Despite a forecast earlier this year that City pension funds would break even this year, it now appears that the funds will post large losses for the year. Three quarters of the way through the current fiscal year, city funds have lost almost $5 billion. Taxpayers are the ones who likely be called upon to make the funds whole and meet worker benefit commitments. Of the billions that will have to be repaid, the first......

Last night’s Coney Island Public Scoping Meeting was the place to be, as activists like political performance artist Reverend Billy turned the meeting into a carnival, leaping up on a chair with repeated cries of “Coney-lujah!” Musician Amos Wengler stood up to croon his anthem “Save Coney Island,” and Savitri D., the Mermaid Parade queen who had been on a hunger strike since Saturday to spotlight the meeting, passionately derided the city’s latest proposal for......

A former city employee could face seven years in jail and a lifetime of ghoulish haunting if convicted of stealing $3,300 from a dead person’s safety deposit box. Arthur Orikher pulled the scam while working as an accountant for a Kings County office that administers the estates of those who die without a will or families. Assuming it’s the same Arthur Orikher who owns this gorgeous Siberian cat, can you really blame him for wanting......

Yesterday, the Post ran a cover story suggesting that Governor Paterson bitterly criticized Mayor Bloomberg. Not to Bloomberg's face or anything, but a source provided the Post's Albany bureau chief Fred Dicker with alleged Paterson quotes like "He has the same kind of anger that reminds you of Spitzer" and "It's obvious that Bloomberg has little use for the kind of people who come from Queens and Staten Island." But in an afternoon press......

As local franchises start complying with the city’s new calorie law – which requires establishments with over 15 locations nationwide to prominently display caloric info – there are bound to be some bumps in the road. But this snafu is hard to top: Blog about town “Cellar Door” spotted an interesting discrepancy at two different Dunkin' Donuts purveyors located next to each other inside Penn Station....

A maximum $100 fine doesn't seem to be stemming the rising tide of self-absorbed assholes who drive cars while blathering on their cell phones. Though a state law prohibits the use of a hand-held mobile phone while operating a motor vehicle, the number of violations has jumped fivefold in New York City since 2002, according to amNY. Last year almost 200,000 violations were reported....

A nosy Post reporter may have cost Coney Island “Mayor” Dick Zugin his free apartment in a building he purchased with a 3.6 million grant from the city. Zigun runs his Coney Island USA sideshow and museum out of the Surf Avenue building, which the city helped his group buy last year. But when confronted with documents that report the address as his residence, Zigun admitted that he’s also been illegally living there, albeit humbly......

Don’t get too comfortable homeowners – the city’s foreclosure rate is skyrocketing, up a startling 66% in the first quarter of 2008 compared to last year, according to Crain’s and the housing research site Property Shark. Queens saw more foreclosures than the four other boroughs combined, with 508 in the first quarter, up 59% from the same period in 2007. The Queens neighborhoods of Jamaica, Hollis and St. Albans reported the biggest foreclosure increases,......

When we took note of the Health Department’s crackdown on chain restaurants that refuse to display their calorie information, some commenters wondered how movie theaters would be affected. Since the rule applies to any New York City food server with at least 15 locations nationwide, are chains like Regal Cinemas now required to confront moviegoers with the bad news about their concession products (which are, technically, food)? The Life Vicarious did a little digging......

Courtesy NY Post. The city’s Health Department has been schooling restaurants on the new law that requires any eatery with over 15 locations nationwide to display calorie information on all food and beverages. After numerous lawsuits from the New York State Restaurant Association, a judge ruled that the city could impose the new law, and it went into affect May 5th. But many restaurateurs are ignoring the directive, and the Health Department has been citing......

Sunset photo courtesy mrgeneko. Manhattanhenge, the visually stunning phenomenon that occurs twice a year when the sun sets in perfect alignment with Manhattan’s street grid, is happening tonight. It’s just too bad that Vice President Dick Cheney has arranged to be in town at the exact moment of the sunset, to speak at the New York Republican State Committee Dinner and simultaneously smother the golden light under his all-encompassing shroud of darkness. Of course......

New York City bus riders could soon be commuting just like the tourists if the MTA follows through on their tall talk about bringing double-decker buses back into circulation. The Post reports that NYC Transit President Howard Roberts floated the idea before the MTA board yesterday; the double-deckers are appealing because they fit more passengers and, according to transit officials, actually cost less to maintain. And if the dream becomes reality, the city won’t have......

Above Wonder Wheel photo courtesy NYCviaRachel As part of a plan to turn over 9 privately-owned acres of Coney Island amusements to the Parks Department, the Bloomberg administration is trying to wrest control of the landmark Wonder Wheel from the family that has owned and operated it since before Coney Island’s comeback. According to amNY, it was in 1948 that Coney Island hot dog vendor Denos Vourderis promised his girlfriend that if she married......

On behalf of the Village Voice, critic Robert Sietsema dines at chef Anita Lo’s newish Bar Q and deems the tuna-rib appetizer “mouth-worthy.” But then things go wrong, and Anita’s mom gets caught in the crossfire: “An appetizer of baby back ribs ($11) with ‘my mother's BBQ sauce’ tastes like it's been dumped out of a white carton from the local Chinese carry-out… The spicy pork wings remain flightless because they're heavily coated with cloying......

After years of hemorrhaging film production business to cheaper locations like Canada, New York City is seeing a spike in movie shoots, back up to the pre-9/11 level. Bloomberg reports that the city saw a 36% rise in production last year, with over 245 movies and television shows shot citywide in 2007. A consulting group hired by the mayor’s office determined that the industry pumps $5 billion a year into the economy and employs some......

