NY Blog

Last Night’s Action: Yanks Sweep A’s

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 05:00:01 +0000

Yankees 5, A’s 0: CC Sabathia had no trouble with the A’s. The Associated Press even posted a photo of the Yankees ace yawning in the dugout. He pitched eight innings of scoreless, one-hit ball before Jonathan Albaldejo finished the shutout. Curtis Granderson had two homers and Jorge Posada added another as the Yankees finished a four-game sweep. They moved 1 1/2 games up on the idle Rays in the American League East. They play three day games against the Blue Jays starting Friday. Mets 4, Braves 2: Hey, a Mets win! Johan Santana left after five innings. The Mets said they were saving him for the playoffs he is day-to-day with a strained pectoral muscle. David Wright, who had done very little against the Braves this season, hit a home run. The Mets move on to Chicago on Friday.

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Last Night’s Action: Yanks Sweep A’s

MTA Offers Plan For Hurricane Earl

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:10:04 +0000

Photograph from reader Faith during the 2007 tornado The MTA just sent out its plan to deal with the possibility of transit issues related to Hurricane Earl. While Long Island would likely be harder hit than NYC—so there are LIRR service changes—the MTA is also inspecting drains in the subways in case of flooding. Yeah, remember the great flooding incident of August 2007 ? The MTA has details online and there’s more info below. As for NYC and a hurricane, well, we’re apparently way overdue for one . And we’re not that prepared which might be very ugly! Professor of Coastal Geology at Queens College Nicholas K. Coch tells Metropolis , ” When people ask me what the biggest risks to New York are in a hurricane, I say ‘New Yorkers.’ They think they’re immune. They’ve survived terrorist attacks and blackouts, and they think hurricanes can’t happen here, but they’ve never seen what one can do.” Long Island Rail Road Service Changes MTA Long Island Rail Road will suspend train service east of Speonk on the Montauk Branch and east of Ronkonkoma on the Main Line, which normally takes customers to Greenport and Long Island’s North Fork. LIRR service west of Ronkonkoma and west of Speonk will operate on a normal schedule. The last train traveling west to Penn Station is scheduled to leave Montauk at 5:39 AM and arrive at Penn Station at 8:32 AM. The last train leaving New York for Montauk is scheduled to depart from Penn Station at 12:39 AM Friday morning and arrive in Montauk at 3:57 AM. The last westbound train will leave Greenport at 5:30 AM Friday morning. The LIRR will assess any storm related damage late Friday night before deciding on when service can resume on Saturday. Eight early getaway trains between 2:02 PM and 3:48 PM scheduled from Penn Station heading east on Friday will continue to operate to Babylon, Great Neck, Far Rockaway, Hicksville and Huntington. NYC Transit, MTA Bus, Long Island Bus Service on subways and buses is expected to remain normal but delays, disruptions and the rerouting of buses are possible if there is flooding underground and on city streets. Customers are urged to use caution, especially on stairs, outdoor platforms and at bus shelters. The potential for service disruptions caused by flooding during periods of sustained heavy rains does exist so New York City Transit maintains three pump trains capable of pumping 300 gallons of water from the system every minute. The Track and Infrastructure Division also has a fleet of portable pumps, some with a pumping capacity of 600 gallons per minute. Crews will also be dispatched to cover sidewalk vent gratings in areas that are prone to flooding. Inspections of the system’s drains and culverts have already begun to make certain that they are clear and free of debris. Transit workers will also survey outdoor train lines and construction areas to identify and secure any loose materials. Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road Preparedness The Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad are working closely with emergency officials on hurricane contingency plans. The railroads have mobilized their maintenance of way employees, gathering teams to respond to fallen trees, downed power lines, clogged culverts, mudslides, and washouts. In preparation for the storm, both railroads are ensuring that all equipment necessary to deal with the effects of the storm are ready to go – chain saws for clearing downed trees, pumps for flooded areas, and identifying locations and availability of replacement supplies for replacing damaged utility poles and crossing gates. Vehicle fuel tanks have been topped-off and generators are being tested and fueled. MTA Bridges & Tunnels MTA Bridges and Tunnels is part of the city’s Office of Emergency Management preparedness team and is involved in daily preparations and updates as the storm gets closer. B&T staff are readying equipment and working with contractors at our seven bridges and two tunnels, making sure that all work sites and equipment are secure in case of high winds. Bridges and Tunnels personnel are also checking all storm drains at our facilities to ensure that they are free of debris. Wind restrictions will be in place at various B&T facilities if winds gusts rise to between 30 (wet conditions) and 39 m.p.h. (dry conditions), and motorists will be asked to reduce speeds. If winds reach 49 m.p.h., certain vehicles, including box trucks, step vans, and motorcycles would be banned. The MTA urges all customers to give themselves extra travel time whenever there is inclement weather. Customers should visit the MTA’s website, www.mta.info, and monitor news media and traffic and transit reports for updated information on storm-related service. We also urge customers to sign up for email alerts by visiting MyMTAAlerts.com to begin receiving real-time status updates about your subway, bus, rail and/or bridge and tunnel route.

