Is there anything this city won't do for renaissance man David Byrne? The former Talking Head has been helping out with the DOT's search for new bike rack designs, and recently got inspired to sketch some imaginary bike racks named for New York neighborhoods and locations. Then, voila; David's dream is manifest, as he explains on his blog: "To my surprise, [the DOT] responded by saying, 'If you make these we'll put them up.' Holy......

Though there are concerns that London could overtake NYC's position as the banking center of the world, a new study suggests the two cities both have a lot going for them, and NYC even fares better in some areas. The Sun reports that NYC has a "lower cost of living, more affordable housing, a stronger program to tackle urban poverty, and larger arts, fashion, and food scenes" vs. Blighty while London has better climate change......

2008 regional tap water taste-off contest. Photos courtesy of AMNH/Matt Shanley. This morning the American Museum of Natural History hosted a Tap Water Taste-off on their steps. New York City was one of five area communities competing for the title of tastiest tap water in the state during the event. Who came out on top at the 2008 regional taste-off contest? Sadly, we were robbed, with Bethpage in Nassau County grabbing the blue ribbon.......

There's a new game coming to town for cable subscribers who have been yoked to Time-Warner Cable or Cablevision out of necessity. New York City has finally struck a deal with Verizon to provide competing cable services throughout the five boroughs. Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Lieber announced at a press conference, "This is a historic agreement that when approved for the first time will bring true cable television service competition in each in......

Perhaps an Uptown versus Downtown battle would have worked better, as The NY Times says only 100 people showed up at this past weekend's "Battle of Manhattan," which pitted the East versus the West side of town (perhaps they were all at the Scotland Run). Organizer Steve Bernstein (a concert promoter) teamed with some sports-minded entrepreneurs for the event. Bernstein said that "after New York City lost out in its bid for the 2012 Olympics,......

A study revealed that a lack of secure bike parking was the biggest reason why people don’t cycle to work. So the Department of Transportation is cooperating with Cooper-Hewitt, Google and Transportation Alternatives to organize an international design competition for the next generation of city bike racks. More than $50,000 in honoraria to develop prototype bike racks and $15,000 in prizes will be awarded to the top designs. Contestants are asked to submit designs for......

ART: Unhappy with your old point and shoot? Today marks the opening of the National Krappy Kamera Competition, proving that even inexpensive cameras can snap good shots. "The exhibit features images that are produced using equipment from the lowest end of the technological scale. The concept underlying this show is that an artist can use any piece of equipment to create engaging photographs. Cameras generally range from the well-known Diana, Holga and Lubitel to......

The 132nd Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show arrives at Madison Square Garden Monday. The two-day event has thousands of dogs undergo a winnowing process that culminates with the awarding of Best in Show. The American Kennel Club recognizes 157 disinct breeds that are eligible for competition, and four of those breeds are brand new entries to the field. They include the Tibetan mastiff (a working dog), the Beaucerand and Swedish vallhund (herding dogs), and the......

Untitled, by Brunocerous at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a missing child on Bivona St. in the Bronx, a scaffolding collapse at Clifton Ave. in Brooklyn, and a bomb threat at 9th Ave. and 53rd St. in Brooklyn. The Fed lowered interest rates again - Bernanke is totally freaking out! NYU reaches an accord with neighbors regarding continued expansion. We won't have to start referring to New York as NYUC. Stuyvesant High is......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an abduction on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn, a double shooting at West 151st St. and Walton Ave. in the Bronx, and a pursuit/crash/bailout on 95th St. and the West Side Highway in Manhattan. The disbarred lawyer accused of murdering his wife and blaming it on a random carjacking admitted to cops that he'd sent flowers to his girlfriend that day and had various small affairs and used escorts outside......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired on Soundview Ave. in the Bronx, a gas leak on Snyder Ave. and East 34th St. in Brooklyn, and a bank robbery on West 4th and 6th Ave. in Manhattan. High school girls (including a pair from Long Island) swept the top prizes in both team and individual categories for the first time in the history of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology. Houston St.......

Madison Square Garden will be purring with excitement as the annual CFA-Iams Cat Championship opens its doors tomorrow and Sunday. Hundreds of cats from 41 breeds will be competing for Best of Breed and Best in Show prizes, and there are a number of other events, like watching cats compete in the Feline Agility Competition course and seeing the Parade of Breeds. You can buy purebreds or adopt some shelter kitties, too! We met......

This Saturday and Sunday, Madison Square Garden welcomes the Annual CFA-Iams Cat Championship Cat Show. The show has many guest speakers and events, like the Feline Agility Competition, which is open to the public's cats, too. And, of course, there is the Best of Breed and Best in Show judging. We'll have more about the cat show tomorrow, but we wanted to draw your attention to one of the areas. The Mayor's Alliance for......

After many false starts, Trader Joe's announced this week that the grocery store chain would be finally arriving in Brooklyn. The news was heralded by Brooklyn Beep Marty Markowitz, who was decked out in one of the store's highly visible Hawaiian print shirts and leading a steel drum band at Court St. and Atlantic Ave. The Brooklyn Paper reports that while the grocer will soon move into the landmark Independence Savings Bank building at Court......

With the Nathan's Famous 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Competition just three days away, excitement is building over who will take home the Mustard Belt this year. With perennial champion Takeru Kobayashi hampered by a reported jaw problem, the Mustard Belt is up for grabs and local contendors may have a shot. Californian Joey Chestnut broke Kobayashi's hot dog-eating world record a month ago, but the New York Post profiled two men, "Crazy......

