Results tagged “manhattan”

What do you do after being dropped by Fox 5? Well, close more than $15 million worth of real estate deals with Prudential Douglas Elliman, of course. That's right, former reporter Penny Crone, is cleaning up on the Manhattan real estate front. Douglas Elliman president Steven L. James told the NY Times, "She takes no hostages. That was one of my worries, but I watched her on a complicated deal where her personality just couldn't be at the forefront, and she did it. She actually pulled it off. She took the back seat, the quiet role, which I'm sure was very unfamiliar terrain for her."

           

Click on the film stills above for more details and reviews on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include Black Dynamite; Law Abiding Citizen; New York, I Love You; Food Beware; The Little Traitor; The Maid; Adela; Splendor in the Grass; Beetlejuice; and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Just a heads up that tomorrow the new Manhattan location of gelato and crepe chain Melt will be trying to set the world record for the most cups of gelato served in a single day. If you'd like to help the company achieve its goal, head over to Melt at 1053 2nd Avenue, between 55th and 56th Streets, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. tomorrow. The lines for these kinds of giveaways can sometimes make one question whether its worth the time investment, but since Melt is going for the world record, maybe they'll be cranking out the gelato fast enough to keep things moving briskly?

Third quarter real estate data for Manhattan showed that sales for condos and co-ops improved from the second quarter... but sales still trail 2008 third quarter numbers. So, is the glass half full or empty?

With all the talk that the recession has taken its biggest bite out of those in the top income brackets, it hasn't stopped the income gap in Manhattan being the greatest of any county in the country according to new census data. Other head-scratching numbers among the wealthy recorded in last year's census, the number of New Yorkers making over $200K rose by 19,000 and the median income among the top five percent jumped up to $857,000. The income disparities for the state also remain the largest in the nation.

The alleged serial rapist who terrorized Upper Manhattan for over a month tried to make a break for it during his arraignment Monday night. He didn't get very far. According to the Post, an unidentified young woman—believed to be a girlfriend—was in the Manhattan Criminal Court room sobbing and blowing kisses at suspect Vincent Heyward, whose DNA matched all four victims. When Heyward saw her, he bolted for the back door of the courtroom, pursued by more than a dozen court officers.

Believe it or not, we don't publish every egregious bike lane blocking photo that lands in our inbox, but this one's just too delicious to pass up. Taken on the Eighth Avenue bike lane, which is separated from traffic by a row of parking, exhibit A shows a Rite Aid tractor trailer transforming the bike lane into an unloading zone. The reader who sent it tells us this was by the Rite Aid on West 20th Street. Though it's probably tempting for cyclists to react self-riteously to such a photo, one wonders how businesses are supposed to receive deliveries with such a bike lane design. Certainly, they can't be expected to park around the corner and use a hand truck!

There can never be too many New York City maps, and City Room points out collage artist Michael Albert's latest creation—a print of which costs 50 bucks online, though he generously handed them out for free this past weekend on a corner in downtown Brooklyn.

              

Click on the film stills above for more on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include White On Rice, Crude, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Gogol Bordello Non-Stop, I Can Do Bad All By Myself, No Impact Man, The Painter Sam Francis, Sorority Row, The Other Man, Walt & El Grupo, Give Me Your Hand,Whiteout, and The Godfather.

Police say a man who forced his way into a 28-year-old woman's apartment at St. Nicholas Avenue and 147th Street Monday night and raped her at knife point is the same perpetrator suspected in a series of Upper Manhattan sex assaults. Officers fanned out across Hamilton Heights last night to distribute fliers with surveillance photos and a police sketch of the suspect, and a $12,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction. He's described as "a black male in his thirties, about 5-foot-9 to 6-feet tall, wearing a black hoodie, blue jeans, and white sneakers with red stripes on the sole." The suspect was caught on camera on August 10 after raping a 23-year-old at West 144th Street and Convent Avenue, and through DNA investigators have linked him to two other rapes, of a 69-year-old woman and a 59-year-old. Residents in the area are considerably alarmed, and Hamilton Heights local Edna Kirk tells NY1, "I feel terrible. I'm just hoping he doesn't come to me. I feel awful bad about this and I hope they hurry up and catch this guy."

Mari Vanna: The latest addition to New York's niche dining market this week comes to us all the way from Russia. Mari Vanna opened last Wednesday after a soft opening all through July, bringing authentic Russian cuisine and all the vodka you can stomach. Inspired by the mythical Mari Vanna (think Max Brenner, but with Borscht), the restaurant feels more like an immigrant kitchen, complete with tchotchke on the bookshelves and ottomans on the floor. And with the winter months approaching, Mari Vanna offers Russian classics like Blinis and Beef Stroganoff on homey yet extravagant china and linens, and gives you the opportunity to wash down that stew with over 70 types of vodka, including a couple dozen imported bottles from Russia. The emphasis, however, is on their in-house infused vodkas, with flavors like Oats & Honey and Dill & Garlic. No word yet on if those flavors are actually successful. 41 E 20th St; (212)-777-1955

              

Click on the film stills above for more on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include Cloud Nine, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, Bandslam, Ponyo, The Time Traveler's Wife, Grace, Earth Days, Spread, My Fuhrer: The Truly Truest Truth About Adolf Hitler , Taxidermia, It Might Get Loud, The Man Who Wasn't There, and Jaws.

