A number of NYC ambulance companies are sending trucks and crews to New Orleans as Tropical Storm Gustav continues to move towards the Gulf Coast. Citywide Mobile Response Corp. spokesman Isaac Newman says FEMA contacted them at 10 p.m. last night to deploy ambulances; Citywide sent five ambulances and 15 crew members on the road this morning. Right now, Gustav is expected to be a major Category 3 hurricane when it reaches Louisiana on Tuesday......

"The Blue Wall of Violence" courtesy of MoCADA Yesterday, The Daily News printed an article that began, "A cop-bashing art exhibit at a taxpayer-funded museum in Brooklyn portrays the city's Finest as trigger-happy racists who have put bull's-eyes on the backs of black New Yorkers." The exhibit is a retrospective of the artist Dread Scott's work called "Welcome to America," and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) is calling the paper out......

After posthumously leaving $12 million to her dog, Leona Helmsley is ready to spread the wealth with humans through her own charitable trust (created in 1999). Yesterday Christie's announced they would be auctioning off paintings, sculptures, furniture and other property from the late real estate mogul's numerous homes. Spokesman Rik Pike stated that each auction will take place this year, and "the collection reflects a sophisticated taste and a wonderful sense of style across a......

What’s worth watching on food-TV this week? We're definitely setting our DVR to record The Martha Stewart Show. She’s got a three great New York Italian chefs on today: Odetta Fada of San Domenico, Lidia Bastianich of Felidia and Del Posto, and pastry chef Gina DePalma of Babbo. On Tuesday she’s got cookbook editor Judith Jones, and on Wednesday, New Orleans chef Susan Spicer (Monday-Friday, 1pm, NBC). But the prime time highlight might be a......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a home invasion robbery on 11th St. in Brooklyn, an unusual rescue on Selwyn Ave. in the Bronx, and a shooting on Rugby Rd. and Foster Ave. in Brooklyn. The 30-year-old homeless man charged with raping and torturing a Columbia student in her apartment in April was found mentally fit to stand trial. Negotiations between Thor Equities and several Coney Island boardwalk tenants are nearly settled, allowing many attractions......

Today is the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's appearance in New Orleans. The storm eventually killed more than 1,600 people in Louisiana and Mississippi and raised many questions about infrastructure of levees and the federal response. President Bush spoke in New Orleans today (text here) where the Times-Picayune printed an editorial asking the President to treat New Orleans fairly: "Nobody wants to have to compete for disaster relief. But that is what Louisianians have......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: America at a Crossroads: Anti-Americans (A Hate/Love Relationship) (Monday, 10:00 P.M., WNET 13) A look at the Europeans love/hate relationship with the United States. Live From New York: The First 5 Years of Saturday Night Live (Tuesday, 8:00 P.M., WNBC 4) Two hours of classic SNL sketches and interviews with the performers who created them in this rebroadcast of this retrospective. Wide Angle: The Dying Fields (Tuesday,......

Two articles in separate sections of Sunday’s New York Times brought out Gothamist Food’s inner Freakonomicist, which isn’t as painful as it sounds. The National section of the Times reported that in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, its use as a baby name slipped down to the 382nd place overall on the girl’s list, marginally good news for those of us named Brenna (#381, baby). Unrelated, and over in the City section, the fate of......

A NY Times reporter spent yesterday observing and experiencing the Reverend Al Sharpton's action rally at his National Action Network headquarters. On most Saturdays, the so-called House of Justice on West 145th Street can feel as casual as the International House of Pancakes 10 blocks south. Anyone can walk in and take a seat. The words etched onto the large tinted window at the entrance, facing 145th Street, read not House of Justice or......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Grease: You're the One That I Want (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WNBC 4) This fakeality show finally ends tonight. Masterpiece Theatre - Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13) Helen Mirren stars in one of her best roles – Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison. Despite being on PBS, the Prime Suspect series do tend to be a bit bowlderized from the British original thanks......

We were just introduced to The Forms music recently, and once we were we immediately booked them for our show in Austin last week. Singer Alex Tween kept a log of his trip for us, which you can read below. Listen: Stravinsky.mp3 3/9 Brooklyn, NY. I reset the trip meter to 0.0 and after the first mile have the thought that there's only 1,956 more to Austin. I am accompanied by pal/tour photographer Andreas, as......

Through much of its history New York had a working waterfront. Be it for passengers, cargo, fishing, or ship building, warehouses and other industries, the waterfront was a busy, stinky, messy place. As a result the poshest residences were usually built inland, think Park Avenue. Since the ports are no longer used for industrial purposes there has been a rush to build along the shore. As discussed in a long article in Sunday's Times,......

Hayes Peebles is a 14 year old New York singer/songwriter. Along with his guitar, he carries with him the perfect amount of experience and innocence - giving his listeners a little of both through his songs. This week he'll be opening up our 11th Movable Hype show, give a listen: Gone Grey.mp3 When and why did you start writing songs? I started writing songs December 2005. I started writing original pieces because I had played......

Comix and South Toward Home bring together Janeane Garofalo, David Cross, Zach Galifianakis and Eugene Mirman for a benefit show in November. The stand up comedy charity event benefits South Toward Home, a non-profit organization created in response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. South Toward Home works towards returning people to their homes through its Project Renewal Program using both paid and volunteer labor. So far, using purchased and donated materials, they have......

A month after a visiting teenager fell through a platform gap at the Woodside Long Island Railroad station and died, a 4 year old fell into a platform gap at Penn Station. Little Britney Walker, and her family, who moved to Long Island because their Mississippi home was damaged by Hurricane Katrina, were boarding an LIRR train to Huntington, and when Britney fell, her mother Terrian Walker had been walking right behind her, but she......

