THEATER: The salty, electric dynamo that is Elaine Stritch shows no sign of waning – about to turn 83-years-young, the show biz legend has kicked off 2008 with a reprise of her Tony-winning cabaret show. Backed by a six-piece band and performed in two acts for a dining audience at the newly restored Café Carlyle, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, co-written with the New Yorker’s John Lahr, is a hilarious, old-fashioned ride through star-studded post-war Broadway,......

Queens Boulevard, dubbed the "Boulevard of Death," was the scene of yet another fatal accident yesterday. This time, a cement truck hit a woman in her 60s as she was crossing the street towards the Queens Center Mall, scattering the contents of the victim's purse into the street. Witnesses at the scene say that the truck was turning from Woodhaven Blvd. just and hit the woman just as she entered the crosswalk trying to beat......

Charles Mee is renowned for his distinctive approach to playwriting, which synthesizes disparate pre-existing texts into startlingly new theatrical creations bursting with music, dance, video and other inspired surprises. The superb Signature Theatre is now in the midst of their season devoted to his plays; the first production, Iphigenia 2.0, was a devastating depiction of America’s Iraq catastrophe as seen through the prism of classic Greek tragedy. The current show, Queens Boulevard, is a funny,......

The pedestrian, bicyclist and sensible transportation advocacy group Transportation Alternatives has just launched a new website, Crash Maps: CrashStat 2.0, which maps intersections and streets where pedestrians and bicyclists have been hit by vehicles. It's an updated version of their previous map, and when the information is presented different depending on how closely you zoom into the map. For instance, at one level, it shows crashes (those with injuries as well as the fatal......

In Charles Mee’s Queens Boulevard (the musical) the titular traffic artery is no longer the “boulevard of blood” notorious for hit-and-run collisions. In fact, there isn’t a drop of blood in Mee’s colorful fairytale, which takes as inspiration the centuries old dance-drama style of Hindu theater called kathakali, among other things. In Mee’s eyes, Queens Boulevard is the symbolic common thread connecting New York’s myriad ethnicities and cultures, with Queens as the proverbial melting pot......

There was a bit in the MTA's August 8 Storm Report which mentioned that the MTA was working on some street furniture designs to "raise vent heights to prevent water inflow." As part of the recommendation to "Implement corrective action plan for top flood-prone locations," the MTA, with the Department of Transportation and Department of Environmental Protection, is developing short- and long-term solutions at the most flooding-vulnerable locations. Perhaps a more promising and intriguing......

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......

Today's morning subway and bus commute should be a lot smoother (unless you need to stop at Grand Central) than yesterday's messy commute. There were a number of subway disruptions and diversions due to flooding from the rain, which left many straphangers frustrated. But why did pouring rain stop the subway? Well, here's what the MTA says:NYC Transit utilized portable pumps and pump trains to help clear 600 feet of 2-foot-deep water across all four......

Yesterday, the MTA lowered the first of many parts of the Tunnel Boring Machine into the lower level of the 63rd Street tunnel as part of the MTA’s East Side Access project. The lowering itself could have been dismissed by passersby as just some sort of generic routine construction work, but it was much more than just moving a boring machine. When finally assembled in about two months, the 600-ton automated Spanish-owned and Italian-made......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a partial collapse at Fleet Court and Woodhaven Blvd. in Queens, two pedestrians were struck on the westbound Grand Central Parkway at Queens Boulevard in Queens, and a stabbing on West 21st St. in Manhattan. All three area airports: Newark, JFK, and Laguardia, were thrown into chaos yesterday after a computer malfunction in the air traffic control system resulted in multi-hour delays, missed connections, and many unhappy passengers. Gov.......

Yesterday, a five people were injured on Queens Boulevard at 47th Street when a Jeep Cherokee slammed into a Honda. The Jeep, which witnesses describe as trying to beat a red light, lost control and hit the Honda. The Honda, which had been making a turn onto Queens Boulevard, was crushed from the impact and then "plowed up onto the crowded sidewalk, pinning a 16-year-old boy against a lamppost." Both legs of the boy, Tonpo......

This map isn't necessarily brand new, but it is a nice look at the MTA's big East Side Access project, which will connect the LIRR to Grand Central Terminal. amNew York (which has a gallery) and the NY Times visited the tunnel near 63rd Street and 2nd Avenue, where parts for the tunnel boring machine are being delivered. The TBM will then drill through rock to extend an existing tunnel to Grand Central. Fun......

Anyone who has attempted to walk or bike from one side of Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza to another knows that it can be a difficult journey, through which a constantly swiveling head is required to keep an eye on traffic coming from seemingly every direction. The above overhead image shows just a portion of the plaza where five different roads converge in an inner traffic loop, including Eastern Parkway and Prospect Park West, and......

A drunk driver hit a livery van on Queens Boulevard early Sunday morning, killing a van passenger - a 28-year-old new mother. The van was carrying a family (six adults and three children; the van did not have seat belts) who had been celebrating in Brooklyn. Paula Serrano was killed, and she had been holding her 3-week-old baby in her lap (the baby was not seriously injured). Serrano's husband and 6-year-old daughter, as well as......

