In the wake of the death of 12-year-old Dashane Santana, who was struck and killed crossing Delancey Street last Friday, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is asking the Department of Transportation to assign crossing guards to the dangerous thoroughfare. “With traffic coming on and off the Williamsburg Bridge and a wide area for pedestrians to cross, there is an urgent need for a more aggressive approach to safety,” Silver wrote in a letter to commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan obtained by DNAinfo. “We simply cannot wait for another tragedy to occur.” [ more › ]
Go here to read the rest:
After Death Of 12-Year-Old, Sheldon Silver Calls For Delancey St Crossing Guards
The NYCLU has filed a lawsuit with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of a group of NYPD detectives who say the department’s elite Intelligence Division is racist. The lawsuit alleges that the NYPD “has chosen to cloak promotions in secrecy and give the all-white high level supervisors who run the Intelligence Division unfettered discretion to handpick white detectives for promotions over more qualified African American detectives.” Black detectives also claim there is a so-called “secret list” from which white officers are promoted within the division. [ more › ]
Original post:
Lawsuit Says NYPD Has "Secret List" Excluding Blacks From Promotions
A day after the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced the acquisition of two bedbug sniffing dogs, the agency’s Gold Street headquarters was facing an infestation. According to the Post, around November 15 of last year the entire third floor was evacuated and 5,000 boxes were sent off for fumigation. [ more › ]
See the original post here:
Even The City’s Department Of Housing Has Had Bedbugs
Two months after Zuccotti Park was forcibly evicted by the NYPD, the metal barricades and constant security presence remain, making the space less like a public park and more like a frozen zone. Today the NYCLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the NLG fired off a letter [ pdf ] to Department of Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri asking him to “ensure that Zuccotti Park is open and accessible to all members of the public on an equal basis.” [ more › ]
Go here to read the rest:
NYCLU Demands City Loosen Zuccotti Park’s Restrictions
Restaurateurs aren’t exactly big fans of the Department of Health (see: the guy who got big fines, he says, for photographing an inspector working ) but the Daily News today notices an interesting way that some are getting out of the standard inspections entirely: Just claim to be a supermarket or a warehouse! [ more › ]
Here is the original post:
Avoiding Letter Grades, Restaurants Pretend To Be Markets
And NYU inches a step closer in its plans for world domination more space in the city. While the school is pushing its new First Avenue health corridor and is reportedly the top contender for Cornell’s sloppy seconds in the city’s High Tech Campus sweepstakes it happily announced yesterday that the Department of City Planning has certified its push to rebuild its Washington Square South superblocks . But don’t think they are trying to pull a fast one on you! [ more › ]
Read more from the original source:
NYU: All Your Superblocks Are Belong To Us
It’s New Year’s Eve, so here’s our PSA: Drink responsibly. If you are drinking, don’t drive—take a cab, take mass transit (subways and buses are running on a Sunday schedule), and the Department of Transportation is even handing out $15 Taxi card and single-ride Metrocards today at 5 p.m. on the Upper East Side and in Harlem —and drink water! [ more › ]
Read the original:
Reminder: Stay Hydrated So Your First 2012 Hangovers Is Less Awful
Looking back over 2011 this week—from the natural disasters to girl walk all day to the tasty food trends , from the cycling wars to the viral subway videos to all the adorable animal stories —we came across a ton of very popular, only-in-NYC type stories that have provoked discussion many an internet argument. 2011 was the year the Rapture didn’t happen (twice), the year we attended a 9/11 Truther conference, and the year we opened the floodgates to the Ron Paul Nation. Click through to check out some of our most memorable, bizarre stories. [ more › ]
See more here:
The Top 10 Bizarre Stories Of 2011, The Year The Rapture Didn’t Happen
Besides not firing your gun into the air to somehow welcome the New Year , the NYPD has some advice for you, if you’re going to Times Square tonight : Don’t bring backpacks, packages, large bags or any alcohol. Also, pocketbooks will be inspected. [ more › ]
Read more here:
Cops Begin New Year’s Eve Closures In Times Square
Yesterday one of the nation’s longest running “Occupy” encampments was evicted by police in Albany, the capital of the Empire State. After two months in a park across from City Hall and the Capitol, the Department of General Services workers and city policy notified protesters yesterday afternoon that a court order had given them the authority to remove them. As a group of demonstrators angrily shouted in protest, workers took down the tents until just one large tent (the “info tent”) remained. After a standoff, at least 50 occupiers seized this tent and paraded it through the city, then, as night fell, returned to the park for a final showdown with the cops. [ more › ]
Excerpt from:
Video: Cop Pepper Sprays Occupy Albany Protesters Right In Front Of Santa