Fifteen years ago today, a truck packed with explosives detonated under a tower at the World Trade Center. While it failed to knock down the towers (the parking garage suffered the most damage), six people were killed and over a thousand injured. A retired Port Authority official, Peter Caram, spoke about the first bombing with amNY and said, "The country as a whole was never put on a security alert [after the '93 bombing]. We......

Last decade's decrepit property along a foully polluted industrial canal is just next decade's prime waterfront lots, ready for development by one the nation's premiere luxury homebuilders. The Gowanus Lounge uncovered a "scoping" document filed with the Department of City Housing by the Toll Brothers construction company. The early renderings portray a spread of mixed-use development between 2nd and Carroll Sts. and bounded by Bond St. and the Gowanus Canal itself. The project would......

Over two years after a jury found it negligent for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Port Authority continues to fight that claim. The NY-NJ agency and lawyers for the victims face the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court to argue their sides. In 2005, a jury found that the Port Authority was 68% responsible for the bombing in the WTC parking garage, which left six dead and over 1,000 injured. The decision meant......

Back in 2006, an agreement signed the day construction started for the new Yankee Stadium promised the team would pay $1.2 million a year in cash and in kind to a fund benefiting Bronx residents for 40 years. It was a gesture to make up for the inconvenience during construction and loss of parkland the new stadium was costing the neighborhood. After a year and half, none of the money has been distributed - and......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a severed limb on 55th St. in Brooklyn, a person fatally struck by a train near the East Tremont Station on the 2 line in the Bronx, and an armed robbery on Bradhurst and 147th St. in Manhattan. A mother brought her 15-year-old son to the hospital when she discovered him assembling what appeared to be a bomb in their home. The ER at Hoboken University Medical Center was......

Yesterday morning's rain caused a recently installed sewer main to burst, flooding the basement and parking garage of a Battery Park City luxury apartment building. Water levels reached up to 20 feet. Not only were car owners greeted with news that their vehicles were either submerged or floating on top of sewer water, hundreds of tenants at 90 West Street were evacuated. Fire officials explained that, per WNBC, "rain flooded a re-routed sewer pipe,......

Three men were stabbed during a fight at a Midtown parking garage early Sunday morning. They were apparently in town for a birthday celebration at Mars 2112, but got into an argument with another group, made up of at least five men and two women, while waiting for their car at the Central Parking Corp at 810 Seventh Avenue. It's unclear what the fight was over, but 1010 WINS suggested that the groups had clashed......

It's finally come to this. The lights of the Great White Way have gone dark in a dispute between the theater stagehands of Local One and producers and theater owners. The labor dispute which has been simmering for months and left the stagehands without a contract for an equal time, resulted in a shutdown of Broadway shows on the verge of the theater district's most profitable season. The stalemate came to to a head after......

A 19th century Greek revival building on Pearl Street – the road that formed the oyster shell strewn border of New Amsterdam in the 17th century – will soon be torn down, according to the A.P. The former warehouse at 213 Pearl was built in 1831 and was integral to what Ric Burns calls “the first district in the world devoted exclusively to commerce.” Once the city approves the permit, demolition could start as early......

The Real Deal (via Brownstoner) is reporting that, according to a recent court ruling, the city is taking two Williamsburg properties via eminent domain for Bushwick Inlet Park. The properties are located along the East River between North 9th and 10th streets. According to one real estate expert, the city will only pay about $100 per square foot, compared to the $200 per square foot it could garner on the open market, even though the......

A number of buildings with a possible connection to Brooklyn's abolitionist past and the Underground Railroad may be razed to make way for a public park and an underground parking garage. The commuter daily amNewYork reported yesterday that the Duffield Houses are slated for replacement by a public park along the lines of Manhattan's Bryant Park, mixed-use residential and commercial development, and the expansion of local colleges. Opponents to the plan include Lewis Greenstein, who......

New York University is reaching out to placate New Yorkers whose parking is disrupted by incoming students by paying to place cars in garages. An annual headache for New York residents is NYU's move-in day, when thousands of students arrive in the city en masse to take up dorm life at one of the school's many residences. Streets are blocked off as parents line up car after car, many pulled onto the curb itself. NY1......

For your daily dose of amusement/ outrage/ disbelief at the city we live in, the NY Times has an article about apartment buildings selling private parking spaces for as much as $225,000. Seriously.If parking at the Onyx Chelsea, a new 52-unit condo at 28th Street and Eighth Avenue, is any indication, there is plenty of demand. The first two spots sold for $165,000, the third for $175,000 and the last two for $195,000. Each......

Another strange, upsetting tale from the club district: According to the police, a 25-year-old woman was dragged from a West 15th sidewalk into a parking garage where she was raped last month. The Post reports that the woman, who was walking along, had dropped her cellphone, and when she "stooped to pick it up, she lost her balance, slipped and passed out" right outside a parking garage.That's when 24-year-old suspect Juan Castilla - an employee......

