Results tagged “centralstation”

If you are one of the 700,000 people who pass through Grand Central Terminal every day there are things that you may take for granted or just may not know about the great train station. Thanks to Metro-North's Dan Brucker, Gothamist can reveal some of them to you.

A building collapse at 124th Street and Park Avenue has prompted the MTA to shut down all train service in and out of Grand Central Terminal. Metro-North's Dan Brucker told WCBS 880, "We don't know how long the closure will last. We have been told by the police not to have any trains run through the 125th Street station."

Thanks to Modern Mechanix we can now see what New York was supposed to look like by the year 2000, as seen from 1927. In that article "streets on five levels have been prophesied," but by 1931, two-level streets (pictured) seemed more realistic.

A definite step towards the relief of traffic congestion on much traveled city thoroughfares by the construction of streets under streets is soon to be taken by the city of New York. When this stupendous project has been brought to completion the metropolis will have an underground lane for fast through traffic, a tunnel for local and express trains, all built underneath the surface street, which will be left for local traffic.

Continue reading "The 2nd Avenue Sub-Street"

Later today, the city will discuss whether the I.M. Pei-designed Silver Towers should be landmarked. The Observer reported that NYU announced its support today, a reversal from an earlier position over three years ago.

From rats ruling a West Village KFC/Taco Bell to Governor Spitzer's downward spiral, from a shock jock's questionable words to an up-and-down year for the MTA (and its riders), we bring up the biggest stories of 2007.

Operation Lucky Bag, the NYPD program that threatened to ensnare good Samaritans along with subway thieves, is making a comeback after being effectively shut down earlier this year. Initially, the program involved cops leaving bags of merchandise, wallets, or purses on subway benches. When someone picked them up and didn't immediately turn them over to the police or subway personnel, he or she was arrested. According to the police, Operation Lucky Bag netted 101 arrests...

Bostonist knows how to party, and party it did this week! As the Red Sox played their winning Game 4 against the Colorado Rockies in the World Series, one fan composed tunes for each player on the team. Then, when the Red Sox won the World Series, fans celebrated all over town and snarfed the free tacos that Taco Bell gave the nation when Jacoby Ellsbury stole a base. Then they watched jigging Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon get his boogie on at the Red Sox Rally after the World Series. Manny Ramirez also invited them--and the entire city of Boston--to his house for drinks, but since the invitation came from the elusive Mr. Ramirez, Bostonist didn't believe him. And now we're moving on to the mother of all football games and the rise of Ghidorah on the basketball court. Beyond Red Sox news, Bostonist is honoring the passing of the late, great Robert Goulet by encouraging men to grow mustaches.

As the MTA considers ways to save money as it faces billion-dollar deficits, the Daily News suggests the "Sick Customer Response Program" could be on the chopping block. Apparently the MTA would be able to save $250,000 if the program, which has EMTs stationed at seven busy stations, were eliminated in 2009, but we think it would be a mistake to end it.

Moon over Orchard, by Goggla.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, because it gets your body going, and the MTA definitely wants you to have your breakfast. Some interesting news just in time for New Year's resolutions. amNew York finds out that women fainting from their crash diets are a leading cause of subway delays. Really. While things like the flu and hangovers describe some sick passengers that the MTA's Sick Customer Response Team tends to, the SCRT EMTs mostly see fainting thanks to dieting.

"You have women trying to get their bodies tight for the summer and they won¹t eat," said Asim Nelson, a Transit emergency medical technician based in Grand Central Station. "Not eating for three or four days, you are going to go down. If you don't eat for 12 hours you are going to get weak."

Preserving preservation history? The concept made us a little nervous, too, but, when we heard about the New York Preservation Archive Project's plan for an online database, we knew we'd have to overcome our fear of all things meta.

This time of year when the wind chill often makes walking the streets an onerous prospect, we at Gothamist tend to wimp out a bit. We transform into mole people and duck underground, devising new routes that involve as little of the freezing cold as possible. There are some nice surprises to be found along the way though. Take for instance the to-go window at the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Station. (It opens on to the ramp that leads down to the main dining concourse on the lower level.) Stop by any weekday around lunchtime, and you can sample from an abbreviated version of the grand old restaurant’s colossal seafood menu.

Wired has a story today on the Googlecenter of America-- the place that you find if you zoom in to the closest point on the default Google map (it's a fallow field outside of Coffeyville, Kansas.) This got us thinking: where is the Googlecenter of New York City? Turns out it's the corner of Chambers and Broadway, right behind city hall. That makes some sense to us-- although there are probably better candidates-- Times Square, Grand Central Station, etc. Curious about the Googlecenter of your borough? Read on:

Janelle snapped a clear picture of the new recycling bins at the Jay Street station, and these babies are stunning! Judging by the contents, they are intended for paper recycling. We're guessing they are built of see-through materials for terrorism-related reasons. We've never noticed any recycling bins in the subway before, so these might be the first ones in the whole system-- although the MTA has long had newspaper recycling programs set up on the commuter platforms at Grand Central Station. Does this mean that the MTA will be adding recycling cars to their daily trash trains? [Related: learn more about the MTA's other environmental programs.]

Tristan Taormino, Sex Educator

Eric and Skye took some time out for Gothamist last week, check out what they had to say in response to our hard-hitting questions...

Tom Vaught, Bartender