The Times ran a follow-up today about their investigation that found abnormally high levels of mercury in fish served at area restaurants. Toxicology reports from 44 pieces of sushi, ordered from places including Nobu Next Door and Sushi Seki, may in fact contribute to some New Yorkers’ 3 times higher-than-average blood levels of mercury. It turns out, however, that most New Yorkers just don’t care. The mercury issue, while especially serious for pregnant women and......

Solar One is New York City's first solar-powered “Green Energy, Arts, and Education Center,” leading the way in getting city dwellers to be a bit more environmentally responsible. They do this by not only reaching out to the community and educating through games and workshops, but also through some great events, green markets and more (they even have their Solar2 building coming soon, watch a video about it here). This Thursday they launch their summer......

The relatively recent boom of opening bank branches in Manhattan is examined in amNew York. With a 36% increase in Manhattan bank branches between 2000 and 2006, it's hard for many people to walk a block or two without passing at least one (though there are more in places like Midtown or the intersection of Second Avenue and 10th Street). Banks will pay higher rents, which makes landlords less willing to continue to rent spaces......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on West 52nd St. and Broadway in Manhattan, a double shooting on Fenton Ave. and Boston Rd. in the Bronx, and escaped prisoners on East 163rd St. and Westchester Ave. in the Bronx. Curbed looks at the new Red Hook IKEA under construction, which is starting to become recognizable. Paul McCartney is playing the Highline Ballroom tomorrow night in a now not-so-secret show. Brooklyn's Smith St.......

Hey everyone-- you may have noticed that we've made a few small changes to our commenting and feedback systems: 1. Commenters now have profile pages with a bit of information about them, and links to their recent comments, along with comments other people have left in response. If the commenter is also a Gothamist author, the page will include a list of their recent posts. Here's mine. You can register here-- it's fast and painless,......

The Daily News printed a list of the "top 10 reasons why your train was late", so memorize them the next time you're late to work: 1. Track work/work crews - 1,640 incidents in one month 2. Signal trouble - 532 3. Guard-light trouble - 415 4. Sick customers - 392 5. Customers holding doors - 346 6. Emergency brakes triggered/no cause found - 332 7. Broken rail - 316 8. Unruly customers -......

As we know, yesterday's problems on the N, W, and R lines were caused by a "rail condition" on the N line at Lexington and 59th Street. Today, the NY Times delves into the cracked rail situation; we have cobbled together thsi timeline:6:55AM Queens-bound N operator sees a red signal when it should have been green 7:15AM Track maintainers investigate and find a crack in the rail 1,200 feet from the "east edge of......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: small fire at 110 Livingston Street in Brooklyn Heights, a special delivery (a lady had a baby in her apartment) in Queens and a double fatal three alarm fire in Bay Ridge. The cost of a hot-dog sales permit for the spot in front of the Metropolitan Museum costs $100,000 per year. Coming soon to a cab near you: touch screen LCDs. No video in the history of Extra,......

February 11: Second New Indian Dinner - A Benefit for Kids with Cameras Tabla is proud to present a multi-course dinner prepared by several of the world’s leading New Indian chefs, including: Maneet Chauhan, Vermilion, Chicago; Melissa Walnock, Pastry Chef, Tabla, New York City; Vikram Garg, IndeBleu, Washington, DC; Kirti Pant, Junnoon, Palo Alto; Hemant Oberoi, Taj Luxury Hotels; Mumbai, India; and Floyd Cardoz, Tabla, New York City. The dinner is a benefit for Kids......

Subway special on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person struck by an A train in Brooklyn, a stabbing on the J train in Queens, and a "train job" (?) at Newkirk Avenue. Rosie's Trump beef now extends to Barbara Walters, who appears to have been stabbing her in the back in private conversations with Donald Trump: "Are you looking me in the face and denying you didn't tell him you didn't say this? You're a......

Another pizza spot is coming soon to the LES, right in the thick of it all on Ludlow Street between Houston and Stanton. Formerly partners in nightlife spots Happy Valley and Show, Sal Imposimato and Joe Vicari have banded together again to open Pizzeria De Santo. Eschewing the $3-4.50 slices at Pala (we love the pumpkin and pancetta slice regardless of the cost) and the over-priced, fancified pies littered around the area in favor of......

It's been a couple of months since we found out that the mysterious building at 11 Spring Street would be converted into condos. Graffiti fans around the world instantly went into mourning, as the walls of 11 Spring have long been considered one of the finest streetart galleries in the United States, and redevelopment indicated that they'd soon be erased. But not so fast! Wooster Collective seems to be sponsoring a new project at......

-- Coming soon to Tribeca: William Tucker's "The Promise" may be the ugliest piece of public sculpture we've ever seen. -- "They Might Be Suffering From Pituitary Gigantism": a list that will amuse a very small number of TMBG fans. -- The Brooklyn Papers picked an amusing shot of Maggie Gyllenhaal to illustrate a story about celebs moving to Brooklyn. Apparently the best house she and Peter Sarsgaard could afford was a $1.75m townhouse......

- A good accompaniment to all the heated local conversation generated by Michael Pollans’ posts over at NYT from the end of May. - Coming soon - Celebrity Chef Deathmatch: Ray versus Bourdain. This lunch interview from the MercNews also reveals that he supports the PETA fur position. Interesting indeed. - And the most current Chowhound post on the new infrastructure as of right……..now. Laren touched in it yesterday, it really is nice technology –......

