Results tagged “washingtondc”

While the Obamas' first State Dinner was hailed as a glamorous evening, one thing is looking bad: The security, because a couple from the now-filming "Real Housewives of D.C." managed, somehow, to crash the dinner and mingle with the VIPs. While the Secret Service emphasized that no one was in danger because of the "magnetometers and several other levels of screenings," a spokesman did admit there was "a Secret Service checkpoint which did not follow proper procedure to ensure these two individuals were on the invited guest list."

NYC had a government plane flying too close to Lower Manhattan buildings oops-y in April, and today, Washington D.C. had reports of a U.S. Coast Guard boat firing at another vessel on the Potomac River. Of course, the Coast Guard now says it was a training exercise and that no shots were actually fired, but it is September 11 when the nation is worried about terrible stuff happening so the incident caused the media to freak out, especially since, the Washington Post reports, "The incident occurred near the Memorial Bridge, at approximately the same time that President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were laying a wreath at the Pentagon memorial, a short distance away."

Authorities now say that seven people are confirmed dead in the collision of two Metro trains in Washington D.C. yesterday afternoon. At least 70 others were severely injured and crews are still removing debris and looking for possible victims. Two sets of six-car trains collided on the Red Line near the Fort Totten station; Metro's general manager explained yesterday, "At 5:02 p.m., one train was stopped waiting to get the order to pass, because the train stopped at a platform. The next train came up behind it, and for reasons we do not know, plodded into the back of that train - the operator of that train was the one who lost her life." The first car of the second train was going so fast that it was lodged on top of the first train.

As Coney Island continues to be reshaped under the mighty hammer of Thor, a familiar relic from its old theme park arrived in our nation's capital yesterday. The Astroland Star made its way down to Washington DC in preparation for the display it will have at The Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum inside the Udvar-Hazy Center come 2011. DCist got an early look yesterday at Curator Margaret Weitekamp and Exhibit Designer Rebekah Brokway measuring it right out of the box.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspects in the 9/11 attacks have agreed to plead guilty in "full". While it's unclear whether they'll admit to specific charges, the defendants "request[ed] an immediate hearing session to announce our confessions," according to a letter read in the Guantanamo Bay court. The NY Times reports, "The request appeared to be intended to cut short any effort to try them, and to challenge the United States government to put them to death" (but the judge isn't accepting formal pleas immediately). Mohammed, who allegedly confessed that he planned the attacks, also took time to tell the judge, "I don't trust you" and "We don’t want to waste our time with motions. All of you are paid by the U.S. government. I’m not trusting any American.”

Photograph by M.V. Jantzen on Flickr

If you're one of those people that think the FBI has better things to do than investigate Roger Clemens, you have an ally in Washington DC. Congressman Anthony Weiner voiced his opinion on the investigation into Clemens. Weiner sent a letter to the Attorney General questioning the benefit of continuing the investigation into Clemens’ testimony to Congress, saying "Whether or not Roger Clemens may have committed perjury should not compete with real national security threats for the FBI’s time, attention and resources.”

A Brookings Institution study reveals that New York is a great place for walking, with 21 out of 21 walkable urban places. But Washington D.C. is the most walkable on a per capita basis while New York is ranked 10th, because New York is measured as the NYC metro area, including NJ, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. The study's author, Christopher B. Leinberger, admits there are issues with the methodology, namely that walkable places are weighted the...

Matthew Houck is the man behind Phosphorescent -- and the Brooklyn-by-way-of-Athens, Georgia musician just put out his third release, Pride, to many eager ears and much fanfare. Playing every instrument on the atmospherock avant-pop album, he also recruited some friends to help along the way, such as the Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth. On the periphery you can hear Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Will Oldham -- but the modern day folkie has a sound all...

For an avowed non-presidential candidate, Mayor Bloomberg certainly gets more attention than some of the actual candidates. Newsweek devotes its cover story to "Mike" Bloomberg, "The Billion Dollar Wild Card," a reference to the billion dollars Mayor B has at his disposal, should be decide to run for president next year. That is so much more flattering than the "Lazy Like a Fox" cover Newsweek had of Fred Thompson! Newsweek editor-in-chief Jon Meacham got to...

