Despite the overall crime rate being down 1% over the first half of the year, the latest crime statistics released by the NYPD reveal that the stats of six out of the seven major felonies has increased in 2010. Murders have jumped 11%, from 199 to 221, and rapes are up 13%, from 555 to 629. More people have been shot this year, 799 compared to 748, a 7% increase. The only decrease is in grand larceny, which has a 7% drop. Deputy Commissioner Browne told the News that the NYPD “changed its strategy” after they became aware of recent trends in shootings, which have been occurring frequently outside, after midnight. As has been the trend during the first months of the year, the crime rate has remained higher than last year, but police are fighting an uphill battle, since 2009 had the lowest murder total in at least 47 years. Earlier this year, a Brooklyn cop accused the NYPD of pressuring officers to “juke” the stats : “The rank-and-file NYPD street cop experiences enormous pressure in a strange catch-22: He or she is expected to maintain high ‘activity’—including stop-and-frisks—but, paradoxically, to record fewer actual crimes.”
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New Crime Stats: More Shootings This Year
Le Bain, on the roof of The Standard ( John Del Signore/Gothamist ) Zagat’s 10th Annual Nightlife survey dropped today , and the results reveal more about who participates in Zagat’s surveys than about The State of Nightlife Today. 5,719 locals shared their thoughts about their favorite nightspots, and what they had to say may not shock you: these people still have money, and they like throwing it around at douchey clubs. Their five favorite places to do this are: 230 Fifth (also at the top in sex assaults ) Campbell Apartment 1 Oak Brother Jimmy’s Four Season Hotel Bar To be fair, the only one of those we’ve ever been to is Campbell Apartment. That was back in 2004, and we got into a long debate with a hedge fund guy who insisted that loosening trade restrictions in developing countries like Jamaica was a wonderful thing, even if it meant that local milk purveyors couldn’t compete with cheaper imports, because maybe those locals there “shouldn’t be in the milk business.” He also promised there would be no housing market collapse, just a little “melting around the edges.” Anyway, that’s their clientele: visionary. The Zagat surveyors also agreed that the top “newcomers” to the city’s nightlife are the Jane Hotel Lobby Bar, Bar Pleiades, Sweet Afton, Studio Square, Ace Hotel Lobby Bar, and the Boom Boom Room. The Jane has had its problems with the neighbors , of course, and Bar Pleiades is very pricey (hello $18 cocktail!) but at least it’s pretty and serves food from Cafe Boulud. Studio Square , that massive beer hall in Queens, is too upscale for its own good, but we love everything about the Ace Hotel except how everyone else loves it. And it’s funny that Zagat voters put the Boom Boom Room up there—are they actually rich enough to buy their way in, or, like us, do they just assume it’s as cool as it looks from the street? Besides all the attention-grabbing rankings, the new guide pretty thoroughly covers and reviews 1,014 nightspots. If you want to dive down this debauched rabbit hole, you can pick up the hard copy in bookstores, or download it to the iPhone and Android. To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the guide, if you mention “Zagat Nightlife” at Brooklyn Bowl from 6-8 p.m. tonight, you’ll bowl for free and get pints of beer and margaritas for just $3. And if you say the magic words at “top Appeal winner” Madam Geneva you’ll be entitled to one free signature “jam cocktail.”
