Put Your City On: Chinatown Crackdown; Meeting Your Neighborhood Livingroom Librarian; Mapkins; More!

Seen from 56th Street, the Hudson River glows in the mid-day sun

• Know Your Neighbor: Natsuko, The Home Librarian [WNYC]
• Thinking about buying some New York City Mapkins for the house [City Store]
• Toot ‘n Blink celebrates the harbor and boat as a musical instrument with a live-action maritime performance plus radio/internet broadcast (WFMU has the audio) [Tugster]
• NYPD tests new Taser that would give cops ability to fire with more precision [Daily News]
• Feds Arrest 23 New York Chinatown Business Owners in Unauthorized Worker Ring. Watch out bear bile vendors! [Fox News]

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Taking A Walk Inside The Freedom Tunnel

Photographer and filmmaker Charles le Brigand took a walk inside the Freedom Tunnel, an Amtrack train passage running under Riverside Park on Upper West Side, and shot the beautiful video above.

Under Manhattan’s Upper West side, runs the “Freedom” Tunnel. Built in the 30’s by Robert Moses, the passage boasts legendary graffiti murals and piles of debris remaining of the past homeless city era.

[...]

Chris Pape, aka Freedom, was one of the pioneers and his work inspired the name of the tunnel. “Freedom” painted immense murals utilizing the unique lighting provided by the ventilation ducts, turning the tunnel into an extraordinary underground art gallery. Some of his most notable paintings survived for decades and are still conspicuous today (“Venus de Milo”, the “Coca-Cola Mural”, Dali’s “Melting Clock”,a self-portrait featuring a male torso with a spray-can head, etc.).

» Follow NYC The Blog on Facebook and Twitter. Video credit: Charles le Brigand/Vimeo

Meet Jason Cordero 'The World's Happiest Boy'

Queens resident Jason W. Cordero is twelve years old. Hailing from Ecuador, he started playing piano by ear at the age of six on a toy keyboard his father bought him. He now takes lessons, and can likely be seen in Herald Square or Times Square subway stations playing piano with his father keeping watch nearby. His business cards identify him as a Pianist, a Music Star, and the World's Happiest Boy.

Previously:
Subway Musician Prof. Edwardo Alvarado
Gospel Singer Arlethia Lindsey At The 125th St ABCD Station
Daniel Small AKA Geechee Dan: 59th St ABCD Subway Station

» Follow NYC The Blog on Facebook and Twitter. Video credit: Paolo Mastrangelo/NYC The Blog

DCAS Employees Practice Their Fire Drills

Hundreds of city employees bring up the rear as they stream through out of the DCAS building at 1 Centre Street and through Cardinal Hayes Place on their way to Worth Street (map) in downtown Manhattan yesterday morning during an emergency and fire drill.

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Hopeful Restaurateur In SoHo Reaches Out To Community

The "for lease" sign that used to hang at 5 King Street, just south of Houston, is soon to become a "just opened" sign. The optimistic owner has posted flyers around the neighborhood reaching out to residents, hoping to allay any fears and 'build community.' Poor guy must have nightmares about Anna Wintour showing up at the Community Board 2 meeting next Wednesday and speaking out against the restaurants application for a liquor license. To head her off at the pass, the owner has posted flyers posted around the neighborhood inviting residents to call or email with any questions or concerns they might have, in advance of the CB2 meeting.

"It is a small space of 1,200 feet," the flyer expains. Not some huge eyesore of a place like Pulino's. See the flyer in large size below.

Put Your City On: Lourdes Leon Enjoys Her Mother's Music; New Roosevelt Tram Arrives; SoHo No Like Canal Street; More!

Hitting it right at the skate park on East 12th Street

• Madonna's daughter Lourdes catches her theatrical set construction teacher at La Guardia High School rocking out to Ray of Light [Zorica] 
• The affluent residents of SoHo struggle with life on Canal Street [Curbed]
• Sources Say New Jersey Gov. Christie to Pull Plug on Hudson River Tunnel [WNYC]
• New Roosevelt Island Tram Cabin Docked In Station, Attached To Carriage Track And Taking Test Rides Over East River [Roosevelt Islander]
• After a two-decade process, the Museum at Eldridge Street will unveil the conclusion of its restoration of the Eldridge Street Synagogue [WSJ Greater New York]

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Tin Foil Conspiracies

Though everyone knows you shouldn't use tin foil to reflect light while growing plants, the last time I was in room wrapped in it, that's exactly what the previous tenants had been doing.

