Museum Guard, by Atomische at flickrToday on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Amboy Rd. in Staten Island, another bank robbery on 5th Ave. in Manhattan, and a scaffolding collapse on Grand Concourse and 149th St. in the Bronx. A building slated for destruction on Governors Island will become a lab for the FDNY to examine the dynamics of high-rise fires and how best to defeat them. Fire crews from cities around the......

ART: The Bronx Museum of Art is getting on board the First Friday bandwagon. They'll be opening their doors every first Friday of the month for free, and add a little something extra each time. Tonight their theme is “Say it Loud! I’m Black & I’m Proud” in celebration of Black History Month. There will be a tribute to the late James Brown, and a showcase of independent artists paying tribute to black music. Friday......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired on 166th St. and the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, a pedestrian struck at Berry St. and Division Ave. in Brooklyn, and a found body on Richmond Valley and Arthur Kill on Staten Island. Still searching for the Staten Island ninja burglar, police questioned New York Post photographer Ron Romano because of his ninja-like ability to tightrope walk. A huge hole in the middle of Brooklyn's Pacific......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a construction accident on East 46th St. in Manhattan, a stabbing on Grand Concourse and Bedford Park Blvd. in the Bronx, and an industrial accident on Quentin Rd. in Brooklyn. New York jeweler Tiffany & Co. is accusing online auction site eBay of pawning off bogus baubles as the genuine item. Fark.com may have failed in its bid to re-name a Boston sports stadium UFIA Arena, but it did......

Police responded to reports of gunfire in an apartment in the Mt. Eden section of the Bronx last night and found three people shot in the head. Two of the victims were dead and one was rushed to Lincoln Hospital, where he is in critical condition. The dead victims were 20-year-old Ludmildy Rosado and 34-year-old Daniel Newton. Police were not sure if the two knew each other or not. Neighbors who live in the building......

Just what everybody needs to end the day...a subway shutdown! No, it's not due to the system flooding, but because of a police investigation. Due to the police investigation on the 4/5/6, the line is shut down in both directions from 96th Street Station and 125th Street Station. From preliminary reports Gothamist is getting, the suspect the police are looking for is in the subway tunnel between 116th and 125th Streets. The suspect allegedly claimed......

This afternoon's rain will continue into the evening, as some areas are being warned about the storms. New Jersey is supposed to have heavy thunderstorms, a tornado warning was issued, then canceled, for Nassau County, and an urban flood warning was issued for Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens until 7PM! There was a "ground stop" on arriving flights at Newark and LaGuardia, and delays range from 3 to 4 hours at the three area airports.......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a triple shooting on East 21st St. and Caton Ave. in Brooklyn, a missing child on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, and a mass casualty incident at Castle Hill Ave. and the Cross Bronx Expressway. Many New Yorkers donned black this Thursday in solidarity with the Jena 6. Cops are looking for a man who applied for a job at the Duane Reade on 34th St. and 5th......

Two years ago, we wondered if there was a big list of all the fountains in New York City. We haven't made that much progress with the list, but at least now we have a list of the "display fountains" the Parks Department maintains. And it's interesting - Brooklyn only has three while Staten Island has eight. Of course, there are many fountains outside of the Parks Department's jurisdiction (for instance, the fountain outside......

A week and a half ago, three people, including two boys, were caught when a Bronx building's parapet collapsed on top of them. Hundreds of pounds of concrete fell from a building on Grand Concourse near 183rd Street; 10-year-old Damion Hope Rosa's left leg was partially severed, and doctors later amputated it below the knee. Now, Rosa's family is suing the building's owner, Gerald Leiblich, for $55 million. Leiblich is a developer whose holdings include......

Yesterday morning, a 30-foot-long section of parapet onto the sidewalk at Grand Concourse near 183rd Street in the Bronx, injuring a women and two boys, ages 10 and 12. One boy, Damian Rosa, had his left foot amputated, while his stepbrother (or half-brother; reports differ) Frank Jones suffered a "collapsed lung, broken leg, and head injuries" as well as liver damage. According to Rosa's grandmother, the kids were looking forward to a day at the......

A fourth grader was hit by a commuter bus in the Bronx yesterday as he tried to cross a four-lane street on his way to school. The Daily News reports that Eliseo Oler, 10, suffered head injuries, a broken right shoulder and broken ribs and is in critical condition at NY-Presbyterian Columbia. And his mother blames the Department of Education, saying, "If they hadn't taken him off the bus, none of this would've happened. I......

Yesterday, a five people were injured on Queens Boulevard at 47th Street when a Jeep Cherokee slammed into a Honda. The Jeep, which witnesses describe as trying to beat a red light, lost control and hit the Honda. The Honda, which had been making a turn onto Queens Boulevard, was crushed from the impact and then "plowed up onto the crowded sidewalk, pinning a 16-year-old boy against a lamppost." Both legs of the boy, Tonpo......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: unstable scaffolding at Manhattan's 265 West 37th St., a police car multi-vehicle accident at Thomas S. Boyland St. and Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, and a suspicious package at East 161st St. and Grand Concourse in the Bronx. How could the McGreevey saga get any more strange? Maybe if Jim McGreevey decided to join the priesthood. He told WNBC that he is entering a seminary to become an Episcopal priest.......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a man was killed by a 6 Train at Manhattan's Bleecker St. station, a serious multi-vehicle accident on Grand Concourse and East 168th St. in the Bronx, and an evidence search followed a shooting on Beach Channel Dr. in Queens. The $250 nine course tasting menu at Per Se is the caloric equivalent of 4 and a half Big Macs, although we imagine infinitely more delicious. A prost-prandial stroll......