A week after mentioning the lack of development at the World Trade Center when being questioned about the lack of development in post-Katrina New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin is in New York City to bring attention to his city's redevelopment needs. But first, Nagin had to apologize for his remarks on 60 Minutes ("You guys in New York can’t get a hole in the ground fixed and it’s five years later."). From the AP:"I......

Today is the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. As the Times editorial today mentions, it's "time to heal and renew." NYC is trying to do its part. Various city restaurants working with Share our Strength to donate a part of tonight's sales to rebuilding efforts (the Shake Shack is included). And Brooklynite Lori Baker and Jersey Cityzen Eric Harvey Brown have created a book, Signs of Life, a collection of photographs of signs made......

Curse you stationary front! Because of your unpredictable behavior, which makes your name a misnomer, Gothamist has had to revise our last two weather posts to catch up with changing conditions. You are a vacillating front not a stationary front! You moved south through town on Friday, took a weekend in Rehoboth Beach, headed north through the city last night before reversing direction late this morning. Staying to our south means the rainy weather will......

August 23 & 24: Grouse Dinner at Orsay Grouse? Yes, grouse. It's grouse season, which is quite brief, running from August 12 through the end of the month. To celebrate, Orsay will present Scottish grouse dinners as the first in a series of special dinners focusing on game and specialty products from Scotland (menus dedicated to partridge, pheasant and wood pigeon are in the works). The five-course grouse dinners include wine pairings with each savory......

The weather today is a near repeat of yesterday, which was almost an exact repeat of Monday and only slightly different from Sunday. Tomorrow, however, the weather will be different. How will tomorrow be different? It will be cloudy and cooler. It may not even reach 80. There may be rain tomorrow night, but there's only a slight chance. For Friday and the weekend the forecast is iffy. Oh, the weather doesn't look too bad,......

Congress is all about fraud stemming from September 11 relief efforts this week. A House oversight subcommittee has been discussing a number of programs which people not eligible for relief were able to apply for - and get relief. Sound familiar? Yes, it's just like what happened this past year after Hurricane Katrina. One notable example would be a program that gave people the option to buy new air conditioners, since their old ones would......

As London remembers the first anniversary of its deadly subway attacks, the Daily News reveals that jihadists were plotting to blow up the Holland Tunnel in order to flood lower Manhattan. The plot was apparently in the works months ago, with a "pledge" of support from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, with hopes, as the News puts it, "to drown the Financial District as New Orleans was by Hurricane Katrina." Well, given government response to floods,......

A survey from the Red Cross and NYU's Center for Catastrophe Preparedness & Response says that New Yorkers are not all that prepared for disasters. New Yorkers have thought about disasters, but haven't gone all the way:- Half of New Yorkers polled have emergency supply kits, but many of these kits are incomplete; - 63% of New Yorkers polled have an emergency plan, but rarely have they put their plan to a test run or......

Pet owners, rejoice: The Transit Authority is drafting changes to its pet policy on subways and buses to allow people to transport their pets - uncaged - in case of an emergency. The Office of Emergency Management made the request, after seeing how many people were reluctant to leave their pets during Hurricane Katrina. Of course, only legal pets are allowed (no tigers or even ferrets!) as long as they are "leashed and muzzled,"......

The National Trust for Historical Preservation released its annual list of America's 11 Most Endangered Places, and one of them is the World Trade Center's Vesey Street Staircase. Before the September 11 attacks, the Vesey Street Staircase was seen and used by the public on a daily basis. Located near the intersection of Vesey and Church streets, it consisted of two granite-clad outdoor flights of stairs and an escalator that led from the World......

Those fancy shirt sleeves were rolled up as officials met over the crazy costs for the World Trade Center Memorial. And if there's anyone to speak about money, it's our billionaire Mayor Bloomberg, who the NY Times says gave the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation a "verbal spanking":He chastised the foundation, saying the group had become obsessed with the design and construction of the memorial. "The foundation should be focusing on fund-raising," he said. "The agreement......

The Pulitzer Prizes were announced today and the old Gray Lady takes three, but the Washington Post won four (criticism, beat reporting, explanatory writing, and investigative reporting). However, the real story might be the awards for Hurricane Katrina coverage, a public service award shared by the Sun-Herald in Biloxi and the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, breaking news photography award for the Dallas Morning News and a breaking news reporting awards fro the Times-Picayune. The three......

James Thomas, a special education teacher in the Bronx, was arrested yesterday for claiming he was participating in Katrina related relief efforts when he was actually in Brazil attending a religious conference. Not just a teacher, but pastor of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Bronx as well, Thomas used his position in the Air National Guard to fake documents in order to receive four days of pay. The teacher / pastor /......

We're in the middle of a cold snap, but meteorologists want us to freak out about the possibility of a New York hurricane this year. AccuWeather believes that New York City is overdue for a hurricane, given "current cycle of storms, pressure systems and above-normal water temperatures in the Atlantic." (The 1938 Hurricane just missed NYC, but hit Long Island, killing hundreds.) After Hurricane Katrina, Mayor Bloomberg said that Office of Emergency Management would be......

Fun stuff in the Observer's interview with Spike Lee. He discusses his new documentary about Hurricane Katrina, his work, and living in the city. He moved from Brooklyn to live in an Upper East Side townhouse (here's a spread about it in Town & Country - his place looks amazing), but we thought his insight as a Brooklyn native was especially amusing:Over the years, Mr. Lee has ridden the waves of gentrification in New York,......