Tonight is the last chance until December 2010 to witness a total lunar eclipse. This is the third such eclipse in the past year. With any luck the weather will cooperate. It looks like there will be breaks in the clouds over the city, which should make for dramatic views. Break out the tripods and cameras! A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth wedges itself between the sun and moon, casting its shadow on the......

Photograph of a section of the Texaco map by Sybil Young/NYC Parks & Recreation For the 1964-1965 World's Fair, architect Philip Johnson designed the New York State Pavillion in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Besides the well-known observation towers (think Men in Black) and the Theaterama, he commissioned a "130-foot-by-166-foot terrazzo replica of a Texaco New York State road map." However, after vandalism and weather, the past decades have damaged the map to the point......

An orthodontist was killed while taking his 5-year-old daughter to the Annadale playground at Flushing Meadows Park. Around 11AM, Daniel Malakov was shot in the chest twice by someone who witnesses say was wearing a black fleece. Malakov had been taking his daughter to meet his ex-wife, and his family believes their divorce may be related to his killing. Malakov had won custody of little Michelleka last week "after a brutal court battle," according to......

Above is a picture of the observation towers at the New York State pavilion of the 1964-65 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows, Queens. A flickr member scanned the picture, and many others, after he found a scrapbook on the street in Cambridge, MA. He believes that the photos were taken by a woman named Lillian Seymour, who visited the World's Fair in 1965. The 1964-65 World's Fair in Queens was the only World's Fair......

At the end of a row of newspaper boxes lining a street in Corona Plaza is an orange number offering a free publication titled, "This Is What I Eat." The eight-page newspaper is also being given out at a nearby Associated Supermarket. The design screams supermarket circular, but "This Is What I Eat" is actually a public art project created by Stephanie Diamond. Diamond asked the residents of New York City's most diverse nabe about......

MOVIE: The new Hairspray has set up special Sing-A-Long screenings! They begin nationwide today, and there will be three right here in New York. If you don't like rowdy theaters, skip this one! All Weekend // Various Times // Regal Union Sq 14; Clearview Chelsea 9; AMC Empire 42nd 25 MUSIC: Head down to the Seaport for an evening of Billie Holiday tunes. Turntables on the Hudson will be celebrating the release of Billie Holiday......

After hearing about the tragic rush-hour bridge collapse in Minneapolis that has claimed at least four lives, we wondered what the conditions of New York City's bridges were. Like the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, several of our city's largest bridges are undergoing what seems like constant construction. All the East River bridges are either undergoing repairs right now, have plans for the future, just finished construction, or all of the above. Gothamist looked......

TONY blog has a report on the most endangered sites in the world. The World Monuments Fund released its 2008 list yesterday, which is packed with far off places. The U.S. isn't exempt, of course, with a whopping seven endangered structures: the Salk Institute in California, the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed Florida Southern University Historic Campus, historic neighborhoods of New Orleans, Route 66, Main Street Modern, Tutuveni Petroglyph Site in Arizona and our very own New......

Now we know what happened to the NYPD's 2003 pilot program to have some of its officers use Segways: The batteries (which were eventually recalled) would make the entire Segway stop when they were dead, so officers were fall off. Now, the NYPD has decided the newer models are up to snuff and will make like it's 2003 by having 10 Segways patrol various parts of the city starting today. The NYPD officers aboard Segways......

There's a fun NY Times City section article about the Queens Museum of Art's Panorama Challenge. The Queens Museum of Art's panorama is a to-scale model of New York City: One inch equals 100 feet (the Empire State Building is 15 inches tall) and the model was originally designed for the 1964 World's Fair, as a "helicopter" ride over New York City. (And, yes, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses commissioned the panorama in 1964, just......

April 14: Denise Landis at Broadway Panhandler Join Denise Landis, recipe tester for The New York Times, as she shares recipes and expertise from her newest cookbook, Dinner for Eight. Free tasting and book signing to follow the demonstration. Broadway Panhandler, 65 East 8th Street (between Broadway and University), 3 PM, free. April 16: A Menupoems Reading April is National Poetry Month and Alimentum is joining in the celebration with Menupoems. During the month, participating......

THEATER: We could try to describe Neal Medlyn's Coming In The Air Tonight, but why bother when there’s this: “The show features a variety of Phil Collins and Genesis music and is about how Neal is starting to slowly fall apart due to how he's all torn up inside from getting his heart broken into tiny pieces. It is also about how Neal steals a lot of stuff from people. Like their belongings and house......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: Falling debris at 107th St. and Lexington Ave. in Manhattan, a police officer is shot in Brooklyn's Nassau County's 3rd Precinct, and a car vs. building incident on Atlantic Avenue. Kittens in trees are over. Firefighters rescue drowning dog in Hudson River When your roommate is a mysterious stranger, write about him in The New York Times. NYC playing fields: no longer just for "having sex, getting high on......

This is a report we'd love to get our hands on: The Post reveals details from a 44-page City Council report about crimes in the city's biggest parks. And it turns out that Riverside Park leads all parks, with 36 major crimes reported during the spring and summer; Flushing Meadows Park had 35 crimes, and Prospect Park was number three, with 25 major crimes. Central Park was not included "because it is its own......

In keeping with our lists of events from 2006, here are some of the sports stories that Gothamist found compelling in the past year. It ranges from the playoff disappointment from the Mets and the Yankees to the welcome performances of last season's Rangers, this season's Jets and Rutgers. Mickelson Chokes at Winged Foot: Everyone knew the Winged Foot course in Mamaroneck, N.Y., was a tough place to play, but no one found it crueler......

