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Hey, Carroll Garden Residents: After Two Years, Your Smith-9th Street Station Will Finally Reopen This Morning

For the past two years, the inhabitants of Brooklyn's finest nabes have been without a major transportation hub. But that'll all end today.

The CitiBike Program to Arrive Sometime in May

Now that we have a map of stations and a confirmation from the Department of Transportation that absolute tourist mayhem won't break out, it looks like we finally are seeing this CitiBike program come into fruition with a definite arrival date. Janette Sadik-Khan, DOT commissioner, told reporters a ... More >>

Is the New Museum 'Psycho Tank' Giving People Ear Infections?

​The Carsten Höller Experience exhibit at the New Museum is doing very well -- so well, in fact, that the price of admission was just raised to a hefty $16. But it's not all innocent fun and sliding and hanging out in sensory deprivation pools; according to an item on Gothamist today, the sal ... More >>

The Shanty Bar Will Bring Even More Craft Spirits to Brooklyn

ReeseCLloyd/Flickr​The craft-spirits movement in Brooklyn just won't end. Gothamist brings word that the New York Distilling Company and its bar, the Shanty (9405 Leonard Street, Brooklyn, 718-369-3749), will open for business later this month. Tom Potter, Allen Katz, and Jason Grizzanti's bar ... More >>

Peeing Man Flees Police in Greenwich Village

via​First there was the East Village doorshitter, now the West Village has its very own excreting felon. The Daily News reports via video surveillance that the man -- described as a either black or Hispanic, 5 foot 8 inches and 20 to 25 years old -- was spotted undoing his belt and peeing or a ... More >>

Naked Bike Ride Set for Sunday

via​Because we know you've all been waiting for it, we are happy to report that the World Naked Bike Ride is happening Sunday. Postponed in June because of inclement weather, the ride will depart from East River Park near Houston Street at 4 p.m. The event's Facebook page declares: "Bare as yo ... More >>

Foie Gras Protestors Find a New Target, Miss the Greater Issue

How to draw a headline​Having presumably tired of Manhattan's fine-dining scene, foie gras opponents have taken their rhetoric over the East River to Bedford-Stuyvesant.

That Pigeon You Kicked Once Absolutely Remembers You

​This may be the most disturbing news of the day. Pigeons have the ability to discriminate between friendly and hostile people! This means that that pigeon you kicked, once, totally on accident -- the damn bird was right in your way, and you can't be looking down all the time, plus you were in ... More >>

It's Fathers' Day; Obama and Boehner Golf Together; Four Die in Montauk-Bound Cessna

via AP​Today is Father's Day! Call your Dad and grill something. Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner had a friendly lil' round of golf yesterday with Joe Biden and Ohio Governor John Kasich, and it fixed America. [The Atlantic Wire / Politico] A Manhattan family died yesterday in a ... More >>

Fight Over Train Seat Ignites Pointless, Ridiculous Subway Brawl

This Jerry-Springer-esque video of folks rampaging on a subway train, kicking and punching and tussling, has come our way by Gothamist. Apparently, this fight started "over a seat on the train," which is particularly ludicrous given how many free seats there seem to be on this train. Did anyone witn ... More >>

Williamsburg Hipsters Robbed of Prestigious 11211 Zip Code

​A letter from the U.S. Postal Service informed Williamsburg residents -- hipsters and real people alike -- that the zip code designating the Bedford Avenue gentrification haven will switch from 11211 to "the sadly less palindromic 11249," as one resident put it to Gothamist. The reasoning act ... More >>

You Can Still Smoke in Some NYC Parks

​The New York City smoking ban went into effect this week, and we noted the lax enforcement language, in which the city admits, "We expect the new law will be enforced by New Yorkers themselves, who will ask people to follow the law and stop smoking." But in Battery Park, it's going to be extr ... More >>

OMFG Ghostface Killah Has a Namesake Beer!

WikipediaWord.​Donald Trump has his own vodka, but the best celebrity booze hybrid most certainly is the new Ghost Face Killah spicy beer!

