Pedicabs aren’t just for tourists anymore: Beginning next month, people in Harlem can come on and take a free ride.
Amir Chizic, owner of BicyTaxi NYC, is sending 10 pedicabs uptown to offer free trips within 20 blocks of 125th St.
Ava Brock, 4, and her sister Madeline, 2, ham it up for the camera as they watch the St. Patrick's Day parade today on the corner of Madison Avenue.
Police blocked off 40th St, between 7th and 8th Avenue, after a suitcase was found near a synagogue this morning. The bomb squad later determined that the suitcase was harmless.
By Mary Stachyra and Lois Desocio. Originally published for the New York City News Service
“Obama! Obama!”
The chants and the beat of drums overwhelmed the Harlem State Office Plaza last night on 125th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. When CNN declared at about 11 p.m. that Barack Obama had won the presidency , the crowd erupted in a glorious, pulsing frenzy.
“We makin’ history tonight,” said Sharon Farley as she danced joyfully on a bench. “No sleep for us! We’re gonna celebrate all night!”
From Times Square to Bedford-Stuyvesant, to living rooms to church basements to bars around the the city, New York marked the election of the country’s first African-American president with dancing, horn-honking, hollering and tears of joy.
But the biggest display of emotion came in Harlem, where thousands – including big name politicos like U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel and Gov. David Paterson – gathered in the plaza to watch the election returns on a loud jumbotron.
Firefighters, police officers, paramedics and security guards swarmed through the New York Times building today after delivery of a suspicious package.
FDNY and police officers prepare to bring medical equipment and a gurney inside the building.
The main entrances were closed, although Times employees were allowed in through a service elevator next to the 40 St. entrance.
Dozens of curious spectators mingled along the sidewalks on 8 Avenue and 40 St early Wednesday afternoon, while restless employees lined up to enter the building. For about an hour, police barricaded the sidewalk in front of the 40 St. entrance.
Confusion was widespread, as many bystanders speculated that someone had again attempted to climb the Times building. At one point, a man yelled out, “get down from there!”
A photographer takes a picture through the building's glass walls by the 40 St entrance.
Police eventually determined that the package, which contained a white powdery substance, was not harmful, the Times reported this afternoon.
For a slideshow of photos, click here.
**All slideshow photos by Mary Stachyra. Edited and updated from original breaking news post.
New York Family has a number of resources for families in the city.
The New York Hall of Science and the American Museum of Natural History has many exhibits and exhibitions that will keep kids busy with educational activities.
Or maybe you’re tired of “Mommy and Me” classes. Maybe your child hates the preschool playgroup. Or maybe you just want something a little out of the ordinary. If so, check out these classes.
A frayed linen hairnet, leather sandals half-rotted with age and a clay jar appear inconspicuous on their own. But in a room with the Dead Sea Scrolls, they offer a compelling glimpse into a culture lost nearly two millennia ago.
That’s what the Jewish Museum hopes visitors will find in a new exhibit, “The Dead Sea Scrolls: Mysteries of the Ancient World,” which opens on September 21.
Six fragments from the scrolls—discovered over 60 years ago in a cave in the Judean desert—are on display until January 4, along with artifacts from an ancient community often associated with the scrolls.
Photo by Mary Stachyra
“The fragments from these six scrolls have never before been seen in New York City,” said Susan Braunstein, Curator of Archaeology and Judaica at the Jewish Museum.
In fact, they are rarely seen anywhere. The Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) has strict rules to preserve the texts, and individual fragments can only be displayed for ninety days each year.
Discovered over 60 years ago in Qumran, in the Judean desert, the scrolls, now fragile and brown with age, contain biblical verses, religious teachings, prophecies and prayers.
Scholars are divided as to who actually used the scrolls.
Did the Essenes, a small Judaic sect located near the cave, use the scrolls? Or were the caves a library of sorts for many communities—a place to store sacred texts?
“The original mainstream view was that the Essenes” used this materiel, said Prina Shor, Head of the Artifacts Treatment and Conservation Department at the IAA. “Now there is no majority view.”
The artifacts from the Essene community have also fueled new speculation among scholars. The hairnet, in particular, raises questions. Ancient historians—the source of most information on the sect—said that the Essenes were an all-male community. So why were women’s hairnets found in the area?
Whatever the case, the exhibit is a rare chance for New Yorkers to see the scrolls. The preservation rules make it unlikely that they will come to New York again anytime soon.
“They were preserved in caves for 2,000 years,” said Shor. “It is our duty to preserve them for at least 2,000 years more.”
The economic turmoil of the past few weeks has hit the country hard. Businesses across the nation have sustained a sharp blow as Americans continue to cut back on expenses.
A slideshow of pictures taken inside local businesses on Fifth Avenue late Friday afternoon and early evening shows a startling lack of customers.
This Spirit Halloween store on Fifth Avenue looked like a ghost town on Friday.
New Yorkers Debate Whether to Drill for Natural Gas in City’s Watershed
“Drill, baby, drill,” was the refrain at the Republican National Convention last week, but at a New York City Council hearing on drilling for natural gas in the city’s watershed, the loudest voices opposed drilling.
In recent months, environmentalists have voiced fears that New York state would open up the city’s watersheds for natural gas drilling. The watersheds are reservoirs in the Catskills that provide unfiltered drinking water for all of New York City. Concerned residents packed the council hearing today to sound off on their fears that the water supply would be contaminated, while the natural gas industry testified that there would be no damage.
Drilling in the city’s watershed is “just not feasible,” said James Gennaro, chair of the council’s Committee on Environmental Protection. “It is completely inconsistent with a drinking water supply.”
Most of the council members had left by the middle of the meeting, leaving Gennaro to grill representatives from the Energy API, the U.S. Oil and Gas Association and the Independent Petroleum Association of America.
They said that “development of natural gas resources in the Marcellus Shale will not pose any significant risk to the drinking water supplies of New York City.”
Then Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Grannis suggested that concerns over drilling in the waterways were premature.
“DEC has not received any applications for drilling in New York City’s watershed,” said Grannis. “None.”
He said DEC had received a “handful” of permit applications to drill elsewhere in the Marcellus Shale-Catskill watershed. NYC’s watershed is a portion of the larger Marcellus Shale watershed.
However, some lawmakers and activist groups said that preemptive action may be necessary. Assemblyman James Brennan, (D) 44th district, has introduced a bill that would temporarily ban drilling in watersheds throughout the state. The bill would also permanently ban drilling in the NYC watershed. State Senator Frank Padavan, of the 11th district, has said he will sponsor the bill when it reaches the state senate.
Assemblyman Brennan said that his bill had so far faced no opposition.
Carol Lawson, a lifelong Queens resident, said she came to City Hall because she is concerned that toxic chemicals would be introduced into the water supply.
“I am here because I am concerned about the effects of toxic chemicals on developing children,” said Lawson, an early intervention and child development specialist. She said she feared that chemicals that could lead to birth defects and learning disabilities might be introduced into the water that would lead to birth defects and learning disabilities.
Author’s note: For the sake of clarity, this entry was postdated to reflect the day it was written, not published.