Police believe that the man severely beaten on Christmas Day near the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park was part of a string of robberies by the same men. The victim (pictured and still unidentified) in Monday's Christmas attack had been riding his bicycle and is now in critical condition. So far, nine people have been robbed. Two men were attacked on Christmas Eve - one pedestrian and one bicyclist - and the only person not......

Yesterday, there were two mugging incidents in city parks. Last night, a man was beaten with a club near the Unisphere in Queens' Flushing Meadows Park. He had been walking through the park around 6:40PM when two men attacked him. Police believe they were trying to rob the man, who is now in critical condition at Elmhurst General. And yesterday afternoon, a tourist from Singapore was threatened at knife point in a Central Park bathroom.......

We think there is still free access to Times Select articles today, so we urge you to read Dan Barry's column about the NY State Pavilion from the 1964 World's Fair. Here's the opening: Once there were elevators gliding up the sides of the towers to reveal a city unfolding; now they are rusted in mid-rise. Once there were stairwells winding within those towers; now they are rotted through. The call for a better......

I'm aware of Randall's Island and Coney Island having miniature golf available. Short of these, is there anywhere else in NYC to play? I've had no luck doing the research myself, and frankly, my "regular golf" experience is limited to playing Tiger Woods on the PS2.After doing some research, we were able to find a couple other options for miniature golf around the city in addition to Randall's Island and Coney Island. The first place......

With the weather so nice, it's the perfect opportunity to head to Flushing today to check out the final day of the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York. Today's races have already started, but the event lasts until 6 p.m., with the last race scheduled for 5:09 (it will undoubtedly be running late). If watching various teams compete in dragon boats from the shores of Meadow Lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park,......

- Get your seersucker suits and sun dresses out! Tomorrow evening is the 138th running of the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown and horse racing's "Test of the Champion." Races on stakes day begin at noon with post time for the Belmont Stakes at 6:33 pm Television coverage starts at noon on ESPN with coverage on ABC starting at 5. The current favorite for the race is Bluegrass Cat, but......

Could there be another World's Fair coming to Flushing-Meadows? The Bureau of International Exhibitions has reportedly asked New York City if it'd be interested in hosting a fair in 2012 or 2015. The Flushing Meadows Corona Park World's Fair Association is very enthusiastic about the idea, with its president David Oats explaining, "The U.S. hasn't had a fair in two decades. Since they [the committee] opened the door, we felt we had an obligation to......

Yay for optimism, because that seems to be the key word at the Department of Sanitation. The DoS and the city have launched a new anti-littering campaign - "Stomp Out Litter." And it features the cast of Stomp traipsing around the city, from Times Square to the Bronx Zoo - even Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Funny, it looks so glamorous, so "Rent" when the cast of Stomp stomps out litter. DoS Commissioner John Doherty......

With the proposed chill coming this weekend, we thought it would be a good to remind everyone that the city's ice skating rinks will be closing on April 2. Yes, the Pond in Bryant Park has been closed since January and Prospect Park's rink closed last weekend, but there's still the Abe Stark Rink at Coney Island, World’s Fair Ice Skating Rink in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the Staten Island War Memorial Ice Skating Rink......

Wi-Fi Salon is installing Wi-Fi into 10 city parks over the next few months. Central Park will have eight hot spots (including the zoo, Delacorte Theater, and Boathouse), as will Orchard Beach, Flushing Meadows, Van Cortlandt, Pelham Bay, Prospect, Riverside, Union Square, and Washington Square Parks. The Daily News says that Battery Park's hotspot, near Battery Gardens, is already running and that Wi-Fi Salon is paying the Parks Department for the right to install the......

It's finally over! The New York Jets have officially ended their bid for the West Side Railyards and their quest to put a football stadium in Manhattan. Now, the MTA will be free to bid out the land to whomever they please while the Jets try to figure out whether or not they want to share another stadium with the Giants in Jersey or if Queens politicians will bend over and offer them the......

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall really wants the Jets to move to Queens so much that she says she's fine with getting rid of the Fountain of Planets in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Marshall made the point that no one will care about the Fountain of Planets because it's filled with garbage. Mayor Bloomberg was with Marshall when she made that comment yesterday, and he said, "If it's filled with garbage there will be somebody there......

If you're looking for some non-traditional activities this weekend, the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival is taking place all weekend long. Saturday and Sunday from 9-5, there will be dragon boat racing, food, and other cultural activities in Flushing Meadows Park. Dragon boat racing has a long history that, according to legend, symbolizes the race to save someone that committed suicide. Gothamist will be there, participating in at least four races. How will you......

Cue the Jaws music: The snakehead is here! A snakehead fish was found in Queens. Oh, yes, at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park's Meadow Lake, biologists found a couple of the "voracious" snakeheads there. Gothamist remembers when we would read these wild Washington Post articles in 2002 that would get more and more hysterical as more and more snakeheads seems to be spotted. Snakeheads apparently eat everything in its environment, thusly taking over a lake and depleting......

News that Queens Borough President Helen Marshall is putting her discretionary account towards repairing the Unisphere (regularly working fountains!) reminds Gothamist of another classic, and often forgotten, New York trip: The Queens Museum of Art and the Panorama of the City of New York located within it. The QMA in Flushing Meadows Park is located within the New York City Building from the 1964 World's Fair. The Museum regularly shows works by local Queens......