For years, people trying to hail a cab in New York City have been confused by trying to decode the many permutations of taxis’ “Off Duty” lights. If those words are illuminated, the cab may still be available, but only if the medallion number light is also on — and if you happen to be heading in the direction the cab is driving. It’s confusing enough to NYC residents, and downright confounding to most visitors. But that’s all about to be cleared up. [More]
NEW YORK
NY To Require That Banks Send Decision-Makers, Not Mouthpieces, To Foreclosure Proceedings
By 2.22.12
Like many states that are trying to both expedite judicial review of foreclosures and keep as many people in their homes as possible, New York has enacted new measures, like requiring that bank lawyers verify foreclosure paperwork and that all homeowners receive legal assistance. But a big problem keeps coming up that continues to cause delays — no one in the room actually has the authority to change a loan agreement. [More]
Anti-SOPA Protests Planned Around The Country Today
By 1.18.12
Even though the House Judiciary Committee has moved its planned hearing on the Stop Internet Piracy Act from today until February — perhaps hoping that we’ll all be too hungover from Super Bowl beer and wings to care — that’s not going to stop people who are peeved about SOPA and its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act, from taking to the streets to have their say. [More]
Vodka Company To Take Down Billboard After Complaints Of Anti-Semitism
By 11.23.11
Yesterday, we brought you the story of the Wodka (a brand of Vodka and not a typo) billboard that advertised “Christmas Quality” at “Hanukkah Pricing,” which more than a few folks took as playing up the stereotype that Jewish people as cheap. After initially attempting to defend the ad by claiming that the idea was to say Hanukkah’s eight nights of festivities are a better bargain than the one day of Christmas, the makers of Wodka announced last night that they will be taking the billboard down. [More]
Foreclosure Mill That Mocked Homeless For Halloween Is Shutting Down, Blames NY Times
By 11.22.11
Remember that foreclosure mill law firm in NY state that got caught mocking the homeless during Halloween? They subsequently apologized, but that couldn’t keep the firm afloat, and last week it was announced that the company was closing. So whose fault is this? Well, the NY Times’ fault, obviously. [More]
After Last Department Store Leaves, Town Decides To Start Its Own
By 11.14.11
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 11.11.11
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 11.9.11
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 11.3.11
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 11.3.11
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 10.26.11
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 10.25.11
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 10.20.11
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 10.17.11
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 10.13.11
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 10.7.11
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 10.6.11
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 9.29.11
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]
