Urbanite

So here it is the 84th and last season at Yankee Stadium....or as they have stamped on the ticket "The Final Season." Sounds kind of ominous - even for the nicknamed Evil Empire. I don't much like the end of anything - except maybe the end of the work day.

Star Spangled Banner

What I do like is the start of the game - that feeling of anticipation. Getting your hotdog, finding your seat, and standing for the playing of the Star Spangled Banner. This was my view the night I was there. Such a wholesome picture - three of our Yankee players, facing the flag....and a closeup of Jeter's behind in living color on the Diamond Vision screen - boy, do I love baseball!

It was a chilly Friday night - the stands were full (or relatively) and the fans were hungry for a win. It was the return of the great broadcaster and former outfielder Bobby Murcer to the television booth after a bout with cancer. The young welcomed him back with homemade signs and enthusiastic grins. And the crowd cheered as Bobby waved to the fans below.

You can see the entrance to the new stadium as you exit the subway - the "Y" and "S" had yet to find their posts on the granite and limestone exterior. Seemed odd to see the virgin stadium lurking in the shadows - to view this gated castle in production.

Yankee Stadium Gate

Since 1923, Yankees home games have been played there (with the exception of the '74 and '75 seasons when it was undergoing renovations.) That's a lot of games and an impressive number of championships. It will be bittersweet to see the old stadium go - but change is good, right? But please, please don't tell me it's the final season for the always entertaining grounds crew YMCA dance? There are some traditions that must remain.

-- Liz Esquirol

Photo from the Every Person in New York blog

Artist Jason Polan is trying to draw every person in New York.

He may have already drawn you. He could be drawing you right now. He's started a blog to document his progress on this behemoth of an art project, posting simple line portraits as he finishes them. It's appropriately titled "Every Person in New York."

He's always drawing, according to the blog, on the subway, on the street, in museums. Everywhere. But come on, there are 8 million people in this town, so it's understandable that the guy wants some help. He wants to draw you. So if you'd like your likeness sketched, zap him a note at: art@jasonpolan.com

Here is Polan's plea for subjects, and instructions on how to meet up:

"If you would like to increase the chances of a portrait of YOU appearing on this blog please email me a street corner or other public place that you will be standing at for a duration of two minutes (I will be on the corner of 14th street and 8th avenue on the North-east corner of the street from 2:42-2:44pm this Thursday wearing a bright yellow jacket and navy rubber boots, for example)."

Additional instructions: Give him 24 hours notice, and don't go out of your way in case he can't be there. Work those two minutes into something that's part of your normal routine -- he might not be there -- or he might be, and you just may not notice.

It's a huge ambition - but if anyone can do it, we think Polan can. Our pals at Boing-Boing note he's already drawn every piece of art in the MoMA.

And what better do you have to do this weekend than become part of a living work of art?

-- Lauren Johnston

Victorian Flatbush: The yellow cab is the only hint you're in New York City.

We're big fans of Victorian Flatbush, a gem of an area that routinely leaves even longtime New Yorkers gape mouthed upon their first visit This slice of suburban splendor will become a little more accessible next month during the annual Victorian Flatbush house tour. It's on June 8 from 1 to 6 p.m. Advance tickets are $16, and $20 if purchased on the day of. Call 718-859-3800 or visit here.

MORE: Click here for an amNewYork tour of the neighborhood. We'll also put up additional posts in the next few days from a more recent visit to the area, as well as nearby Midwood. And this Thursday's City Living profile will be on Flatbush.

-- Rolando Pujol

Community activists want their voices heard before plans are finalized to redevelop the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx.

A group called the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance is heading to City Hall at noon Thursday to make their case. The group, which represents churches, community groups and unions, wants a say in the negotiations on the armory's future, the alliance has said.

Right now, preliminary plans for the site call for retail development that would create 2,000 jobs.

The alliance wants to ensure any jobs pay a living wage and that new businesses won't displace old ones, a member of the group said. Another grievance is that the group wants new schools to be built as part of any development plan, which they say the city promised them.

-- Garett Sloane

Photo via paul rush nyc walks on flickr

Roughly 600 shirts dangled from the ceiling at Eugenio Maria De Hostos Community College today. They were speckled with paint and held together by wooden clips, thin strings and lots of hope. Every one of them told a story.

“Too many things have happened to me like being abused by the beast, a.k.a. my father,” read a beige T-shirt that bore the initials “S.S.” “Why it got to be me? I never did anything to nobody.”

It was part of the 12th annual Bronx Clothesline Project in honor of National Crime Victims Rights’ Week, which brought together those who have lost family members and friends to homicides, assaults and physical or emotional abuse.

Representatives of the Bronx District attorney’s office and Bronx nonprofit organizations gathered in an effort to inform New York City residents about the importance of coming forth when one is a victim of violence. Brittany Ramirez, a second-year student at Hostos, said that there’s a lot of violence in the Bronx and programs like The Bronx Clothesline Project empower people.

