If you watch just one Community Board Meeting video this summer, make it this one. Willets Point property owners who've been passionately protesting Mayor Bloomberg's controversial $3 billion plan to rezone the area (to make way for a hotel, convention center, offices and retail stores) have put together this video showing how the sausage gets made over at Community Board 7. Their gripping featurette focuses in on a contentious committee meeting that yielded a yes......

Photo courtesy Atomische. Angry opponents to Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to develop 62 acres of poorly-maintained land in Willets Point, Queens disrupted a press conference yesterday held by city officials in Washington Square Park to tout the proposal. Councilman Hiram Monserrate, whose district includes Willets Point, led over two dozen protesters to the press conference, where they drowned out advocates for the plan, chanting “Justice for Willets Point!” According to the Times, the police refused......

Chain restaurants that haven’t been complying with the city’s new law requiring them to display calorie information for all their food and beverages can be fined by the Health Department starting at midnight. But some establishments like Olive Garden remain defiant; they’re refusing to cooperate in hopes that a Restaurant Association appeal succeeds in court. Over 252 violations have already been reported, but not until tonight can fines be levied. Other places are scrambling to......

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....

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......

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.......

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.......

A federal appeals judge has issued a delay on enforcement of the new law that would require NYC restaurants with 15 or more establishments nationwide to prominently display calorie information for all foods and beverages. The rules had been scheduled to take effect on Saturday; the new delay will last until Tuesday, when the three-member appeals court will formally consider an even longer delay. The New York State Restaurant Association is arguing that the rules......

The Gowanus Canal Conservancy held a public meeting in Carroll Gardens this week to unveil renderings for a park and esplanade that would run along the Gowanus canal. The project’s dubbed Sponge Park because planners hope it will help absorb some of the raw sewage that currently contaminates the canal during heavy rainfall. (Brownstoner believes oily runoff from the nearby Gowanus Expressway is another big problem.) The idea is that when the canal is finally......

Graphic via Post. The New York State Restaurant Association [NYSRA] is still fighting a law requiring chain restaurants operating in New York City to prominently display calorie information on all food and beverages, but the new rules go into effect today anyway, and some establishments – such as Starbucks, Subway, Chipotle, Auntie Anne’s, Jamba Juice and Chevys – are already complying. Not playing ball are places like McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Domino’s, Pizza Hut and......

Mayor Bloomberg may have failed with his plan to ease New York City congestion, but at least he can claim victory when it comes to New Yorkers’ digestion. (Sorry.) U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell has ruled that the city can require restaurants with more than 15 locations nationwide to prominently display their calorie information in “the same font and format used to display the name or price of the menu item.” The New York State......

Last year Mayor Bloomberg announced a $3 billion plan to seize 61 acres of the Willets Point district next to the forthcoming Citi Field in Queens through eminent domain, raze it, and construct 5,500 units of housing, a hotel, convention center and over 2 million square feet of office space, restaurants and retail shops. But business owners in the target zone have been fighting it, saying their ‘hood, dubbed the Iron Triangle for its chop......

A law that would require city restaurants with more than 15 locations nationwide to prominently display calorie information was supposed to go into effect last week, but a lawsuit brought by the restaurant industry has it choked up in court. Restaurateurs say the rules would violate their First Amendment right to say whatever they want on their menus, while the city points to a Health Department study suggesting diners choose healthier food when forced to......

Last month The Brooklyn Eagle had a report on how Brooklyn has been sucking the creative lifeblood right out of Manhattan. In recent years Brooklyn has experienced a 33.2 percent increase in the number of self-employed creatives, while Manhattan’s growth during the same period was a mere 6.5 percent. On Wednesday the Center for an Urban Future held a forum addressing the impact of Brooklyn’s growing cluster of self-employed creative freelancers on the borough’s economy.......

Some Capitol Hill offices received letters claiming responsibility for this morning's bombing in Times Square. WNBC reports that the letters, which arrived today, included a photo of the Army recruiting center "before it was bombed and...the words 'We did it.'" According to the AP, Senator Dianne Feinstein's office sent this email to other lawmakers:"A few offices on the House side have received a letter today addressed to 'Members of Congress' with a picture of a......

ART: In 2002 Hamburger Eyes xeroxed some pamphlets for what became the first of the crew's photography magazine. Since then "Hamburger Eyes has become an elegant yet underground periodical combining the documentary approach of National Geographic with the hit-‘em-hard sensibility of a late-night tagger." Tonight, in conjunction with the Spring 2008 release of their first book, The powerHouse Arena will display a selection of photographs (one of which is pictured) by the magazine's masterminds......

