An effort to get more fresh fruit and vegetables into the hands of poorer and allegedly under-served communities is being fought today by bodega and supermarket owners, who feel that a proposed 1,500 new street vendor licenses will cut into their business. Backers of the new licenses include City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Mayor Bloomberg, who cooperated in introducing the "Green Cart" plan, which will issue licenses to vendors who commit to serving fresh......

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:......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person struck by a train at 14th St. and 8th Ave. in Manhattan, a shooting on Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn, and a shooting on Houston St. in Manhattan. Yet another reason to celebrate: today is the 110th anniversary of Richmond County joining us as the 5th borough of NYC. The Staten Island Advance features a picture of a general store with a wooden Indian in front of it......

With the approval of its budget yesterday, the MTA officially raised the rates on subways and buses, MTA bridges and tunnels, and commuter rails. While the increase in fare was inevitable after both Governor Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg approved of them, the big news today is how the MTA is actually going to bring in extra money with the bonus scheme on the pay-per-ride Metrocard for subways and buses. The base fare for a......

The LA Times invaded the Big Apple to investigate the amazing fund-raising power of Hillary Clinton in Chinatown. The leading 2008 Democratic contender was able to raise $380,000 during one April fund-raiser - and back in 2004, John Kerry was only able to raise $24,000. Of course, Chinatown is in Clinton's backyard, too. But the LA Times questioned how some donors, like dishwashers or servers, would be able to donate amounts between $500 and......

The hilarity never ends when talking about cell phone service in the subways. The City Council spoke to the MTA about the agency's upcoming cell phone service plans, and apparently some members suggested that there should be "quiet cars" on the subway. We cannot stop laughing! City Councilman Oliver Koppell suggested that quiet cars would be a haven from the chattering masses who would use cell phones in the cars. (Let's not forget that the......

You'd imagine that Kevin Burke, the chairman, president, and CEO of Con Ed, would want to attend at City Council meeting about the steam pipe explosion on July 18. But, no, Burke isn't showing up, which annoys many Council members. The Sun has a good look at the head of the city's essential and currently reviled utility. Though the Sun couldn't get a comment from Con Ed about Burke's absence (SVP of central operations William......

Gov. Spitzer ordered the immediate inspection of the 49 deck truss bridges in New York similar to the Minnesota bridge that collapsed earlier this week, but city politicians are stressing that New Yorkers have nothing to fear from their bridges. Despite the fact that the majority of the city's bridges were ranked only fair to poor in their most recent survey, Mayor Bloomberg insisted that they are perfectly safe. In a radio address, the mayor......

Because September 8, 2009 is 776 days away, let's talk the 2009 mayoral race. The Post reports that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly met with a "political guru" about his chances in the 2009 mayoral race. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne explained that Kelly was at a meeting that was also attended by Republican strategist Scott Reed, but politics weren't discussed. Still, Kelly's seems to be the name mentioned most often these days when speaking of......

There's a fantastic look at a cross-section of Queens residents in the Times today. There's a feature about a Wednesday night class at the James A. Bland Houses in Flushing, where a group of curious and determined residents are learning Mandarin. There's an Italian-American woman who explains, "Kind of like, ‘If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,'" a few people who simply want to communicate with their neighbors, and an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor who......

After last week's revelation that a Bronx Chinese restaurant allegedly refused a diner's payment of $2.75 when it included 10 pennies and the ensuing media spectacle, the Daily News decided to send one of its reporters to test the penny tolerance of various fast food establishments. Reporter Ethan Rouen traveled to five eateries, including Jesus Taco and McDonald's. Rouen details the "dirty metallic reek" emanating from his hands and pitying stares from employees. But the......

Woe to the Segway commuter: A Brooklyn man who commutes from Brighton Beach to Midtown Manhattan has failed in his attempts to fight a $90 ticket he received while riding the contraption. Jonathan Gleich told the Post, "New York City wants to be green, but to me they're being mean. For me to get to work costs 15 cents instead of two bucks to take the subway. There are never delays, there are never strikes.......

Though the Department of Transportation is touting the fact that pedestrian deaths have dropped from 366 in 1990 to 161 last year, many still think the DOT has a lot of work to do. During a City Council hearing about pedestrian safety issues, amNew York reported that the grandfather of 3-year-old James Jaccaricce, who was killed by a Hummer in Brooklyn, asked, "If the DOT is really concerned about pedestrian safety, why aren't the......

The Drum Major Institute released a study titled "Saving Our Middle Class," which suggests that NYC's middle class continues to be under more and more strain. DMI surveyed a number of city leaders and found: It's harder to enter the middle class: 92% "agree that it is harder to enter the middle class today than it was ten years ago." - They believe middle-class income is now between $75,000 and $135,000 for families of......

As the City Council debated a bill that would open 10 taxi stands in the outer boroughs, the Taxi and Limousine Commissioner Matthew Daus said cabbies wouldn't be interested. Daus says that only 8% of cab rides outside of Manhattan are for non-airport destinations. In fact, his words were actually: "When there's an ocean of water to drink in Manhattan, why would they go for a puddle in the outer reaches of the city?"......

