On the stretch of Dekalb Avenue in Fort Greene just east of Fort Greene Park is a stretch of reasonably priced, neighborhood restaurants including the local Middle-Eastern favorite, Black Iris. Cash only and BYOB, the friendly servers at Black Iris seat you promptly in a dim brick-walled room hung with tapestries at one of a dozen tables in a room made drafty by people constantly walking in and out. The menu includes standard Middle......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a death investigation on Dekalb Ave. in Brooklyn, an unstable building on Cherry St. and Robinson Ave. in Queens, and a homicide on East 29th St. and 5th Ave. in Manhattan. Rudy Giuliani and John McCain have different views over torture. Texting and talking on the phone are about to be banned in the Garden State. It's possible that news of a sniper on the Saw Mill River Parkway......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on West 24th St. and 7th Ave. in Manhattan, another shooting on Rockwell Place and Dekalb Ave. in Brooklyn, and yet another shooting at 92 -35 215th Place in Queens. Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James' female acquaintance made an amazing amount of money by buying properties from the city and then flipping them for huge profits. Phone records reveal that an upstate teenage driver may have been......

It's just like the MTA to problem solve a couple years after the problem starts. The NYC Transit Authority will be adding more trains to the L line because the current, snazzy R143 line is "not enough" to serve the masses of people. The TA will have to figure out how to make the signals work with both the current, (relatively) high-tech R143s and the old cars (maybe the slant R40s?), and that could......

Oh, New York City Subway. Gothamist knows you are 100 years old, and you've been doing a great job. But it makes us so sad and frustrated when there's a subway derailment AND a broken rail in a given day. Yesterday, a B train derailed in the morning and then a broken rail was found at West 4th Street, which meant lots of service was suspended. The Daily News reports that "Four wheels on the......