Results tagged “NYC”

Bad news for squatters and survivalists: Instead of just letting abandoned condo developments turn into illegal havens for trespassers, the city is starting a $20 million pilot program to turn unsold condominiums, unrented apartments and stalled construction sites into affordable housing for middle-income families. Yesterday Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced the plan, called the Housing Asset Renewal Program (HARP), in which the city will negotiate with developers and banks to turn the unoccupied units into affordable housing.

City officials and cycling advocates gathered in The Bronx yesterday to celebrate meeting the goal of adding 200 bike-lane miles in all five boroughs in three years. Dr. Thomas Farley, city health commissioner, was on hand to trumpet the health benefits of cycling; Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe praised the bike lanes connecting the city's parks and waterfronts; and DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan declared New York "the bicycling capital of the United States." The bike lane network is now the equivalent length of a bike lane running from New York City to Boston! The 200-mile initiative was launched after a 2006 report [pdf] determined that cyclists were safest in bike lanes and wearing helmets. The project cost $8.8 million, and included installing 6,100 bike racks and 1,000 guide signs. According to the DOT [pdf], there are now 70.9 miles of bike lanes in The Bronx, 138.9 miles in Brooklyn, 90.4 miles in Manhattan, 96.7 miles in Queens, and 27.6 in Staten Island. And besides helping cyclists, they make for great parking spots, too!

Upstate writer John Kuhner was visiting New York (his hometown) last week when his late night subway ride to Queens got even more tedious than usual. Around 5:30 a.m., a plainclothes cop entered his subway car at Roosevelt Avenue and ordered all seven male riders off the train. Like the others, Kuhner had made the mistake of putting his feet up, which is punishable with a $50 fine. He writes, "We were received by a group of police officers, six in all... who demanded our IDs and said they were going to run a check on us. It took forever for these six cops to get our names through to their computer, and the entire time all seven of us became more and more annoyed and difficult... I began to harangue the officers: 'This is ridiculous. The Law is for the resolution of grievances between citizens... This is a shameless revenue grab, and that’s why you, officer, won’t look me in the eye or even respond.'" Kuhner goes off on the cops like Patrick Henry on his sixth Sparks, and you can probably imagine how far his impassioned rhetoric got him. Read the whole indignant story here, which ends with one commenter sagely urging Kuhner to "take solace in the fact that by challenging this ticket... you will ultimately cost the city more than the $50 that they fined you."

Having worked tirelessly to end global warming, nuclear proliferation, and that horrible Guinea worm disease, hipsters can at last enjoy a well-earned childish diversion. This Sunday the Seattle chapter of the Cardboard Tube Fighting League (yep, it exists) will be hosting a tournament! Everyone's invited to dress up like knights in cardboard armor and smack each other around with tubes, which will be provided by the organizers. (No outside tubes are permitted, to prevent contestants from causing any non-ironic injuries with doctored tubes.) Afterward, everybody will not get laid.

Thanks to our coup-coup State Senate, the city has frozen all hiring. The State Senate hasn't been able to act on legislation that allows the city to maintain a balanced budget; Mayor Bloomberg said, "The gridlock in the State Senate imperils the City’s budget," and the hiring freeze "includes a class of 250 Police Recruits, who were set to enter the academy this week, along with Firefighters, School Safety Agents, 911 and 311 call takers, and EMTs. Further, we will be reviewing all City contracts to ensure we do not enter into non-essential contracts. We have a legal mandate to produce a balanced budget - something we’ve done for seven consecutive years - so we have to act responsibly." Also under pressure from the Senate's inaction: Yonkers, which is the 4th largest city in the state and which needs the Senate to pass bills so the State Comptroller can approve its budget.