None of the reports about director John Hughes's death specified exactly where in Manhattan he collapsed from a heart attack, and you can see conspiracy theories already sprouting on the internets, with one Hollywood Elsewhere commenter wondering, "I have been trying to discover WHERE in Manhattan he dropped dead since the day he died... Is he, in fact, not even dead yet? I'm not entirely joking." Well, Movie Line has just pinpointed where he passed away on the morning of August 6th: 60 West 55th Street, outside Alain Ducasse’s brasserie Benoit; there is now a small shrine with a photograph of Hughes and sixteen candles on the sidewalk. But that's probably not going to satisfy Michael Wolff, who's written a provocative essay titled "Who Killed John Hughes," which posits: "Certain deaths do something weird to the media mind and temperament. John Hughes, a maker of what are essentially genre slapstick films, has, by his early death the other day, become a great auteur and, as well, a saint, without anyone seeming to be remotely nosy about the strange circumstances of his life and untimely end... So, come on, what happened to the guy?" Let us know who you think killed Hughes, preferably IN ALL CAPS.

A New Jersey woman has admitted she fabricated an allegation of rape against a man who's now serving a 20-year-sentence for the alleged assault. William McCaffrey, 31, was sentenced in 2006 after Biurny Peguero Gonzalez testified that he and two other men raped her at knife point in a van parked in Upper Manhattan in September 2005. But she now says she made the whole thing up, to cover for a fight with some of her women friends. Last year, new scientific developments enabled investigators to retest the DNA from bites on Gonzalez's arm; no "Y" chromosome was found, meaning the bites could not have come from a man.

              

Click on the film stills above for more on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Cold Souls, A Perfect Getaway, Paper Heart, Beeswax, Canary, I Sell the Dead, Bliss, Rolling Thunder, The Talk of the Town, Red Dawn, Barton Fink, and The Third Man.

       

Happy Friday—the Pentagon has released more photographs from the Presidential Airlift Group's NYC flyover. You remember that day back in late April, when the Boeing 747 (known as Air Force One when the President is on board) and fighter jets zoomed near Lower Manhattan building, prompting building evacuations, panic, front page marvels and annoyance. The White House released one underwhelming photo in May, but now, on a slow summer Friday, we've got more to peruse—here's the PDF.

Last year the Bloomberg administration made a big deal about reducing the number of parking placards issued to city employees, slashing them by over 25,000. At the time, the cutback on permits, which allow cops, civil servants, and other lucky bureaucrats to park almost anywhere, was heralded by Paul Steely White of Transportation Alternatives as “a good first step. But the final analysis will be weeks and months from now, when we see how actively these plaques are enforced."

              

Click on the film stills above for more on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include Shrink, The Answer Man, G-Force, Orphan, The Ugly Truth, California Company Town, The English Surgeon, Paraiso Travel, Loren Cass, Import/Export, Blood Simple, Deadgirl, and, starting Wednesday, Rediscovering John Cazale.

After news that Manhattan is—relative to the rest of the NYC—the thinnest borough, with just 42% of its residents overweight, a NY Times reporter stalked the svelte, why. One Upper East Sider said, "My mom always says, 'The smaller the dress size, the larger the apartment,'" while a painter, "attributed his slim frame (5-foot-11, 160 pounds) to a combination of healthy and unhealthy habits: daily two-mile walks, weekly soccer, and breakfasts of coffee and cigarettes." Simon Doonan, creative director of Barneys, seen leaving the gym, said, "Our closets are filled all these expensive clothes that are like swords of Damocles, because we may not fit into them anymore." He also added he wasn't "fatist" but, referring perhaps to some in middle America, "I’m appalled by people my age who can’t get through the airport without a wheelchair.

             

Click on the film stills above for more details and reviews on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include 500 Days of Summer, Homecoming, Death in Love, Off Jackson Avenue, Somers Town, A Woman in Berlin, The Way We Get By, Died Young, Stayed Pretty, In a Lonely Place, Flesh Gordon, The Blair Witch Project , and A Clockwork Orange.

     

Step inside Sazon, the new Latin Caribbean restaurant and lounge from the team behind Sofrito, a popular mid-price Puerto Rican spot in midtown east. The bi-level place opened quietly last month in the Reade Street space formerly occupied by Fresh Tribeca; the swank and sexy interior design features bright tropical colors, black lacquered chandeliers, a tufted leather back wall, and a coveted private booth secluded behind thick drapes. The elegant yet relaxed vibe extends to the downstairs lounge—tagged wall-to-wall by street artist James De La Vega—where a second bar facilitates weekend salsa dancing parties.

