At a hearing about how the MTA could address its budget problems, some old and new ideas were tossed around. One notable suggestion, from former city transportation commissioner Luicius Riccio, was, per the NY Sun, "that the city should consider selling the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges for $1 to the MTA, which could then charge tolls on commuters and use the revenue to finance mass transit improvements." Theodore Kheel, of Nurture New York's Nature (and......

Well, that didn't take long. Just hours after the grand reopening of the Manhattan Bridge archway, a "non-vehicular" zone, someone has found a pretty sweet parking spot. Tip: Just move the planter guarding either entrance! UPDATE: Kate Kerrigan of the Dumbo Improvement District assures us the vehicle that was parked in the pedestrian-only archway was simply making a "supervised delivery."......

The Manhattan Bridge Archway in DUMBO has reopened today, giving the neighborhood more public space. The DUMBO Improvement District, who is helping to secure funding for the $500K project, noted that the historic, 46-foot-wide archway below the Manhattan Bridge will be "for public, non-vehicular use, granting access to a spacious but long-inaccessible public space and connecting two parts of DUMBO that had been separated for 17 years." When the bridge opened nearly 100 years ago,......

After a dump truck crashed into a Fung Wah bus in Chinatown and killed a pedestrian, it was discovered the truck was unsafe, with a number of brake problems. Now, the president of the truck firm was charged with "unlicensed collection of trade waste," according to the NY Times....

More unfortunate details about the dump truck that crashed into a parked Fung Wah bus, killing one person and injuring others: It turns out the truck was unsafe, per the Times, "three brake hoses that were severely deteriorated...inoperable brake lamps, a loose brake air reservoir, a loose brake chamber and a defective brake warning device." Great to know these vehicles are on the road.......

Yesterday morning, a dump truck speeding off the Manhattan Bridge onto Canal Street lost control and hit a Fung Wah bus waiting to pick up passengers. The bus then jumped the curb and crashed into a building. One woman died and four others were injured, and here are some new details:...

Photograph of fog rolling over the East River by Stelmaria on Flickr It's simply a lovely photograph of fog meeting the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. And today looks like it'll be beautiful.......

As of 8 this morning the starting points for this year's Idiotarod had already been changed twice. As with every year, the effort to dodge police and the scramble to find the most updated starting line is still underway, but the carts should be off soon...and we'll keep you updated. In the meantime, check out Team Danger Zone's ride! Photo via lobster rocket's flickr. 12:35pm - Where are the carts? We just received this message:......

It's official. Today the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate DUMBO a historic district, pending City Council approval. The area, composed of 91 industrial buildings dated mostly from 1880 to 1920, is bound by John Street to the north, York Street to the south, Main Street to the west and Bridge Street to the east. It is the city's 90th historic district. The district contains the Manhattan Bridge, and its support piers and anchorage......

Last year WNBC got up close and personal with the Civic Fame statue atop the Municipal Building, and this week The NY Times looks at the woman who modeled for that statue, and many others -- Audrey Munson, "a long-forgotten New York celebrity whose face and figure continue to grace the contours of statues all around Manhattan."It was Ms. Munson’s eyes that stared stoically from the marble forms of the Firemen’s Memorial on Riverside Drive,......

Back in June, we looked at a fascinating article from Scientific American titled "An Earth Without People." The article was based on the premises of a book by Alan Weisman called "The World Without Us." Both focus on what would happen to the earth if humans vanished from the planet immediately. The SA article even has some cool animation of what would happen to NYC here. This obviously inspired other artistic renderings of what......

A New York state legislator stood at the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge yesterday and blamed confusing signage and roadways for the death of Sam Hindy, who was killed last week. Hindy was killed when he struck a barrier and plunged to the lower roadway of the Manhattan Bridge and struck by a car. The 27-year-old was riding from Manhattan to Brooklyn with a friend, Benjamin Price last Friday evening when they found themselves on......

The bicyclist who died while riding on the Manhattan Bridge Friday night was identified as 27-year-old Brooklyn resident Sam Hindy. Hindy's father Stephen, a former Middle East correspondent for the AP and Newsday reporter who later co-founded the Brooklyn Brewery, said, "We're just devastated. This is the worst thing that could happen to any parent. It's any parent's worst nightmare." Sam Hindy and a friend were riding back from Manhattan to Brooklyn on the upper......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a scaffolding collapse on 127th St. and Morningside Ave. in Manhattan, a stabbing at East 96th St. and Rutland Ave. in Brooklyn, and a shooting on Guy R. Blvd. in Queens. That huge fire visible across the Hudson last night was a blaze that consumed a sailboat docked in Weehawken, NJ. A cyclist was hit by several different cars while on the Manhattan Bridge this week. Rev. Al Sharpton......

Yesterday morning, two Bangladeshi brothers jumped off a freighter ship that was leaving the Port of Newark, "somewhere between the Kill van Kull and Verrazano-Narrows Bridge." One brother was found, while the other is still missing. Authorities say that 27-year-old Mohammed Nayem Uddin was found by fishermen on Hoffman Island, "shivering and covered in garbage bags." The Staten Island Advance reports he was taken to the hospital for hypothermia-like conditions. Uddin did not cooperate with......

