Melissa Mark-Viverito

Wendy's Shareholder Meeting Protested by Fast-Food Employees and Farmworkers

While shareholders gathering inside the Sofitel for their annual meeting yesterday, multiple protests mobbed the sidewalks outside on West 44th Street. Outside the hotel lobby, a crowd of Fast-food workers organized by the Fast Food Forward campaign packed the sidewalk, chanting their central deman ... More >>

UPDATE: City Council Committee Votes in Favor of Revised Minority Business Law

The amended Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise bill is headed to the Mayor's Office after the city council voted 45 to 2 yesterday in favor of the measure. Among several improvements, the amended Intro-911-A bill lifts the $1 million cap on M/WBE contracts and implements additional accoun ... More >>

City Council Committee Votes in Favor of Revised Minority Business Law

The City Council's Committee on Contracts voted unanimously yesterday to revise a law passed in 2005 aimed at helping minority and women-owned businesses secure contracts with city agencies. The committee voted in favor of the proposed Intro-911-A bill -- which is a revised version of the Local L ... More >>

Mike Bloomberg, Soda Cop: 60 Percent Of New Yorkers Hate Proposed Big-Gulp Ban

There's good news and bad news regarding Mayor Mike Bloomberg's proposed "Big-Gulp" ban. First the good news: a new poll shows that even fewer New Yorkers support Hizzonor's idiotic plan now than they did when it initially was proposed.The bad news: it's no skin off Bloomberg's ass -- he's not runni ... More >>

Breaking News: New York Teenagers Like Smoking Weed

In what might come to a shock as precisely no one, teenagers in New York like to smoke weed. What is somewhat shocking is the number of teens willing to admit that they like smoking weed.A new survey conducted by the Centers For Disease Control shows that 17.7 percent of New York City teens smoke po ... More >>

City Council Members Slam NYPD's Traffic Accident Policy, Call for Investigative Taskforce

Some months after the City Council grilled the New York Police Department's policy on of traffic crashes -- and ongoing criticism of its handling of the Mathieu Lefevre case -- several members want to establish a taskforce to investigate the Department's accident policy, which has long come under f ... More >>

Mike Bloomberg's Worthless Big-Gulp Ban: 60,000 Pissed Off New Yorkers Can't Be Wrong

As you know, Mayor Mike Bloomberg's idiotic plan to ban soda served in containers larger than 16 ounces makes precisely zero sense; relegating adults to children incapable of making their own decisions aside, the plan will do nothing but hurt New York businesses -- all while doing absolutely nothing ... More >>

Ray Kelly, Police Commissioner, Criticizes Lack of Outcry Over Violence

You have to hand it to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly for taking on all comers over stop and frisk and the recent spate of violence, which led to 77 people shot in a week and 16 murders over the July 4 holiday. On Monday, and again yesterday, Kelly railed against what he sees as apathy over the ... More >>

Harlem Walking Tour Reveals Why Mike Bloomberg's An "Idiot" And His Big Gulp Ban Will Only Hurt Businesses (And Piss People Off In The Process)

As you know, Mayor Mike Bloomberg's proposed "Big Gulp Ban" is one of the stupidest ideas in the history of both stupidity and ideas. In addition to doing literally nothing to curb obesity, it also will hurt businesses, piss people off, and it relegates adults to children who are incapable of making ... More >>

Soda Ban Backlash: Mike Bloomberg's Plan Takes Supersized P.R. Hit

Many have found Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed supersized soda ban increasingly hard to stomach. Though Mike's move -- up for a Board of Health vote July 24 -- has gotten quite a bit of criticism, opponents nationwide have started boosting efforts to fight the measure.

Melissa Mark-Viverito, Bill de Blasio Call on City To Retire Carriage Horses

Around fifty people gathered on the steps of City Hall this afternoon to demand the City Council test out a prototype electric car that they hope can replace horse-drawn carriages. That proposal, Intro. 86A, is sponsored in the City Council by Member Melissa Mark-Viverito. New Yorkers for Clean, Li ... More >>

On the Eve of May Day, a Raft of Suits Against the NYPD Over Treatment of Protesters

There are fewer than 24 hours to go before Occupy Wall Street activists, unions, and immigrant groups launch a day-long series of protests that may well constitute some of the largest demonstrations in the city's recent history. All indications are that the police are getting ready too: large group ... More >>

Scott Stringer Goes After Stop-and-Frisk, Does Not Criticize Ray Kelly In The Process

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who is expected to run for mayor, pushed forward his campaign against the NYPD's controversial stop-and-frisk policy with a press event this afternoon featuring Martin Luther King III. But as he continues his public appearances on the matter, Stringer see ... More >>

Charles Barron on Ramarley Graham and Trayvon Martin: 'This Madness Must Stop'

As New York and the rest of the nation demand answers about Trayvon Martin's death, Councilmember Charles Barron delivered a message on the steps of City Hall this afternoon that was alternatively angry and somber. Barron, joined by Ramarley Graham's parents and the family of Jateik Reed, asked t ... More >>

Mayor Bloomberg: Zuccotti Barricades Are Legal, Protesters 'Just Trying to Cause Chaos'

Mayor Mike Bloomberg has a solution for the tense police-protester relationship at Occupy Wall Street: barricades. At a press conference this morning, the mayor, responding to reporters' repeated questions about the arrests of more than 70 occupiers over the weekend, said that the New York Police ... More >>

City Unveils First-Ever LGBT Senior Center

Roger Mácon, a 64-year-old Jamaica, Queens resident, has been out of the closet for many years. But he didn't realize there were many other seniors in the city like himself that are openly gay and lesbian, too -- until he found a network of LGBT seniors through an organization called Services and ... More >>

