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.......

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......

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......

Five different car crashes in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens have left five people dead yesterday. At Atlantic Avenue and Buffalo Street, a Honda Accord carrying four people hit a subway station pillar (pictured; via the Post) after midnight. Two of the passengers, a 25-year-old Naquana Kilpatrick and 17-year-old Gilberto Howard, died while the 19-year-old driver and another passenger were injured. Another car crash in Brooklyn claimed two lives: A car hit an unoccupied box truck......

EVENT: The Greenwich Village Antiquarian Book Sale is going on all weekend, so now is the time to go searching for that first edition you've been wanting on your bookshelf. You'll also find out of print books, maps and much more! Friday through Sunday // P.S. 3 [490 Hudson St] // Three-day pass $12 ART: Monday's interviewee, James Top, shows off his work tonight at the opening of his first solo NYC show, titled......

A judge has finally ruled on a long-simmering dispute between a restaurant and its deliverymen. Last March deliverymen at the popular Vietnamese restaurant Saigon Grill, which has locations in Greenwich Village and on the Upper West Side, demanded a raise from owners Simon and Michelle Nget. The deliverymen reasoned that since the chain was pulling in more than $2 million a month, they ought to earn more than $120 for a 75-hour week. They were......

The new NYC Condom campaign carries a secret Canadian tourism message: One of the ads features Toronto's Flatiron Building. Darn those confusing stock image searches using "Flatiron Building"! Toronto’s Gooderham Building (photo at right) makes an appearance in the ad entitled “The Village” (image below, highlighted on the right). This landmark Toronto building, often called the “Flatiron Building” by those in the Greater Toronto Area, predates Manhattan’s (properly known as the Fuller Building) by ten......

Photograph by Jake Dobkin Later today, the city will discuss whether the I.M. Pei-designed Silver Towers should be landmarked. The Observer reported that NYU announced its support today, a reversal from an earlier position over three years ago. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation pushed for landmarking the complex, located between Bleecker and Houston Streets and LaGuardia Place and Mercer Street, a few years ago, calling it "an innovative modern design by I.M.......

Today Lego celebrates the big 5-0, even getting some Google-love for hitting the half century mark. New York has long been recreated in Lego-form, our favorite was at an exhibit housed in the Storefront for Art and Architecture late last year. Do you have a favorite Brick Apple? We love Sean Kenney's Greenwich Village (pictured) and Nathan Sawaya's Brooklyn Bridge. In a related story, this past Saturday was the city's first Lego League Citywide Championship,......

Even after only being open since October, Dell'Anima, the brainchild of some Babbo and Del Posto alums, is already tough to get into. Sure, it's partially because it's a small space, with seating for just over forty, but it's also due to the cozy, warm and inviting atmosphere, friendly and knowledgeable staff, and for the delicious rustic Italian fare. Grab yourself one of the six seats in the open kitchen and watch Chef Gabriel Thompson......

Photograph of an injured worker being unloaded from the construction bucket from reader Nick Sonderup There are reports that a crane lost its load of concrete beams at Spring and 6th Avenue. The beams hit the building and sidewalk scaffolding and people are trapped. One fatality is being reported. Photograph of workers on the sidewalk pointing by from stconrad on Flickr The reports indicate the accident occurred at a building under contraction at 246......

New Yorkers have been known to live in some pretty dismal conditions just to avoid the hassle of finding another apartment. Roaches, rats, mice, bedbugs, loud neighbors with thin walls, odd smelling hallways...but where does one draw the line? The Post has a story about a brother and sister who ran screaming from their new Greenwich Village digs after finding out it was above a clinic for sexual deviants.William and Amy Grace claim landlord Dr.......

Cats in delis: they are ubiquitous, loved, objected to, necessary, and illegal. City inspectors are constantly on the prowl to ferret out deli felines, but deli owners say they are necessary fixtures to keep their businesses free of pests like mice, rats, and roaches. The New York Times has a story today on the ongoing battle between the city and the cats that are the sentinels of its delis--feline samurai who serve their masters in......

After years of protesting renovations to it -- this evening community members will be grieving Washington Square Park, and protesting those with its blood on their hands: the Parks Commissioner, Mayor Bloomberg, and City Council Members. Yesterday we received this letter, sent out by the Open Washington Square Park Coalition.It is with frustration and remorse that I write to inform you of a memorial service for the spirit of Washington Square Park. I join with......

A Brookings Institution study reveals that New York is a great place for walking, with 21 out of 21 walkable urban places. But Washington D.C. is the most walkable on a per capita basis while New York is ranked 10th, because New York is measured as the NYC metro area, including NJ, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. The study's author, Christopher B. Leinberger, admits there are issues with the methodology, namely that walkable places are weighted the......

Anthony Bourdain has repeatedly professed his undying affection for Fergus Henderson’s roasted marrow bones with parsley salad, and even considers the British chef to be his “favorite food person.” For eaters who willingly choose seared squab hearts over heart-healthy turkey burgers, Henderson’s offal-heavy cookbook The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating is considered a classic. It contains recipes such as Blood Cake with Fried Eggs, Tripe Gratin, and Crispy Pig’s Tail. Stuff like that. This......

