Put Your City On

Self portrait

• Buses being delivered by Cargo ship <Tugster>
  
• Halloween stuff for you this weekend <Urbanite>
  
• The South Bronx, and Proudly So <City Room>
• PODCAST: The Guggenheim Museum <The Bowery Boys>
• Reports of Pedestrian Fatally Struck on Bowery By 18 Wheeler<Gothamist>
• Inside Soledad O’Brien’s Chelsea Loft (with video) <Daily Intel>
• Frozen yogurt: Are we for or against the plethora of Pinkberrys? <I, New York>
  
• NYC Fine for Pooper-Scooper Fouls Rises to $250 <1010 Wins>
• Video from yesterday's term limits hearing. The Crowd VS Bloomberg <YouTube>
• Live Blogging the Yanks Stadium Hearing. Also, Throw All Those Fuks In Jail! Yah!
  <Runnin' Scared>
  
• Self-proclaimed Hippie Girl Loves Her Fur Bag With Eye Sockets <NY Mag Video Look Book>

8 Children From MS 45 In East Harlem Offer The News That is Important To The Community They Live In.

At the invitation of a friend, I joined him as a volunteer at Citizen Schools* this year, at MS 45 S.T.A.R.S. Prep Academy in East Harlem to be a Citizen Teacher in an after school program. Our apprenticeship aspires to teach the students about journalism, blogging, (digital publishing via twitter, flickr, etc...) community news, and photography. The culmination will be the printing of a newspaper that consists solely of stories and photographs the children will choose, doing their own research, talking with relevant parties, documenting, and writing.

We've been working with the kids for three weeks now, and last week asked them to jot down story ideas or news "that are not, but should be news in your community" with them making their own decisions about what they feel should be news.

These are the stories that 8 children who attend MS 45 S.T.A.R.S. Prep Academy in East Harlem chose, many of whom live in the immediate neighborhood. One child lives in the Bronx.

• a car accident that took place btw 108th and 109th last week, when a car turned onto 110th, hit one car, and that car hit another.
• Me and my brother were walking down the street and we saw a gang and one of the gang members screamed at my brother. The gang member was drunk and my brother didn't pay him no mind because my brother already beat him up
• More After School Programs in the school. Who chooses them? How many are there?
  
• All the new stores opening up in the neighborhood
• gangs killing each other
• people who spit all over the ground
• a building that was demolished 2 years ago is still an empty lot, and people used to live there and where did they all go and why did they demolish the building if they were not going to build a new one.
  
• P.S. 101 got changed to P.S. 375 Mosaic Prep Academy, why?
• Old men who play dominos in competition, do they play for fun or money and why?
  
• A new pizza shop opened
• A new corner store opened
• A person moved into my building and we became best friends
• A gang killed someone on my block
• A girl walked out of the deli and the deli guy came out after her and grabbed her bag and asked her if she paid for that sandwich and she was like, yes. But I don't really think she paid for the sandwich

This is the newspaper the kids are going to publish. MS 45 Stars Prep News Journal. It's gonna be good, as you can tell.

*Started in Boston in 1995, Citizen Schools has recently begun their first year of programming into NYC, with four participating schools, two in East Harlem, and two in Brooklyn. Citizen Schools is an organization that operates apprenticeship programs for middle schools students that take place over a period of 11 weeks. The programs are run by volunteers who work with a group of students to create, execute, and produce a final product, what Citizen Schools calls the WOW, which will be presented to the community at the end of the apprenticeship. The best apprenticeships address a problem, and has community value such as creating a cleaner neighborhood park, addressing violence in school, etc.

The apprenticeships are intended to be taught in a way that allows the student to be an active participant in the learning process, making some of the key decisions, and empowering the students to be invested in the outcome. You can sign up here.

More NYC: NYC The Tumblr | NYC The Twitter

Harlem World

Hair on 125th Street, photograph by specialkrb.

