Results tagged “newyorkers”

New York: Love It or Leave It?

With jobs getting cut, budgets on the chopping block and an economic crisis that has everyone tightening the pursestrings, you can be sure to expect many an article penned about New Yorkers fleeing their expensive rents for new out-of-city digs (there's at least one writer looking for such subjects right now). TONY recently asked some deserters why they left New York after years of calling it home (marriage, bigger apartment, etc etc), and they all seem so...happy. While they're not living in their own versions of Galt's Gulch just yet, some are recreating New York in their new stomping grounds. One 26-year-old says she left the Astral in Greenpoint, which was infested with bedbugs and giant cockroaches, and moved into a palatial palace in Kansas City, where they even have Critical Mass, Bloody Mary brunches...and 3-bedroom apartments for $750 a month. Sigh.

The Department of Health has issued 682 violations to local restaurants since a new law took effect in April requiring eateries with more than fifteen locations nationwide to prominently display calorie information. Fines range between $200 and $2,000, and McDonald’s has the highest number of violations with 103. (Dunkin Donuts is second with 89.) Some restaurants are still refusing to comply, while others were busted for not posting the info as the law requires. For instance, the calorie stats can't be smaller than the text describing the food. And while the restaurant industry is still appealing the law, at least one consumer has found the information enlightening: Dr. Mary Bassett, deputy commissioner of health promotion, tells Crain's, "I’ve given up tuna fish and chicken salad. Without that information [on the menu], I wouldn’t have guessed, and I’m a medical doctor."

Chain restaurants that haven’t been complying with the city’s new law requiring them to display calorie information for all their food and beverages can be fined by the Health Department starting at midnight. But some establishments like Olive Garden remain defiant; they’re refusing to cooperate in hopes that a Restaurant Association appeal succeeds in court. Over 252 violations have already been reported, but not until tonight can fines be levied. Other places are scrambling to display the calorie stats and avoid a possible $2,000 fine. “We waited quite late in the day,” Hale & Hearty’s Simon Jacobs told Crain’s. “And at some point we just realized we were running out of time.”

As local franchises start complying with the city’s new calorie law – which requires establishments with over 15 locations nationwide to prominently display caloric info – there are bound to be some bumps in the road. But this snafu is hard to top: Blog about town “Cellar Door” spotted an interesting discrepancy at two different Dunkin' Donuts purveyors located next to each other inside Penn Station.

When we took note of the Health Department’s crackdown on chain restaurants that refuse to display their calorie information, some commenters wondered how movie theaters would be affected. Since the rule applies to any New York City food server with at least 15 locations nationwide, are chains like Regal Cinemas now required to confront moviegoers with the bad news about their concession products (which are, technically, food)?

The city’s Health Department has been schooling restaurants on the new law that requires any eatery with over 15 locations nationwide to display calorie information on all food and beverages. After numerous lawsuits from the New York State Restaurant Association, a judge ruled that the city could impose the new law, and it went into affect May 5th.

In a lawsuit that’s had more back and forth than John Goodman at an all-you-can-eat Marriott breakfast buffet, a federal appeals court has ruled that, yes, city restaurants with 15 or more establishments nationwide must start displaying calorie information for all foods and beverages. In the meantime, the city has agreed not to issue any fines for non-compliance until July 18th, by which time judges are expected to rule on the National Restaurant Association’s appeal.

A federal appeals judge has issued a delay on enforcement of the new law that would require NYC restaurants with 15 or more establishments nationwide to prominently display calorie information for all foods and beverages. The rules had been scheduled to take effect on Saturday; the new delay will last until Tuesday, when the three-member appeals court will formally consider an even longer delay.

The New York State Restaurant Association [NYSRA] is still fighting a law requiring chain restaurants operating in New York City to prominently display calorie information on all food and beverages, but the new rules go into effect today anyway, and some establishments – such as Starbucks, Subway, Chipotle, Auntie Anne’s, Jamba Juice and Chevys – are already complying.

Mayor Bloomberg may have failed with his plan to ease New York City congestion, but at least he can claim victory when it comes to New Yorkers’ digestion. (Sorry.) U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell has ruled that the city can require restaurants with more than 15 locations nationwide to prominently display their calorie information in “the same font and format used to display the name or price of the menu item.”

A law that would require city restaurants with more than 15 locations nationwide to prominently display calorie information was supposed to go into effect last week, but a lawsuit brought by the restaurant industry has it choked up in court. Restaurateurs say the rules would violate their First Amendment right to say whatever they want on their menus, while the city points to a Health Department study suggesting diners choose healthier food when forced to acknowledge that their Big Mac cheeseburger is loaded with 43.7 grams of fat.

Congratulations, America! You're having less sex than almost anyone else! According to the Durex Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey, Americans get it on less often than most, with only 53% having regular, weekly action (and with only 44% actually reporting being satisfied with their sex lives).