After a witness told the NY Post that distraught pug owner Chrissie Brodigan shouted at NYC's first Hasidic cop, "You f---ing Jew, you're not even human," her employer suspended her without pay and may terminate her, pending an internal investigation. Brodigan, the VP for Online Media at Plum TV, tells us that after the Post's article appeared, Plum TV's CEO, Chris Glowacki, called her to say she was "lucky not to be fired immediately." (Several requests for comment from Glowacki have gone unanswered.)

A Brooklyn woman is in critical condition after her husband hacked her repeatedly with a meat cleaver in their Dyker Heights apartment yesterday morning. 54-year-old Shao Ling Ye was sweeping up during breakfast when, according to her husband, Youshening Huang, "She swept over my feet and that really sparked it." Neighbors tell the Daily News they heard Huang, 53, shout, "I've put up with you for all these years!" A dazed and bleeding Shao Ling Ye was then seen stumbling out into the street, gushing blood. Candice Meng, 21, who lives in the basement, tells the Post, "There was blood all over her. I just heard her shouting, 'Help!' We came out and she was lying there with her husband standing next to her looking down at her. He was showing no remorse. He asked me if he could come down and wash his hands." Ye is in critical condition with gashes to her head, arm, chest and finger; Huang is charged with assault, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon. Joseph Tsang, whose parents rent the apartment to Huang, seemed shocked, telling the Daily News, "He's a really peaceful guy. He goes jogging around the neighborhood."

It was almost a year ago that a Times Square tourist happened to videotape a police officer's seemingly unprovoked assault on a cyclist during a Critical Mass group bike ride. The video, which depicts rookie cop Patrick Pogan slamming 30-year-old cyclist Christopher Long off his bike, sparked widespread outrage and ended up costing Pogan his job (getting caught filing a false police report didn't help his case, either). Long is now living in rural Wisconsin and working on a farm, but according to his lawyer, "There is psychological trauma, which explains why he is not living in New York City right now. It is a terrible experience for him to go through." So naturally he's suing the city, for $1.5 million, to help ease the pain.

The Rosenwach Tank Company, which is almost the oldest manufacturer of wooden water tanks in America, was hit by a pretty severe fire on the evening of July 4th at their headquarters in Williamsburg, where they mill their cedar wood for New York's ubiquitous rooftop tanks. And according to local custom, everyone's blaming the hipsters. We stopped by the site on the morning after the two-alarm blaze and several women who reside nearby agreed that "young white guys" had been setting off fireworks near the Rosenwach property around 9 p.m.

On July 1st, the New York City Council was expected to pass the Bicycle Access to Buildings bill, which would require commercial landlords to allow tenants to bring bikes inside office buildings with freight elevators. Many building managers refuse to let workers bring their bicycles inside, even if their employer lets them keep their bikes at their desks, and the new bill, Intro. 871, would allow landlords the flexibility to develop individual access plans that suit their buildings and their tenants. (Department of City Planning says the biggest barrier cited by potential bicycle commuters is the lack of safe places to store their bikes.) But Councilman John Liu, who chairs the Transportation Committee, refused to bring it up for a vote. After working on the bill for eight months with the DOT, DOB, Mayor's Office, landlords, and community advocates, Liu abruptly decided that transportation agency can't handle more responsibility. Cycling advocates are pissed, and Councilman David Yassky, who authored the legislation, says Liu pulled the plug so Yassky can't claim credit during the election. Yassky tells the Post, "All I know is the bill was slated to pass the council on Tuesday and it was derailed at the last minute. I sense politics is at work."

Though some bloggers have shrugged off Monday's allegedly rough arrest of a woman who was carrying her pug through the subway as "breathtakingly minor," the incident's certainly major enough to have gotten the attention of New York's top cop. Or, at least a reporter was able to ask NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly whether officer Joel Witriol used excessive force and made sexist remarks while arresting Chrissie Brodigan, who was trying to carry her sick pug out of the subway station.

