They’ll deny it, but most college students who write plays harbor some secret fantastic hope that their new opus will be hailed as the arrival of a fresh new voice and open on Broadway to triumphant acclaim. It obviously never happens, except when it does: 28-year-old Lin-Manuel Miranda, originally from Washington Heights, conceived the musical In the Heights as a sophomore at Wesleyan. After graduating, the show, a hip hop and salsa-inflected homage to his......

Train muralist James Top (aka JEE 2) was part of the legendary Odd Partners in the 1970s. The Brooklyn crew bombed with throw ups and block letters; they were highly regarded and had a strong presence in the city. These days Top has taken his art indoors -- teaching a graffiti class in the Bronx and, this weekend, opening his first New York exhibit. Afrology opens this Friday and includes the debut of seventeen variations......

The NYPD may have the anti-graffiti task force, but with many graffiti crimes perpetrated in the subway tunnels, the NYC Transit Authority has created its own anti-graffiti team. The Daily News tagged along with the Eagle Team, a "surveillance squad quietly formed three months ago." The Eagle Team members, which include many former NYPD detectives as well as an ex-U.S. marine, inspect and patrol subway tunnels and yards for potential taggers. Vandals engrossed in......

Rafael Cruz, whose beating on an A train at the hands - and feet - of a group of teenag girls was captured on video, will press charges with the police. Sources tell the Daily News that Cruz "filed a formal complaint with the NYPD Transit Bureau" last night. As some people wondered if the video was fake, one man, Kevin Belvin, recognized his daughter Kierra Brown as one of the girls seen in the......

The 17-year-old girl who filmed the filmed a group of teen girls beating up a subway rider on an A train last month has met with the police yesterday. Kajdera Holmes's lawyer told the Daily News, "She regrets not doing more to help the victim." Ward has also said that Holmes, who was arrested in September for assaulting a 24-year-old woman on a J train, had nothing to do with the attack, though she and......

We take this to be definitive proof that the video of a group of teen girls beating a man on an A train was not staged: The victim has emerged. Rafael Cruz, a 27-year-old Brooklyn resident who is a manager at a Midtown H&M;, told the Post, "I'm trying to get over it. It happened a month ago." Cruz isn't sure if he will press charges, noting, "Teenagers are allowed to make mistakes, but......

The police are continuing to investigate the video of a man being beaten by a group of girls on an A train. While there's still debate about whether the filmed attack was real or staged, this much is known: The teen who filmed the incident, Kajdera Holmes, has retained a lawyer to speak to reporters. The Daily News has two articles about the incident. The News had asked its readers if they knew any of......

After a video of a man being harassed and beaten by a group of teens was publicized by The Smoking Gun, some wonder if the tape is real. The main reason why most people suspect it could be staged is because the teen who filmed the incident is an aspiring filmmaker. Seventeen-year-old Kadejra Holmes told The Smoking Gun she didn't have anything to do with the attack and then took the video off YouTube. Her......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an unusual elevator rescue on Washington Ave. in Brooklyn, a pipe explosion on Richmond Terrace on Staten Island, and a person fatally struck by an A train at Van Siclen and Pitken Ave. in Brooklyn. NYC already has 91,000 practicing attorneys, but we can expect a lot more. Nearly 11,000 freshly minted JDs sat for the bar this summer and more than 70% of them passed. A 63-year-old man......

The unofficial first and second rules of sane subway rides might be "Do not talk to anyone" and "Don't look anyone in the eye." The Smoking Gun found a crazy video of an adult being beat up by a group of teenage girls on an A train. The adult, who is white, was somehow roped into a shouty exchange with the girls, who are black, and high school student Kadejra Holmes filmed the exchange,......

One teen is dead and two others suffered injuries after a Honda they were riding in crashed into a column for the A train's elevated tracks at Rockaway and Beach 101st yesterday morning. And what's more, the car was stolen the night before. Once the car hit the column, it burst into flames. Residents who saw the crash brought pails and hoses to help put the fire out and even crowbars to pry open the......

The Division of State Government Accountability from the Office of the New York State Comptroller recently released an audit of the New York City Transit Museum’s Nostalgia Train program. The audit identified “significant weaknesses in the Museum’s internal controls over ticket revenue for Nostalgia Train excursions” and that most of the program’s costs are coming from New York City Transit’s fare revenues and public mass transit funding. What's fun is that the audit was spurred......

It was originally named the 8th Avenue Subway, but the 'A' train turns 75 today, having opened September 10th, 1932. Officials are holding a ceremony at the line's northernmost station––Inwood/207th St.––and will be running six antique railcars from the 1930s during the day to commemorate the event. This is more than the Eighth Ave. Subway garnered on its opening day: Back in 1932, just before midnight, transit workers simply dropped chains blocking access to......

Holy Tornado, Brooklyn! Reader Jeanne just emailed us with this observation: I live in Kensington, Brooklyn and I think that a tornado just passed through. Have you heard any news about a tornado from anyone else? Around 6:30am there were heavy rains, thunder and lightning when all of a sudden the wind got really loud and we could hear stuff smashing into the house. It was all just 30 seconds or so but now......