A sonic device designed to drive off troublesome youths has been installed in one Queens building known for vandalism and drug use. It's called The Mosquito, and is produced by a British company, where more than 3,500 units of the equipment are in use. As humans age, they naturally lose some of their hearing, beginning at the higher end of the audible spectrum detectable to man.

http://seattlest.com/2008/02/28/foo_fighters_da.php">announced his presidential bid.

  • Gothamist found New Yorkers are proud of their subway system, even if it's got rats in it.
  • Austinist unveiled their special SXSW coverage minisite, with artist interviews, day party previews, and festival news.
  • 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."

    After the city was moved by the story of a baby abandoned in the backseat of a livery cab and how the driver dropped off the baby at a fire house, prompting the police and media to look for the baby's relatives, it turns out the livery cab driver was involved in the abandonment scheme. Driver Klever Sailema was arrested today, as were another man and woman. Oh, no.

    A New York State Assemblyman ticked off about congestion pricing for suburban drivers is retaliating by proposing a $4-per-ride surcharge for taxi riders, rather than the congestion fee of $8 for motorists entering Manhattan below 60th St. That taxis are another form of mass transit that allow New Yorkers to get around without owning a car escapes Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, whose district includes parts of Westchester County.

    Earlier this week, Mayor Bloomberg announced a new plan to put health information of millions of New Yorkers online. He touted the initiative, "By bringing this health technology to New Yorkers, we are building a national model for a health care system that works... In Washington, they talk about how our health care system should be reformed; here in New York City, we are actually doing it."

    The following post is from our advertiser, Campaign for New York's Future.

    For two weeks in the winter of 2005, Central Park was filled with 7,500 saffron-paneled gates. The project was a gift from the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who had been trying for four decades to launch the project. Their struggle - and success - comes to the the small screen with tonight's premiere of The Gates on HBO.

    • Today 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 country will be on hand to observe.
    • Someone crunched the numbers and found that The New York Times Fashion Magazine is almost as white as the arctic in February, pre-global warming. The 55% of New Yorkers who aren't white are probably not the targeted demographic the Times Fashion Mag is looking for anyway.
    • A New York Presbyterian Hospital official in charge of the Women, Infants, and Children program--which was designed to provide food for impoverished women and children--is accused of siphoning off a few hundred thousand dollars for vacations and comfortable living.
    • City Councilman Eric Gioia is running a "carbon neutral" campaign for public advocate, that involves the use of more emails than flyers, the purchase of carbon offsets, and the use of hybrid vehicles.
    • The International House of Pancakes downtown Brooklyn location is doing so well that plans are in the works for locations in Bed-Stuy, East New York, and Williamsburg.
    • The family of a 25-year-old, who allegedly had his jaw broken by an EMT, is suing the city for $2 million. They accuse the EMT of punching the young man in the face after the patient accidentally drooled on him as he was giving him oxygen.
    • Summertime probably seems far off today, but the organizers of the Movies With a View program are looking for submissions of short films to be shown before features in July and August amidst the moonlit shadows of the Brooklyn Bridge.

    Besides killing Mom ‘n’ Pop stores and displacing low-income residents, the rapid gentrification seen in some New York neighborhoods may be flushing the city’s famous working class dialect down the terlet.

    2008_02_lane.jpgAlycia Lane, the Philadelphia newswoman who punched a female NYPD police officer, was relieved after appearing at Manhattan Criminal Court today. The Manhattan DA's office basically dismissed her case, for an "adjournment in contemplation of dismissal."

    Tired of squandering your mornings laboriously spreading cream cheese on your freshly defrosted bagel? Kraft Foods, Inc. is here to blast you and your breakfast into the 21st century, with their new line of frozen bagels that come pre-filled with cream cheese!

    Clams: We were going to shows on a regular basis and after a while I found myself coming up with ideas for acts...but I'm really shy in real life, so I didn't think it was something I'd ever do. Just for fun, I took a class with Jo Boobs, who put me in her show, Paperback Burlesque at the Cutting Room...and I've been hooked ever since.

    A $114 million plan to put a waterfront park on the East River, just south of the United Nations, came into focus yesterday; the four-acre site is where a parking lot for a Con Edison power plant used to reside. City Councilman Daniel Gardonick said, "The opportunity to create this riverfront park is an opportunity we cannot afford to let slip away." The Municipal Arts Society renderings for the park envision a floating pylon in the river, featuring a restaurant, viewing platform, exhibition space and ferry landing.

    Staten Island: Clove Lakes Park, Martling and Slosson Avenues

    Leonard Levitt, a veteran journalist who spent 10 years covering the NYPD for Newsday and now writes at his own website, NYPD Confidential, is suing the NYPD over its refusal to grant him a press pass. In this video, Levitt explains how the NYPD's action are "strictly retaliatory," because of his past writing exposing NYPD issues.

  • Gridskipper guides New Yorkers to spots where they can celebrate Pancake Month properly.

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