In August Judith Supine added some flare to the Manhattan Bridge by hanging a 50-foot piece of art off of it. As a follow-up he brings another work to go "bathing" in the East River with him... That's probably less safe than swimming with the sharks.......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a large fight on Fordham Rd. and Jerome Ave. in the Bronx, police activity in the employee parking lot at JFK Airport in Queens, and a pedestrian was struck on East 57th St. and Madison Ave. in Manhattan. Donald Trump owns almost 20% of Brooklyn's Starrett City that his dad bought for him when he graduated from business school. He now advises lower-income residents of the development that "This......

Our sources on the Manhattan Bridge report that at 11:40am, Judith Supine dropped a massive 50' piece over the side facing south. This might be the biggest development in NYC bridge graffiti since Sane/Smith tagged the outside of the Brooklyn Bridge in the late-1980s! The best place to view the piece is from Empire State Park in DUMBO. Anyone care to wager how long this will stay up?......

Through September 4th, Eugene de Salignac's photographs will be shown at the New York Rises exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. What separates this photographer from others who have taken famous shots of this city throughout the ages, is that de Salignac served as photographer for the New York City Department of Bridges/Plant and Structures. He did this for the first three decades of the 20th century (1903 to 1934) and......

What does the future of the Fulton Street Mall look like? If the Bloomberg administration and Downtown Brooklyn Partnership have their way, it'll look less gritty and more like Herald Square and Bryant Park in Manhattan. The Post has details on the city's $18 million investment to re-make the Fulton Street and Albee Square mall areas nicer. The Fulton Street mall will get the new bus shelters and benches, with more "lighting and trees," while......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an overturned auto on Christopher and New Lots Aves. in Brooklyn, a scaffold collapse on East 166th St. and Sherman Ave. in the Bronx, and a fire with evacuated animals on Greenpoint Ave. and 46th St. in Queens. If you're the head of a major corporation that wants to make a mark on the New York skyline by occupying space in a tower that comes with all the cachet......

The Willis Avenue Bridge cost the city $1.6 million when it was constructed in 1901. More than a hundred years later, its planned replacement should cost an additional $635.4 million to build. The low-profile bridge crosses the Harlem River and connects the Bronx to Manhattan's First Avenue. The Transportation Department estimated the cost of its replacement at $417 million and was surprised when it received bids of $612 million and $637 million. At 3,212 feet,......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: truck vs. building near the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn, stabbing at Coney Island Hospital, and a missing child in LES. Ronnell Wilson, the Staten Island man who killed two undercover cops, was formally sentenced to death today If you live in Fort Greene/Bed-Stuy, or points east, looks like the next five weekends are going to suck pretty hard: the A and C are both being shut down, and replaced......

Sometimes common sense can seem like a revelation. The Dumbo Improvement Distict's Current Initiatives comprise visionary and mundane schemes to make the neighborhood more hospitable to merchants, visitors, and residents. They also represent the assault of the practical against the romantically derelict. In other words, more ATMs and fewer photoshoots. Is there a way to reconcile the two tendencies? Sensible changes such as a better-marked pedestrian entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge and the re-opening......

With the Bowery Hotel now open, Gothamist thought it was worth taking one final look at the Bowery of the 1970s and '80s through the lens of Luc Sante, author of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York. Sante told Gothamist – via email – some details of life on the Bowery before the presence of Eric Goode, Ian Schrager, Whole Foods, Seth Greenberg, Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA, “Nolita......

That Department of Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall. Not only does she have to pay her hubby's DC rent (Senator Schumer rents from Representative George Miller), she has to explain to the City Council that they are wrong when thinking traffic is bad. amNew York reports that at a hearing, Commissioner Weinshall said, "You have SUVs, you got these minivans. I think the cars are getting bigger and there is a perception there is more......

We all know the Second Avenue Subway project will be very costly. But we didn't know that the MTA was thinking about leaving the 300-foot tunnel boring machines underground when the project is done. The NY Sun reports that abandoning the $15-20 million machines may be "more efficient and cost-effective" rather than hauling them out. Apparently there's a precedent for this: The TBMs used for the Chunnel excavation were left there (however, other U.S.......

“Welcome to Brooklyn,” I said, even though we’d been in the borough for 4 hours already. A half dozen Hasidic children darted by. I saw perplexed expressions wash over my customers’ faces. We all stood there as if shell shocked, holding what remained of our Grimaldi’s slice and staring off at the desolate Floyd Bennett airfield. Countless Hasidic families roamed the grounds oblivious to the shameful pizza we’d just eaten. I’d picked up the Pattin......

Terrifying: the entire lawn at Cadman Plaza has been astroturfed! [Via Brownstoner.] Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery in Staten Island, a suicidal member of service on the George Washington Bridge, and a perp search down by the Manhattan Bridge. Foreign tourists are bum-rushing New York because of the weak dollar: "For example, the Microsoft Zune player - a rival to Apple's iPod - sells for $442 in London but can be......