• Harlem fire kills man, 90 <Daily News>
  
• Harlem's Apollo theater to create oral history <Newsday>
  
• Studio Apt. on 148th and Broadway, $950 <Univision Classifieds>
• Cash for Guns Today, $200 Bank Cards for Each Gun Returned <Uptown Flavor>
  
• Photos from the Morningside Height’s Farmers Market <Harlem Condo Life>
  
• Harlem Church Hosts Gay Wedding Expo <Harlem World Magazine>

More NYC: NYC The Tumblr | NYC The Twitter

The View From The Front Of The Subway

Viddler user labanex has uploaded 8 videos recording the journeys of a 7 train, videos that were recorded by his father who apparently mounted a camera at the front window while he was driving the trains. The above video is over one hour long, and the other 7 are lengthy recordings as well. , The video above being my favorite, as it starts in the tunnel, and then out and up the track where the Manhattan skyline is visible in the distance. The houses below, people waiting on the platform for the trains arrival, the conductor announcing the next stop echoing thru the station. The video is oddly captivating to watch, and def rivals any Thomas the Tank Engine show. All 8 videos can be found here.

(via: SubwayBlogger)

More NYC: NYC The Tumblr | NYC The Twitter

Put Your City On

Running in Central Park in August

• An Artist’s Guide to Obtaining Public Housing <BushwickBK>
  
• What will become of the 55,000 videos from Kim's Video on St Marks? <Art.Cult>
  
• Legalize prostitution in NYC? <Urbanite>
  
• Answers About the History of Wealth, Part 2 <City Room>
  
• Overheard in New York: Biking Up 35 Percent in 2008 <Streetsblog>
  
• Snooty Brit Paper Shows Morons Enjoying Banksy Show <Runnin Scared>
  
• On the Street...West 18th Street, NYC <The Sartorialist>
  
• Serious, fuk CMJ. Jeez.<Fifth Column Blogs>
  
• New condos by the hundreds are going unsold. Should you stand clear—or dive in?
  <NY Mag>
• Matt Everett, 27, is the visual coordinator at the new Brooks Brothers store on Broadway and 65th Street, in charge of windows <NYTimes>
• NYTimes Company Stock Hits 52-Week Low<NY Observer>

More NYC: NYC The Tumblr | NYC The Twitter

Volunteer To Be A Part Of The Village Voice Halloween Parade

5d nyc village halloween parade, photograph by scubapup.

One of the years most widely appreciated events in nyc is coming up next week, the infamous Village Voice Halloween Parade, now in it's 35th year. Called the world's greatest festival with over 2 million people attending from all over the world, and utilizing awe-inspiring puppetry commisioned by world class artists, you can choose to be an active participant by volunteering in the Parade. The Village Voice Halloween Parade is taking place next Friday evening, Oct. 31. and needs volunteers to be part of their puppets, a marshall, or to help out in anyway you can running errands, assisting others, etc...This years' theme is Ghosts, and the parade is dedicated to Rudie Berkhout, "Merrymaker, Genius, Creator, Humanist, Lover, Composer, Artist, Holographer, Mentor, Explorer, Visionary, Mystic, Instigator, Teacher."

It is not too late to volunteer, and you can do by filling out an online form here, or by calling 917.620.7865. The Voice cautions those who have never puppeteered in the parade,

"Puppeteering in the Parade requires a fast two-mile walk, often carrying something unwieldy at the end of a long pole. Veterans of previous Parades will tell you, this takes a fair amount of physical endurance. Some of our jobs are easier than others, but they are all fun.

Volunteer Marshals do NOT carry puppets. Instead, they have the important position of helping to ORGANIZE the Parade from initial line-up to completion. Marshalls work alongside other Volunteers and Parade Staff to keep things running smoothly."