             

Click on the film stills above for more on this weekend's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, I Hate Valentine's Day, Local Color, Nollywood Babylon, The Beaches of Agnes, The Girl from Monaco, Tony Manero, A Clockwork Orange, Newsies, The Royal Tenenbaums, Mississippi Mermaid, BAMcinématek's Afro-Punk Festival, and Willie Nelson's 4th of July Celebration.

A bystander who witnessed the arrest Monday of a woman carrying her sick pug in the subway says the dog owner made anti-Semitic remarks toward the arresting officer, who happens to be the city's first Hasidic cop. Yesterday the pug-owner, Chrissie Brodigan, told us (and a second witness corroborated) that when she became upset during the incident, Officer Joel Witriol said, "If you're going to act like a woman I'm going to treat you like a woman."

We're getting preliminary reports about an "aircraft emergency" this morning at LaGuardia airport, where an incoming American Airlines flight was hit by a bird strike when coming in for a landing. No injuries are being reported, but paramedics were called to meet the plane at gate 10, apparently as a precaution. The pilot also reported a "hydraulic leak in the nose gear." The incident comes as the city moves to euthanize 2,000 geese within 5 miles of airports during their molting season, in an effort to prevent another crash like the one that befell Flight 1549.

As promised, last year's first Summer Streets series, which created a 6.9 mile car-free stretch of Manhattan pavement on three Saturdays in August, will return, despite heated objections from some merchants who said the closings hurt their businesses. Today Russell Simmons and Luis Guzmán joined Mayor Bloomberg, DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, and other officials to formally announce this year's events, which will take place in Manhattan on Saturday August 8th, 15th and 22nd from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Manhattan route will run from the Brooklyn Bridge via Lafayette/Centre Streets, 4th Avenue and Park Avenue up to 72nd street, while major cross-town streets will remain open to vehicles crossing the route. In addition, the Summer Streets program is being expanded to all five boroughs, with smaller stretches in a total of 13 neighborhoods. One such micro-version of Summer Streets, Williamsburg Walks, is already underway and will continue next Saturday and July 11th, unless the teenagers ruin everything with their skateboards! A full list of all the neighborhood Summer Streets events can be perused here, along with all the other free activities presented by the city.

              

We haven't tried the food yet, but The Standard Grill—the new restaurant that officially opened last week on the ground floor of The Standard Hotel—seems to have a lot going for it. Besides being really ridiculously good looking, the joint's timing and location are prime indeed, coinciding with the first section of the High Line park to open to the public. The restaurant, designed by Roman and Williams, is comprised of three distinct spaces: an outdoor dining section, a sun-soaked bistro with tiled floor and a full bar, and a white-tablecloth, fine dining room with red banquettes and orange leather armchairs.

La Cense, an 88,000 acre Montana ranch that uses sustainable farming methods to raise 100 percent grass-fed cattle, launched its first burger truck in midtown today, at 48th Street and Park Avenue. And the crowds went wild! La Cense's consulting burger chef is none other than Adam Perry Lang, the pitmaster-owner of Daisy May's BBQ, not to mention a classically trained veteran of the Le Cique, Daniel, and Chanterelle kitchens. And so a long line of determined guinea pigs formed almost immediately this morning, and according to some reports it stretched over a half hour long.

The city's health department just wants you to be healthy, which is why you can no longer innocently order a pina colada at Pizzeria Uno while pretending it doesn't contain multitudes of calories. The latest proposal to dispel New Yorkers' ignorant bliss involves requiring any retailers selling cigarettes to display graphic warning signs (like the sample here) about the dangers of smoking, plus information on where to seek help quitting. The proposed measure would require retailers to post the warnings wherever tobacco products are displayed, and also at the cash register or point of purchase. Officials hope it will help more New Yorkers quit; according to DOH stats, tobacco-related illness kills 7,400 people in the city each year. In fact, smoking kills more New Yorkers than AIDS, drugs, homicide and suicide combined! So today the Board of Health voted to solicit public comment on the proposed amendment (which you can read here), and a public hearing will be held on July 30th. What do you think? Too graphic or not graphic enough? (And last year the Health Department unveiled a line of graphic anti-smoking matchbooks.)

