Posts from — January 2008

Firemen’s Memorial by dlemieux on Flickr.

FDNY Graduates 1st Class From Extended Training Academy (NY1)

The Great Fire of 1835 (CUNY Virtual NYC)

Fire Insurance Maps of the Five Boroughs (NYPL)

The Happyland Fire of 1990 (Crime Library)

General Slocum Photo Gallery (Greater Astoria Historical Society)

Why Did Bushwick Burn? (City Noise)

Names and Home Addresses of the Victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (Cornell University Kheel Center)

Click for a ‘Cloverfield’ film review from Neil Rosen of NY1. (RealPlayer)

The Times Ledger reports that Prospect Cemetery in Jamaica will be receiving a grant of $500,000 via the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the State Environmental Protection Fund to assist with ongoing preservation efforts.

Prospect Cemetery is one of the oldest in the city–1668!–and contains the graves of some of Queens’ earliest residents, as well as 53 Revolutionary War veterans, 43 Civil War veterans, 3 Spanish-American War veterans, and families like the Sutphins, (Sutphin Boulevard), and Van Wickes (the Van Wyck Expressway).

The cemetery was designated a city landmark in 1977, but had suffered from a lack of restoration funds and an abundance of weeds. The Prospect Cemetery Association has worked with city, state, and preservation groups to assist in the revitalization of the grounds and the deteriorating Chapel of the Sisters.

As with most hidden/interesting places in New York City, Forgotten NY also has a great photo tour of the cemetery.

The New Museum has some of the grooviest new restrooms in the city. Angular, minimalist fixtures are set against a background of vibrant cherry blossom-themed tilework (orange for the guys, aqua for the gals). It’s a pleasure to do your business, wash your hands, and then, um, paper towel? hand dryer? a little help?

Unfortunately, the sleek, modernist vision shatters at this point, as one can see in the photo below. A decidedly non-metallic, non-angular (curling, actually) scrap of paper directs you to stick those wet hands into the otherwise inconspicuous wall recess. Kudos to the staff member who took the time to print out the label and head off a thousand drying dilemmas. In this age of no-touch sensors (that never seem to work correctly), auto-flush toilets, and now hidden hand dryers, the modern lavatory can be a pretty intimidating place and any help along the way is appreciated.

For more views of the New Museum’s interiors, look here and here.

The Ninja Burglar now has a price on his head. The Staten Island Advance reports that local elected officials and law enforcement officers have announced a $5,500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the elusive thief. The award is made up of a $1,000 donation from Northfield Bank, two $250 personal donations from City Council Members James Oddo and Michael McMahon, and donations from the public.

We’ll have to wait and see if the reward will get authorities any closer to catching the resilient crook who has struck 19 times on Staten Island since May. The Advance also has a nifty Google map of the various burgled homes. Council Member McMahon said during the new conference that he hopes that the reward will help “put an end to this reign on thievery.”

One of the story’s commenters had another opinion though, stating that “I don’t think that is enough reward money. The ninja gets a lot more than that in a single score. How about the rich folks in the hills dig deep?”

Video of the news conference:

Malcolm X by AllWaysNY on Flickr.

What’s this? A delightful new bicycle parking shelter on the north side of Union Square Park.

Modern design, a large NYC cycling map, and clearly in use by cyclists.

A PSA from New York City Bicycle Safety Coalition on the side. This was all looking pretty good until a closer look found…

D’oh! The new bike shelters are a wonderful addition to the streetscape, and just the fact that they were installed at all is revolutionary for New York. However, the unfortunate theft highlights the need for multiple parking options, including secure indoor locations. Theft will obviously always occur, but let’s try our best to make it as rare as possible.

Who is John Galt? by beatak on Flickr.

Today the Post reported on the investigation into the financial shenanigans of the various contractors tasked with demolishing the Deutsche Bank building, which was damaged in the attacks of 11 September 2001. According to the story, significant sums of taxpayer dollars meant to fund the demolition may have gone into the pockets of some shady characters, via:

a questionable pattern of corporate and bank transfers involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, law-enforcement sources said. Some of the funds have passed into companies that prosecutors and city investigators suspect are “shell” businesses created on paper to mask the ultimate destinations of the money. The disclosure raises the possibility that cash may have been diverted and used for a number of illicit reasons…

…”Hundreds of thousands of dollars has been seen so far going south,” one source said. “The question is, where was it going and where did it end up?”…

The construction site’s manager, Bovis Lend Lease Corp., which was contracted by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. to oversee the entire $150 million project, retained the John Galt Company to demolish the building and remove hazardous materials from it. The LMDC, which purchased the land and the building for $90 million, was under pressure to get the demolition moving because the building was slated to be replaced with a new structure and remained a bitter eyesore next to Ground Zero.

“They were in a bind and wanted it done,” one of the sources said.

“They did not ask too many questions, and that may be why there was room for f—ing around.”

As it turned out, Galt was little more than a corporate entity utilizing officials from two other companies working on the site: Regional Scaffolding and Hoisting Co., and Safeway Environmental Corp., which had its own questionable histories and little experience…

Image: Madison Square Garden Corporation Certificate of Stock

MSG Tax Break Reconsidered (NY1)

Madison Square Garden 1879-1890 (Boxing Encyclopedia)

Madison Square Garden 1890-1925 (NY Architecture Images)

Madison Square Garden 1925-1968 (Ballparks)

MSG Boxing Milestones (ESPN)

Is The Current MSG Worth Saving? (NY Times)

The New Penn Station (MAS)

Draft Scope of Work of Moynihan Station Project (ESD)

Photo by thousandshipz on Flickr.

As the city has gone almost a year without a single indoor roller skating rink, some new proposals have been put forward recently to get those roller-discoers rolling again. One comes from Coney Island entrepreneur Lola Starr (A.K.A. Dianna Carlin) of the Lola Staar Souvenir Boutique. City Limits reports that:

Still in the negotiating phase, Carlin envisions building an eccentric venue that offers wholesome family entertainment in the daytime and burlesque-meets-disco themed parties for adults. “DJs on their turntables, disco balls, performance art and a big circuit tent over it,” gushes Carlin. “It’s going to be tons of fun.”

She’s also looking to set up a temporary space in a Coney Island parking lot to bring back the skating fun for this summer season.

Others hope that Prospect Park can become a new skating destination. Preliminary plans are in the works to construct two new ice skating rinks near Wollman Rink in the next few years. Skating boosters hope that the Prospect Park Alliance and the City will consider adapting one for roller skating use.

More at:
Gowanus Lounge
Curbed
Lola Starr