As well, if you would like to be a part of the parade's procession as a costumed guest, you need can show up in costume on the South or East side of 6th Avenue btw Canal and Spring St. starting at 6:30pm. The theme of this years parade is Ghosts, and the parade begins promptly at 7pm. The parade route is shown here. The afterparty will take place at Webster Hall on 125 East 11th Street 212.253.1600

Information about the parade can be found here at the Village Voice's website. Volunteer information can be found here, and the form to fill out is here. The 2007 photo gallery can be seen here. See you at the parade!

More NYC: NYC The Tumblr | NYC The Twitter

Harlem World

NFC all day, North West side of ACBD Station at 145th

• Bus Station at 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard is missing something
  <City Room>
  
• Photos of the newly opened Harlem Piers Bike Path <Flickr>
• Malik-16 pays homage to his block with a new video <YouTube>
• Some interesting stats on the recent statistical changes in the median sale price for homes in Harlem <Hart Family>
  
• "Harlem finally has a Trbeca style Loft to call its very own!" Sure, if you consider a small unremarkable one bedroom a "Trbeca style Loft" then yah, ok.
  <Village Voice Backpage.com>
  

More NYC: NYC The Tumblr | NYC The Twitter

The Buzz On Matt Drudge Is He Has Lost His Ability To Shape The Days Big News. Yah, Because I've Stolen His Thunder

The Anatomy of a news story in NYC, from blog buzz to mainstream press in less than 24 hours. Columbia University Students create a new erotic magazine.

After spying it on a posting dated Oct.17 on College on the Record, NYC The Blog links C-Spot, A new erotic magazine by Columbia University students, on Oct.21.

NYC The Blog sends out email tips out to NY Press, Gawker, Gothamist, etc...that morning. It appears on each site hours later(NSFW), as well as elsewhere.

Completing it's journey to a story worthy of dead trees and plundered planets, the NY Post prints the story the next morning. Has the story reached it's final destination?

p.s. Mr. O'reilly even though the magazine was not my creation, I'd be happy to come on your show and play the role of naive, sex crazed, liberal ivy league college student while you scream and yell at me. That would be exciting and I would like that.

UPDATE: Related, from Gawker, "The Post is now officially a blog on paper"'

More NYC: NYC The Tumblr | NYC The Twitter

Put Your City On

Opening tomorrow night at the Italian Academy of Columbia U, btw 117 and 118 on Amsterdam

• ObamaBike Sells, Democratic Candidate Just Got A Little Richer <Animal>
  
• Trace of an old pet shop surfaces where Duane Reade once held court <Urbanite>
  
• Answers About the History of Wealth in New York <City Room>
  
• Hotel Chelsea Residents Faced With Eviction Notices <Gothamist>
  
• Clowns at Lincoln Center! the Big Apple Circus returns <The Bowery Boys>
  
• Chanel Mobile Art is a Bizarre Example of Consumerism for Sexy-Chic Strivers
  <Fifth Column Blogs>
  
• A Guide To Japanese Candy In NYC <NY Mag>
  
• Urban Fiction Goes From Streets to Public Libraries <NY Times>

More NYC: NYC The Tumblr | NYC The Twitter

Gospel Singer Arlethia Lindsey At The 125th St ABCD Station

(youtube) Because as you might have noticed, that's how we do up here. "Faith in Jesus is the only way to God. Amen."

Related videos:
The Most Cavernous Subway Station In NYC?
Subway Dancers On The D Train, From 145th To 161st
Daniel Smalls AKA Geechee Dan: 59th St ABCD Subway Station
Big Daddy Kane - Ain't No Half-Steppin' Live @ Marcus Garvey Park
Kelton Hundredz Hustles His Demo On The Corner Of 145th And St. Nicholas, Harlem

More NYC: NYC The Tumblr | NYC The Twitter

Harlem World

*this* is a bar, photograph by litherland

• "Boasting at least 7 large Parks, Harlem forms an integral part of the Emerald Highway for migrating birds" <Harlem Hybrid>
• Robots & Rockets for Harlem’s Youth <Uptown Flavor
• West Harlem Piers Bike Path is now open <Streetsblog>
• If you missed Harlem during the recent OHNY, that's ok, because the Uptown Treasures Tour held this past weekend covers the same sights and D.Bell has photos
  <Uptown Flavor>
• A Greek Restaurant in Harlem. Yup. <Harlem Condo Life>
  