Photo via senseable city lab When MoMA and MIT join forces, the result is the highlight of an exhibition that zeros in on "current examples of successful design translations of disruptive scientific and technological innovations, and reflects on how the figure of the designer has changed from form giver to fundamental interpreter of an extraordinarily dynamic reality.” Translation: cool design developments meet scientific concepts meet human nature. The Design and the Elastic Mind is......

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......

Yesterday, some neighborhoods were dealing with the aftermath of rains and 60 mph winds that swept through their neighborhoods. And luckily the casualties were mostly cars and trees, as WCBS 2 shows, though there were some power outages (downed power lines). The huge tree that fell in Corona (lower photos) actually hit three cars: The NY Times found that it landed on the Farez family's 1996 GMC Safari - purchased just four months ago......

Although the city was mostly spared, wind and rain caused quite a mess across the metro area last night. About twenty thousand homes lost power, including 900 in Queens and 300 in the Bronx. The rain is not over! There is one more line of storms headed our way. The rain is currently over central New Jersey and will pass through the city this morning. Skies should rapidly clear in the early afternoon. Until then,......

After his $500,000 donation to NY State Republicans was revealed, Mayor Bloomberg explained why he did it to reporters while attending a Mayors Against Illegal Guns conference, "I've said repeatedly, I will help those who help us. They have stood up for the city a number of times — when we needed to have a voice in Albany and we didn't have that voice from the Assembly or from the governor, whether it was the......

Above images from WNBC 4, below right image from WCBS 2; bottom left image from Peter Haskell/WCBS 880 A building collapse at 124th Street and Park Avenue has prompted the MTA to shut down all train service in and out of Grand Central Terminal. Metro-North's Dan Brucker told WCBS 880, "We don't know how long the closure will last. We have been told by the police not to have any trains run through the......

Yesterday we noted Council Member Peter Vallone Jr.'s latest mission: putting an end to stunts. Of course, one of the best examples of this daredevil activity is brought to us by Jeb Corliss; after attempting to jump off the Empire State Building in 2006 Bloomberg wasn't too happy with this thrill-seeker. Or the judge that dropped the charges against him. But now the city is revisiting the case and trying to appeal the decision. Possibly......

The incoming president of the Obesity Society has resigned amidst controversy surrounding his work on behalf of the restaurant industry. Last month Dr. David B. Allison (pictured), a professor of biostatistics and nutrition at the University of Alabama, drew fire from colleagues when he submitted an affidavit questioning the city’s new rules requiring chain restaurants to prominently display calorie information on their menus. The Obesity Society supports the requirement, which will go into effect at......

brooklyn bridge traffic, by Idle Type at flickrToday on the Gothamist Newsmap: a crime scene/hanging at East 13th St. and Shore Parkway in Brooklyn, a child mauled by a dog in the area of 91-43 Gold Rd. in Queens, and a possible escaped prisoner on Wards Island across from Manhattan. Asbestos removal at the Carroll St. F and G line station appears to be a non-issue. Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn received a note......

Some good news in the ongoing saga to save 1520 Sedgwick, better known as the Birthplace of Hip Hop. Today Senator Schumer, who has been lobbying on behalf of the tenants to preserve the building's affordability, announced that "the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development rejected the proposed sale to developer Mark Karasick because current rents could not be sustained if the sale had gone through." The move doesn't insure that the building’s owner......

Just because Mayor Bloomberg has denied running for governor in 2010 doesn't mean it has to be true! The Sun's Davidson Goldin thinks that for Bloomberg, "Running for governor is likely, and becoming more so." Why? Well, though the mayor and Governor Spitzer have tried to be cooperative, Albany is involved in many plans the Mayor has a stake in, such as congestion pricing, OTB, and the Javits Center, not to mention Moynihan Station and......

Another heartbreaking tale of animal abandonment reached our inbox this weekend, but this one could have a happy ending. Here's the story:While walking my dogs this afternoon I found a cat with magical green eyes, a cat that looks to be a housecat, who has lived her entire life safe and cared for, suddenly now abandoned on the New York winter streets in her cat carrier with the door open left to die. Someone......

Queens Council Member Peter Vallone Jr. has introduced a bill that would have Evel Knievel rolling in his grave. If it becomes law, stunt men are going to have a tough time working on their craft in New York, as it would outlaw climbing and jumping off any structure taller than 25 feet; daredevils could get fined and spend up to a year in jail. Alain Robert is not going to be happy about this......