In 2005 Barbara Walters mentioned her distaste for public breastfeeding on The View and was met at the show's studio with "lactivists" protesting her statement. The NY Press reported that the "lactivists" (the New York City Breastfeeding Promotion and BABE - the Brooklyn Alliance for Breastfeeding Empowerment) were back Friday packed in to a southbound A train at noon. The groups carried signs that read “La leche materna es el mejor alimento” and “Breast milk......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A train derailed on Otto Rd. in Queens, a stabbing at Rockaway Blvd. and Broadway in Brooklyn, and a sexual assault at Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn. Visitors to the New York-New York hotel-casino in Las Vegas got an extra dose of big city verisimilitude last night, when shots rang out in the casino's mezzanine. Three people were struck, but none were seriously injured before the gunman was tackled.......

(A not so new) newsflash: some of best international cinema being made today is coming out of Korea. One of the established leaders of that pack is Hong Sang-soo, a director Mahnola Dargis called "one of the most exciting and authentically individual filmmakers to emerge on the world stage recently." A frequent participant in the New York Film Festival, his movies are brilliant character studies, examining the intricately messed-up ways men and women try to......

Subway riders from Inwood to the Rockaways should steel themselves, because those delays they experienced yesterday were planned and should continue for the next five weekends. The A and C lines are undergoing track work to replace 70-year-old rails. Over the long term this should result in smoother rides and safer service. But over the short term expect no C trains between Upper Manhattan and Brooklyn's Euclid Ave. on Saturdays and Sundays. The A train......

Virgin Vacations created a list of the 11 Top Underground Transit Systems in the World, complete with photographs and YouTube videos to give readers a sense of what mass transit might be like on their trip. The number 1 underground transit system is the oldest - the London Underground. After that, it's the Paris Metro. Then the Moscow Metro. Then Madrid, Tokyo, and Seoul, until you finally see New York City's subway coming in......

Zen koan for the day: if a gas smell blankets Staten Island, does anyone notice? Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: propane tanker derails in Queens, a truck vs. building in Bed Stuy, and person struck by the A train at 50th Street. Does anyone else think it's unfair that Miss New Jersey has to step down from her post because she got knocked up during her reign? Gowanus Lounge has some more details on......

Subway special on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person struck by an A train in Brooklyn, a stabbing on the J train in Queens, and a "train job" (?) at Newkirk Avenue. Rosie's Trump beef now extends to Barbara Walters, who appears to have been stabbing her in the back in private conversations with Donald Trump: "Are you looking me in the face and denying you didn't tell him you didn't say this? You're a......

A train commute without a buzz? The MTA may look into banning alcohol sales on LIRR and Metro-North trains. The NY Sun reports MTA board member Mitchell Pally as saying, "They can have as many beers as they want as soon as they get home. I would prefer we don't let anyone drink alcohol on the train. If we're not ready to go that far … the least we can do is not make it......

Score one for the Mayor's Anti-Graffiti Task Force: The NYPD arrested 34 year old Patrick McCormick, tag Map, yesterday. McCormick was on the NYPD's 50 "Worst of the Worst" graffiti vandals list. The thing is, McCormick was arrested after smashing the window of an A train in front of a police officer, who was behind him. It was on Saturday afternoon, near the Beach 98th Street stop in Rockaway. The police suspect that McCormick......

This story might be one of our worst subway nightmares. Over the weekend, an A train left the station with some doors OPEN. The Daily News reports that train didn't stop until it was at the next station. The Transit Authority's Paul Fleuranges gave this statement:"This incident should NOT have happened. If it happened as you describe it ... then there were some very serious violations of our operating rules and procedures. We are......

The new M&M;'s World store planned for Times Square won't be lacking for future employees. The Mars Retail Group's ad that proclaimed "on the spot hiring" as well as a $10.75 hourly wage (not to mention benefits) attracted thousands of people, causing a huge crowd on Eighth Avenue at 35th Street. The company advertised that 65 full-time and 135 part-time jobs would be available. Police arrived, some on horses, to monitor the group that grew......

It was a normal Friday morning commute on the L train for many - until some substance caused the entire line to be shut down in both directions due to what the MTA's website calls a "police investigation." We have heard a couple things. The last car of a Brooklyn-bound train at the Lorimer stop was cleared, though people were still in other parts of the train. A train conductor was overheard saying something about......

It's been two years since the MTA tried to propose a ban on subway photography and it's been over a year since the MTA and NYPD decided not to impose a ban. And it's been five months since the MTA said they would work on making sure police officers wouldn't harrass photographs for taking photographs in subway and train stations. And yet... reader Jarid emailed us about getting stopped by a police after taking......

It's established that it's hot in the city - there were a couple power outages in Brooklyn and Yonkers (Con Ed said Monday had the second highest power usage on record!) and firefighters suffered heat exhaustion at a Brooklyn fire - but overall, things were okay, if sticky. Yet who knew that it would be hot enough to cause the third rail on the A line out in the Rockaways to buckle, leaving commuters......

It's hot, humid, and I want to go to the beach. What are my options? Well, Gateway National Recreation Area is right in our neck of the woods, extending in three New York City boroughs and into northern New Jersey. It is a good place to start your quest for the perfect patch of sand and cooling waters. Queens: Jacob Riis Park 2 to Flatbush Ave., Q35 Bus to Riis Beach Staten Island: Great Kills......

Yesterday's story about the drunk Penn State student who survived a fall into the R/W tracks - and 2 minutes of laying on the third rail - got us thinking about all the times we've had to write about some terrible incident involving people, bad decisions and train cars: - Man pees in subway tunnel, gets hit by train, hand is amputated - Drunk man survives A train running over him at Chambers (he survived)......