Yesterday afternoon, a crazy scene unfolded in Elmhurst on Queens Boulevard. Two men had just robbed an HSBC bank when they ran out and tried to carjack a woman in a car. She drove off, so they tried to carjack another vehicle - one that happened to be carrying off-duty police officer John Lopez, his wife, their 4 month old baby, and his mother-in-law. From The NY Times:One of the men tried to open......

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg unveiled the first new bus shelter from the billion-dollar street furniture contract with Cemusa. The shelter, located at Queens Boulevard and 82nd Avenue, is made out of stainless-steel and tempered glass (both the walls and the roof) and was designed by Grimshaw Architects. Some more details from Cemusa:- Each bus shelter will include bench seating. The bench is vandal-resistant and designed to prevent reclining. - The bus shelters display the name......

The amNewYork cover story is about dangerous intersections in the city. Queens Boulevard, aka the "Boulevard of Death," has only had four fatalities in the past three years, but there have been a number of pedestrian injuries on Grand Concourse in the Bronx and at Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. Grand Concourse has had 35 pedestrian injuries during the same period, while Eastern Parkway had seven pedestrian deaths in 1999 and 2005, not including many pedestrian......

The 59 year old man who was critically injured while walking on Queens Boulevard by a hit-and-run driver Monday night died yesterday. Yakub Aminov, who had been coming back from Yom Kippur services, was buried in Flushing; he had immigrated from Uzbekistan 15 years ago and lived in Forest Hills with his wife and two of three sons according to the Daily News. Police found the silver Nissan SUV that hit Aminov. The car was......

Last night, a man was crossing Queens Boulevard at 67th Avenue when a silver SUV hit him without stopping. The 59 year old man had been returning home from Yom Kippur services, and Queens DA Richard Brown said, "I'm troubled. I went to temple myself today. It's the most important day of the Jewish calendar, and apparently he was on his way home from temple after observing the holiday, and to have this happen to......

Who knew events for Democratics hopefuls for attorney general could get so vicious? At a meeting of the Stonewall Democrats club (yes, they are gay), not only did other candidates storm the stage to speak when only Andrew Cuomo, the fundraising frontrunner, was scheduled to speak, an interesting part of NYC political history emerged. From the NY Times:Mr. Cuomo also tightened up a bit when an audience member suggested that Mr. Cuomo was a "driving......

Worst broker ever: A broker from a Queens Boulevard Merrill Lynch branch forged many checks from a 95 year old Forest Hills client - and stole $320,000 from her. The victim, a retired schoolteacher named Carrie Cummins, said she became suspicious when her bank balance was getting mysteriously low. The Queens DA Richard Brown charged broker Peter Lau with "grand larceny, 28 counts of forgery and 28 counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument"......

Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives...

Be still Gothamist's beating heart: Two men have been arrested for placing an "ATM skimming" device onto an ATM in Elmont. The men stoles the account and PIN numbers from a Bank of America branch and took $2500 dollars from ATMs in Manhattan, Rosedale, and Queens. Newsday reports that a witness saw the pair remove the skimming device from the Elmont ATM and followed their car until police stopped them on Queens Boulevard. Go concerned......

From the creepy news division: An NYPD officer was arrested for " New York Region > Police Say a Popular Officer Sought Boys in Chat Rooms" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/03/nyregion/03officer.html">attempting to engage minors in sexual exchanges over the Internet." And what's more, he was a youth officer, working with troubled youngsters in Queens. Officer Michael Costello's Internet activities were discovered when police were doing a routine investigation in Internet criminal activity; then Internal Affairs got involved. Officer Costello......

One of Gothamist's resolutions for 2005 is to try to be a little less impatient and jaywalk less at the very busy intersections (that close call at 72nd Street and Broadway did it), so we were interested in the Daily News' story about how traffic deaths has been very low this year. In fact, the article was part history lesson:Only 286 people have been killed in traffic accidents this year, putting the city on pace......

Opening today at MoMA QNS: Tall Buildings, a showcase of 25 high-rise buildings designed in the last 10 years. The exhibit takes a look at the evolution of the architectural genre for the 21st century, exploring innovations in structure and program as well as social and urban implications. Santiago Calatrava, Norman Foster, Steven Holl, Rem Koolhaas, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers are some of the architects represented in this exhibit. Many of the buildings featured......

Newsday speaks with a woman who is crusading to get an overpass built over Queens Boulevard. Sharon Bush, whose daughter was killed crossing the street, which is nicknamed "Boulevard of Death," quit her job to rally overpass support full-time saying, "I have nothing but time now. I'm not going to let my daughter be collateral damage." According to Newsday, there have been 84 deaths since 1993 at the intersection, thoush none this year. The Department......

Edith Bellinghausen, Queens For A Day...

The Post, Daily News, Newsday, and the Times all recount the grisly history of Queens Boulevard as an accident between two SUVs caused the one pedestrian's death and the other's injuries. The News reports that the injured victim's boyfriend ran out to help, only "to find [his girlfriend] lying in a bloody heap." The Times says the nickname "The Boulevard of Death" came to be when"more than 70 pedestrians were killed in accidents there from......