The 144,160 parking placards registered in the city inventory have been reduced by over 25,000, Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler announced yesterday. The cutbacks are targeted at what many frustrated drivers see as an abuse of a system that lets police, teachers and civil servants park for free at meters and many off-limits areas. Initial cuts have focused on the 80,770 placards issued to 68 city agencies, exempting the 63,390 placards used by the Education Department.......

Back in 1933 Popular Science reported on New York engineer Walter H. Judson's new railway which would have trains running from San Francisco to New York in 18 hours, and Chicago to New York in 5.5 hours. Now it's the buses battling it out to have the quickest times and cheapest fares to and from New York. Earlier this month BoltBus announced fares from NYC to DC and Boston starting at as low as $1.......

Turns out the number parking placards sloshing around New York is over 142,000, twice the number guesstimated by Mayor Bloomberg’s office when he announced a 20% cutback on the placards, which allow police, teachers and civil servants to park for free at meters and many off-limits areas. The new total does not take into consideration the number of counterfeit and expired placards, and the city is still not done counting, so this preliminary total is......

A 29-year-old leaving his overnight shift with coworkers was fatally shot on East 39th Street yesterday morning. The incident occurred at 7:40AM, outside the Williams Club (per investigators, 1010WINS reports "the violence had nothing to do" with the 100-year-old club). Charles Ross, a Brooklyn resident, had just left the Darcel Group, a legal document company where he worked as a printer, and was heading to the subway. His friends say a man who walked up......

Photo credit: sniderscion Torontoist spent its week uncovering who was behind mysterious ads for a drug called "Obay" that popped up across the country (Scientology? Frank Shepard Fairey?), first tracing them to an advocacy group called Colleges Ontario and then confirming their suspicions a few days later.Phillyist learned how to put on a puppet show – it's not as easy as you might think!Shanghaiist discovers that the average starting monthly pay for fresh graduates......

Photograph of one of the wooden platform rubbing boards boards at the Kings Highway subway station by Triborough on Flickr In the wake of a 14-year-old's fall into subway tracks after the platform edge crumbled, giving way, concerns are being raised over dangerous platforms at other stations. amNew York listed nine in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan: Brooklyn, Q line: - Avenue J: boards are separated from the platform and warped. - Avenue M:......

We noticed two YouTube videos, taken from an apartment with a view of Dean Street, documenting some late night construction activity at the Atlantic Yards site in downtown Brooklyn. How late? Well, one video takes place at 11:42PM (video) while the other is in the 4AM hour (above!). For reference, according to 311, construction hours are generally 7AM to 6PM on weekdays (there may be emergency work in the middle of the night, but......

Demonstrating just how valuable free parking in New York City is, a rash of smash and grab thefts has struck areas in Washington Heights and the Bronx, where firefighters have had their car windows broken and parking placards stolen. Most of the thefts have occurred right outside of firehouses, usually when members are called out to a fire, according to the New York Post. The recent increase in placard jacking began shortly after Mayor Bloomberg......

Late Wednesday night, an 82-year-old woman crossing Delancey Street at Allen was fatally hit by an SUV driver. The driver, who was traveling west on Delancey, stayed on the scene was not charged with a crime. The Daily News says the woman, Josephine LaPlaca, was known as the "Queen of Delancey Street," because, as one person put it, "She knew everybody and everything about the neighborhood. It's going to be weird without her." Relatives said......

Oh, MTA - you and your outlandish idea of putting a glorious glass dome at the renovated Fulton Street Transit Center! The proposed design, unveiled in 2004, seemed an inspiring idea for the agency. But, after years of attempts to start construction, costs have risen to $1.15 billion, from the initially estimated $750 million, causing MTA executive director Eliot Sander to say, "I am sad to say that we cannot build the transit center......

Photograph of a Smart Car perpendicularly parked from Jalopnik We've been following the progress of the Smart Car's U.S. introduction for a while and last month it was reported that they would be making their way to NYC this month. Jalopnik took a ride in the first Smart Car and has photographs of the 8.8' by 5.1' car in some super scenic NYC spots. Jalopnik's Wes Siler wrote, "Congested urban streets and crowded highways......

New York City officials are planning for a Dunkirk-like evacuation of Manhattan island in the case of an emergency. In the early days of World War II, a "bathtub navy" was assembled between Dunkirk, France and Dover, England, in order to move hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the Continent to safer ground as the Nazis advanced across France. Hundreds of small craft were sent across the English Channel to ferry stranded and cornered British......

After talk of flight caps to help ease airport congestion that leave many travelers very irritable, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced another policy to help ease airport woes. The DOT will let airports charge airlines based on the time of day and volume of traffic their planes are landing in. Previously, aircraft was only charged based on plane weight. The hope, per the USDOT, is that "airports would be able to spread traffic more......

For just 25 cents, you finally can experience the steel-and-glass splendor of the city's first new public toilet. City officials gathered in Madison Square Park for the ceremonial first flush of the Automatic Public Toilet (APT). Almost a year after the location was announced and almost 2 years after the toilets were first previewed, Department of Transportation Commissioner Jeannette Sadik-Khan said she was "flushed with excitement in this new era...New Yorkers had their fingers......

The American Institute of Architects is looking to supplant the idea of replacing the Gowanus Expressway with a tunnel, and instead proposes a suspended highway and formation of a Gowanus Greenway. In 2006, the Dept. of Transportation gave a green light to a $12.8 billion proposal to build a 3.5 mile, seven lane tunnel underneath the Brooklyn Waterfront and then destroying the elevated highway. The plan for a Gowanus Tunnel appears to be in perpetual......