Tornados Sweep Across Iowa; Qaddafi Forces Enter Strategic Town

​As many as 11 towns in Iowa were struck by tornados last night. [CNN] In Libya, Muammar Qaddafi's forces heavily bombarded the strategic eastern town of Ajdabiyah. [Reuters] The Times has this terribly sad story about babies born addicted to opiates. [NYT]

Staten Island Woman Who Sexed 13-Year-Old Didn't Have a Very Private Facebook

​Megan Donovan, the 20-year-old Staten Island day-care worker (oof) arrested yesterday for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old boy, was a tad too open on her Faceboook page, Gothamist reports. The blog has a wacky, unfortunate photo of Donovan on a bed, but also the above status, which should ... More >>

Condoms Can Still Be Evidence of Prostitution in NYC

Carrying a condom in New York City can be proof you're a prostitute. Yes, now, in 2011. Gothamist reports that along with the City Council push to rename the Queensboro Bridge after Ed Koch, a resolution was also on the agenda yesterday meant to pressure the governor and state legislator to pass a d ... More >>

Staten Island Has a Warehouse Full of Cigarette Butts

​Somewhere on Staten Island, there is a warehouse. Inside the warehouse, there are all the cigarette butts you could ever want! There's a company called EcoTech Displays that is collecting cig butts from all over the city, putting them in this warehouse, and trying to figure out a way to recyc ... More >>

Libyan Rebels Take Control Near Tripoli; Tunisian Prime Minister Steps Down; Taxi Passenger Crashes Cab (Sunday Links)

via Gothamist​The Libyan uprising has "reached the capital's doorstep": anti-government forces have taken a town 30 miles from Tripoli, the capital. Yesterday, the U.N. approved sanctions against Libya and President Obama said that Moammar Qaddafi should step down. [NYT] Mohammed Ghannouchi, the ... More >>

Please Invite Jimmy McMillan to Every Event Ever

Hahaha, whew! Jimmy McMillan, everyone. He of "Rent is 2 Damn High" fame made quite the splash at CPAC. "If you want to marry a shoe, I'll marry you." Okay, I want to marry a shoe. Kidding. I have no idea what that means. [via Gothamist] [rgray@villagevoice.com] [@_rosiegray]

Assholes Fight on Subway, Capture Assholery for Posterity [Video]

We do everything on the subway now! Play with rats, discard what should really go in a Kleenex on walls, yell at each other, yell at each other and record it to be posted on YouTube and make us look like even bigger assholes! Here is your daily dose of "God, people are terrible." ... More >>

City Council Passes Strict Smoking Ban

SuperFantastic​New York City Council has passed a bill that prohibits smoking in public parks, beaches, boardwalks, pools, playgrounds, and pedestrian plazas. Smokers may need a cigarette to calm their nerves after reading this news.

Bed Bugs in Gramercy Park Hotel?

​Bed bugs -- our indestructible nemeses who are biting more New Yorkers than ever -- may be causing issues in the super-swanky Gramercy Park Hotel. A disgruntled employee wrote to Gothamist, telling them that bed bugs had been found in guest rooms, employee lockers, and storage rooms -- and th ... More >>

What Was All That Smoke Last Night?

via / via​If you're a New York City resident, and especially if you live in Brooklyn or Queens, you might have noticed the strong smell of burning rubber beginning at around 2 a.m. on Sunday. Smoke hung in the air and even filled subway stations, giving the mistaken impression that something o ... More >>

Rat: It's What's for Dinner, Apparently

​Yesterday, we brought you a marinated cat, and today, ever the culinarians, we have a disgusting new addition to our "animals that should not be eaten" repertoire -- rats, "the other white meat," or something.

Blog Saves Dog, Inspires 'Oh God.'