The number of families sleeping in shelters is near an all-time high; according to the Department of Homeless Services, there were 34,774 people in shelters last week, including 9,361 families. The Bloomberg administration is now seeking state approval for a new set of policies intended to move families out of shelters more quickly and, according to the Times, apply the "market-driven, incentive-based philosophy to homeless shelters that it has used in schools." Under the new rules, the city would pay shelters more than the usual rate, which is roughly $100 a day, for the first six months that it houses a family. But after six months, if the family has not found permanent housing, the shelter would be paid 20 percent less than the standard rate. Homeless advocates deem the new policies "mean-spirited" and worry that families would be forced out after six months. But Linda Gibbs, deputy mayor for health and human services, insists families would only be ejected for "refusing to look for housing, refusing to seek employment, anything that is an unreasonable refusal to participate in the steps they need to take to overcome their homelessness." In April, homeless advocates blamed Bloomberg for the rise in homeless families.

This week Frank Bruni at the Times reviews Meatpacking District hotspot Spice Market, where chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's menu is inspired by Asian street food. Interim dining critic Amanda Hesser gave it three out of four stars in 2004, but the paper was forced to issue a statement acknowledging that Hesser should have disclosed the glowing jacket blurb Vongerichten wrote for her book.

When the city demolished a Coast Guard housing complex on Governors Island last October, one official promised it wouldn't "sit vacant waiting for future park funding." And believe it or not, it's true! The Brooklyn nonprofit Added Value is already using the space for a three-acre organic farm. There's a nice story on City Room today about the project, which brings teenagers to the island to teach them about sustainable and local food. The farm is expected to rake in as much as $25,000 this year through sales at a farm stand and the island's new Water Taxi Beach, which opens July 4th weekend. Squash, tomatoes, sunflowers, eggplants and groundcherries are expected by the end of July, and the proceeds could fund stipends of $1,400 for as many as 25 teens who work at the farm. Ian Marvy of Added Value says, "The average household income in Red Hook is around $14,000. You're increasing a family’s income by 9 percent by growing tomatoes." Volunteers of all ages are also welcome to get their thumbs green every day Governors Island is open to the public: Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

If Terminator Salvation's bleak vision of humanity's enslavement by machines has you down, HERE Arts Center is the place to go for an antidote to Hollywood blockbuster dystopia. The machines that fill the stage in machines machines machines machines machines machines machines (which we'll henceforth refer to as "machines") are as inextricably involved in day-to-day life as the computer you're using to read this, but they're not about to become "self-aware" any time soon. They're not making existence any easier either, but that's what makes "machines" so damn entertaining: A man pouring a glass of orange juice doesn't make for compelling theater, but three men using an elaborate system of pulleys and counterweights to (somewhat successfully) pour juice makes for daffy, steampunk slapstick.

              

Click on the film stills above for more on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include Year One, The Proposal, Under Our Skin, The End of the Line, $9.99, Dead Snow, The Windmill Movie, Top Gun, The New York Asian Film Festival, BAMcinemaFEST, DJ Spooky’s Rebirth of a Nation, Killer's Kiss, and Splash.

Yesterday, the NY State Department of Labor revealed that statewide unemployment rose from 7.7% in April to 8.2% in May, while NYC unemployment hit 9.0% in May, after being at 8.0% in April: "The state's private sector job count has now dropped for nine consecutive months. Since the state's private sector job count peaked in August 2008, New York has lost 212,200 private sector jobs, erasing more than half of the 400,000 jobs added during the state's last economic expansion from 2003 to 2008."