• Starting tomorrow, you can catch Giorgio Brogi's Out of Sync @The Italian Academy, Columbia University <ArtCal>
  
• Screening of Whose Barrio? this Saturday at Maysles Cinema this Saturday. This is a don't miss film. <Maysles Cinema>
  
• Harlem 350, an exhibition saluting the founding of the village of Harlem in the 17th Century, is at Cohen Library Atrium <CCNY Libraries>

More NYC: NYC The Tumblr | NYC The Twitter

Guidebook Says Screw It, Lets Incorporate The LES, Nolita, And Chelsea Into Brooklyn; Advancing A New Reality For Manhattan As Brooklyn's Hanger On

UnScene "is a free guide for the less mainstream, more innovative businesses in our metropolitan areas." The guides are a vehicle for paid advertising which focus on unique and small shops that populate any number fo neighborhoods in NYC. They currently have guides for a number of U.S. cities, and in the NY area, a guide that covers that Borough of Brooklyn. Or rather, the neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Bushwick.

Interesting though, was the cover design of the booklet I saw. On the bottom right corner you can see text for Brooklyn prominently displayed, with the neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Bushwick falling underneath, ostensibly alerting any wayward tourist, newcomer, or even long time resident exactly what neighborhoods they could expect to find covered in their new guide book to all there is to see and do in Brooklyn.
But wait a minute? What's that listed underneath Williamsbushbick?

Hold on one minute! Aww shucks, have they listed the neighrborhoods of the LES, Nolita, and Chelsea under Brooklyn? They sure have. Unscene does not have neighborhood guides for Manhattan at this time, so fuk it, just stick LES, Nolita, and Chelsea under Brooklyn. And honestly, this seems representative of the new reality. Brooklyn is the new Manhattan, so this only seems right to list the LES, Nolita, and Chelsea in faded text underneath a new and improved large font Brooklyn.

Not like a tourist from France would know any better. And if you reverse the roles, say if I was in the 6th Arrondissement in Paris and some guide listed Versailles along with the neighborhoods, that'd seem alright with me. I mean, Fuk even our own longtime natives get the geography of these nyc neighborhoods mixed up.

More NYC: NYC The Tumblr | NYC The Twitter

Put Your City On

Orchard St looking North, around the corner from Houston

• Elementary students prove that old age adage, "my 12 year old brother knows better than you" <Streetsblog>
• Great photos of QE2 leaving NYC for good <Tugster>
  
• Two decades after scandals spurred an effort to restrict the role of money in municipal politics, an investigation finds successes and shortcomings in the landmark law.
  <City Limits>
  
• Afterword, Friend to Friend, at the Library <City Room>
  
• New Digital Bus Ads to Change With Neighborhood <Gothamist>
  
• Video of the Concorde's return to Intrepid at Pier 86 <Newyorkology>
  
• The Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum is Free This Week <The Bowery Boys>
  
• Broke Bankers Refuse to 'Eat Shit and Die,' Blog Instead <Fifth Column Blogs>
  
• I'm Your New Teacher. Hi, class. <New York Lookbook.nu>
• A bridge by any other name is still the Triborough - at least to most New Yorkers
  <The Columbia Journalist (audio file)>

More NYC: NYC The Tumblr | NYC The Twitter

Why Doesn't The MTA Provide Recycling Bins In Subway Stations?

As the two photos to the right show, both Boston and Metro-North in Conn. provide recycling bins for commuters to dispose of the huge number of newspapers riders carry with them, newspapers which have been blamed for flooding in nyc's subway stations.