​"Jesus fucking Christ: servicey and stupid" is how ANIMAL NY blogger Bucky Turco alerted me to Gothamist's post on how they helped return a dog to its owner via the magic of microchip technology, echoing a common seven-year long critique of Gothamist's operations. After taking note of his hea ... More >>

Please Complete This Survey While a Huge Rat Comes Directly Toward Your Face

Hide. ​As rats continue their campaign to take over New York City, we're left wondering how we can take action. One way is by filling out State Senator Bill Perkins' survey, "Have you seen a rat today?," while an enormous kinda-almost 3-D Photoshopped rat looks you right in the eye. Is that a ... More >>

Rubulad Gets a Fire Marshal Visit; Due To This "Ongoing Fiasco" Their Clinton Hill Future Is Uncertain

Maro HagopianScene from Rubulad's Bunny Hop party earlier this year. Oh, Rubulad. The low-rent Cosmic Cavern. The Burning Man of Brooklyn. The place NYU students write home about as what it's "like to be inside the brain of Lady Gaga." Well, the Bed-Stuy communal-living space that intermittetly fu ... More >>

The MTA Could Really Use a Copy Editor

photo by Angela Riechers​When it comes to spelling, the MTA sometimes reminds us of what it was like to be an unfocused third grader -- same with balancing a budget, but that's another story, and it's not as funny. We showed you the FML sign at 14th Street a couple weeks ago, and a year before ... More >>

MTA Fixes 14th Street FML Faux Pas

via Gothamist​Alas, the MTA has changed the 14th Street subway signs that previously spelled FML (an acronym for "fuck my life") to a more socially acceptable (and boring) LFM, reports Gothamist in a post that also asks readers to think of a hidden meaning for the updated letters. We wonder if ... More >>

Deal Between Gothamist and Rainbow Media is Officially Dead

​We don't know whether Knicks and Cablevision owner James Dolan will be writing a new blues song about this, but we've learned here at the Voice that what was earlier just a rumor is now definitely true: the purported deal for Dolan's Rainbow Media to purchase Jake Dobkin's Gothamist blogging ... More >>

Band of Horses Not Available? Let Les Savy Fav Soundtrack Your Street Art Instead!

First Shepard Fairey gets up at the Music Hall of Williamsburg to the sweet, sweet strains of Band of Horses, Fugazi, and Metallica; now, it seems, Brooklyn vets Faile and their mysterious buddy Bast are getting in on the random street art-indie rock crossover act. The collective plus one have comm ... More >>

Sushi Samba Removes Bluefin Tuna From Its Menus

GreenpeaceSwimming towards extinction.​The proposed ban on bluefin tuna got voted down earlier this month, but at least one sushi chain seems to have realized that the fish are well and truly buggered: Sushi Samba just announced it will remove the endangered tuna from the menus at its seven lo ... More >>

BlogBeat: Gothamist Sells Out to Cablevision, James Dolan Presumably Excited to Ruin Another News Outlet

​Gothamist -- the New York City metro news blog and subsequent locally-based "Ist" properties -- long a punchline among bloggers who poked at its overly excitable tones about the varying news minutiae it covered, finally gave themselves something to giggle over: a long-rumored multi-million do ... More >>

Pies 'n' Thighs is Open

Jolie Ruben/Time Out New YorkBiscuits and fried food, hooray!​ Well, the day has finally arrived: After a two-year hiatus, Pies 'n' Thighs is open for business. Gothamist has a shot of the menu, complete with anthropomorphized illustrations of some of the animals the restaurant serves. Expect ... More >>

Jay-Z Will Get To Keep the "Z"

​What a relief. Proposed MTA "Doomsday" cuts in subway service that would've left Shawn Carter a letter short on his "nom de rap," as the New York Times so charmingly put it, have been revised, and the Z train saved. Too bad: Young Livery Cab will have to wait a bit longer to get pulled off th ... More >>

Train Pigs, a Website Created to Shame Subway Masticators

Train PigsA familiar sight to anyone acquainted with public transportation.​Because there is apparently no job too small for anyone with a camera phone and spare time, someone has given the world Train Pigs, a photographic compendium of people eating on the subway.