Hundreds of demonstrators, alerted through Facebook and Twitter, gathered for a rally in Union Square last night in solidarity with Iranian opposition groups who have been protesting the results of last week's presidential election. According to this video, the peaceful rally seems to have gone off without incident, unlike in Iran, where some demonstrators have been beaten and killed after taking to the streets. Today in south Tehran, an estimated one million Iranians are marching to protest the election, which handed victory to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran's authoritative Guardian Council has now offered to meet with reformist candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi, as well as the two other main opposition candidates, but it's unclear whether that overture will placate the increasingly enraged protesters. Here in New York, rally organizer Amid Amidi told Voice of America, "They are out there now fighting for democracy and reform, and I just want to say that people here in New York hear you. We hear your struggle and we are 100 percent behind you."

An employee at the Target in East New York is accused of conspiring with her boyfriend to set fire to the store as a diversion while they stole $8,000 worth of flat-screen televisions. And they would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those meddling surveillance cameras! The FDNY says video depicts Jared Devonis, who was fired from Target two weeks ago, using a lighter to start a fire in the paper towel aisle.

AutoVantage released its annual survey of the Best/Worst Road Rage Cities in the country and New York is at the top of the heap, baby! After polling 2,500 respondents in 25 major markets, NYC was found to be the least courteous, followed by Dallas/Fort Worth, Detroit, Atlanta and Minneapolis/St. Paul (the more courteous cities were Portland, OR, Cleveland, Baltimore, Sacramento and Pittsburgh); Miami, which was the worst city for four years, slipped from the top five of least courteous cities! According to the consulting company which commissioned the survey, "New Yorkers were most likely to wave their fists or arms. They were most likely to lay on the horn and they were most likely to make some sort of obscene gesture." As for what respondents think causes road rage, they cited things like "Bad/careless driving, such as cutting others off, speeding, tailgating, talking on cell phones, making obscene gestures and not using proper signals," "Traffic problems, accidents, poor road conditions or construction" and "Inconsiderate, disrespectful, selfish drivers who think they own the road."

If you haven't yet seen Andrew Bird live, then you've got a pretty easy decision to make regarding your Thursday night plans: He'll be performing at Radio City Music Hall with his stellar three-piece band, and tickets are still on sale! Of course, if you've already had the Andrew Bird live experience, there's no deciding necessary: to see him once is to be blown away and left wanting more, so you've already got tickets burning a hole in your pocket. We've pretty much exhausted all our superlatives when it comes to Bird, whose voice, violin, guitar, glockenspiel, and virtuoso whistling combine—often simultaneously—to create a sublime, almost unclassifiable pop-Americana soundscape. His most recent album, Noble Beast, is just further proof that Bird's compositional gifts are an embarrassment of riches; but the only proof you'll need, should you remain unconvinced, will be presented in its entirety Thursday night at Radio City, Q.E.D.

              

If you haven't explored the newly-opened section of the High Line park yet, then let Katie Sokoler's stunning photographs take you there. She stopped by last night and tells us they started "shooing everyone away" at 9:45 p.m., so keep that in mind. The first section runs from Gansevoort Street, in the Meatpacking District, to West 20th Street, in Chelsea, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues; here are details about the access points.

Reports are filtering in about a bad accident this morning between a pedicab and yellow taxi in Williamsburg. According to CBS2, the pedicab driver was heading eastbound off the Williamsburg Bridge pedestrian walkway when he crashed into the taxi on Bedford Avenue shortly after 7:30 a.m. The unconscious pedicab driver was taken to Bellevue Hospital with head injuries, and the Post reports that his two passengers are also listed in critical condition with head injuries. But CBS2 says the male passenger was not injured, while a 22-year-old female passenger was hospitalized with neck and back injuries. Apparently, the pedicab "snapped in half" upon impact! Those familiar with the Williamsburg Bridge pedestrian walkways might be surprised by the accident's location; of the two ramps leading off the bridge in Brooklyn, the one that abruptly empties onto Bedford Avenue is significantly more steep and narrow. It's unclear at this point why the pedicab driver exited down that ramp, or if excessive speed was a factor.