Nineteen-year-old Kevin Brown was senteced to 3 1/2 years in prison for his brutal attack on two Chinese teenagers in Queens. Last summer, Brown and a friend, Paul Heavey, drove up next to a Lexus driven by Raymond Liang, John Lu and other Chinese friends. Brown and Heavey shouted slurs at them and rammed their car into the Lexus. Liang drove away, and when Lu got out to check the damage on the car, Brown......

City officials met with the police, fire department, and MTA to discuss subway evacuation plans yesterday. The FDNY said that it is "much more prepared today than we had been back in 2001" and cited special phone jacks firefighters can use in radio dead zones. But the City Council was skeptical. amNew York reports that transportation committee chairman Councilman John Liu wondered why there was so much focus on "extreme disaster situations" when track......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a "fall victim down a hole" on 2nd Ave at 65th Street, a "fall victim off a bridge" in Queens, and a riot at a D train station in Brooklyn. Paging Copyranter: "Quite possibly the best subway ad EVER!" Convicted child-murderer Joel Steinberg was ordered to pay $15 million to the birth-mother of his illegally adopted daughter Lisa. The city has already paid Michele Launders $985k for its failure......

Feeling the sting of controversy - and perhaps wanting to keep relations with Chinese-Americans warm - after disqualifying a newborn Chinese-American baby born to non-legal U.S. residents in a New Year's scholarship contest, Toys R Us has decided to give all three babies in the drawing $25,000 scholarships. Here's the toy retailer's statement:"We love all babies. We deeply regret that this sweepstakes became a point of controversy. As a result, we have decided to award......

Yesterday, thousands of people walked down Fifth Avenue in to protest a police shooting against three unarmed men. Sean Bell was shot to death just hours before his wedding while his two friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, were wounded in a barrage of 50 bullets in less than a minute; undercover police claimed they saw a fourth man with a gun. The march was organized by the Reverend Al Sharpton, with the theme......

A week after her spectacularly failed attempt at the Chinese language, Rosie O'Donnell apologized for reducing Chinese to "ching chong" on The View this morning. From People:After running a clip of the offending segment, which originally ran Dec. 5, she said, "This apparently was very offensive to a lot of Asian people. So I asked Judy, who's Asian and works here in our hair and makeup department. I said, 'Was it offensive to you?' And......

Where the hell is Lisa Ling when Barbara Walters needs her? Last week, Rosie O'Donnell commented about the whole Danny DeVito drunk as a skunk on The View by imagining what people in China were hearing: "The fact is that it's news all over the world. You can imagine in China, it's like, ching chong ching chong ching chong Danny DeVito ching ching chong chong ching drunk The View chong."Of course, Rosie's riff has upset......

Today, there's an interesting NY Times feature on City Councilman John Liu which focuses on his zealous ability to have press conferences and issue press releases. Which is exactly what our readers noted when he got into the fight with DJ Star/Troi Torain over Torain's remarks on Hot 97 and when he held a press conference for three of the victims in the Queens hate crime incident last week. In fact, Liu's aggressive or pro-active......

Ah, we were wondering when we'd hear more of Troi Torain, aka DJ Star, the former morning show DJ who threatened to molest and urinate on the 4 year old daughter of a radio rival. Last week, it was announced that child endangerment charges against him would be dropped if Torain performed community service, and it seemed like Torain had settled with his rival DJ Envy's family. But now Torain is filing a $55 million......

Remember DJ Star? In May, he had threatened his morning radio DJ rival DJ Envy's wife and 4 year old daughter with racial slurs and sexual molestation - even offering a reward for where the child went to school. Well, after being fired from Power 105, getting arrested for the threats, and claiming that the hurtful words of other DJs led him to make those comments, a judge dismissed charges against him if he performs......

City Councilman John Liu, who heads the the Council's Transportation Committee, thinks the city should install the countdown signs at traffic lights - you know, the ones that tell you how much time there is until the light changes to red. But the counterargument would be that people underestimate the time it takes to walk across the street. Is that because people think their strides are longer than they really are? It'd be funny to......

Residents and politicians are up in arms over what seems like the latest stupidity from Con Ed: A 9 year old boy got an electrical shock while crossing the street at 127th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard yesterday afternoon. Con Ed did not find any stray voltage at the metal plate (you know, the ones that are on the road because there are potholes or massive digs below), though the original complaint called into Con......

Over the weekend, the NY Times had a story about immigration officials trying to deport a 7 year-old Canadian-born boy back to Canada - even though his mother is an American citizen (and after seeing the article, immigration officials decided to let him stay). Today, there's a story about a Chinese woman that immigration officials are trying to deport - and how their treatment of her could have caused her to miscarry her twins. Backstory:......

The MTA says their current offer is their "final offer" to the Transit Workers Union. And what's the offer? Three percent each year over a three year contract; the union wants 8% more. And benefits-wise, the MTA would ask new hires to pay 1% of their pay to go towards their health plans (workers do not do this now). Finally, the MTA wants to increase the retirement age from 55 to 62 after 30 years......

Mark your calendar for December 1. That's when the City Council will have a public hearing for commuters to complain about the insanity of weekend subway diversions (especially the ones on the L!). City Councilman John Liu, who heads the Council's Transportation Committee says, "We want the MTA to do whatever repair work is required...but the disruptions are so numerous and pervasive that there's serious lack of accountability." True, but will the NYC subway-riding public......