Naked bike protest happens, not naked

Brandi Bailey, Flickr​The scheduled topless protest "Freedom Ride" over a missing bike lane in Williamsburg went on in the snow today without nakedness, to the evident disappointment of onlookers and the assembled media. Organizers, perhaps responding to the flack they were getting from more ... More >>

The Animated, Rapping Elevator Safety Campaign That Never Should Have Been

​The wretched irony of it being Elevator Safety Week in New York right now--a fact nobody bothered to tell the city's own building inspectors, apparently--gets just a little bit worse today with the introduction of Safe-T Rider, a bewhiskered fox who raps like a self-loathing and subtitled Chu ... More >>

Local Man Disrupts MTV Awards Show 10 Years Ago

All in all, you've got to admire the restraint shown by Gothamist editor John Del Signore, who waited 10 years and--more impressively, though one supposes this wasn't exactly ever going to accord with Gothamist's VMA coverage plan-- nearly two months after the whole Kanye/Taylor Swift melodrama to ... More >>

Junior's Cheesecake May Have a Rodent Fanbase, Too

​The latest chapter in the restaurant vermin gross-out saga may be written by Junior's: Earlier today, a tipster sent Gothamist some rather incriminating photos of a mouse rummaging around in what the tipster claimed was the diner's cheesecake display case. Junior's passed its last DOH inspect ... More >>

Threatened Bus, Subway Worker Slowdown Seems Not to Be Happening, Yet (Update: Or Is It?)

The Transit Workers Union us supposed to be holding a "Day of Outrage" today. The beef is that TWU workers received an 11 percent raise in arbitration, but MTA is crying poor and is suing to overturn the ruling. The Dies Irae is supposed to include a work slowdown by bus and subway workers, but w ... More >>

Former Limelight/Avalon/Amoral Club Den Will Be A Mall Soon

Limelight renderings and photo via Gothamist.​The elegant former Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion that hunches up on 6th Avenue, a few blocks north of 14th Street, has not been treated well since God left--its subsequent tenant was the Limelight, the now-defunct club famous for the 1996 ... More >>

Bedford Avenue Crazy Man Profiled

​We are grateful to Gothamist for finding Russel Fong's short film on the Williamsburg yelling man, whom we've been wondering about. As it happens, Lawrence LaDouceur is a lot more amiable in private conversation than when yelling at the corner of North 7th and Bedford, but alas, no less crazy ... More >>

From the Weiner Wire, a Lawsuit Update

TheBusyBrain/flickr Gothamist has published a follow-up to yesterday's news that three New Jersey residents have filed a lawsuit to force hot dog companies -- including Nathan's Famous and Hebrew National -- to put warning labels on their product packaging. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the p ... More >>

BMI Sues Ludlow Venue Pianos

via LarimdaME's photostreamThe cramped, randomly-booked LES venue Pianos was apparently served with papers earlier this week indicating that BMI and a "collection of labels and artists" were suing the club for playing, without license, the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" and, of course, "Final Countdown," ... More >>

Hacked Traffic Signs Proliferate; State Taking Action

The hacked electronic traffic signs noticed by Gothamist persist! NBC says the stunt, which tells drivers in the East Village "Party at Julie's," "New York is Dying," and "Shit Bird Orl," has been pulled in other cities, such as Austin, where motorists were warned of zombies. The hacking instruction ... More >>

"Drunken Negro Face" Cookies at Lafayette Pastry

That's right. This here is what Ted Kefalinos, the owner of Lafayette French Pastry (26 Greenwich Avenue), is calling a "Drunken Negro Face" cookie in honor of President Obama. He also apparently suggested to a customer that Obama will "get what's coming to him" just like President Lincoln. The who ... More >>

"Drunken Negro Face" Cookie Post-Mortem

  Nobody in the neighborhood seemed to notice, and the nannies continued to sweep into the bakery for cookies and milk with their young charges, just picked up from Greenwich Village's P.S. 41 next door. But Lafayette Bakery--which has rather grandly called itself a "French Baker ... More >>

NYC RFD: Bad Cops, Larcenous Pol, and Filler