Late Wednesday night, an 82-year-old woman crossing Delancey Street at Allen was fatally hit by an SUV driver. The driver, who was traveling west on Delancey, stayed on the scene was not charged with a crime. The Daily News says the woman, Josephine LaPlaca, was known as the "Queen of Delancey Street," because, as one person put it, "She knew everybody and everything about the neighborhood. It's going to be weird without her." Relatives said......

Mike Nelson has been working day and night at the abandoned Essex Street Market to create what he calls A Psychic Vacuum. The space has been closed off for 13 years and is now home to Nelson's first major New York exhibition. The 6,500 sq foot installation is a labyrinth of 10 rooms that create a fictional world with inspiration from the world outside its doors. Upon the opening of the space last week......

The NY Times weighs in on Bernard Tschumi’s Blue building at 105 Norfolk St. Fresh off reviews from New Orleans, Paris and Brazil, architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff is back home with a piece on the 17-story blue-paneled, crystalline tower. Ouroussoff, as regular readers know, is put off by most of the high-design, luxury residential towers now rising across Manhattan. But, walking along the streets of the Lower East Side, alongside brick tenements, public housing......

The new legislation reform bill that no one is very happy with has raised many questions about its effect on the city. Mayor Bloomberg said that the bill is a good first step, but called the provision where immigrants would go back to their native country "a joke," saying, "Nobody’s going to go home for a year and come back. Nobody could ever enforce that. Nobody in their right mind would ever try to do......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a professor at Brooklyn Law was killed by a garbage truck this morning in Brooklyn Heights and an "all hands" fire broke out on Ludlow and Delancey Street in Manhattan. A Westchester teen got busted by the SPCA after collecting more than 150 animals, and forcing them to live in squalid conditions. The animals included "bearded dragon lizards, rabbits, guinea pigs, turtles, ferrets, chameleons, South American squirrels, cats, hamsters,......

Restaurant Girl visits the newly open and extravagantly hyped Bar Martignetti, and concludes that "With some kick-ass cocktails and a satisfying menu, [it] will undoubtedly breed a following of aspiring regulars." Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an electrocution on 33rd Street, a serious MVA on Bleecker Street, and an All Hands call on Delancey Street. Stupid burglar decision #1: robbing a VFW hall in Broad Channel, Queens. Stupid burglar decision #2: trying to hide......

In 1979 a collective of artists occupied a vacant city- owned building on Delancey Street and mounted an exhibition. The police padlocked the show but after community and media support of the artists the city offered use of a building at 156 Rivington Street as a compromise. Over the ensuing years, the collective that runs the center – which is home to weekly punk and jazz/improv concerts as well as a computer center and silk......

September 25-29: Latin Beer Tasting Dos Equis, Sol, Corona and Negra Modelo, are paired up with tasty (and Kosher!) Latin dishes in a prix-fixe menu from September 25-29; cost is $49 per person. For details, visit their website. Park East Grill, 1562 Second Ave., 212-717-8400. September 27: Eat Out '05 Time Out New York continues to celebrate its tenth birthday with Eat Out ’05, a tasting event benefitting the Food Bank For New York City.......

- Yikes, gas prices are really scary...and just wait till the costs are passed onto you even more (think rent!). - A Fung Wah bus on the way back to NY from Boston caught fire! Luckily, everyone managed to get out of the bus before it was totally engulfed in flames. For future Fung Wah riders: Bring your flame retardant suit when you buy your $15 ticket. - Police say the murder victim in front......

Last week, The Delancey played host to the launch of Taste NY, a new TV show about eating in New York. As a co-production of NYC TV and Time Out New York, the connection is obvious from the venue (one of the rooftop bars featured in last week's cover story ahem Drink Up, ahem) to the premiere episode about cheap eats (this week's TONY cover story). The host, Kelly Choi, was on hand to ask......

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The MTA and riders will be entering another new era of subway service as token booth clerks start to move outside to help customers and new unmanned token booth kiosks are unveiled. NYC Transit President Lawrence Reuter said that since most riders use unlimited ride cards, token booth clerks have been selling less cards - and now they'll be able to help commuters who swipe swipe swipe to no avail. The booths are a new......

Since we'll be out of the city all weekend and unable to attend, we'll let you in on some secret shows taking place. First up is Bloc Party at LES club Libation [137 Ludlow St], who in an attempt to bring in some of the jaded downtowners, has started to book shows. The band goes on at midnight, but get there early and wear your best shoes - there's a velvet rope. Just down the......

Photo by Lars Klove for The New York Times Gothamist was somewhat dismayed when we saw Kuma Inn in today's $25 and Under NYT column, as it has long been one of our just-under-the-radar favorites. Sure, we let our close friends know about it, but now we're worried that the publicity will make it much harder to stop by for the Chinese sausage with sticy rice, caramelized onions, and fiery hot sauce (in the......

Monday: you're tired, you slept in too late, you were late for work (well, those things apply to us today)... you just know it's going to be an uphill battle all week. Turn that frown upside down, people! Because tonight local comedian Eugene Mirman celebrates the release of his new two-disc comedy CD/DVD, The Absurd Night Club Comedy Of Eugene Mirman. Dress up your Monday (and we do mean dress up, in dresses and suits,......