John Bachman’s lithograph of Olmsted and Vaux’s design via Racontours. 150 years ago today the Board of Commissioners of Central Park chose the “Greensward plan” submitted by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux for the design of America’s first major urban public park. Except for the rock outcrops, the park is almost entirely man-made; the meadows were swamps until the designers had them drained and dumped tens of thousands of cartloads of soil to fill......

So, CNN personality Richard Quest was arrested early Friday morning for drug possession when police found in Central Park well after the park's 1 a.m. curfew. Sure, the initial reports said Quest told police he was carrying methamphetamime in his pocket, but leave it to the NY Post to add the really detailed details. Not only did Quest have drugs, he also had a "rope around his neck that was tied to his genitals, and......

Well, CNN reporter Richard Quest is nothing but honest. He was charged with drug possession after the police found methamphetamime in his pocket. How did they know? The NY Times explained that Quest "volunteered, 'I have meth in my pocket.'" The police stopped Quest because he was in Central Park (around West Drive and 64th Street) at 3:40 a.m., well after the 1 a.m. curfew (it's open again at 6 a.m.). Police try to enforce......

Summerstage Lineup Confirmed Ah, Spring. The weather feels fresh, the trees start to bloom and the free outdoor music events around the city start trickling out. This week saw the release of the Central Park Summerstage lineups, which is one of the best and longest running summer music series in town. Always a treat, this year is one of the most impressive, with a list of shows that seem too good to be free. The......

A plan is afoot to have horse drawn carriages around Central Park replaced by environmentally friendly classic cars, like the Ford Model T. The carriage horse business has come under increasing scrutiny recently as an outdated and cruel practice. Several incidents where horses were killed or injured after bolting in city traffic have galvanized opponents and some politicians to ban the use of horses in New York City. Technology remains a barrier, according to the......

As some remind us of the possibility of a New York City underwater, Charity:Water asks us to imagine a New York City with dry taps. Not only that, but imagine Brooklynite and Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Connelly having to walk to Central Park to gather dirty water for her family (though Prospect Park would have been a lot closer to her house). Where is Paul Bettany during all of this? The PSA is to show how......

The hunt for a bathroom in Central Park gets even more desperate for the next week, as a troupe of Irish actors have commandeered the public bathrooms in Central Park's Bethesda Terrace to present their play Ladies & Gents. The noir thriller is acted out near the sinks and urinals, while audience members pay $25 a head (sorry) to stand along a row of stalls for the 40 minute play. The audience splits in half......

Photos from the Met's exhibition of Lee Friedlander's Work Art is often accused of being contrived, especially in comparison to nature. But some of New York's most well-loved natural landscapes are themselves largely artificial, so it's interesting to see an artist like a photographer double-back on a landscaper's craft. Photographer Lee Friedlander did exactly that with with a lens pointed at the work of Frederick Law Olmsted, the co-designer of Manhattan's Central Park and......

MOVIE: After Marion Cotillard took home the gold for best actress in La Vie en Rose last Sunday, French cinema is sure to be all the rage. Today the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2008 series kicks off with a screening of Roman de gare (pictured). Buy tickets and get the schedule here. Friday// 6:30 and 9pm // Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts [70 Lincoln Center Plaza] // $12 (stand......

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. You can remember those weeks through the second part of the documentary, with almost all New Yorkers......

Photograph of someone determined to get around in the snow by Charley Lhasa on Flickr After January hype - which resulted in rain - and a brief moment of snow last week, a winter snow storm finally made an appearance this year. Two weather disturbances resulted in many inches of snow falling in the region: By 2PM, more than 6 inches fell in the city, which is the biggest snowfall in two years and......

taxi, by Runs With Scissors at flickrToday on the Gothamist Newsmap: an amputation on Hudson St. in Manhattan, an under-a-train fatality at Lenox Ave. and Central Park North in Manhattan, and a stabbing on 34th St. in Queens. Auvryn Scarlett, the sanitation truck driver who mowed down a pair of British tourists as they strolled down a midtown sidewalk, was arraigned on manslaughter charges yesterday. Saturday Night Live will attempt to make up for......

Through yesterday, this month was on pace to be the tenth warmest February recorded in Central Park. Cooler conditions today, and especially tomorrow, will put a kibosh on any top ten dreams the month may have had. This morning's brisk winds are in advance of an approaching Alberta Clipper that will pass through the area this evening. As the clipper gets closer skies will cloud up and there's an outside chance of a few flurries.......

It may have looked like simple joyriding on a Friday afternoon, but the Parks Dept. employee careening around Battery Park near Whitehall St. yesterday afternoon was actually a man on a mission, i.e. to kill as many birds in the park as possible. Martin Hightower has been a Parks Dept. employee since 2005, but was arrested after 911 started receiving calls about a man driving recklessly on a golf cart at the southern tip of......

ART: Come help open up the new Chelsea gallery, Honey Space, tonight. Check out their inaugural exhibition whilst you nosh on fondue. The space is unique in that it will present "regular programming of site-specific installations and special events...and during normal daytime hours, the space will be open to the public, and unmonitored." Suggested attire for the evening is red (well that's not very creative!). 6pm to midnight // Honey Space [148 11th Ave]......