Eugenio Cidron, the man who killed bicyclist Eric Ng in 2006 after driving drunk down the West Side bike path instead of the West Side Highway following a holiday party at Chelsea Piers, was sentenced yesterday to three to 10 years in prison. Cidron had driven over a plastic pylon to enter the path from Chelsea Piers and had been driving south for a mile before hitting Ng, who was traveling north. Cidron, who pleaded......

Mayor Bloomberg has announced that the city will crackdown on the abuse of parking permits issued to civil servants, reducing the overall number by 20%. The change comes after the Post revealed in November that “149 separate government entities had qualified for the coveted placards last year, ranging from the state lottery to the US Navy recruiting office, which was allocated an astonishing 110 permits.” In fact, so many agencies produce and distribute the parking......

NYPD Transportation Chief Michael Scagnelli likes to bring a little nature into his city office, in the form of big stuffed game he's hunted around the world. The Daily News reports on his collection of animal trophies, and police commissioner Raymond Kelly's order to remove them from headquarters."Going to his office was like going to the Museum of Natural History. And it wasn't just his private office, it was in the outer office, too, where......

From rats ruling a West Village KFC/Taco Bell to Governor Spitzer's downward spiral, from a shock jock's questionable words to an up-and-down year for the MTA (and its riders), we bring up the biggest stories of 2007. Midtown Steam Pipe Explosion On a July afternoon, an 83-year-old steam pipe near Grand Central Station exploded, ripping apart the street. Debris, including asbestos, filled the air and covered people as they ran from the scene. One woman......

Like the GWB and the Holland Tunnel, the Brooklyn Bridge will have LED lights installed next year, but how exactly do the bulbs get replaced? The NY Times says it only takes one man to screw in these bulbs. Okay, maybe he has some help. Ben Cipriano, the leader of a crew of electricians who maintain the four major East River Bridges for the city’s Department of Transportation, and his colleagues make about a dozen......

Not only will Governors Island be getting a makeover, it will also get the city's first bike sharing program. amNew York reported that Dutch firm West 8, hired to handle the Governors Island makeover, "will also build 3,000 wooden bicycles for free use by visitors to the island." The island is expected by be renovated by 2012, and the hope is that the bike sharing test will inspire the city to expand the program.......

Two sisters were hit by an SUV that "barreled down Richards Street" in Brooklyn yesterday evening. The girls had been grocery shopping with their mother, who had been pushing the grocery cart and was not hurt. The family was apparently steps away from their building door. The SUV, driven by a 48-year-old man, jumped the curb, hit the girls, then, per the Daily News, "continued on for some 200 feet, striking two parked cars" and......

Come next year, when you're flying in and out of JFK, your flight may be slightly less delayed than it's been in the past. U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced a plan today to reduce the number of hourly flights at JFK International Airport to 82 or 83 flights, depending on the time of day. That would be down from 95 this past summer and what would have been 104 an hour next summer. Secretary......

The Independent Budget Office released a report examining who might be affected by congestion pricing. The report, "Behind the Wheel: Who Drives Into The Proposed 'Congestion Zone'" can be read here (PDF) but the topline is that drivers are middle-class and over half are from Nassau County, Westchester, NJ, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. The report states, "Looking at the extremes of the earnings distribution for all congestion zone commuters, motor vehicle users were less likely......

Mayor Bloomberg, our very own billionaire mayor, is asking state lawmakers to keep the sales tax at 8.375%. Apparently the sales tax, per "Rules dating back to the city's fiscal crisis of the 1970s" (thanks for the history lesson, NY Sun!), would have dropped 1 percentage point to 7.375% on July 1, 2008, but Bloomberg wants to keep it at its current level. That extra 1 percent tax means about $1 billion in revenue for......

Just the kind of thing needed for everyone to continue questioning in the current air traffic control situation at area airports. Two planes almost collided on Sunday at JFK Airport. Senator Charles Schumer said that an air traffic controller said, "That was the closest I have ever seen two airplanes get together." According to the NY Times (also, see image at right), a "37-seat commuter jet" almost collided with a "Boeing 747 cargo jet on......

Drivers from four different companies that operate vehicles for disabled and ill passengers have gone on strike. The 1,500 drivers want a new contract with the bus companies. The union has rejected a settlement with some wage increase and a slight increase in medical benefits twice. And not all drivers wanted to walk off the job - one driver told WCBS 2, "To have use go out on strike right now during the Christmas holiday......

Riders were stranded on the platform and in subway cars when a Brooklyn-bound L train stalled under the East River just after 8PM. Reader tokyohanna, who took this photograph of people waiting, wrote at the time, "There is a train stalled between first and Bedford. They stopped trains in both directions. A sea of people is on the platform and we can barely walk." amNew York reports that the train had a mechanical failure close......

Another reassuring tale of airport security. At JFK Airport yesterday, an airport security screener was able to board a plane - without a ticket. Apparently the man wanted to go the United Arab Emirates to see off his parents, so somehow he managed to board an Etihad Airways flights without a ticket or boarding pass. And, according to the AP, "when the plane's doors shut, [he] told a flight attendant what he had done." We......

A 65-year-old man was killed during his bicycle ride to work when he was struck by an open car door in the bike lane at 6th Avenue and 36th Street. David Smith was then pushed off his bike and into the path of a box truck, which hit him. Smith lived on West 9th Street and worked as an engineer at Town Hall in midtown. His partner of 36 years John Moody said that he......