With the writers' strike looking like it'll wrap up this week, Crain's points us towards another problem for New York's entertainment industry. Seems our neighbor Connecticut has started to offer up a deal no self-respecting Hollywood suit can refuse -- a 30% tax rebate on all production costs. The incentive program started in 2006 and in 2007 alone we've lost approximately $400 million in production revenue to the Constitution State. The problem has spread to......

Entrance and Exit Only, by coifmo66 at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a serious trauma at East 16th St. and Moore Pl. in Brooklyn, a water search at Kosciusko Bridge in Brooklyn, and a bank robbery on Lexington Ave. in Manhattan, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who popularized transcendentalism in the West with the support of The Beatles, died yesterday at an undetermined age. Postmodern reality at its best: Silvercup Studios, where "Gossip Girl," is......

As The Daily Show and Colbert Report are just moments away from filming their first shows in quite some time, picket lines are standing strong outside of their studios. WGA spokeswoman Sherry Goldman tells us, "These pickets will be against the media conglomerates – NBC and Viacom - and not the specific hosts who we understand were forced to return to the air without their writers who remain on the picket lines." Just because the......

The Writers Guild strike continued into its second day today; in L.A. Jay Leno delivered donuts to strikers on his motorcycle, while here in New York Seth Meyers joined the picket line and the giant rat outside Silvercup Studios in Long Island City (30 Rock and Gossip Girl are among the productions filmed there). The Saturday Night Live star and head writer had this to say:TV is completely changing, the way people are watching......

We haven't checked in on Gossip Girl since the show was filming around town and the producer touted New York as a main character in each episode. To summarize: the show is like a New York-based version of The OC (in fact it's another Josh Schwartz creation), except the rich kids don't act like kids, they act like their parents. Meanwhile, the omniscient, omnipresent, anonymous oggler Gossip Girl blogs about it all. So two episodes......

Even in the shadow of the Queensborough Bridge, the Maison Tropicale looks aloof. Hovering above a cleared and graded strip in Long Island City, this compact machine for living wears the architectural equivalent of sunglasses, safari helmet, binoculars, and shorts. It is haughty and cute at the same time. The aluminum outpost, one of three prototypes sent to Congo and Niger in the early 1950s, was designed by Jean Prouvé as a prefabricated home......

He made his name in London, Paris, Madrid, and Tokyo, and now he's making his mark on New York, too, with four major projects in development. Richard Rogers, one of Britain's handful of architect-knights, has just been awarded the 2007 Pritzker Prize, architecture's top honor. For many people, Rogers' most iconic project is still the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which he completed in 1977 while partners with Renzo Piano. The inside-out building lasciviously exposed......

What an embrace of Long Island City! The city announced that it will buy waterfront property in Long Island City to build up to 5,000 units of affordable housing for families. The city is paying the Port Authority a total of $146 million for the 24 acres - $100 million for the property and $46 million for "remaining obligations" to the site. From the press relase: Mayor Bloomberg: "Middle-income families are facing housing affordability......

Bad early morning traffic accident: A driver headed to the Queensboro Bridge was thrown to his death. According to WABC 7, the driver was "taking a sharp curve on the entrance ramp" to the Bridge in LIC, when it crashed in the left wall around 4AM; he was "thrown 30 feet to the parking lot of the Silvercup Studios at 42-22 22nd Street." It's unclear how fast the driver was going, but with roads being......

Forget for glitzy Brooklyn development for the moment: Silvercup Studios, home of the Sopranos (and former home of Sex and the City), has announced a $1 billion plan to expand the Long Island City waterfront. Quick, buy now! AM New York on the project:The three-building project, to be called Silvercup West, will include eight soundstages, along with 1,000 apartments, a catering hall, museum, and office and retail space. The plans also call for redevelopment of......

While some city buildings are considering "greening" their roofs with gardens (Curbed as a rendering of one roof garden for Silvercup Studios), we hear there's a protest tonight to "openly mock" a plan to put AstroTurf on Cadman Plaza Park in Brooklyn. Reader Chris says, "As dumb ideas go, this one is pretty striking. Why not put up some plastic trees so we'll have greenery in winter." Cue the Radiohead! Just thinking about putting AstroTurf......

Mayor Bloomberg gave his State of the City address yesterday, gearing up for his reelection run in 2005. He credited New Yorkers for bearing with the tax burdens and outlined his plans for the next year, offering, as the Daily News puts it, "tax rebates to homeowners, a promise not to close senior centers, better schools and a grab bag of economic development projects." City Controller William Thompson tells the Times that the speech was......