Posts from — March 2008

Mary Ellen Mark by dlemieux on Flickr.

Though high school prom season isn’t yet upon us, ladies have got to start selecting a dress and getting it fitted if it will be ready for May or June. The Daily News did an informal survey of high schools and found that the average cost of attending the prom this year will be a whopping $1,000. Here’s a roundup of some average costs across the five boroughs:

Francis Lewis High School - Queens
Prom Date: June 5, 7 p.m.-midnight
Location: Crest Hollow Country Club, Woodbury, L.I.
Average Costs: Prom ticket: $80; photo package: $15 and up; dress: $200; shoes: $100; hair and makeup: $80; eyebrow waxing/threading: $10; manicure and pedicure: $25; purse and jewelry: $30; boutonnière: $30; after prom: $160 for heading out of town overnight; transportation: $120
Total: $850

Bronx High School of Science - Bronx
Prom Date: June 5, 7 p.m.-midnight
Location: Waldorf-Astoria
Average Costs: Prom ticket: $185; dress: $275; shoes: $100; hair and makeup: $70; purse and jewelry: $75; after prom: $200 (trip to Atlantic City in limo), or suite at the Waldorf-Astoria for one night - rates from $669-$909 (suite); transportation: $100.
Total: $1,005-$1,714

Stuyvesant High School - Manhattan
Prom Date: June 14, 8 p.m.-1 a.m.
Location: Waldorf-Astoria
Average Costs: Prom ticket: $180; dress: $250; shoes: $70; hair & makeup: $82; manicure & pedicure: $42; purse & jewelry: $100; boutonnière: $35; after prom: $180 for a hotel room and room service with four girlfriends; transportation: $125
Total: $1,064

Curtis High School - Staten Island
Prom Date: June 6, 7-11:30 p.m.
Location: Cornucopia Cruise Line’s Majesty ship
Average Costs: Prom ticket: $100; photo package: $40; dress: $114; shoes: $30; hair: $50; makeup: $25; eyebrow waxing: $8; manicure: $21; pedicure: $18; purse: $20; boutonnière for date: $8; transportation: $135; after prom: $50
Total: $619

Fort Hamilton High School - Brooklyn
Prom date: May 30, 7:30-midnight
Location: Pier 60 at Chelsea Piers
Average Costs: Prom ticket: $160; photo package: $45; dress: $325; shoes and accessories: $179; hair, makeup, mani-pedi and waxing: $157; after prom: $48 theme park ticket.
Total: $914

Take it away, Jay…

This past Tuesday marked the 97th anniversary of the tragic fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in which 148 workers perished.

Interactive map of the residences of the fire victims (CHALK)

Comprehensive Triangle Factory Site (Kheel Center at Cornell)

Newspaper accounts of the Fire (University of Missouri Kansas City School of Law)

Photos of the aftermath of the fire (New Deal Network)

Transcripts of the criminal trial against the Triangle Factory owners (Kheel Center)

NYU hopes to put retail at base of Brown Building (NYU 2031)

NYC School Breakfast by Runs With Scissors on Flickr.

Although Mayor Bloomberg has sought to new ways to make New York the “green” apple, the Department of Education continues to rot the barrel with the 850,000 Styrofoam food trays tossed by the school system every single school day. In an effort to mitigate the environmental impact of these trays, which will take about 10,000 years to break down, P.S. 154 in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn became the first in New York City to renounce Styrofoam.

Lunch ladies will now spoon the Tater Tots and fruit cocktail into eco-friendly trays composed of the pressed sugarcane pulp called bagasse. The material is what is left over after a sugarcane stalk has been crushed to remove its juices, and has been used as bio-fuel in the past and can also be molded into the form of trays and food containers. In contrast to Styrofoam, the bagasse trays take about 45 days to break down and can be composted.

Alas, the DOE has refused to provide any kind of support for this venture, so the program at P.S. 154 has been privately supported by Brooklyn Industries and a wine store called Juice Box. The DOE has no plans to switch city schools from Styrofoam trays anytime soon; Styrofoam is 33% cheaper than bagasse.

Rendering of one of the proposed redesign schemes from NYSDOT.

Back in February, AllWaysNY highlighted some of the roadblocks facing the New York State Department of Transportation’s plans to demolish and replace the almost 70-year-old Kosciuszko Bridge. The New York State Historic Preservation Office had raised questions about the destruction of the current bridge and suggested that the current span be reincorporated into the new design. The NYSHPO believed that the bridge represented an interesting variation of the Warren truss type bridge, and asked the DOT to justify the demolition–preventing the DOT from finalizing its plans.

Last week the NYSHPO dropped its objections to the demolition. It seems that upgrading the current Kosciuszko to meet 21st century highway safety requirements would have so altered its features that it was not worth preserving the structure.

With the last few regulatory hurdles passed, demolition and construction to upgrade and replace the one-mile portion of the BQE that contains the bridge, roughly from the LIE/BQE interchange in Queens to Morgan Avenue in Brooklyn, will begin around 2011.

Seal of the Borough of Brooklyn on Flickr.
Een Draght Mackt Maght = In Unity There is Strength.

The family of Carol Gotbaum has filed a notice of claim today against the City of Phoenix, opening up the door to a lawsuit in the wake of Ms. Gotbaum’s death. Carol Gotbaum, the daughter-in-law of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, died last September while being held by police in a cell at the Phoenix Airport. Reports say that the family will sue for an amount in the neighborhood of $8 million.