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MTA Offers Plan For Hurricane Earl

Google HQ: The Latest Target For Bed Bugs?

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:53:00 +0000

Feeling lucky, Google employees? Then stay at work and ignore this tip we just got in from an anonymous source saying that bed bugs have been detected at Google’s New York offices on 9th Avenue. Twitter confirms ! More details to come…

Study: Pot Isn’t Really A Gateway Drug, Man

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:46:21 +0000

But Ann Landers said it was… According to new research from the University of New Hampshire, marijuana is not the gateway drug your grandmother made it out to be. The study, which appears in the September 2010 issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior in the article, “A Life-course Perspective on the ‘Gateway Hypothesis,’” found that while teens who smoked marijuana were more likely to use harder illicit drugs while they’re young, the gateway effect was lessened by 21, and factors such as employment status and stress were more important in those decisions. The researchers examined survey data from 1,300 mostly male Hispanic, white, and African-American young adults who attended south Florida public schools in the 1990s. The participants were followed from enrollment in the sixth or seventh grade until they reached their late teens or early 20s. The researchers found that the strongest predictor of other illicit drug use seemed to be race-ethnicity, not prior use of marijuana. Researcher Karen Van Gundy says the researchers didn’t set out to disprove the gateway theory: “We were somewhat surprised to find the gateway effect wasn’t that strong during the transition to adulthood. It really didn’t matter if someone used marijuana or not as a teen…If we overly criminalize behaviors like marijuana use among teens, this could interfere with opportunities for education and employment later on, which, in turn, could be creating more drug use.”

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Study: Pot Isn’t Really A Gateway Drug, Man

Video: Beach-Goers Go Black Tie

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:33:21 +0000

Last month the Improv Everywhere troupe made a Coney Island beach trip a black tie affair—at the time we posted a bunch of photos, but now there’s video to go along with it. One adorable older gent at the end of it tries to explain how it made him feel to witness the spectacle, saying: “At first I was surprised, but I saw people looking, and old people laughing… you move people… everybody’s happy!”

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Video: Beach-Goers Go Black Tie

Paterson: Mosque Debate Has Bigots, Racists, Sane People

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:21:18 +0000

From a rally at City Hall yesterday (Mary Altaffer/AP) Governor Paterson discussed the Park 51 mosque and community center project on the radio today. Paterson, who was has previously offered to f ind a location other than 45-47 Park Place (two blocks from Ground Zero), told John Gambling on WOR that a solution that “would rid ourselves of Islamophobia” was essential: “There are some bigots and some racists who are alive in this discussion, however when nearly 70% of the population oppose it , you’ve got a lot of people of good will and all ethnicities you’re going to have to persuade.” According to the Daily Politics, he drew parallels between the mosque furor over the civil rights movement’s bus boycotts: “They chose someone simply because it would fit the pure argument that any American has a right to sit where they want on a bus. And all I’m saying, with an a little bit of an obstacle at Ground Zero, it’s kind of the same thing. “ Speaking of Islamophobia, Archbishop Timothy Dolan wants to foster a dialogue with Muslims , telling the WAll Street Journal, “I’m afraid we have maybe not been as energetic with fostering relations with our Islamic brothers and sisters…. Our coming together is not to say we can settle the mosque site issue, [but] the wider issue of Church, Jewish, Islamic tensions.” He also said of the controversy, “We can’t let fanatics on either side take over” the debate.

