Windsor Terrace residents were joined by Park Slope Assemblyman Jim Brennan and local community board members at a rally to decry a proposal that would completely bar cars from Prospect Park for three months next summer to study the traffic impact. Last month Transportation Alternatives delivered a petition to Mayor Bloomberg signed by 10,000 people who want the park to be totally car-free. At Thursday's rally, Community Board 14 Chairman Alvin Berk told the Brooklyn......

Since Mayor Bloomberg and the DOT have been showing an interest in making the city's streets more inviting to pedestrians and cyclists, advocacy group Transportation Alternatives has decided it's a perfect time to increase pressure on City Hall to make Brooklyn's Prospect Park completely car-free. As it stands now, the hours when drivers are permitted in the park have been whittled down to two hours in the morning and two hours at night on weekdays,......

On Tuesday the L.A. city council passed a bill that would prevent new fast food restaurants from opening in certain parts of the city for at least one year. Not to be outdone, New York City Council member Eric Gioia is proposing the same thing here. He tells the Sun, "People are literally being poisoned by their diets – LA's idea deserves serious consideration as we look for holistic solutions to a serious problem." Suprisingly,......

After routinely stopping ticket holders from bringing their sunblock into Yankee Stadium, the sunburnt fans’ outrage boiled over yesterday into the New York Post, who verified that security guards have been forcing people to throw away any sunscreen containers larger than three ounces. Of course, fans always had the option of buying 1-ounce bottles of Arizona Sun SPF 15 for $5 inside the stadium. But an hour after a reporter called the stadium to confirm......

Recovering drug addicts can look forward to climbing even further up the walls starting tomorrow, when all drug treatment centers in New York State implement a smoking ban. Bryan Lapsker, a 21-year-old PCP addict, tells amNY he’s been dreading the change: "Nicotine helps (addicts) get through the day. Now you take the nicotine away from us, it's almost impossible to get through the day. Addiction is addiction, I understand that, but nicotine is a legal......

It’s been a long time coming, but today’s the day the city’s ban on trans fat expands from spreads and frying oils to everything served in a restaurant, with the exception of foods served in the manufacturer's original packaging, such as crackers. The city’s anti-trans fat website has plenty of trans facts for restaurateurs and diners, and Sal Picinich of Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken tells the Post that “anyone who needs their trans-fats fix should......

Should you somehow manage to finagle one of precious 12 seats at David Chang’s wildly hyped restaurant Momofuku Ko, don’t go pushing your luck by trying to commemorate the experience in photographs. Chang has banned picture-taking at Ko because he feels it’s become a distraction to other diners. “It’s just food. Eat it,” he declares. Could this be a new trend? Serious Eats talks to other chefs around town about their photography policies.......

City councilman and mayoral hopeful Tony Avella held a press conference today at City Hall to spotlight a pending council resolution urging the New York State Senate to outlaw force-feeding ducks and geese to produce foie gras. A bill to ban the practice is languishing in Albany, and Avella hopes his largely symbolic gesture will push it forward. Yesterday Avella told the Village Voice that though there are only two foie gras farms in New......

A state senator from Long Island is proposing that texting on one's mobile phone while driving should be illegal. It's already against the law to talk on a phone while one is driving. Studies have shown that that is about as distracting as being drunk behind the wheel. One can only imagine how distracting texting--which involves digital manipulation and reading, versus simply talking--could be in comparison. State senator Carl Marcellino is the legislator who intends......

The growing backlash against bottled water as an environmental abomination is stretching into some of NYC's premiere eating and drinking establishments. Ten years ago it was the de rigeur of fashion to be toting a bottle of water everywhere one went; now it marks you as a polluting pariah. According to the New York Post, bottled water is being banned at places like the Waverly Inn, Il Buco, Del Posto, Gemma in the Bowery Hotel,......

Yesterday we told you all about Randy Quaid being banned for life from Actors’ Equity and fined $81,572 for abusive and lewd behavior during the Seattle production of would-be Broadway musical Lone Star Love. Since then we’ve tried to get a comment on the allegations from Quaid’s wife Evi, who attended the Equity hearing on his behalf and ended up getting into a physical altercation – she says they broke her finger while trying to......

Queens Councilman Tony Avella has introduced a bill that would ban the existence of carriage horses in NYC. Another Queens Councilman, James Gennaro, is looking to preserve the practice of equine cabbies that populate the streets of and around Central Park. Manhattan council members are perhaps showing some political horse sense from bowing out of this particular fight. While wanting to preserve the tradition of the horse-drawn carriage trade, Gennaro is also suggesting a......