Frank Bruni, the Times’s top restaurant critic, awards the new 2nd Avenue Deli one star today, which isn’t bad considering it is, despite all the history, still a deli. We popped in there for food and photos just before it reopened at its East 33rd Street location and found the sandwiches (pictured) as monumental as ever; a second visit turned up no sign of the free bowl of gribenes (chicken skin fried in chicken fat)......

The Lost Beach, by vanshnookenraggen at fark Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: Falling debris at East 11th St. and Ave. C in Manhattan, a propane truck explosion in the area of 172nd St. and Townsend Ave. in the Bronx, and a water rescue at 96th St. and the FDR Drive off Manhattan (brrr!). The Javits Center is only 21 years old, but it leaks like a sieve. So in addition to the expansion of......

Gucci has been touting its love (or ♥) of New York with a new "Gucci ♥ NY" line of luxury products and 46,000 flagship store on Fifth Avenue, but its legal department never cleared the usage of the trademarked "I ♥ NY" logo. According to the Post, the Empire State Development agency was never contacted for permission. Accompanying another Post article about the "I ♥ NY" logo being used for cigarette and ashtrays, it turns......

Photos of snowboarders at the Union Square Street Sessions by Tien Mao Perhaps the only place you'll see snow in New York City this winter is today in Union Square and this weekend in Central Park. On the north end of Union Square, where the farmers market and skateboarders usually are, there's now a man-made hill with 132 tons of snow trucked in from Mountain Creek in New Jersey. The Union Square Street Sessions,......

It’s never to early to start planning for the future One World Government, and one great way to fill the odd hours is by building websites about it, as one group of visionaries have done with their Reservoir Project. The pseudo-serious website is dedicated to securing New York City as the capital of the “Earth Government” and converting the Central Park Reservoir into “the Biggest, the Tallest, the most Elegant and Innovative Structure in the......

Seems like even at a Central Park West apartment building in the West 70s, robbers can get in. A CPW apartment belonging to 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl and her family was "ransacked" by a thief last Friday morning. Apparently the thief, who stole over a $100,000 worth of items, managed to sneak into the penthouse by posing as a contractor - there are many projects at the building. The NY Press' sister publication, the......

What Lower Manhattan will look like after Silverstein's buildings are completed; the Woolworth Building with its ornate green roof is on the left, 99 Church is the tall building to it right (and to the left of what is an illuminated Church street); to the right is the WTC site, with Freedom Tower and the other three towers; image from dbox/Silverstein Properties Developer Larry Silverstein announced yesterday that he will build an 80-story building......

Photo via Annulla's Flickr. Within the 843 acres of Central Park one will find 9,000 benches, and many of them tell a story (or at least a name). In 1986 the Central Park Conservancy began their Adopt-A-Bench program to raise money for upkeep. For $7,500 (way less than your yearly rent, and this is forever!) you will get an engraved plaque on one of the benches. There are also select locations with rustic handmade......

To be a young harbor seal taking some time from swimming to sun! A young seal was seen hanging out at the 79th Street Boast Basin yesterday morning the Parks Department. Sergeant Rakeem Taylor told City Room, "He was moving around pretty fine, yawning and sunning himself," and estimated the seal to be "3 to 4 feet long and about 90 pounds." Taylor said that the seal's appearance means the Hudson is clean enough for......

graffiti internet, by Rob Hoey at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an aircraft fire at JFK terminal 4 in Queens, a robbery on Central Park West in Manhattan, and a missing child on Pennsylvania Ave. in Brooklyn. Surf cams (permanently installed cameras monitoring surf conditions) are a great way to notify surfers of conditions, until one realizes that surfers don't want conditions notified for fear of crowds. No matter what you've ever seen......

On The Square, by Ade in New York at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired by police at Blake and Vermont in Brooklyn, an escaped prisoner at East 112th St. and Madison Ave. in Manhattan, and a person under a train at Central Park West and 60th St. in Manhattan. Hassan Askari was invited to the State of the Union Address as the guest of Queens Congressman Rep. Joseph Crowley. Askari came......

We were encouraged to hear a statue would be unveiled in Central Park memorializing the racehorse Barbaro, the Kentucky Derby winner who remained undefeated in all of his races before tragically breaking a leg in the Preakness Stakes (video). The sculpture by Daniel Edwards - whose Paris Hilton and Britney Spears sculptures are familiar eye-openers - is scheduled to be unveiled on April 30th to coincide with this year's Kentucky Derby. Unlike the beloved statue......

Believe it or not a trace of snow was measured in Central Park last night. The snow lasted only the briefest of moments as a warmer air mass soon arrived. That warm air mass didn't last too long either. The storm that brought us last night's precipitation has moved out to sea. As it moves it has been strengthening. The stronger storm won't bring us more rain but it is pulling more and more......

Say, did you hear anything about this movie that opens today, Cloverfield? No? Yeah, it’s kind of a [Spoiler Alert!] obscure art-house thing, all shot with a camcorder from the perspective of a few friends fleeing a massive monster smashing Manhattan. We attended a screening earlier in the week and deemed it top-shelf disaster porn; though the main characters are rather annoying and the apocalypse takes a little too long to blast off, “by the......

The last sentence uttered before all hell breaks loose is, “Forget about the rest of the world and hold onto the ones you care about.” Though probably unintentional, those words of brotherly advice – spoken to a lovesick young yuppie named Rob – perfectly sum up the prevalent attitude in fin de siècle New York: the world’s spinning into a cataclysm of total war and catastrophic climate change, but fuck it; let’s party and......