Remember all the excitement surrounding the BAM Cultural District around, oh, 2001? Well, the NY Post is reporting that the previous plan for a theater and arts library has been expanded to include a dance studio, public park, museum and gallery, underground parking garage and residential housing. The district, which will cost $650 million, will be located between Fulton St. and Lafayette Ave. along Flatbush Ave. More details from the Post: - The 229-seat theater......

Cities are scenes for epic sci-fi battles. The MTA’s Robo-train has now met its first galactic rival: Robo-lot. This month the city will spawn its first robotic parking garage at 123 Baxter St. in Chinatown, a completely automated system allowing drivers to park their vehicles on a platform that transports it to an underground facility storing up to 67 vehicles. That this parking lot requires no parking attendant makes us feeble humans scratch our......

For those of you with a car, here's a handy site. NYC Parking Garage shows daily and monthly rates for many many garages in Manhattan. You can find garage by selecting a neighborhood, putting in an address, picking a cross street, or choosing an attraction. And then type in when you're parking your car and voila, you'll get a map and list of the different rates. The site has a disclaimer ("although we strive......

A man who allegedly pointed a loaded pistol at police was shot in the legs last night in Queens. A sergeant and two officers began following a man after he was seen acting suspiciously near the Queens Center Mall, according to the Times. The plainclothes cops gave chase in an unmarked car when the the suspect began to run. The chase continued on foot until the suspect ran into a parking garage on Junction Blvd......

Here we go: Rapper Fabolous now says that he had nothing to do with the unlicensed guns (or car, for that matter) in the car that took him to the hospital. Fabolous had been shot in the leg after an evening at Justin's, and three friends drove him to Bellevue, only to run a red light and have the police stop them, search the car, and find two unlicensed guns in a secret compartment. So......

Rapper Fabolous was shot in the Flatiron District this morning. Fabolous is now in stable condition, after being shot in the thigh, - and he's under arrest as well. WABC 7 reports that a fight had spilled out from Justin's Restaurant (which is owned by P. Didddy), and the shooting occured in a parking garage nearby. The reports have been a little confusing, but it looks like after Fabolous was shot, three of his friends......

The hell that is parking in our city remains one of the top reasons why we still haven't gotten our license. Our friends cursed with cars regularly bitch loudly of the nightmare that is finding a place to put one's car. If there are no spaces on the street, one has to use a lot and they certainly ain't cheap. This summer has seemed especially bad for driving in the city and we can......

Willie Neuman points out an interesting conundrum in today's Big Deal (third item). If a developer with a known history of building oversize and then biting the cost in sheer profits comes into your neighborhood and makes a play to build an oversize building there, what do you do? What if the property in question is an enormous pit? That's exactly what has happened in Borough Park where Mendel Brach, a specialist at the......

While Wal-Mart decided not to build a store in Rego Park last year, the NY Sun says the behemoth retailer working on surround then attack approach by opening up stores in just outside the city limits Last month a store in Kearny, NJ opened, and next up is one in White Plains that will be an "urban model." As in an urban model with "design elements that could be incorporated into a New York City......

Yikes! Two women got into a fight at a Midtown nightclub and one took her stiletto heel and hit the other woman on the head with it. Stiletto heels are total weapons, so it's not surprising that Jessica Miller was charged with felony assault; the Post says the maximum term is 25 years. The incident occured at Corner 51 and the victim, Vicki Herrera, needed two staples for her shoe-related wounds. And there were a......

- Bronx students want sex ed classes; it's crazy that 12-13 year olds haven't taken sex ed classes yet - A plane headed from LaGuardia to Cincinatti was diverted to JFK because of engine trouble; luckily planes have more than one engine - the passengers and crew are okay - State senators want to repeal the 5 year statute of limitations on rape cases - Jonathan Lethem writes his letter asking Frank Gehry to......

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Here's a sad story about Morningside Heights' real estate, courtesy of the New York Times: A 20-story, 300-unit rental apartment building would rise on the southeast corner of the grounds of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine under a deal nearing completion between the cathedral's trustees and AvalonBay Communities Inc. The building, which would partly block views of the cathedral from the Manhattan Valley neighborhood below, is the first of two potential......

Gothamist had always wondered what it would be like to be hobnob with P. Diddy. You know, watch as his manservant puts his napkin on his lap, waiting to see what Sean John ensemble he'll wear next. (Perhaps we watched too much Making the Band 3 - we have been singing extremely off-key lately.) But now it seems like it's safer that we don't have a Bad Boy lifestyle - last night, at a party......

The Chelsea parking garage which had a four alarm fire blaze through it yesterday is still closed as the Department of Buildings decides whether or not it is in danger of collapsing. The fire, which closed down parts of 9th and 10 Avenues and created smoke problems in the A/C/E station at 14th Street and 8th Avenue, is still under investigation, though some early reports suggest there may have been an elevator short circuit. The......

- Kick this: The Rockettes are going on strike, the night before The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular begins! How's that for bargaining? - The fire at the West 15th Street parking garage caused a lot of damage - hope those car owners paid their insurance; the above photograph is from Bucky Turco whose Animal magazine offices overlook West 15th - Gridskipper gets some answers about the Blood Manor ticket mess - The......