Cellar 58: The wine bars are coming for you; they're coming for us all! The latest vino dispenser to descend upon the East Village is Cellar 58; but this one has a lot going for it. One, it's run by real Italians who run around talking at each other in their glorious native tongue. Two, there's a really cute back room, seen here, that fills with diffused, late afternoon light and feels sort of other-worldly. Three, during the opening party last night, we heard the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, Radiohead, and not a single Andrea Bocelli torch song. Fourth, besides the 120+ international wine selection, they're doing a pretty extensive small plates menu (flatbread pizzas, pastas, bruschetta, etc.) which doesn't set them apart from other wine bars (like the one right across the street) but we felt great amore for everything we tried. 58 Second Avenue; (212) 420-1300

             

Click on the film stills above for more on this weekend's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, I Hate Valentine's Day, Local Color, Nollywood Babylon, The Beaches of Agnes, The Girl from Monaco, Tony Manero, A Clockwork Orange, Newsies, The Royal Tenenbaums, Mississippi Mermaid, BAMcinématek's Afro-Punk Festival, and Willie Nelson's 4th of July Celebration.

This week Frank Bruni at the Times reviews Meatpacking District hotspot Spice Market, where chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's menu is inspired by Asian street food. Interim dining critic Amanda Hesser gave it three out of four stars in 2004, but the paper was forced to issue a statement acknowledging that Hesser should have disclosed the glowing jacket blurb Vongerichten wrote for her book.

              

Click on the film stills above for more on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include Year One, The Proposal, Under Our Skin, The End of the Line, $9.99, Dead Snow, The Windmill Movie, Top Gun, The New York Asian Film Festival, BAMcinemaFEST, DJ Spooky’s Rebirth of a Nation, Killer's Kiss, and Splash.

Now that the American Apparel mess is behind him, Woody Allen can get back to talking about what he loves: movies and New York City. USA Today and Tribeca Film have interviews with the director, who says he's getting priced out of Manhattan! He told them, "I wish I could afford to be here all the time, but it's a very expensive city to work in. It's gotten worse for me. It's gotten better in that they give you tax breaks. But everything (else) has gone up. I work on a very limited budget." He noted that it would cost about an extra $3 million to film in New York in comparison to overseas.

According to police, a man has been mugging elderly people in broad daylight. WABC 7 reports that all muggings took place in Manhattan: "In each incident the suspect grabs the victims and forcefully removes their wallets. The suspect then flees the location on foot. Minor injuries have been sustained in each of the incidents." The first was on May 25, when a 77-year-old man was attacked in the lobby of 447 East 14th. Four days later, a 91-year-old man was mugged at 1:40 p.m. in the elevator at 247 West 12th Street. And this past sunday, a 62-year-old was robbed in the lobby of 440 East 23rd Street at 3:10 p.m. WABC 7 says, "The suspect is described as a man in his 40s, bald, 5'5"-5'8" tall, and 200 pounds." Police are asking anyone with information to call CrimeStoppers 800-577-TIPS, to visit the CrimeStoppers website or to text info to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

              

Click on the images above for details on 13 other sweet spots for al fresco drinking, including the Extreme WOW (Presidential) Suites in Midtown East, Ortine in Prospect Heights, Spuyten Duyvil in Williamsburg, T.B.D. in Greenpoint, Studio Square in Long Island City, The Diamond in Greenpoint, LIC Bar in Long Island City, Nita Nita in Williamsburg, Huckleberry Bar in East Williamsburg, The Hotel Gansevoort in the Meatpacking District, Vutera in Williamsburg, 5 Ninth in the Meatpacking District, and The Brooklyn Ice House in Red Hook.

           

Click on the film stills above for more details and reviews of this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include Drag Me to Hell, Departures, What Goes Up, Munyurangabo, Pressure Cooker, Call Center, The Breakfast Club, The Lost Boys, L’Enfant, and Rashomon.

A Brooklyn woman who is a Harvard University senior has been barred from graduation next month due to her connection to the fatal shooting of a 21-year-old man in a university dorm last week. Police have arrested Manhattan resident Jabrai Jordan Copney, 20, for the murder of Justin Cosby; police said Copney, whose girlfriend is a senior at Harvard, and two other men intended to rob Cosby of marijuana and money. Two (unidentified) female Harvard students are described as "the nexus between Cosby and Copney." A lawyer for the Harvard senior told the Boston Globe, "This is a highly educated, independent young woman who has literally been cared for since she was a teenager by Harvard - and now they have terminated her right to be on campus. There is no justification for it. She may have known the people involved, but you know, it's not guilt by association in this country." The student was also kicked out of her dorm, Kirkland House, which is where the shooting took place; a previous report said that Copney's girlfriend's "gave Copney her dorm hall access card, which allowed him to float in and out of Harvard dorms."