She had been traveling alone from New York City to an alcohol treatment center in Arizona when, according to police, she began screaming after she missed her flight. She was taken into custody and left in a holding cell in the airport. When police checked in on her minutes later, they found her dead, accidentally strangled with her own shackles.

The Gotbaum family feel the police did not handle the situation correctly in allowing an emotionally distraught woman with a history of depression and alcohol abuse to remain in a cell without supervision. The Phoenix Police counter that they could never have known about her fragile emotional state and that they handled the situation as well as they could with the information they had at the time. They also stuck it to the family–chastising them for allowing Gotbaum to travel to Arizona on her own.

Prepping Home Plate by Dog Company on Flickr.

As Yankee and Shea Stadiums enter their last year of service, worry is beginning to build about the prospect of fans trying to steal their own little piece of history.

The Yankees and the Mets working with the city government to try to arrange a deal to let them to purchase the rights to sell physical momentos from their respective stadiums. But if past stadium closings have been any guide, fans take it upon themselves to “rescue” significant or historic artifacts as stadium demolitions draw near.

The last few games may be particularly troublesome for ball clubs, as “there have been full-scale riots at some ballparks,” said Mike Heffner, of Lelands.com, an auction house that has handled several stadium sales. On Sept. 30, 1973, after the home team lost the final game at Yankee Stadium before it shut for renovations, some 20,000 fans stormed the field. Stadium security guard Harvey Levene was told to protect home plate. “I stood on the plate and people came running at me with shovels,” said Levene, now 69 and living in Las Vegas.”

MTA Logo on Flickr.

Once again, an inability to plan for fluctuations in the city’s economy has caused the MTA to put promised service improvements on hold. The subway and bus system upgrades that the MTA promised in return for recent fare hikes are most likely not going to happen any time soon–if at all. Plans for increased service on the 1, 3, 4, 6, G, and R lines, increased numbers of attendants at high-traffic stations, and new and extended bus routes have all been put on hold, because–surprise!–the MTA may be facing another budget shortfall. At least this time they are only off by the tens of millions and not the billions of other times.

The MTA blames the poor state of the real estate market as the reason its revenues fell short of what had been projected. This month alone they were planning on $110 million in revenue from real-estate transactions, but only collected $79 million.

The MTA is going to wait until June before deciding whether they will be able to move ahead with any of these improvements later in the year. While we wait to see whether any of the service upgrades actually happen, the MTA reminds us to patronize the stores affected by the construction of the 2nd Avenue subway line–that is before we find out that this project has also been put on the chopping block.

March 25, 2008   2 Comments

Happy Land: 18 Years Later

by AllWaysNY

On this date in 1990, a fire set by a spurned boyfriend at the Happy Land nightclub in the Bronx killed 87 people, mostly Honduran immigrants celebrating the Punta Carnivale weekend. Recently unemployed and just dumped by his girlfriend (who worked in the club’s coat check), Julio Gonzalez purchased $1 worth of gasoline from the local Amoco station, dumped it at the entrance of the club and lit a match. Mark Gado of the Crime Library describes in chilling detail what happened next:

On the second floor, the music was blasting and most in the crowd were unaware of what was happening. They had no way of knowing they had just minutes to live. The fire burned ferociously within the enclosed hallway as the inside door began to glow red from the heat. The D.J., Ruben Valladarez, saw what was happening and tried to warn the crowd. He could see the fire down below from the 2nd floor landing. He stopped the music, raised up the houselights and screamed to the crowd. Some people began to take notice and tried to exit. They crowded around the stairway to go down but were turned back by the smoke and the heat. The situation was becoming desperate…

The people on the top of the steps screamed and fled in terror. “Fuego! Fuego!” they screamed. Within seconds, a huge cloud of toxic, black smoke filled the staircase. As the blaze began to feed upon itself, the heat increased dramatically. The realization of a fire then became immediate to everyone. Soon the crowd on the dance floor was in a full panic as the black smoke poured unobstructed into the room. There were no windows in the 60’ by 20’ club. People instinctively fell to the floor face down where at least they could breathe if only for seconds. For some it was already too late. Those sitting at the tables had already inhaled the poison gasses and a few breaths of such a mixture is all it takes…

Some patrons were later found sitting at their tables still clutching their drinks. Those closest to the stairwell died first, where 19 bodies were later found in a pile. Some had severe burns, but all died from smoke inhalation…

The fire roared like an express train out of control. People were screaming and fighting each other to get to the stairway. But the way out was fully engulfed by flames. In less than three minutes, the second floor was filled with dense, compacted smoke and lethal gases, which were concentrated to extremely high levels. By the dozens, the partygoers fell into unconsciousness, stumbling onto the chairs, tables and each other. The fire continued to burn unmercifully, sending superheated gases into the room, filling every nook and cranny, every corner, every square inch of space with poison smoke until the crying, the panic and the suffering stopped. Then, there was only silence. Silence but for the persistent sounds of reggae and Honduran calypso still playing in the background, a faint reminder of the brutality of life and the indiscriminate cruelty of death…

Read the entire account here.

March 25, 2008   No Comments

AWNY Video Connection

by AllWaysNY

Going crazy for Crazy Eddie is not easy, as this outtake reel shows.

March 24, 2008   No Comments