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Zagat Nightlife Survey Says A Lot About Surveyors
Photograph of Bloomberg announcing new deputy mayor for economic development, Robert Steel (NYC Mayor’s Office) After the NY Times reported on the apparent lack of diversity among Mayor Bloomberg’s senior City Hall staffer, the City Council may be taking a look. According to the Times, “The New York City Council is considering holding oversight hearings into racial and gender diversity at the top levels of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration, according to council members.” Councilwoman Deborah Rose (D-SI) told the Times, “Having recently brought in three out-of-town, white males as deputy mayors, the mayor has once again shown an indifference to living up to his own vows to bring diversity to his administration. In 2010, we must do more to ensure greater opportunities for all citizens.” Those three recent deputy mayor hires were political consultant Howard Wolfson (Deputy Mayor For Government Affairs), former Indianapolis mayor Stephen Goldsmith (Deputy Mayor for Operations) and former Treasury official and Goldman Sachs executive Robert Steel (Deputy Mayor for Economic Development); they all replaced white, male staffers. Former Council member and current City Comptroller John Liu weighed in, “In a city of 8.4 million people, at some point the law of large numbers kicks in, and it’s just not legitimate to say, ‘Oh, this is only on the merits,’ because it somehow implies that there’s a lack of skill or talent in certain communities, and that is just absolutely not true and unacceptable. Nobody is talking about political correctness; this is about looking for skills and talent everywhere in the city and not limiting the places you go to look for this talent.” But former Mayor Ed Koch was sympathetic, “You say to yourself, as I know Bloomberg does, that the first thing I want to do, particularly in difficult times, is to get the best people who can do a good job, irrespective of whether they are green, white, Hispanic or Asian.” And former Dinkins-era commissioner Kenneth Knuckles says he’s given been given hiring advice to Bloomberg officials, “You have to look long and hard — it’s not as easy as one would think to find highly qualified minority candidates I think they want to do it, but obviously they haven’t gone far enough.” Today, City Room reports , “A reporter for The Times who on Wednesday attended Mr. Bloomberg’s first public event since the article was published was not selected by the mayor to ask a question, even though the reporter was sitting in the center of the front row and even though the mayor’s staff knew that diversity would be the topic.”
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Bloomberg’s Diversity Hiring Record Questioned
Today is the day before the day LeBron James will become a free agent, and eventually crush the spirits of at least one or two major metropolitan cities. It doesn’t take much to see that the problems of one 6’8″ advertising machine does amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, but at least one billionaire NYer gets it: Mayor Bloomberg made one last LeBron push today, telling the superstar that celebrities aren’t bothered much in NYC, and he could enjoy a normal private life here (though even the Mayor succumbed to an eating disorder ). The Daily News, meanwhile, is having a schizophrenic moment dealing with all this change; they seem to be trying to get some perspective/distance by claiming LeBron James is no Kobe Bryant , while also going apartment hunting on his behalf! Their real estate suggestions include the DUMBO Clocktower apartment where Brooklyn Paper editor Gersh Kuntzman once did the proverbial dance with the devil in the pale moonlight . But lest you think the News is the only real estate broker in town, LeBron, Halstead Property is also here to service your needs! The real estate brokerage has created a website and promotional video (starring nostalgic former Knick John Starks!) called “Every King Needs a Castle,” in which they offer to find a NY home for LeBron, and also donate their commission to his favorite charity. You can see the full, stilted recruitment video below. ‘Every King Needs a Castle’ Video Short produced by Halstead Property on WellcomeMat
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Empathetic Billionaire, Real Estate Brokers Woo LeBron
On July 4th, Americans across the land celebrate the enduring power of nationalism by blowing stuff up. When professionals do it, it’s aired live on national television with musical stylings from Justin Bieber. (Will he blow up, too? Tune in to NBC Sunday night to find out!) But when amateurs set off fireworks, that’s grounds for arrest. So to remind everyone about the hazards of playing with fireworks, Suffolk County police channeled their inner Gallagher and released this video of an M80 blowing up a watermelon. How can they possibly top that, you ask? By blowing up a Ford Mustang filled with confiscated fireworks: Pretty sweet, right? Who’s got the M80s, it’s party time!
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Video Showing Danger of Fireworks Is Sorta Counterproductive
The three silver orbs that plagued the new Brooklyn Bridge Park playground are gone for good. The metal structures were meant to be fun, but they ended up burning children—when they weren’t breaking noses—since their metal surfaces were heated in the sunlight. According to the NY Times , they were removed on Friday, and last night were replaced by two new items, described as “a new red house and fairy castle.” We headed over there check it out (it’s still under construction), and it seems some cute animal statues have also popped up. No word on what’s become of the $84,000 orbs, but their Metal Mountain cousin in Union Square Park is still standing tall—last week a cover was put over it in an attempt to lessen burns in the summer sun.
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Metal Orbs Replaced In Brooklyn Bridge Park
Photo via Ink Lake Talk about a Prince Charming, fuggedaboutit! This guy found a Christian Louboutin shoe somewhere in the vicinity of 96th Street and Broadway (where this flyer is posted) and A) identified it as an expensive shoe (these puppies probably cost about $695 ), and B) went to the trouble of trying to find the woman who lost it. Ink Lake spotted the flyer and emailed the guy, wondering if this was all for real (since it does sort of reek of Sex and the City II marketing). The man responded: “I really found one red-bottom Christian Louboutin shoe and my signs have been up for days and you are the only person to email me. Looking for Cinderella ain’t easy.”