It's a common observation, but are New Yorkers really more rude than residents of other cities? In Smithsonian magazine, New Yorker dance critic Joan Acocella thinks we’re just misunderstood. After years of life in the city, she’s made a thorough argument that what outsiders perceive as rudeness is just a side-effect of life in New York, where the boundaries between public and private life are less pronounced. New Yorkers spend more time up in each......

Brooklyn Bridge circa 1896. The 125th birthday of the Brooklyn Bridge will be observed this month with a five day celebration from May 22nd through May 26th, Mayor Bloomberg and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz announced earlier this week. Completed in 1883, the bridge opened with a “People’s Day” celebration; for a penny toll the general public was permitted to traverse its span. (A few days later, on Memorial Day, 12 pedestrians were trampled to......

Last month the city announced that the space dedicated to amusements in the latest Coney Island rezoning plan would be cut from 15 acres to 9 acres. City officials explained that the downsizing was necessary to accommodate “local landowners” – the biggest of those is developer Joe Sitt, whose glitzy plans were previously derailed by the city for the express purpose of devoting larger space for the amusement park. Now Sitt’s Thor Equities stands to......

The Gray Lady slums it out to far East Williamsburg to report on the hipster bohemian squalor of the sprawling McKibbin Street “dorms;” two hulking buildings converted from garment factories to lofts in the late nineties by a trio of savvy Stuyvesant alums. It’s since become a filthy, bed-bug ravaged rite of passage for the young DIY arts set, who pile on top of each other in warren-like lofts more crowded than one of Dan......

As if offering a final coda (or is it?) to the suspenseful Momofuku Ko reservation saga, the Times’s Frank Bruni has officially opined on the breathlessly hyped, 12-seat restaurant from rock star chef David Chang. Bruni extols it with three stars, calling it “noteworthy beyond its addling all-computer reservation system and the intense, revelatory pleasures of its partly Asian, partly French, wholly inventive food… Ko in its early months serves a few dishes that merely......

Photo of weekend subway service chances courtesy Triborough. An international survey of metropolitan residents around the world has found that less than 10% of New Yorkers are happy with the city’s services – a far lower number than in cities abroad like Singapore, where 61% insist they’re satisfied. Also more satisfied is Madrid, with a 37% thumbs up rate, while 29% approve of Paris services and 22% of Londoners are satisfied. But does this......

New York City’s last remaining wooden water tower builders are like the "Hatfields and the McCoys – and we’re the real McCoy," according to Andy Rosenwach, owner of the Rosenwach Tank Company. In that analogy, his rival would be Isseks Brothers, founded in 1890. The Rosenwach company officially formed in 1896, when Andy’s ancestor Harris Rosenwach, a Polish immigrant, bought the business from the widow of his deceased boss, barrel maker William Dalton. Indoor......

Map via The NY Times Because of rising rents and lowering profit margins, supermarkets city-wide have been disappearing, according to a recent study. New York's boroughs have been especially hard hit, forcing low-income residents like Fort Greene's Della Dorsett to power her electric wheelchair several blocks uphill along Myrtle Avenue, "returning home with plastic bags dangling from handles and nestled between her feet." Something to think about next time the lines jam up at......

The four city officials who are assigned a security detail no longer have to pay the expenses on their taxpayer-funded official cars and drivers when they use them for personal excursions, according to a ruling by the Conflicts of Interest Board. The lucky protected ones are Mayor Bloomberg, Comptroller William Thompson, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. In 2006, former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi resigned after admitting he assigned a government......

Mayor Bloomberg presented a $59.1 billion budget for the 2009 fiscal year, with spending essentially remaining flat (the increase is just 0.1%). While he said the faltering economy means we should all "pray Wall Street does well" given the "scary" reality, Bloomberg did say the city could afford a property tax rebate and property tax rate cut. The new budget would, as the NY Times puts it, "virtually halt the growth in city spending for......

If you think a 66-year-old billionaire gets nervous about posing in trees for Time magazine's 100 influential people issue, think again! The Post reports Mayor Bloomberg "happily" posed in a tree outside City Hall (he didn't climb - he got a ride from a cherry picker) and no "dive-bombing birds" were present. Naturally, there was a security guard was at the base of the tree. The only thing that's missing is a cute City Hall......

In a lawsuit that’s had more back and forth than John Goodman at an all-you-can-eat Marriott breakfast buffet, a federal appeals court has ruled that, yes, city restaurants with 15 or more establishments nationwide must start displaying calorie information for all foods and beverages. In the meantime, the city has agreed not to issue any fines for non-compliance until July 18th, by which time judges are expected to rule on the National Restaurant Association’s appeal.......

In response to complaints about out-of-scale development, the Department of City Planning is proposing a zoning amendment to six streets in Carroll Gardens. This would classify certain streets in Carroll Gardens as narrow streets for zoning purposes and “limit the size and configuration of new buildings and enlargements to more closely match the area's prevailing character.” Many of the 19th century homes have coveted deep front yards, thanks to the Brooklyn Law of 1846 that......

Spring is upon us and, with NYC bike month starting Thursday, the surge in bicycle commuting is expected to continue apace. But an increase in bikes also means more bike thievery – as one trusting bike owner found out last week when he let a stranger “try out” his ride. And just because your bike is locked doesn’t mean it’s safe. In 2006, this video surfaced showing how little passersby seem to care when someone......

The total annual cost (including room and board) of NYU has gone up 65% in the past decade and next year it will reach an all-time high of $50,182 – a 5.9% increase from last year. The Washington Square News notes that the university is cash poor, drawing 60 percent of its resources from tuition. In an attempt to soften the blow, NYU plans to increase need-based aid to "more than $150 million" total. This......