A world seethes beneath New York where love-seeking straphangers interact with stolen glances between jostling bodies.
Those who enter that world at the L train’s Bedford Avenue stop in Brooklyn take to the Internet more often than riders on any other line to turn furtive eye contact into trysts.
In romance fever’s high-season – the two weeks before and after Valentine’s Day – 421 men and women posted to the “missed connections” thread on craigslist.org hoping to connect with a stranger they chatted with or made eye contact with underground.
(To see maps of the missed connections, click here.)
The Bedford Avenue stop sparked 16 of those postings – the most for any station servicing a single line.
Residents along Pennsylvania Ave. in East New York have long contended with speeding vehicles and damage to parked cars that lose sideview mirrors, thanks to reckless drivers.
Now the city wants to reduce parking on the strip. But that’s infuriated local car owners who have proposed their own solution: adding bike lanes.
“The trickster, the jester, there’s a long history of getting the attention of the king with the wise fool,” 38-year-old Ben Sheppard said.
He was leading the group just south of Houston Street through mid-morning traffic on Feb. 15: about half a dozen red-nosed fellow cycling enthusiasts dressed in colorful costumes, complete with curly wigs and tiny traffic cones atop their heads.
“Clowns instead of earnest politicians,” Sheppard declared enthusiastically while he waited for the light to go green again.
Angela Huggins works in Staten Island, but lives in Jersey City, N.J. For her, commuting to work was a hassle.
The 47-year-old used to take the Journal Square-World Trade Center PATH train into Manhattan, then the 1 train to the Staten Island ferry terminal, followed by the ferry to Staten Island, where she would finally take a bus to her job. More »
Trying to put two daughters through college is a difficult task. It becomes even harder when your business decreases by 40 percent over the course of a few weeks.
Such is M. Singh Gill’s dilemma, he says, thanks to the installation of the new bike lane on Ninth Avenue between 16th and 23rd Streets in Chelsea.
The city is reviewing bids from private ferry operators to run a pilot program between the Rockaways and lower Manhattan – a service officials hope will help the environment and shorten commutes.
While the city Economic Development Corporation declined to comment on a timetable, community leaders in the Rockaways were hopeful there would soon be a decision.
Lourdes Hernández Cordero works just blocks from Highbridge Park in Washington Heights, but never noticed the long-shuttered elegant 19th-century pedestrian bridge that gave the park its name.
When the Columbia University researcher first stumbled onto the High Bridge - which starts in the park and spans the Harlem River, connecting Washington Heights to the Bronx’s Highbridge neighborhood - she was stunned.
“It was like bumping into a treasure hidden in a big chest and dusting it off and saying, ‘Oh my God. I have to put this in a place of honor,’” she said. Read More
Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s executive order will give all New Yorkers the opportunity to apply for state driver’s licenses without regard to immigration status. Immigrants are praising the measure, but critics say it presents national security issues. Baruch College professor and immigration lawyer Allan Wernick joins us in our studio.
Producer: Marlene Peralta
Reporting by Jego Armstrong and Sebastian Bednarski
Darnell Finisterre and three of his classmates at the School for Arts and Business in Corona have a bright future in advertising - and public safety.
Their ad about the dangers of reckless driving beat out entries from 24 other city high school teams last week to win the fourth annual Advertising Futures competition, which pairs students with local firms to create public service ads targeting teens.
Second Avenue from 93rd to 97th streets is lined with pizzerias, supermarkets, locksmiths and hardware stores, all in the shadow of high-rise apartment buildings.
But it’s plans for below ground – the construction of the long-stalled Second Avenue Subway line – that has merchants concerned these days. More »
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