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Waiting For Faisal

United State Marshals stand guard outside the federal courthouse on Worth Street yesterday morning while a phalanx of reporters await the sentencing of would be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad. Shahzad was sentenced to a mandatory term of life in prison.

Previous coverage on the 05/01 Times Square Bomb

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Video: Brawl Breaks Out On St. Marks Place

A large group of men broke out fighting in front of St. Marks Market on St. Marks Place (btw 2nd and 3rd Ave) early Sunday morning. It was a loud and violent scene. A passerby who recorded the altercation doesn't know what caused the fight, but believes it began after one man made advances on the girlfriend of another. Seems about right, and fits with New York City's rich history of street fighting.

Put Your City On: Raptors Take Over Central Park; Car-Free Streets; More!

Demetrius Oliver's Jupiter, a 25-by-75-foot photographic banner on a billboard adjacent to the High Line at West 18th Street and 10th Avenue on view until today, October 6, to correspond with a complete lunar cycle

• Why Some Polling Places Were Tardy on Primary Day [City Room]
• Raptor Fest 2010: Escape to New York City [Animal Tourism]
• A Car-Free Street Grows in Queens [Streetsblog]
• Vandam St Between Hudson St and Varick St [NYC Grid]

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NYC DOT: "It Is Not Legal For Anyone To Block A Crosswalk..."

After publishing photographs showing vehicles with official parking placards blocking access to crosswalks and curb cuts on Centre Street in downtown Manhattan, NYC The Blog queried the New York City DOT via Twitter on the legality of such parking. They promptly responded: "...it is not legal for anyone to block a crosswalk with or without a placard."

Previously: » Follow NYC The Blog on Facebook and Twitter. 

The Hidden Graffiti Of Chinatown

Some of Chinatown's most vibrant and colorful graffiti can only be viewed from the pedestrian walkway on the south side of the Manhattan bridge. It is from that vantage point you can see where writers have taken advantage of building walls facing the bridge to talk to each other and passersby with a multitude of tags and fillins. You can view more photos on NYC The Blog's Facebook page.


Previously: » Follow NYC The Blog on Facebook and Twitter. Photo credits: Paolo Mastrangelo/NYC The Blog

Put Your City On: Perfect City; Scandal At Hermes; More!

Lower Manhattan as seen from the Manhattan Bridge

• How Much For a TriBeCa Corner Building? [Curbed]
• Perfect City is a two-part documentary which focuses on the physical spaces in New York that helped fuel the Abstract Expressionist movement [WNYC]
• The Strangeness of Living in New York [Mr. Bellers Neighborhood]
• Scandal! Shoppers hoping for upscale bargains at an Hermes sample sale two weeks ago were disappointed by shoddy merchandise and outrageous prices [DNAinfo]

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Paul Richard's Large Carbon Footprint

Street art prankster Paul Richard left his large carbon footprint all over Greene Street last week.

Previously:
Paul Richard On Bowery
Paul Richard Installs Work Over Shepard Fairey Advertisement On Deitch Wall 
Paul Richard - NW Corner of Elizabeth at Prince 
Paul Richard - SE Corner of Spring and Mulberry

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UPDATED: Vehicles Of State And City Officials Block Handicap Access To Sidewalks; Is This Legal?

UPDATE: The New York City DOT responds via Twitter: "@nyctheblog No, it is not legal for anyone to block a crosswalk with or without a placard."

As per normal on this stretch of Centre Street, multiple cars have blocked access to the crosswalks and curb cuts in front of the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, depriving the handicap and frail the option of moving onto or off a sidewalk without difficulty or assistance. Two vehicles had official placards on their dashboard (see top right). One vehicle belonged to an NYPD employee, the other to an employee of the New York State Judicial system. Do these placards give the vehicles a right to park illegally like this? Even assuming so, their choice of parking arrangements seemed particularly inconsiderate and unnecessary considering the public parking lot only a couple of feet away that had an abundance of empty spots as illustrated in the photo below.


Previously:
While Good Times Roll For Many In Manhattan, Hundreds Gather Every Night In Downtown Parking Lot For Free Food
Downtown Manhattan's Collect Pond Park Overrun With Rats (VIDEO)
Visiting Manhattan Night Court At 100 Center St.

» Follow NYC The Blog on Facebook and Twitter. Photo credits: Paolo Mastrangelo/NYC The Blog