Anyone who has attempted to walk or bike from one side of Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza to another knows that it can be a difficult journey, through which a constantly swiveling head is required to keep an eye on traffic coming from seemingly every direction. The above overhead image shows just a portion of the plaza where five different roads converge in an inner traffic loop, including Eastern Parkway and Prospect Park West, and......

A 3-alarm fire ripped through a 17-story Bronx apartment building last night, and the toll of injured civilians and firefighters ranged from 36 to 53. The fire started around 9pm, when a gas explosion occurred in a first-floor apartment. The fire spread quickly because the apartment's front door had been left open, also sending "thick, black smoke into the stairwells." The Post reported a FDNY official as saying, "It's one of the nastiest fires I've......

Yesterday, Transportation Alternatives held a rally at City Hall to draw attention to the recently increasing numbers of pedestrian fatalities on city streets. Last year, 163 pedestrians died, a 4% increase over 2005, and just this past weekend, four pedestrians were killed by vehicles. Relatives and friends of victims joined TA to demand that the city to make streets safer for pedestrians and "strengthen laws against motorists who kill or injure pedestrians" (Metro). Watch......

Tomorrow at 3PM, Transportation Alternatives will be holding an emergency rally to demand that Mayor Bloomberg improve the streets for pedestrians. From TA:The Problem: In 2006, over 10,000 pedestrians were hit by cars and trucks in New York City. One hundred sixty-six were killed. The City's pedestrian safety efforts are inadequate. Where is Mayor Bloomberg? He has spoken out about transfats, gun violence and smoking. If killing a pedestrian with a car was considered......

WABC 7 reports that a steam main break has caused problems for the 4, 5, and 6 trains. The steam main broke on East 79th Street, between Third and Lexington, and water leaked onto the express tracks. The MTA has classified this as an "ongoing water condition at the 77th Street Station." While the MTA is trying to pump out the water, some 5 trains are running on the 2 line in both directions between......

The amNewYork cover story is about dangerous intersections in the city. Queens Boulevard, aka the "Boulevard of Death," has only had four fatalities in the past three years, but there have been a number of pedestrian injuries on Grand Concourse in the Bronx and at Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. Grand Concourse has had 35 pedestrian injuries during the same period, while Eastern Parkway had seven pedestrian deaths in 1999 and 2005, not including many pedestrian......

A person was fatally hit by a subway train at Columbus Circle on the 1 tracks. Which means that 1, 2, and 3 train service is suspended in both directions between 72nd Street and 42nd Street/Times Square. On Saturday, a man was fatally struck by an E train at the 34th Street station. The MTA also says that select Brooklyn-bound 2 trains are running on the 5 between 149th Street/Grand Concourse and Nevins.......

As if the insane heat and humidity isn't enough, there are signal problems at Times Square that are affecting the 1, 2 and 3 lines. The 1 has been suspended between 137th Street and South Ferry and the 2 is running on the 5 line between 149th Street/Grand Concourse in The Bronx and Nevins Street in Brooklyn. The 3 is in even worse shape as it's not running at all. Gothamist is getting reports that......

It's getting a little easier to be green these days. There are ten new greenmarkets opening around the city, spreading around the summer bounty of fresh produce. One of the city's goals in creating the new markets is to make seasonal produce more accessible to low-income city residents. To this end, many of the greenmarkets will take senior coupons, WIC coupons, and EBT cards. The new Greenmarket locations, hours of operation and opening dates......

We got an email from the Straphangers yesterday, who directed us to check out the MTA's NYC Bus Rapid Transit Study. The MTA is looking to identify "corridors in the five boroughs that have BRT potential," and there will be public information sessions starting next week in all five boroughs. So far, the MTA is considering fifteen corridors:Bronx - Fordham Road/Pelham Parkway - Grand Concourse - Webster Avenue + 3rd Avenue Brooklyn - Flatbush Avenue......

- It's the Battle for Newark - the Newark Mayor's race! Here's a section from the Star-Ledger and the NY Times blog - The man who shot four people - killing a 3 year old child in the process - was actually trying to aim at his girlfriend - The Post is all excited about Daily News circulation numbers being down - Great article about the Grand Concourse in the Bronx in the Times......

Ah, the past couple weeks of fretting about taxes is almost over, but not quite: With tax day falling on a Sunday, the deadline for filing your federal taxes is actually tomorrow night if you live in New York state (Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and DC are other Tuesday night tax deadlines, because we all celebrate Patriot's Day - hello, Lexington and Concord). Newsday has a couple last minute tips, including the reminder......

Gothamist heads to the Bronx for a few things, Yankees games, trips to the zoo and dinners on Arthur Avenue, but a lot people are now heading there to live. With prices in the city becoming ever less affordable, the South Bronx may be the last bastion of reasonable value. There are certainly many beautiful buildings in the Bronx as anyone who has ever been down the Grand Concourse can tell you, but so much......

Gothamist decided to do a little bridge information digging after reading the New Yorker's Talk of the Town piece about how the Willis Avenue Bridge would be dismantled and is essentially for sale (but it's getting replaced - don't worry) and we came across this cool Department of Transportation Bridge Reconstruction Projects website. There are a bunch of projects on the list ("Rehabilitation of the 17th Avenue Bridge, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn," "Grand Concourse Reconstruction," "Rehabilitation of......

Zoe Schneider, Writer and Clothing Designer...