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Cinderella Lost Her Louboutin!
The coyotes have struck again in Rye, NY! Days after a pair of coyotes bite a 6-year-old girl playing in her Rye, NY front lawn, a coyote attacked a 3-year-old in her yard. According to WPIX , “The home abuts the Rye Nature Center, a 47-acre parcel of woodlands where coyotes are suspected of living. The coyote may have jumped from nature center property through a break in the home’s fence to carry out the attack Tuesday night at around 7:30.” The little girl suffered non-life-threatening bites to the neck and was taken to a hospital. A neighbor told WABC 7 , “We’re just a nervous wreck around here. I have two children myself, and I live in an area near the marshlands, and they’ve been in my neighborhood and it’s nerve-wracking.” Police Chief William Connors, who said police had been patrolling the area for coyotes and responded to the attack within one minute, emphasized, “This is clearly escalated behavior. We are urging caution, and in particular, we urge residents to pay particular attention to children.” According to the Journal News , “wildlife experts said the coyotes that attacked Emily [Hodulik on Saturday night] were likely too young to know they shouldn’t have been hunting for food in a backyard full of humans.” NY State Department of Environmental Conservation wildlife biologist Kevin Clarke said, “When they go on feeding forays, coyotes are extremely opportunistic. If they see a cat, they’ll take it. Or a dog. With a small child, they don’t know if it’s prey or not. Their parents might not go after a pack of kids, but you know how juveniles are, they don’t always do what they’ve been taught.” While there are over two dozen cops (from Rye, Harrison and county) on coyote detail, Rye City Manager Scott Pickup isn’t about to recruit humans to help , “We’re a pretty suburban area. To coordinate 20 or 30 people with weapons, we’re fearful of what could happen. That would be a delicate situation. It’s not something we would entertain.” And he added, “I don’t want a guy who is a hunting enthusiast to track coyotes tonight.”
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Second Rye Girl Attacked By Coyote
In the past we’ve taken looks back at Prospect Park , the Brooklyn Navy Yard (and the Commandant’s House ), the Brooklyn Bridge , and the nearby area in 1936 , amongst other corners of the borough. But here’s a glimpse at what it looked like in 1943, from Sheepshead Bay to Prospect Heights to Red Hook. This is the year the movie Whistling in Brooklyn came out and the year the novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn hit bookshelves. Over at Ebbets Field, the 1943 Brooklyn Dodgers played 153 games during the regular season, winning 81 and losing 72 games (they finished 3rd in position).
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Flashback: Brooklyn, 1943
avishaiweiss’s Flickr So here’s how it went down with that MTA bus driver who got punched in the face by a rider dissatisfied with the quality of his commute. According to driver Gilberto Davila, the situation devolved pretty quickly after he stopped to let on Jason Ferreira, 22, in Bensonhurst Monday morning. Not long after boarding, Ferreira asked if the bus had arrived at Flatbush Avenue yet, prompting Davila to laugh and tell him that since the bus had only traveled two blocks, Flatbush was still at least 20 blocks away. “That’s why you goddamn bus drivers always get beat up,” Ferreira “exploded,” according to Davila’s account in the Daily News . (They also get spat upon and stabbed , too.) “If it weren’t for the cameras, I would kick your ass,” Ferreira continued, under the impression that video cameras were recording inside the bus. Then things got physical when Davila pulled the bus over. According to the News, both men are over 6 feet tall and weigh over 200 pounds. “I stood up and I got clocked in the face,” Davila says. “He hit me and we got tangled. I wanted to get him off the bus, but I couldn’t. I was born in Brooklyn and I can handle myself, but he’s a strong young man. He tossed me off the bus like I was a feather.” It’s still unclear how Ferreria was apprehended, but it appears that he did not commandeer the bus and proceed to his precious Flatbush Avenue at his desired pace. Instead, he was charged with felony assault, misdemeanor menacing and harassment, and released on $500 bail. Davila walked away with a black eye, scrapes to his face, bumps on his head and a pain in the neck.
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Anatomy of a Bus Driver Beating