The 2007 class for the Hockey Hall of Fame was announced yesterday, and Mark Messier and Scott Stevens were both on the list. Messier, the former Rangers captain, and 2nd on the NHL's all-time point list behind Wayne Gretzky, helped the Rangers end their 54-year Stanley Cup drought in 1994. In addition to winning the Cup with the Rangers, Messier won five championships with the Edmonton Oilers. Stevens helped lead the Devils to three Stanley......

Murder Ink, the "the world's oldest mystery bookstore" that offered everything from Tom Clancy to 50s pulp fiction, has closed. Current owner Jay Pearsall "said he was paying $18,000 a month in rent for Murder Ink and another store, Ivy's Books & Curiosities, and couldn't afford a 5 percent increase expected in March. Competition from huge bookstore chains and online sellers didn't help." The author of a novel titled "Murder Ink", Dilys Winn, founded......

What does a Stuyvesant High grad who won the Siemens Competition prize for outstanding high school science project do these days? Study worms of course. Yin Li won the $100,000 scholarship in 2003 for his study of how certain proteins in the brain "might control the capacity of nerve cells to undergo local protein synthesis". Such a mechanism might be related to memory and learning. According to the Daily News Li is now a junior......

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......

Have you ever wondered what hours of shampooing, conditioning and blow-drying can do for a cat? Well, wonder no more because the CFA-Iams Cat Championship is in town again! Also known as the Cat Show, the event is at Madison Square Garden this Saturday and Sunday. Hundreds of cats representing forty-one breeds will be present and competing for various honors, and this year, there's a new Feline Agility Competition! Yes, the cats actually run......

-- Kenneth Cole deserves an honorable mention in our Most Inappropriate 9/11 Competition: "...It's not only important what you wear, but it's also important to be aware." -- David Berkowitz is back, but this time, he's taking instructions from Jesus, instead of a dog possessed by the devil. Phew. -- 3-bedroom apartment in Madonna's old building in the East Village: $568. -- "An MIT-educated former investment banker who fell into a spiral of mental......

We didn't make it to the Central Park Zoo for the icy food-for-animals competition, but luckily Julia Meredith Levy did. She sent us a detailed report:Ice replaced Iron in a Chef competition yesterday at Central Park Zoo. Fittingly, the contest's taste testers were Polar Bears Gus and Ida, weighing in at 1,000 and 700 pounds respectively. In the wild, their diets consist mainly of seals, eating as much as 100 pounds in one setting. On......

It's cola craziness! Federal agents have busted three people, including one Bronx man, for trying to sell Coke's secrets to Pepsi. Ibrahim Dimson of the Bronx, along with two residents in Coca-Cola's homestate, Georgia, were charged with "wire fraud and unlawfully stealing and selling trade secrets." The Daily News reports that Dimson sent a letter to Pepsi offering "very detailed and confidential information" about a new Coke product. Not realizing that colas collude a little,......

COMEDY: Our favorite duo, Gil Faizon (Nick Kroll) and George St. Geegland (John Mulaney), will be bringing their "Oh Hello" show to UCB. Drop by, even if it's just for their famous Tuna-tina recipe. In addition, there will be NEW drink recipes...and special guests. Photo of the duo, taken at Movable Hype, via Bluejake. Friday // 7pm // UCB Theater [226 W th St] MUSIC: If you got shut out of Band of Horses tonight......

Jeez-- just what the Village needs-- another Duane Reade! Kim's Video used to live in the basement of this building on the corner of Bleecker and Laguardia-- it was a dank, fetid, dark little hole, but it was the only place within ten blocks where you could rent a video or DVD, and the clerks knew what they were talking about. The facade of the building was decorated with strange plexiglass sculptures-- it's too......

- The wake for slain police officer Dillon Stewart was held today; his funeral is tomorrow (we thought it was interesting that Stewart had responded to Mark Fisher's shooting and testified during that murder trial) - The Double Dutch Holiday Competition was yesterday and we missed it! But the Columbia Spectator covers it, thank goodness - Snow snow snow? - Murder Inc. cofounder Irv Gotti goes to church with a juror from his money laundering......

Woops! Why didn't somebody tell us that the third annual Cat Championship at Madison Square Garden was this weekend? Not to be confused with the Westminster Dog Show the Cat competition... Actually you should feel free to confuse the two, as they seem to be basically the same thing (show, shops and adoption tables set up in the Garden being the main features). One just has prestige and the other has cats. Anywho, the......

Yesterday, the city announced that the funding for the Coney Island Strategic Plan is now $83 million, in order to make America's Playground the glittering weekend destination is used to be. The city added $50 million to the funds, plus $7 million from Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and $3.2 million from Congressman Jerrold Nadler, in hopes of adding new attractions and improving the infrastructure; here are some of the major points:- The transformation......

Tonight: TONY's 10th Birthday And the drinks are on them! We can't think of a better way to celebrate, really. Time Out New York and the IN:NYC Card will treat patrons to a complimentary cocktail during dinner service at nine select IN:NYC restaurants: Calle Ocho (212-873-5025; 446 Columbus Ave between 81st & 82nd Sts), 6-11pm; Django (212-871-6600; 480 Lexington Ave @ 46th St), 5:30-10:30pm; Kitchen 22 (212-228-4399; 36 E 22nd St between Broadway & Park......

Tickets for Robert Deniro’s lovechild have gone on sale, offering over 150 films, documentaries, a free movie “drive in”, and an outside street fair. While movies range from the highly praised and much hyped Mad Hot Ballroom, be aware that acclaimed home video actress Paris Hilton’s horror opus House of Wax will also debut. So please, don’t drink and buy tickets. Highlights include: Tribeca Talks Panel Series: • The Interpreter – A Conversation with......