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Paterson: Mosque Debate Has Bigots, Racists, Sane People

CurbedWire: Soho Building Site Reactivated; Famed FSBO Gets a Broker

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:01:06 +0000

SOHO— Plans were revealed a little while back for the empty corner lot at Broadway and Howard Street, formerly a flea market and Banksy canvas. But there’s been a while bunch of silence at 433 Broadway , keeping us from a seven-story commercial building with an off-white aluminum facade. But what’s this!? A tipster writes, “The construction has been very slow going, probably since it happened to start right around the same time the world collapsed. A broker told me they lost their funding for a while when Lehman went under. I don’t know if that is true. So it was a sight for sore eyes this morning to see the concrete foundation being poured again.” [CurbedWire Inbox] FLATIRON— There’s another twist in the saga of the bonkers $11.495 million penthouse at 5 East 17th Street , which you might know from the movie version of Rent , or from past Curbed coverage . After a brief spell as a FSBO, the apartment now has brand new brokerage representation. Check out this new listing , comin’ atcha from Jamie Knuckles. The price hasn’t changed. [Nest Seekers]

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CurbedWire: Soho Building Site Reactivated; Famed FSBO Gets a Broker

Biggest And Tiniest Dogs Coming To Central Park!

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:00:30 +0000

The Guinness World Records folk are bringing the new “World’s Tallest Dog” and “World’s Smallest Dog” to Central Park on September 15th. They’ll be meeting for the first time ever in the world’s most awkward puppy play date (is there a Guinness Record for that?). We’ll have much more on Giant George (a Great Dane) and Boo Boo (a Chihuahua) when they’re in town, but for now, try to wrap your head around the fact that George is 7 feet, 3 inches long, 43 inches tall, and weighs 245 pounds! And now compare that to Boo Boo’s mere 4 inches. This may not end well.

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Biggest And Tiniest Dogs Coming To Central Park!

Linkage: Former Whitney President Sells for $4 Million Off; More!

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:45:57 +0000

[Brooklyn's latest funky facade, via 'Stoner ] · Former Whitney Museum President Robert Hurst sells Fifth Ave pad for $4M off [NYO] · Latest funky facade finishing up on Brooklyn’s Windsor Place ['Stoner] · Manhattan co-op maintenance charges up 19 percent this year [Matrix] · Greenpoint’s other pencil factory has actual pencils [Scouting NY] · Harlem affordable housing plan sets off neighborhood feud · Department of Buildings has a YouTube channel with scaffolding videos [Archpaper] · Another poll suggests New Yorkers want Islamic community center moved [NYT]

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Linkage: Former Whitney President Sells for $4 Million Off; More!

Hundreds of Neglected Animals Found In Two NY Homes

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:28:15 +0000

Marie Castaldo In two separate discoveries recently, nearly 200 abused, dead and neglected animals were discovered in New York. At one home on Long Island, the final count of came to 114 dogs, an emaciated pony, three goats, one cat and 11 additional, but deceased dogs (found in the kitchen sink and bathroom tub). Newsday reports that 100 or so of the dogs are currently at the Huntington Animal Shelter. The animals were discovered when firefighters responded to an automatic fire alarm at the West Hills home yesterday morning. Owners Michael and Marilyn Gladstein have since been arrested and charged with animal cruelty, including a felony for the emaciated pony. One of the responders said upon arriving at the scene, “It was sweltering and the smell was horrendous.” Meanwhile , Fox5 reports that 40 dogs were seized in a boarding kennel raid, which they say were allegedly victims of Marie Castaldo, founder of the Queens World Film Festival. She was recently arrested in regards to the animals, but also faces a number of charges that could land her behind bars for up to seven years.