After the last department store in town went bankrupt in 2002, the townsfolk of Saranac Lake, NY, faced the daunting prospect of having to drive 50 miles away just to purchase underwear. Rather than give up or give into complaining, they pulled themselves up by their mud boots and decided to build their own store, and it just opened. [More]
Protesters Get Boiler Fixed In Harlem
By November 11, 2011
Those good-for-nothing bums down at Zuccotti Park put down their free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for one minute and became quite good-for-something. Instead of occupying Wall Street, they occupied 142nd Street, and got a new boiler installed in a building where the heat and hot water has been spotty for years. [More]
Illegal Urban Vegetable Gardener Gets Away With It
By November 9, 2011
The city needn’t be a blighted blacktop jungle where the only thing that grows is broken dreams. Under the cover of night, Todd Bieber planted an urban vegetable garden in Brooklyn in an abandoned patch of ground next to a parking lot. The harvest he reaped was more than just the tomatos and squash: anonymous passers by added water to it on a regular basis, and neighborhood folks spontaneously donated seeds and tomato stands. Here’s his story of how his garden grew, flourished, became salsa that he donated to the Armenian church that owned the patch, and then compost. [More]
Phony Bedbug Exterminator Steals Jewels
By November 3, 2011
New York Police are warning Queens residents to be on the lookout for a jewel thief in bedbug exterminator’s clothing. [More]
Renter Sues To Keep Name Off List Of Renters Who Have Been Sued
By November 3, 2011
If you’re sued for eviction by your landlord in New York state, whether you win or lose the case, your name goes on a list that then gets sold to other landlords looking to screen out potential nuisance renters. Wanting to keep his name and record clean, one Manhattan man has preemptively sued to bar his name from being added to the list. [More]
Vegas Dismisses $896 Ticket They Gave Car Parked In New York
By October 26, 2011
Sometimes it just takes a little followup. That’s what got a $896 ticket vaporized that the city of Las Vegas had erroneously slapped on Charlotte’s car while it was 2,000 miles away in New York state. [More]
Car Racks Up $896.80 Vegas Parking Ticket While Sitting In New York
By October 25, 2011
Charlotte is bewildered as to how her Camry somehow got a for $896.80 ticket for parking in a handicapped spot in Las Vegas while it was sitting happily in New York State. Had her car been secretly running out of town to go galavant around Sin City behind her back? [More]
Brooklyn Restaurant To Try "Pay What You Want" Model
By October 20, 2011
The restaurant business is incredibly risky, especially in a city like New York with its fickle diners and over-the-top overhead costs. But that’s not stopping a restaurant in Brooklyn from going ahead with plans to try out the whole “pay what you want” model for a month. [More]
Scammed For Sympathy On The Street
By October 17, 2011
It was a horrible story. A man approached Liza on the street and said that he needed $6 because his mother had just had a stroke behind the wheel of a car and he was short on cash to pay for the tow truck while she was taken to the hospital. It was also a lie. [More]
Bloomberg Tells Occupy Wall Street Protesters To Leave Park By Friday
By October 13, 2011
New York City Mayor Bloomberg has asked the Wall Street Protesters to leave their encampment at Zuccotti Park in the financial district by Friday. Though the park is open to the public, it’s privately owned, and its landlords have asked the city to assist in clearing the park so that it may be cleaned. [More]
With Neighb's 'Net Down, Super Holds TWC Node Hostage. Ransom: Free Cable
By October 7, 2011
In the middle of reports of widespread Time Warner Cable outages in New York’s East Village late this week, one building supervisor has decided to hold a local cable node hostage. This node controls cable and internet not just for his building, but several others on the block. His price for access? Free cable. [More]
USPS Stops Delivering To Building Because Of Leaky Pipe
By October 6, 2011
The famous oath inscribed above the entrance to the James A. Farley Post Office Building in Manhattan reads, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” But it appears as if that unofficial postal creed doesn’t extend to leaky pipes. [More]
A Richer Way To Measure Poverty
By September 29, 2011
The way we currently measure poverty is, shall we say, based on a paucity of data. New York is deploying a new system of measuring poverty that aims to give a greater depth and richness to the poverty picture. [More]
New Yorker Finds Out What People Will Do For A Free Cab Ride
By September 28, 2011
Many of you may remember comedian Mark Malkoff as the guy who raced — and beat — a New York City bus while riding a big wheel or the man who tested the limits of Apple Store employees’ hospitality using a goat and a Darth Vader costume. Recently, he hired a NYC taxi for 14 hours and offered to pay the fare of anyone who Tweeted him for a ride. [More]
Fashion's Night Out: Dolce & Gabbana Made Kids Buy $35 Lipgloss To Get Bieber Autograph.
By September 12, 2011
Shoppers have figured out that Fashion’s Night Out in New York is a great time to scoop up freebies, like tshirts, prizes and free champagne. But in a recessionary move, this year retailers are making attendees pay a price if they wanted the privilege of attending their promotions and getting celebrity autographs. At Dolce & Gabbana, kids were told that they could buy a $35 tube of lipgloss to get Justin Bieber’s autograph, but then he only popped down the stairs to sing one cover song. Then he sped back upstairs without signing anything. [More]
Walmart Shopper Borrows Electric Shopping Cart For 11 Days, Uses It Like A Car
By September 6, 2011
You know those electric shopping carts you can use while shopping at Walmart? Then you likely also know that you’re supposed to return the cart when you are done shopping. You’re certainly not supposed to keep it for 11 days until you get ticketed by police for driving it down a public road. [More]
Staten Island Couple Tried To Evacuate Homes In Order To Rob Them
By August 29, 2011
When you evacuate your home in advance of a hurricane, it’s bad enough you have to worry about coming home to find a new indoor swimming pool in your basement. You certainly shouldn’t have to be concerned that your stuff has floated away in the back of some thief’s truck — or that this thief is also the same person who knocked on your door to order you to evacuate. [More]
The Letter That Got My Homeowner's Insurance Company To Pay Up
By August 17, 2011
Reader S finally got his homeowner’s insurance company to pay up for the rebuilding of the glass railings around his condo, thanks to a well-crafted and scary letter he wrote them. Here is his story, and his ass-kicking letter. [More]
