, tours, and podcasts - learn more at the website. Here's a pick in each borough: - The new Bronx Museum of the Arts - Fort Totten in Queens - Alice Austen House Museum in Staten......

READINGS: Sebastian Junger (co-owner of the Half King) will be reading there tonight from his latest book, A Death in Belmont. The book ties into Junger's own life eerily - back in 1963 when Junger was a small boy growing up in Belmont, Massachusetts, Bessie Goldberg was murdered down the street from his home. Following the stories of the two different men suspected of committing the crime (and one of them working at Junger's family......

Yesterday at One Hanson Place - better known as the Williamsburgh Savings Bank - was a study in contrasts. Magic Johnson of the Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds (yes, that Magic Johnson), partnering with the Dermot Company, towered over Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz as they touted the latest development at Brooklyn's tallest building: One Hanson Place, 189 luxury condos, starting at $350,000, to be completed in mid 2007. Markowitz maintained his commitment to an income-and-ethnic-diverse......

Mayor Bloomberg was not very successful with the Summer Olympics, but his daughter Georgina hopes that she can ride her way into the games. Georgina, the younger of Mayor Bloomberg's two daughters, has her sights set on making the Olympic equestrian team for the 2008 Beijing Games. Riding since she was 4 (Gothamist was riding our little wooden horsey), Georgina was in her first competition at the age of 6 (we competed against our reflection......

Andres du Bouchet is a busy man. A few weeks ago we recommended his Naked Trampoline Hamlet monologues, which our friends at the Apiary could not curb their enthusiasm for in their coverage. This week he begins a two month run of Hilarilogues at the PIT[154 W.29th Street] with each show promising a mix of new and different material. Thursdays in November and December at 11pm. $5. By popular demand, Demetri Martin: These Are Jokes......

I'm back with this week's show rundown. We realize it's frustrating to find out about a show and then find out it's sold out. This week we start the post with FIVE (actually SIX) recommended shows that are not yet sold out (some even free). Caribou (formerly Dan Snaith's Manitoba) plus Four Tet with the Junior Boys and Russian Futurists are playing Bowery Ballroom on Wednesday, and Northsix in Brooklyn on Thursday. The Junior Boys......

The Balthazar Cookbook, by Keith McNally, Riad Nasr, and Lee Hanson (Clarkson Potter, 2003) Are You Hungry Tonight? : Elvis' Favorite Recipes, by Brenda Butler (Gramercy, 1992) Fit for a King: The Elvis Presley Cookbook, by Elizabeth Mckeon (Rutledge Hill Press, 2001) Tomorrow, January 8th, is Elvis' birthday. While Gothamist has to confess we're not the biggest Elvis fans (he died before we could walk), from looking at the Elvis-related cookbooks out there, we certainly......

The investigation of who shot Monica Meadows on a W train on Tuesday afternoon has hit a bump, with the "scruffy" man initially sought by police as a suspect being cleared. A man who was on the subway and fit the description turned himself into police, who decided he was not the gunman. The Times noted the police's difficulty getting a clear idea from witnesses of how many were actually on the subway, since, as......

The second most interesting thing Gothamist found about the Oscars last night was that Oscar-nominated Seabiscuit cinematographer John Schwartzman is Jason Schwartzman's brother, which means he's cousins with Sofia and Nic, nephew of Francis... The first most interesting thing was how bored we could be watching the Oscars. BORING BORING BORING. Gothamist hates your producing, Joe Roth. Hate hate hate! A few moments before the show officially starts, Billy Bush makes Keisha Castle Hughes......

In another case of art picking up after commerce, Altoids commissioned a series of art work from five different contemporary artists to give the new Altoids Strips a new spin. The "Curiously Strong Comic Strip Series" has different imaginings of the breath strips from Beth Campbell, Erik Hanson, Dave Muller, Dave Rathman and Wayne White, and the artwork is being auctioned off on eBay until September 4. The highest bid will be matched by Altoids......

Gothamist doesn't know what to make of Johnny Depp's gold teeth. A Johnny Depp fan says that Depp "forgot" to take out the teeth which were put in during the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean. We know that Johnny Depp is pretty Method-y and a somewhat grungy Johnny is cute, but this might be too much. And keeping in teeth from the making of a movie based on a Disney ride? If he had......