According to the NYC.gov website, the MTA did at one time run a pilot program with recycling bins, placing recycling containers in high-traffic subway stations, but the program was found to be ineffective when riders of the nyc subways were found unwilling or unable to differentiate between trash and recyclable, filling the bins with both. The bins, which were installed in stations such as Jay Street in Brooklyn, have since been discontinued. Instead, the MTA continues with their own recycling methods, claiming a 40% recycling rate of all subway trash hauled out of stations. How do they achieve that?

Approximately 30 tons of trash collected daily in the nyc subway sytems gets hauled out to All American Recycling in Jersey City, where the plastic bags are torn open and the contents sorted by hand, with the General Manager of All American asserting that 40% of the material gets recycled.

Now if we could just do something about the 36,000 tons of solid waste is produced every day by the city's 8,300,000 residents and millions of workers and visitors.

More NYC: NYC The Tumblr | NYC The Twitter

Harlem World

Looking North past 125 St From the elevated train line at the 123 Subway stop

• Columbia Students Release New Erotic Magazine <College on the Record>
  
• Thursday October 30th, the Jackie Robinson Recreation Center will be hosting the Halloween Children's Festival <Exodus Foundation>
  
• W.Harlem nightclubs are fly <NYTimes>
  
• "...West Harlem residents expressed concern that evictions and rent hikes would continue to worsen in the face of economic downturn and Columbia’s expansion into Manhattanville." <Columbia Spectator>
  
• John Kelley from the BBC visits the Dance Theater of Harlem <Talking America>
  
• Mulling over the new Target coming to E.Harlem <Geo/Graphi/Culture>
  
• Recollections of growing up in E.Harlem in 1940's <The History Box>
  
• ModSquad Bike Shop Sign is Up in Harlem <Harlem Condo Life>
  
• A Harlem man was gunned down early Saturday on a basketball court a few blocks from his home at 102nd St,. <Daily News>
• The First Line of Defence. Marker honors the 225th anniversary of The Battle of Harlem Heights fought on September 16, 1776, during the Revolutionary War <HMBD>
• Man in Harlem hit by SUV, dragged by clueless driver <Daily News>
• What happens when a secular Jew walks from Harlem to Ground Zero in a burqa?
  <The Comment Factory>

More NYC: NYC The Tumblr | NYC The Twitter

NYTimes' City Room Blog Removes Young Manhattanite From Blog Roll

Poor young Andrew Krucoff. The "richest man in town", "media maven", Jew, philanthropist, and proprietor of the beloved blog Young Manhattanite, has been snubbed by another powerful media concern in NYC. Having already been escorted out of NYC's exulted media concern Conde Nast -when he was fired for leaking a memo- he was once again shown the proverbial door after the NYTimes' City Room blog removed him from their blogroll.

While browsing City Room's extensive and NYC centric blogroll yesterday, YM's absence from it was noticeable. Krucoff has chastised his underlings at YM in the past for picking on City Room blogger Sewell Chan...Could the removal of YM from the blogroll be belated payback? What happened in the backroom ICQ channels that caused the Times to snub YM?

NYC The Blog called Arthur reached City Room by email, and asked them if YM was indeed removed, and why. They quickly responded, and though you could hear the stammering in their written response, we can only take them at face value when it was claimed that there "must have been a glitch, from when we migrated to a new platform...but we'll make sure that one is visible again."

And just like that, not an hour later, Young Manhattanite was back on the General Interest section of the blog roll at City Room.

When contacted, Andrew admitted to noticing the absence of his blog and professed, "Frankly, I'm surprised it was there in the first place. I thought maybe they removed us after YM contributor 99 unjustly attacked Sewell Chan - http://gawker.com/5002044/is-times-favorite-sewell-chan-an-ass+covering-comment-nazi - but you'll notice in the comments how quickly I threw him under the M15. After all, Sewell Chan is more than the NYC blogosphere's magic bus; he's our subway system, congested streets, speedy taxis, slow-poke pedestrians and pot delivery guy. As far as the blogroll, I'm just happy to see the 92Y Blog still on there."

More NYC: NYC The Tumblr | NYC The Twitter