Our Ryan Chatelain catches up with Bucky Dent, neighborhood businesses and fans as the team begins its final season at the House That Ruth Built. This will be a strange season in many ways. One fascinating aspect is that you'll have two Yankee Stadiums side by side: The 1974-75 version, which undid lots of the original detail, and the new ballpark, which is a throwback to the old stadium Ruth knew, and restores that lost detail in a slightly more compact stadium.

The new Yankee Stadium took another symbolic step forward Saturday with the installation of the "eagles" next to the stadium name. Compare Saturday's photo with the way the sign looked in 1948. It's uncanny.

It seems that, somehow, the Yanks could have worked with the original, keeping the team on the same sacred ground. It's one of those turn of events we'll never accept. But it's hard to dismiss the beauty of the stadium rising next door.

-- Rolando Pujol

Flags fly at half-staff at Yankee Stadium in 1948 to mark
the death of Babe Ruth. (AP)

The New York Yankees unveils the re-created "eagle" medallions and lifts them into place Saturday at the main entrance of the new stadium (Alejandra Villa/Newsday).

We can only assume this bizarre crime was triggerd by the grief these four Yonkers teens are feeling over the untimely death of Herb Peterson, inventor of the Egg McMuffin.

Or maybe they really want McD's to comply with new public calorie count rules?

Anyway, here's what happened: Two of the fast food offenders were from Yonkers, one comes from Brooklyn and one from the Bronx. The hoodlum quartet was arrested after they videotaped an assault and robbery on employees of a local McDonalds, said Yonkers police.

One of them danced behind the counter in his undies while the rest beat up the burger staff and stole one employee's wallet.

Needless to say, the golden arches staffers weren't lovin' it.

-- Lauren Johnston

March 25 has been an ominous date in New York City history - it marks the anniversary of two of the deadliest and most horrific fires the city has ever known: the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in Manhattan that killed 148 factory workers, and the 1990 Happy Land social club fire in the Bronx, which killed 87 people.

The notorious fires share other eerie similarities: in both cases the majority of the victims were under 25 years old and were immigrant workers. And in both cases the victims perished because the buildings were unsafe and had blocked exits or locked doors.

The Shirtwaist factory was a typical sweatshop of the industrial era, and was housed on the top floors of the 10-story Asch Building at 23-29 Washington Place on Washington Square. When flames engulfed the upper floors of the building, many of the women workers - mostly Jewish and Italian immigrants - were unable to escape. Fire truck ladders reached to only the sixth floor at that time and the fire was on floors 8 -10. Doors on the ninth floor were locked and the fire escape was flimsy and balked under the weight of so many people desperate to escape.

The blaze sparked major reforms in labor safety laws.

The Happy Land arson blaze ignited in an illegal after hours social club that two years before the deadly1990 fire had gotten building violations for lacking fire exits, fire alarms and sprinkler system.

The blaze was set by Julio Gonzalez, a Cuban immigrant, whose ex-girlfriend worked at the club. After an argument with her, he left the club, returned with gasoline and doused the stairs to the second floor club, which was packed with Honduran immigrants celebrating Carnival.

Fire exits had been locked to prevent people from sneaking in without paying the cover and it was a disaster for the club-goers inside.

Gonzalez was arrested and charged with murder and arson. He is still in jail. CBS2 has extensive archival footage of its coverage from the fire online HERE.

-- Lauren Johnston

After a vigorous fan campaign, the Mets came to their senses and agreed to save -- kind of -- the Apple that has graced Shea Stadium since 1980. We hedge because they've only committed to having an Apple presence at the new Citifield -- not necessarily our favorite Apple.

But what about The Bat at Yankee Stadium, that most cherished of meeting places? Newsday's Anthony Reiber couldn't get a firm answer about the prospects for the 120-foot-tall Louisville Slugger. Will it be kept in place, moved to the new stadium, get demolished or be auctioned off? It's anyone guess at this time.

Maybe it's time to launch a "Save the Bat" campaign, before it's too late.

-- Rolando Pujol

Photo: Getty Images, 2006

There wasn’t supposed to be a happy ending for Denny, a young goat found wandering alone on a Bronx street corner on Wednesday.

The one-and-a-half-year-old goat was likely headed for the slaughterhouse before he wrangled free and was found by police officers with the 40th Precinct, said Animal Care & Control of NYC spokesperson Richard Gentles.

“People don’t typically lose their pet goat in New York City . They get off the truck, they escape to their freedom and thankfully the officers found him,” Gentles said.

For now, Denny – who is light gray and weighs 22 pounds – is being cared for at the agency’s Manhattan shelter at 326 East 110th Street, but Gentles says he’ll soon move toward greener pastures.

Shelter workers have contacted farm sanctuaries upstate to arrange for Denny to be taken in by local farmers.

It’s unusual but not unheard of for the city shelters to give refuge to stray farm animals. In July 2006, animal rescue workers found a sheep with bound feet left in Central Park’s Sheep Meadow.