New York's Healing Field is currently residing at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn (until tomorrow). It's comprised of 3,000 3x5 foot flags that are standing 8 feet tall. Here's GerritsenBeach.net's glimpse at what it looks like:

As Americans continue their race slow, labored walk towards larger and larger coffins, New Yorkers are not far behind. According to a study published yesterday by the Trust for America’s Health, obesity rates rose in 31 U.S. States last year including New York where 22.4% of adults are obese – up by 0.7% from 2005.

Now making picnics better for mankind: ants, no; algorithms, yes. Instead of people bringing computers to dinner, a man named Conrad Barski hopes that computers will soon be bringing people to picnics. Enter Picnic Mob, a multi-city, “non-commercial art experiment” created and curated by the computer programmer and thinker. Through its website, Picnic Mob organizes aspiring picnickers into small groups based on similarly reported interests and dispositions; those groups are then fitted cohesively into huge, basket-toting crowds, hence the “mob.” At noon on an appointed Sunday, (and weather permitting), a map generated by Barski’s program (here's a sample) directs each participant to set their gingham blanket down at specific spot in a public park. In theory, Picnic Mob’s algorithm gleans a rough set of seating arrangements for picknickers with the intention that people sitting near others with common interests will have a lot to talk about, and that a meal might even be shared in the process. It’s a very sweet idea: a lunchbox filled with fuzzy navel peaches meets up with fuzzy logic.

The Daily News has an exclusive with Jan Gehl, the Danish architect the Department of Transportation would like to hire to help reduce congestion in the city. It's a nice introduction to Gehl, who has worked on congestion-reducing projects in London and Copenhagen, but it also seems like the perfect article to fire up passions. Gehl said, "...we can do is to reduce the number of parking spots. I would raise the price for parking right away." Street parkers, commence the freaking out! Some more Gehl quotes:

"There are so many places in this city where people are treated very badly on the sidewalk, where the congestion is unpleasant. ... The balance is not very good here....

Continue reading "Uncertainty About Congestion Pricing's Fate"

While there are many trials in NYC that quickly become media circuses, we're breathless about an insane lawsuit that has gone to trial in Washington DC because it involves a service very familiar to New Yorkers. An administrative law judge Roy Pearson is suing his dry cleaners for millions of dollars after they lost his pants (he says; they say they have his pants, but he just doesn't want to claim them). Pearson originally tried to sue for $67 million, claiming that Custom Cleaners violated consumer protection laws, and somehow his $54 million lawsuit made it to trial.

One couple who got married this weekend had a leg up on many other brides and grooms: They know event planning. As Lauren Berger and Stuart Ruderfer's NY Times wedding announcement explains, Berger works for NYC Big Events, a city agency that works on landing and promoting high-profile events, while Ruderfer is the founder and CEO of Civic Entertainment Group, which creates marketing opportunities and events. And they met when Berger worked at Civic Entertainment, where they got to know each other.

As their feelings deepened, she said, “I realized it was probably better in terms of the company and the other employees that I look for another job.” She left in 2003.

Continue reading "Times Weddings Highlights: Wedding Planning Is As Easy as a Concert in the Park"

A huge winter storm, another in a series of late-winter Alberta Clippers, that's dumped more than a foot of heavy, wet snow on the Midwest is headed our way tonight. We won't get a foot of snow here, but it is likely we'll have a bad case of Valentine's Day storm deja vu.

Yesterday's stormy weather brought many transportation delays that will lead to some delays today as well. WABC 7 reported that many passengers leaving via JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark airports had waited 13-14 hours before heading to hotels. Today, JFK and Newark should be able to get their delayed passengers out, but given the small space that LaGuardia has, passengers are more likely to wait for their flights to even come in. It makes talk of the Port Authority possibly buying Stewart Airport in upstate Newburgh seem all the more logical. The Post says the land that Stewart occupies is bigger than Newark and LaGuardia combined.

