At this moment, 30 Rock-star and SNL alum Tina Fey is speaking at the Fieldston School’s graduation ceremonies. Fieldston, one of the city’s private, prestigious “Hill” high schools, counts a diverse menagerie of movers and shakers among its former students: everyone from the late photographer Diane Arbus, to the father of the atom bomb Robert Oppenheimer, to Sean Ono Lennon, the son of John and Yoko, has walked the campus’ grounds at some point or another.
In a $300 million emotional purchase for the subway, the MTA's CBTC (communication-based train control) system will drive the L train starting today.
This means that you'll have a robot conductor in charge of the movement instead of a disgruntled human. When it screws up they can blame technology and not the human beings in control our idiotic train system.
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Financial analysts Chris Solarz and Matt Ferrisi—number crunching co-workers at a “Manhattan investment firm”—have become New York-famous for having painstakingly studied the system and planning to beat the current world record by riding through every station in less than 24 hours.
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The New York Times reports that MTA ridership on both subways and buses is up: "Despite a slumping economy, New York City Transit recorded a total of 2.37 billion rides across the city’s subways and buses in 2008, a 3.1 percent increase from 2007 and the highest figure since 1965."
That "despite" beginning the lede sentence makes very little sense. OF COURSE ridership would be up in a weakened economy: PUBLIC transportation should be the most affordable, efficient way to get from one point to another. Who can afford taxis or car insurance and parking? Are we supposed to be walking the length of the island. It should actually read: DESPITE massive service delays and inconveniences, MTA ridership is up. In fact, some people think the subway should be FREE!
But, of course, there are so many plans to CUT service and to CHARGE MORE! It's the most idiotic idea imaginable. So why aren't straphangers protesting in the streets?
There's a feeling that New Yorkers are LUCKY because they have the "best" mass transit in the country. But anyone who has actually traveled to Europe, Japan or other progressive countries with excellent mass transit realizes we have reached a shitty bargain. We pay for erratic service, overcrowded and obsolete trains, dripping and dirty stations and poor management and are told to be happy. More ridership, should mean more money in MTA's coffers, but they've managed to take a surplus and turn it into a deficit (sounds like Bush economics, right?) and yet no one is calling for massive reform. It's time to stop allowing the MTA to tell us we should be grateful for their poor performance and demand mass transit that actually accomodates the people using it. Not the other way around.
Yes, Virginia, the High Line is going to happen. At least the most lucrative, Southern sections are a sure thing. Section 1 of the High Line elevated park, between Gansevoort and West 20th Street, is set to open in Spring 2009. Expect Section 2, between West 20th and 30th streets, to open the following year (see Field Operations' designs here). But that doesn't mean the rest of the High Line is protected or will even be saved from future development plans.
In fact, the East/West spur over 10th Avenue between West 30th and 34th streets is actually scheduled for demolition if Related Properties' current proposal is accepted. Tonight a public forum is taking place (at
520 W. 49th St.) regarding zoning amendments that are needed as modifications to allow Related to get their way regarding their re-development of the Westside Rail Yards.
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We've enjoyed Poster Boy's artistic interventions on subway advertising—more than 400 and counting. His slice-and-dice art subverts the onslaught of print advertising (oh wait, are we not supposed to say that since it's gonna maybe save us from a steep fare hike?) that surrounds us as we wait for the 1 train. The finger in the eye of corporate America reminds us of the guerrilla art that originally made Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat famous back in those
much-celebrated '80s days. But he's started to get a little cocky and seems to be ready to take his acts of civil disobedience to a new level.
Now he's talking to the Guardian about his motives and upbringing and even allowed himself to be videoed in this clip on YouTube. Is this the beginning of the end of Poster Boy? Or is it just time for Jeffrey Deitch to give him a gallery show so he can catapult him to artworld fame?
The first rule in roller derby is... there are a whole lot of freakin’ rules to roller derby. For a first-timer like me, the beginning of the bout proved confusing. It was fun, but I didn’t have a clue what was going on. Lucky for me, Brooklyn Bombshell player Double Clutch (aka Pebbles Napakh) pointed me in the direction of her husband, Elliot, and he explained it to me. Here is what I learned while the championship team Queens of Pain duked it out with the taxi-themed Bronx Gridlock at Hunter College’s Sportplex this past Saturday for the opening of the Gotham Girls roller derby season.
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