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Hotel to Check in Amid Concerns

Despite ongoing community concerns, work will begin in February on a 6-story, 48-room Comfort Inn on Webster Avenue in Norwood, as the McSam Hotel Group moves ahead after struggling for more than a year to convince neighbors that the project will be good for the area.

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Sanitation Samaritan Helps Hungry

Unlike most great stories, this one begins in the trash.

Tom Neve’s discovery of an escalating homeless population along his sanitation route was an image that he just couldn’t throw away.

Without any experience or funding, this extraordinary garbage man began a 16-year journey of helping others.

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Hospital Spurs Labor Pains

Dozens of women scheduled to give birth at Victory Memorial Hospital this holiday season had to find alternate sources of care weeks, even days, before giving birth.

Without a staff, the Bay Ridge hospital prematurely shut down its labor and delivery unit Dec. 21 — 10 days earlier than the original Dec. 31 date that was listed on employees’ termination letters.

Residents of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst are already worried about Victory’s projected Feb. 1 closing date.

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Food Pantries Face Shortages

The cupboard is growing bare at food pantries throughout the city, and while one Queens facility is doing its best to keep up with the increased demand - it has not been easy.

“Sometimes the food [for the month] is literally gone in two weeks,” said Jacqueline Eradiri, the Executive Director of the Ridgewood Older Adult Center. “I don’t like having to turn people away.”
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Sheepshead Bay’s Field of Dreams

Efforts to turn the embattled Brigham Street lot in Sheepshead Bay into a green space began to bear fruit as the district’s first community-born park project got a crucial boost.

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Biggie Changes at Mme. Tussauds

Madame Tussauds is introducing a whole new ball of wax: Interactive exhibits.

The famed wax museum’s Times Square branch features a statue of the late rapper Biggie Smalls where visitors can mix his hits. If you blow into Jennifer Lopez’ ear – or rather her wax double’s ear – she blushes. You can cast your virtual vote for president at the Hillary Clinton figure.

Khadijah Cole reports.

Voice-to-Text Biz Makes the Call

On a warm, early October day, the Starbucks on Broadway and 81st Street is crowded. People place and wait for their orders while others sit at tables. More »

Law and Order – and Politics

The Center on Media, Crime & Justice and CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice hosted the Third Annual Harry F. Guggenheim Symposium on Crime in America Dec. 3-4. This year’s theme, “Crime, Justice and Politics: Looking Ahead To 2008,” brought together politicians, educators, journalists and law enforcement officials to discuss crime and crime statistics – and how they’ll play a part in the upcoming presidential elections.

For video reports on the conference, click here.

Tavern Dives Across The Street

When a W. 14th St. bar was faced with relocation, its owner had to appeal anew to neighbors that had not looked kindly on him in the past.

McKenna’s Pub was displaced from 245 W. 14th St. — which is slated for demolition — but its owner, Brian McKenna, didn’t have to look far for a new location. The bar is set to occupy a new space in 250 W. 14th St. across the street. And his neighbors, who in the past have complained about the bar’s noise and disorder, can’t be pleased.

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Allies Split Over Rail Yard Plan

Long-time allies in the effort to clean up pollution in Hunts Point have fallen out over the fate of the 28-acre corner of the Oak Point rail yard where the city wants to build a jail.

Congressman Jose Serrano has denounced Sustainable South Bronx’s longstanding plan to create an industrial park devoted to remanufacturing discarded construction material there.

In an open letter to the Hunts Point community, Serrano contends the proposal would merely add another dumping ground to a neighborhood already overburdened with waste.

“We’ve had enough,” said the Democrat, who represents New York’s 16th Congressional District in the South Bronx. “I can’t support the idea we’ll be putting a lot of fanfare behind a project where some people will be sorting other people’s garbage.”
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