The equation above is a highly unscientific observation based on the U.S. Department of Transportation's monthly report. Apparently, 25 of the 50 most frequently delayed flights involved JFK and Comair in September. The AP says Comair Flight 5283, between JFK and Washington DC's Reagan National is the worst:

The evening rush hour jet from JFK to Washington Reagan National Airport landed late 100 percent of the time in September.

Continue reading "JFK Airport + Comair = Delay"

Mayor Bloomberg announced that the city will move the homeless out of street encampments and work with city resources to ultimately move into permament housing. Here are the Mayor's remarks:

"Today, I want to announce that we're launching the next major step to end street homelessness in New York. Over the past six weeks, our newly named DHS Commissioner, Rob Hess, and his team have identified the 73 sites around our city where some 350 homeless men and women-usually in groups no larger than four or five-have set up makeshift shelters under highways, next to train trestles, and on our streets. They're living in degraded and unhealthy environments.

Continue reading "Mayor Outlines Plan to Move Homeless Off Streets"

of NYC when ranking it. In fact, this is what the press release said about NYC:

New York's overall position was boosted by its first place as "a city that contributes to culture and science," a place for higher education (ranked second) and for the diversity and variety of languages it offers (also ranked second). In addition to having a good reputation for its cultural contributions, New York is America's city of opportunity, coming in second place in the Potential category after London.

Continue reading "Survey Says NYC Ranks 7th in World City"

Gothamist was there for the Campaign to End AIDS' protest walk through the Lincoln Tunnel this morning. The C2EA is walking all the way to Washington DC over the next couple of weeks, but we only tagged along for the first leg of the trip. Several hundred people turned out for the event, which kicked off at 7:30am this morning. In addition to supporting a good cause, we were very curious to check out the inside of the Lincoln Tunnel on foot. Turns out it's pretty much as you would expect-- although we did spot this cool mosaic that marks the NY-NJ border. Check out some more pictures of the event at Bluejake.

We'll never deny being interested in wine but Metrazur takes it to another level. Since opening Aureole in Las Vegas with a four story skyscraper like sculpture made entirely of wine bottles and then CP Steak in Washington DC with the 10,000 bottle strong wine cube there had to be something here. The wine case at Metrazur is beautiful, sleek and sophisticated with wine at all angles against the sweeping curve. The most prominent and eye-catching labels are the ICS (International Conspiracy of Sommeliers), the California wines chosen and mixed by a group of sommeliers just for Charlie Palmer's restaurants. Everything, actually, is specific to the restaurants, down to the label with a chef modeled on the designer's husband- the DC restaurant's chef.

require traffic lights to properly line up and no delivery trucks in the way for drives to be quick and easy. And forget about the parking. Anyway, Gothamist loves races like this; when the Acela service started, we loved the race from Washington DC taking a plane, Acela and car. One day, we hope to launch a pedestrian only race, where people must travel through loads of Eurotrash tourists in SoHo, manage the countless dog poo piles on the Upper West Side, and drunken hipsters on the Lower East Side.

While many people, in and out of the political arena, can find bad stuff to say about Mayor Bloomberg, there seems to be a problem with finding anything to say about the Democratic candidates who want to run against him. At least, anything to say that will stick with voters, and many Democratic leaders are worried about that. The NY Times quotes Reverend Al Sharpton's political director as saying, "People are saying, why should we get rid of Bloomberg? The Democrats are not giving any solid reasons why Bloomberg should not be in office. I don't think any of the candidates have come forward with lucid arguments as to why Bloomberg has been ineffective and why he should be fired from his job as mayor." Gothamist has to agree: The candidates aren't really proposing anything constructive or feasible (Jets Stadium in Queens? The Jets aren't putting their $800 million in Queens.) that has legs yet. We hope that messages and tactics will take further shape in the next month before the debates start. The primaries are on September 13; the run-off, if needed, will be held on September 27. If you're not a NYC voter and want to be, register here. And here's the New York City Voter Assistance Commission site; you can find your representative here.

The Port Authority calls it "your connection to the World" and there is a spiffy map showing you the loop of terminals it makes.