Council Members Ask Mayor To Include City College, Columbia in Engineering Plan

In December, Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced his plans to partner with Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to build a two-million-square-foot applied science and engineering campus on Roosevelt Island. The new campus is part of Bloomberg's Applied Sciences NYC initiative ... More >>

Some People Are Not Happy With FreshDirect's Move to the Bronx

It started as a take-that-New-Jersey story -- but now it's become not-in-my-backyard. Ah, land use battles in New York City! The central character in this debate is FreshDirect, the online grocer looking for a new home, having outgrown its location in Queens. Last week, news broke that the compan ... More >>

Mayor's Budget: No Tax Increases and No Layoffs of Teachers, Police Officers, or Firefighters

Announcing the city's annual budget today, Mayor Mike Bloomberg said he would not be increasing taxes and he would not be laying off teachers, police officers, or firefighters. He said it multiple times. Runnin' Scared, watching a live feed of his announcement, counted at least three times. Can you ... More >>

Vehicle Crashes Disproportionately Hit Children in Low-Income Areas: Report

Last week, a 12-year-old girl was struck and killed as she crossed Delancey Street on the Lower East Side, in an area that has a reputation for being dangerous for pedestrians. Now, an advocacy group has said that this tragedy is part of an alarming trend -- that young children in low-income neighb ... More >>

Puerto Ricans Demand Cancelation of Work It

​For 30 year-old Puerto Rican Antoni Jimenez, being "boricua" and being a drug dealer are not synonymous, much less something to joke about, according to the Spanish-language daily. Evidently angry, the man joined dozens of protesters Thursday to demand that ABC have more respect for Puerto ... More >>

Occupy Wall Street Re-Occupies Foreclosed Home in East New York: A Report From the Scene

Nick Pinto​Occupy Wall Street organizers ushered in a new phase of their movement yesterday when about 400 people participated in a collaborative takeover to re-occupy a vacant foreclosed home in East New York for a homeless family of four. The afternoon's event, part of a collaborative Nati ... More >>

The Horse-Drawn Carriage Debate Continues; Local Groups and Celebrities Call for a Ban

Michelle D. Anderson​The effort to ban horse-drawn carriages in New York City rages on. Another report of a carriage horse collapse in a two-week span has left animal-rights advocates -- including celebrities such as Glee's Lea Michele and Pamela Anderson -- with a renewed passion to end the u ... More >>

Drivers and Politicians Lobby Senate to Pass Livery Cab Bill

Esther Zuckerman​A collation that included City Council members, yellow cab taxi drivers and the president of Livery Base Owners gathered on the steps of City Hall this afternoon to ask the State Senate to pass a bill that allows livery cab drivers to make pick-ups in the outer boroughs and th ... More >>

Today in El Diario: New York Women Are Underpaid

​New York's women underpaid A study conducted by the New York Comptroller's office found that women earn 20 percent  less than men -- when they are are doing the same job and have the same credentials, according to the Spanish-language daily. "It's really pathetic that we keep having this c ... More >>

"Poor Man's Bermuda" in Staten Island? Not anymore

For a century, 41 families have had a sweet deal on public land in Staten Island. But summer is finally over.

Landlords Forced Out of Hiding by New City Law

A little-publicized law passed by the City Council last week is intended to make it easier for tenants — and city officials — to figure out the identities of landlords of some of the city's most neglected buildings. But insiders say the law is going to be very difficult to enforce. Eve ... More >>

Adan Gonzalez, Medical Assistant, Mourned; Community Calls for an Arrest

​It took a few days, but the police have finally released the identity of a man who was fatally stabbed Saturday morning. His name is Adan Gonzalez, 28, of East 106th Street. He was a medical assistant in the urology department at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. A friend of his posted to her blog ... More >>

Bloomberg and Thompson: The (Really) Odd Couple

Now it can be told: The surprising ties between the billionaire mayor and the poor slob who ran against him

The City Moves Forward With Plans for East Harlem Kitchen Incubator

The city has put together some innovative plans to help people grapple with the recession in recent months -and at least one of them will please foodies all over the city. By the year's end, the city's Economic Development Corporation says it will outfit a 4,000 square-foot commercial kitchen in Eas ... More >>

Special Senate Committee will Consider Monserrate's Fate; GOP, Diaz Complain

The state senate leadership finally announced it would establish a special committee to consider colleague Hiram Monserrate's membership. The committee will be chaired by Democratic on Manhattan underboss John Sampson senator Eric Schneiderman and include five Democratic senators -- including locals ... More >>

Federal Court Defendants Joel Klein & Ray Kelly

Our Education Mayor remains silent about police abuses of students in public schools

City Jails Chief Gets Off With Only a Few Sentences

Council members barely question Martin Horn on the deadly teen jail at Rikers

Liveblogging the Term Limits Vote Part II (Referendumania! Amendment Defeated)

Harlem Residents Blast 125th Street Rezoning 'Sellout'

Tenant Harassment Bill To Become Law

Council Hears Pro and Cons of Landlord Harassment Bill

Slumming for Landlords

A pair of Bronx pols try to shoot down the latest in tenant protection

Grace Under Pressure

Grace Perez built an influential domestic-violence program. Then she was fired.

Raining on NYPD's 'Parade'

Steven Kessner

'All I do is fix, and they damage'

Libertad? Maybe

Puerto Rican independence activists rally 'round an FBI crackdown

Council Orgy

Erasing term limits and contribution caps amid a speaker battle

Council Jihad

De Blasio Leads Unholy Union War on City's Campaign Finance Board

Two Blows in Brooklyn Council Battle