Tag Archives: NYC

New on Coney Island’s boardwalk, the Waterboard Thrill Ride, where beach lovers can add torture to their mix of sun, surf, and sand. If you climb up a few cinderblock steps to the small window, you can look through the bars at a scene meant to invoke a Guantánamo Bay interrogation. A lifesize figure in a dark sweatshirt, the hood …

Gothamist points us to a Flickr group called “Rich People Rooftops”, which chronicles the high-roller apartments that crown some of Manhattan’s buildings. Let’s see, in this one we have a swimming pool, a playground. and a hundred feet or so of windows. It’s livable. But also seems like it could be a health club.

Yesterday around 6PM I was in a cab stopped at a light in the West Village, just about to cross 6th Avenue at 9th Street. Looked out the window and three feet away was Sen. Joe Lieberman and his wife getting into their car. He couldn’t open his car door until we moved, so he kinda gave us a look. …

Some outfit called the Center For An Urban Future has conducted what it’s calling the first ever count of all retail chain outlets in NYC. You’ll have to embiggen to see the chart. The chain with the most outlets in Manhattan is, unsurprisingly, Starbucks. Most in all five boroughs: Dunkin’ Donuts. The complete list (PDF) includes all chains that have …

In 2005 the corner of Christopher and Hudson was renamed after Sylvia Rivera, the late transgender activist who helped found the Gay Liberation Front shortly after the Stonewall Riots. The following year Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson cofounded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, the world’s first transgender political organization. Rivera died from liver cancer in 2002.

Don’t try to use your ATM card to buy a MetroCard today. Even though a “system-wide” outage means that none of the machines are producing cards, your account is still being charged every time you swipe. The MTA says your account will be credited in two business days, but I bet there’ll be a lot of people left busted after …

There was trouble during NYC’s Critical Mass this weekend too. Via Gawker, watch a cop totally bodyslam a rider to the ground as the ride passes through Times Square. The rider was initially charged with resisting arrest and assaulting an officer for “aiming” his bike at the cop. But we’re in the YouTube era and the video seems to tell …

As Michael Bloomberg heads towards his final year as Gotham’s mayor, speculation is growing that that an effort to rescind mayoral term limits may be launched. According to the NY Post, major big business players are quietly supporting a movement for a third term for Bloomberg. The two-term limit can be lifted by a charter referendum, by state legislation, or …

Perry Street, West Village, Sunday 5pm…. Woman On Cell: Hey, I just signed the lease! The truck doesn’t come until Wednesday but I already met some of the neighbors and they said they’d help. Very nice guys. You should see them. I think everybody in the building is, like, a bodybuilder or something.

As part of Central Park’s 150th anniversary celebration, beginning today you can ride a tethered balloon to a height of 300 feet over over the trees. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Olmsted and Vaux’s Greensward plan — the original design for the world’s most famous park — the Central Park Conservancy and New York City Department of Parks & …

Vince Sandoval, a 25-year-old gay New Yorker, is going without sex for 100 days in a “social experiment” to find things to do in and around New York City that are “better than sex”. From his email to me: I started it a little more than a month ago as a social experiment and a way to explore the art …

Via Queerty: According to a new study, 40% of gay men in New York City, who have had sex with other men, hide their sexual orientation from their doctors. The study was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, and looked at data from 2004 to 2005 from the Centers for Disease Control National HIV Behavioral Survey. In the survey, …

Last night Aaron and I attended the first night of legendary multi-media performance artist Laurie Anderson’s five night stand at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater at the Time-Warner Center, where she presented a remarkably low-tech version of her latest show, Homeland. Four acoustic musicians, two backup singers, and Anderson’s keyboard with its loops and beats. No video, no lasers, nothing. And …

Aaron and I noticed this on 8th Avenue across from the New York Times building last night.

The New York Observer has posted a fascinating story about the reswishification of gay culture. Project Runway Season 1 contestant Austin Scarlett is New Old Gay, Project Runway Season 4 winner Christian Siriano is New Gay. The Scissor Sisters are New Gay. Rufus Wainwright flirts with being New Old Gay, but he’s really New Gay in a Judy Garland costume. …

Last night Aaron and I attended the first of three NYC shows by Yaz (Yazoo to you Brits) as they close out the American leg of their Reconnected reunion tour. It’s been over 25 years since Alison Moyet and Vince Clark released the second of their meager two album output, but you wouldn’t have known that by the reaction of …

Room Eight, a blog about NYC politics co-founded by popular Politico.com columnist Ben Smith, has been quietly fighting a subpoena from Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson’s office. The subpoena demanded to know the identity of the Room Eight anonymous blogger “Republican Dissident” who had criticized Johnson’s office. The subpoena carried a warning in capital letters that disclosing its very existence …

Without fanfare or press conferences, two lanes of Broadway from 42nd Street south to Herald Square have been permanently closed for the construction of a 7 block-long public esplanade to be outfitted with planters, seating, and a bike lane. In a surprising reshaping of the urban landscape, the city is creating a public esplanade along a portion of one of …

In what may be the best thing to happen to Gotham’s waning nightclub scene in many years, Mayor Bloomberg’s office has announced that he is looking into repealing New York City’s nightlife-stifling cabaret law. That 82 year-old restriction prevents three or more people from dancing in a bar or restaurant unless that establishment has a city-issued cabaret license, a treasured …

There’s a great story in the NYTimes today commemorating the 25th anniversary of NYC’s LGBT Community Center. There’s also a fun 17 photo slide show of the Center’s history, including a copy of the above story written 25 years ago by the author of today’s piece, David W. Dunlap. Dig the headline!