December 3, 2008
Notable amNewYork stories
PETROPOLIS
It takes a village online to care for NYC's pets
Humans have a long tradition of pairing up with animals for sociable strolls: Dorothy had the Cowardly Lion, Christopher Robin had his Pooh, and so Doreen Dupont has Robbie, her six-year-old rabbit.
A survivor's story of Sept. 11th
Jim Riches spent six months looking for the body of his firefighter son who was killed in the North Tower, all the while breathing in toxic dust and fumes.
Putting a new face on the GOP
William Palumbo is familiar with feeling misunderstood.
170 surveillance cameras on one block?! NYC now Camera City
They're everywhere and they're watching. New York has become Camera City as our every coming and going is recorded.
Gotham's Gems, An occassional series
The New Yorker Hotel's 'buried treasures'
The maze of tunnels under New York includes one you probably never heard of. It lies 30 feet below the intersection of West 34th Street and Eighth Avenue, and links the New Yorker Hotel to Penn Station.
Vets of Tompkins Square battle ready to fight again
Twenty years ago this week Tompkins Square Park was turned into a battlefield as police officers ran roughshod over homeless squatters and neighborhood activists in a seminal moment in NYPD-community relations.
Changing of the guard in black leadership?
Outside the South Beach Cafe in Harlem, a mural emblazoned "Great African Americans" features the Rev. Jesse Jackson alongside Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass and other groundbreakers.
All-Tabloid Yankees and Mets teams
Be it on the field, page one of the tabloids or a jail cell, New York has had a long line of baseball stars who can't seem to stay out of trouble or the headlines.
Graffiti store ignites culture clash
The spray paint is barely dry on Brooklyn's new graffiti-art supply store, but street artists -- and a fiercely critical councilman -- are already clashing.
10 to lose: Ugly buildings NYC would be better without
Each winter, amNewYork devotes a special issue to 10 buildings in New York City that we fear will soon disappear under negligent eye of the city's real estate interests.
How bad will NYC's economy get? History has some answers
The city has seen epic economic downturns before, from the Great Depression to the fiscal crunch of the 1970s that left the city groveling for federal aid, prompting the famous headline, "Ford to City: Drop Dead."
53rd and 3rd avenue escalator long neglected
A privately owned subway escalator below 53rd Street and Third Avenue has been broken for at least a year, according to straphangers and city records, yet it's difficult to find anyone who will claim responsibility for it.
John Lennon's UWS hangout closing this weekend
John Lennon fans have long flocked to an Upper West Side cafe to see the snug corner where the gifted musician wrote songs, drew pictures, and like other regulars, spent hours sipping rich Italian coffee.
New York accent: Still talking the tawk?
Hollywood gangsters planned rub-outs in a city where hoodlums said "Toidy Toid and Toid." Archie Bunker confused "terlet" for "toilet" and called his long-suffering wife "Edit."
Muslim astronaut balances faith, science
Malaysian astronaut Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor will be orbiting the Earth about 16 times every 24 hours after he reaches the International Space Station on Friday. That would be 80 daily prayers as opposed to the standard five for this Muslim orthopedic surgeon.
Alek Wek: From refugee to supermodel
Each season, globetrotting supermodel Alek Wek struts the Bryant Park runways for top designers from Karl Lagerfeld to Diane von Furstenberg, but her life hasn't been all glamour and haute couture.
Kiss isn't just a kiss for Times Square sailor
No way, no how, will Glenn McDuffie be lockin' lips Tuesday in Times Square.
Bare breasts in shop window flash LES
The trio of bulky men in what appeared to be an unmarked police car looked bored as they waited for a green light on Orchard Street, until one of them noticed the window display in American Apparel.
MTA goes wild with subway ads
Some Shuttle train straphangers will step into a sauna, a lush rainforest or a tropical scuba dive during their commute Thursday.
Mexicans make their place in NYC
When Geraldo Sanchez left Mexico 12 years ago, he said farewell to his parents and siblings -- and his graphic-designer aspirations -- to begin an arduous life in the United States, all to keep his struggling relatives afloat back home.
An eight-hour commute, no joke
Some commuters exaggerate and say they spend more time getting to and from work than they do toiling at the office. Kimberly Twist does not exaggerate.
Letterman makin' em laugh for 25 years
Joan Rivers. Arsenio Hall. Pat Sajak. Chevy Chase. Magic Johnson. Alan Thicke.
Ten to save: Endangered NYC
The soaring real estate market has placed significant parts of New York's urban heritage at risk. Many of those threatened buildings define neighborhoods -- churches, old corner drug stores and pubs, prominent corner buildings simply sitting on all-too-valuable land, crumbling 19th-century masterpieces just waiting for a rescue plan.
WTC remnants are constant reminders
It is poignant that practically all that remains of the World Trade Center lies inside a Kennedy Airport building once home to an airline called Tower Air.
Young and Muslim in NYC
Five years ago 12-year-old Tahara Miah was sitting in a Lower East Side classroom when "wham," the 9/11 terror attacks rocked the world -- her world and her city.
Dating Life
Don't hate me because I'm single
I don't know what kind of response I expected to last week's column on breaking up with The Boyfriend ("Not Yet Ready for Mr. Right"), but it certainly wasn't "your [sic] a dumb ho."
Enjoying the 'people's park' in Brooklyn
In the heart of Brooklyn, Prospect Park is a marvel -- more than 500 acres of prime real estate that provides a backyard for a borough short on green space, long on people. More than a century ago, its designers -- Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux -- saw the park as a way to bring nature to city dwellers, and that is precisely what it does.
Surviving NYC's housing crunch
Wondering whether you can afford to buy a Manhattan apartment? Here's how to find out:
'Undercover Kitty' headed to Broadway
Fred the undercover kitty will take his bows and meows on the Great White Way this weekend.
Johnnycakes to die for
Vito Spatafore may have fallen in love with a New Hampshire short-order cook he nicknamed "Johnny Cakes" in the current season of "The Sopranos," but you don't have to travel to New England to experience all the comforts these griddle cakes can provide.
Surprises abound at lost and found
With 4.5 million people riding the subway on an average weekday, it's not surprising that over the course of a year thousands of umbrellas, bags, cell phones and keys -- and occasionally even a prosthetic device -- get left behind.
Most wanted fugitives sought in NYC
From a millionaire socialite to a Brooklyn drug dealer and a predatory pedophile who's eluded authorities for years, many of the FBI's Most Wanted fugitives could be walking the streets or riding the subways of New York City.