Residents of the West Village are calling for the removal of Community Board 2 Chairperson Brad Hoylman and CB2 District Manager Bob Gormley because of two little letters: S and M. The two approved the permit for the S&M; Street Festival, which is set to take place this Sunday on Weehawken Street. Parents in the area are voicing concern and flyering around Greenwich Village public schools P.S. 3 and P.S. 41 and at Bleeker Playground.......

A huge crowd fathering in Washington Square Park last night to hear Senator Barack Obama speak. He mentioned that he "used to hang out in Washington Square Park" and that he knew "a little something about Greenwich Village." His speech touched upon issues like making college more affordable and how his relative lack of experience didn't matter, "Longevity does not guarantee good judgment. A long resume says nothing about your character.” And there was love:......

The engines fueling Jane Jacobs' legacy are at full throttle, with the Municipal Art Society's new exhibition, titled "Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York." The show, opening this week at the Urban Center Galleries, delves into how today's (and tomorrow's) city fits into Jacobs' ideas and also examines how the public can draw on her values, given the major developments and rezoning now in progress. In case you've been sleeping for the past......

Donald Trump held a press conference to welcome his yooge Soho condo-hotel hybrid this afternoon, and it was a Trump family affair: Donald, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric were all involved in pointing out various aspects of the project. Trump said, "I want to thank all the protesters outside for making this project so successful." Well, even though the city approved the building, the protesters aren't stopping any time soon. Not only did they......

THEATER: We like our comedy like we like our women: black and absurd. So it’s promising that the press release for a new play by Kevin Mandel uses those two irresistible words to describe A New Television Arrives, Finally. The strange story concerns “an American couple visited by a charismatic man presenting himself as a television set. Is the handsome stranger a charlatan or a guru?” Emmy award-winning actor Tom Pelphrey [Guiding Light] leads the......

New York Foundling, an agency that cares for and placed abandoned children, was founded in 1869 in Greenwich Village, and on its first night, a baby was left on its doorstep. Now, it's organizing its vast collection of materials, from letters written by desperate mothers to admissions registers, for its 140th anniversary and an archival center. The NY Times details some of the history and efforts, as well as New York Foundling's role in the......

amNewYork has a report from Hong Kong's Prestige magazine where actress Heather Graham discusses her "pet project," a labor of love for the past ten years that she's securing financing for. Graham said that money will be locked down in "one or two months" and will go towards her movie about the 1911 New York City fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory that killed 146 women. She will also star as one of the factory......

Grace Paley, New York's official state author from 1986-88, died at the age of 84 yesterday. She had been battling breast cancer for quite some time. The author, born in the Bronx on December 11th, 1922, still kept an apartment in Manhattan -- but was at her home in Vermont at the time of death. The NY Times recaps her life in literature:Ms. Paley’s output was modest, about four-dozen stories in three volumes: “The Little......

When William Gottlieb died in 1999, he left behind an estate worth hundreds of millions (if not near a billion) that included over a hundred buildings, many in Greenwich Village and the Meatpacking district. His sister Mollie Bender was the sole beneficiary of his will, and with her recent death, her daughter is now fighting with her brother for control of the estate. Cheryl Dier and her son Michael Corbett argue that many of......

Stellastarr* are somewhat of a staple in the New York music scene. The Brooklynites are about to record their third full-length release this fall -- having steadily put out impressive tunes ever since Mischa Barton declared one of their first, My Coco, a favorite. One new track, The People, can be listened to here. This Thursday they'll be playing new and old tunes at the Highline Ballroom for a special event called The Kor Project.......

BarFry: Sumile's Josh DeChellis is bringing New York our first ever tempura bar. Not only will he be perfectly battering and frying fresh veggies, seafood, and meat and serving them up with his signature dipping sauces (wasabi remoulade and pickled jalapeno soy, to name a few), but he'll be offering made-to-order tempura Po Boys. Wash everything down with Gaijin Pale Ale from Oregon's Rogue Brewery, made especially for BarFry. And -- they deliver in the......

Yesterday, a police officer testified that her police captain boyfriend viciously beat her. Sharon Gandarilla, who was married to another man at the time of the affair, had filed a sexual-harassment suit earlier this month, alleging that 17-year NYPD veteran Alberto Sanchez had assaulted her multiple times during they three-year affair. She also claimed that Sanchez forced her to have sex at their East Harlem precinct house and at the Police Academy, where he was......

Flatiron Joe's: In the former home of the short-lived Lonesome Dove Western Bistro, Jay Shaffer, who owns Shaffer City Oyster Bar and Grill down the block, has created a casual spot where, for the time being, he's serving up bar snacks like sliders and nachos. He plans on serving lunch and dinner starting in October. 29 West 21st Street, (212) 414-3139. 8th Street Wine Cellar: This long awaited cozy wine bar is a welcome addition......

You may know Peter Yarrow best by his first name. He was part of the '60s folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary. The group launched their career at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village in 1961 and went strong for nine years. Tonight Peter Yarrow is at Barnes & Noble (Lincoln Center) at 6pm for a performance as well as to sign copies of Puff, the Magic Dragon - which he's turned into a children's......