Yikes-- you think you know someone, and then all of a sudden, they show up looking totally different! Tipsters have been telling us to expect a huge redesign of the NYTimes.com site for awhile now, but it looks like today is the day-- the Front Page just went up (11:30pm) and most of the subpages are now in the new layout. There's also an editor's note explaining some of the reasoning behind the design.......

We were perusing the theater reviews in the Times when we caught this review from Charles Isherwood for the play, Indoor/Outdoor. According to the play's website at the DR2 Theatre, it's about Samantha the house cat who "dreams of adventure and risks everything to find true unconditional love, but will she find her dreams in the home of her quirky owner or with a sexy alley cat in the great outdoors?" Isherwood didn't feel up......

Now that you're finished pretending you care about football, it's time for the music version of Monday-morning quarterbacking: What are you going to do with your week? To the videotape.... We're going to do things a little bit differently this week, just in case you can't be arsed to read the whole post, and start things off with what we consider to be the show of the week, the absolute don't-miss if you're a rock......

- Security camera's that turn and focus when they hear gunshots are coming soon. - Romance may not be dead, yet. [via G'ist Contribute] - Well before it's Whole Foods neighbor has moved in, the YMCA pool in the Avalon Christie has opened. - A Heroin ring called the Panama Express and that specialized in "swallowers" was smacked down this week. - With a $213,391 salary, Mayor Mike's first deputy mayor makes more money......

Gothamist just received this letter from Kelly, operator of Moby's star-crossed teahouse. This is the precise reason we joined the Teany news mailing list! She writes: dear teany customers and teany fans, this was supposed to be just a fun little update on the more frivolous aspects of the the teany world, however, we've gone through some pretty significant changes recently, so i figured i would take this chance to update everyone on what's going......

The Fringe Festival is coming soon, this means that approximately 200 companies will be bringing over 1300 performances to 20 venues in 16 days. Tonight Rule of 3 Productions is hosting a benefit for This Isn't Working, which was accepted into Fringe and now wants to celebrate that fact and raise some money to finance the production. This Isn't Working is "a collection of four short comedies about serious job dissatisfaction". Written by Francesco Marciuliano......

Gothamist was wandering down Greenwich Street in TriBeCa when we passed pet store Dudley's Paw. After cooing over the adorable stuffed animals dogs in the window, we noticed a gumball machine filled with "Liver Biscotti Dog Treats." Gothamist was intrigued, but we chalked it up to being what happens when you've got dogs whose owners have gourmet tastes. But the Daily News thinks it's big news, talking to the creator Brad Wilkinson who said the......

During her "I'm back and I've changed" speech, Martha Stewart revealed her post-prison poncho Business > Media & Advertising > Post-Prison Martha Stewart Vows 'to Make Life Better'" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/business/media/08martha.html">was made by a fellow inmate: "This was made by a friend of mine, a wonderful lady. The yarn came from the commissary. The night before I left, she handed me this - not wrapped, because there is no wrapping paper - and she said, 'Wear it......

Things have been heating up in California for us: We announced the public beta of LAist last month and now we're happy to bring you the public beta of SFist, the San Francisco version of Gothamist. (And, yes, you can say "ess-fist" because we know you will anyway.) Edited by Jackson West, whose enthusiasm and energy shocks and awes us, SFist promises to bring you the very best in local politics, the great food scene......

Many Ask Gothamist readers have written to us recently with questions related to politics, current events, and the upcoming Republican convention and Presidential election. So Ask Gothamist is going to be bringing you non-partisan advice over the upcoming weeks and months about participating in the democratic process. Whatever your political leanings, it's a good idea to vote in the upcoming election, educate yourself about local and national candidates and issues, and make sure that your......

Coming soon to the pages of Teen People: Bridal fashion for those who want more attention from friends and family. The Daily News reports what Britney was wearing and to Gothamist, the outfit proves it was a spur of the moment, if not totally drunken decision: "With skin-tight tattered blue jeans cut down to here and a belly shirt cut up to there, Spears was in the zone as she made her way down the......

The "first Chinese rapper" Jin has released his first single, "Learn Chinese," and the video is on his site. Now, as part of Gothamist has actually had to learn Chinese (twice), we looked at the lyrics: I ain't ya 50 Cent, I ain't ya Enimem I ain't ya Jigga Man, I'm a chinaman Ginseng in the palm of my hand ... What's the commotion, you never seen me? The original chinky eye emcee "Chinkey eye......

Gothamist has switched to a three column layout. Main content is on the left, with supporting features and content in the middle column. On the right, you can find paid-content, like the personals section, and advertising. We've thought about making this switch for a few months- ever since we introduced the advertising on the site. Nick Denton has written a lot of good stuff about the way advertising will change weblogs and small content sites.......

Coming soon: A visit to Daisy May's BBQ (finally!!) in Hell's Kitchen.........

We may be playing around with layout during the next week, but Gothamist has a new logo. Designed by Sam Park, it's simple and elegant (but not in a fussy way) - plus, there is a cityscape to further signify our gothamness. Coming soon: Stickers, t-shirts, tattoos, cat litter boxes. Let us know what you think of the new logo by posting your comments.......