“With the goats and the sheep, thankfully it’s always a happy ending. The farm sanctuary will take them and farmers will adopt them,” Gentles said.

-- Lauren Johnston

Updated 6:06 p.m. There was new hope for the tenants of 1520 Sedgwick Ave. in the Bronx yesterday when the city nixed a deal to sell the building - the birthplace of hip-hop — to a real estate developer.

Residents of the 100-units of affordable housing have been living in fear since learning that real-estate mogul Mark Karasick had made an offer on the Morris Heights property where DJ Kool Herc pioneered the art of mixing beats on dual-turntables in the rec room in 1973. The city could not legally listen to the hip-hop historical argument in considering the sale, but the Department of Housing Preservation and Development did looked at the finances of the sale.
“We couldn’t see a way the rents allowed under Mitchell-Lama could cover the purchase price,” said Neill Coleman, a spokesman for HPD.

Tenants currently pay an average of about $1,200 for the 1, 2, and 3-bedroom units, said Dina Levy of the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board. The concern is that those rents, which are already close to market rate, would have significantly increased to cover Karasick’s confidential purchase offer, Levy explained.

A woman who answered the phone at Karasick’s office said that he would not be commenting on the city’s decision. Steven Frankel, attorney for the ownership group, 1520 Sedgwick Houses Inc., said that he had no formal notification from HPD regarding their rejection of the deal and could not comment.

But tenants have not won the war yet. The building’s owners have the right to opt out of the Mitchell-Lama program, which offers tax reductions and other incentives in return for providing affordable rent.

If taken off the Mitchell-Lama rolls, the building can be sold to the highest bidder without public review. No application to leave the program has been filed yet, Coleman said.
In the meantime, tenants have found allies in Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and two not-for-profit tenant advocacy groups like Levy’s as well as Tenants and Neighbors. With their assistance, the residents hope to raise money and use subsidies that will allow them to buy the property and turn it into an affordable co-op building.

Schumer said the building's struggle was a small part of a greater need to preserve affordable housing around the city.

“At 1520 Sedgwick, we have the glimmer of hope of stemming the tide,” he said.

-- Matthew Sweeney

Photo: Mary Fountain, a resident of 1520 Sedgwick in the Bronx is fighting to keep the building affordable to tenants. 1520 Sedgwick is credited as the birthplace of hip hop. (amNewYork file/Jefferson Siegel)

Previous amNY coverage:

Residents fight to save hip-hop birthplace

Web special: 30 years of hip hop

On the list of 'easiest ways to start an argument with a New Yorker', saying something like "yeah, obviously the best pizza place is XX" has got to be in the top five.

(Others, to be explored at later dates: best bagel, most annoying NYC celeb, quickest way to spot a tourist, most underrated cupcake).

The great pizza debate reveals things like how frou frou you are, and whether you actually know your way around the outer boroughs.

It's also the kind of 'discussion' that easily leads to comments like "you're an idiot", "you don't know what you're talking about", or "go back to Kansas"!

So here's my list of the best pizza places in the city, not in any particular order.

If you don't see your favorite listed, it's either because I haven't tried it yet; or because you don't know what you're talking about.

Di Fara
1424 Avenue J, Brooklyn; Ave J stop on Q line
This is one of the rare cases where the facts actually match the legend. Yes, there really is a place in the hinterlands of Brooklyn where an old man slowly makes every pie fresh by hand while hungry hipsters wait humbly in an hour-long line to chomp into a slice that will forever redefine the way you measure pizza excellence.

The funny thing is owner Dom DeMarco has a son who's apparently on some sort of extended apprenticeship program--the times I've been there he hasn't been allowed to help make pizzas, just answer phones and fold pizza boxes.

Denino's Pizzeria Taverna
524 Port Richmond Ave, Staten Island; Bus from ferry terminal
After hearing for years about the fabled SI pizza joints, I went here for the first time this past weekend as part of our latest Tabloid Tours excursion. It's the kind of family-friendly place where you run into people in the bathroom who say they've been coming here for 24 years.

I recommend just getting a plain pie, the better to savor the thin, crispy pizza crust that's just about the best I've had. Although come today, an SI native tells us we should've ordered their trademark clam pizza.

And, if it's your thing, Ralph's Ices across the street reportedly has the coolest shaved ices ever.

John's Pizzeria
278 Bleecker Street, West Village; West 4th Street stop on A/C/E/F lines
You can't go wrong with John's if you're looking for an easy-to-get-to restaurant with quintessentially great NYC pizza--or if you're looking to study the uneasy interaction between tourists and locals.

And I think it's West Village law that after John's, you have to stop by next-door Cones for the gelato.

Grimaldi's Pizzeria
19 Old Fulton Street under the Brooklyn Bridge; A/C to High Street
Ah, the line... I've never seen this place without a huge line, probably because it's right on a major tour bus line and gets all the hype in travel guides for Europeans/Asians. The line does move quickly, and generally your coal oven pizza will be on your table 20 minutes after you sit down.

And I think it's Brooklyn waterfront law that after Grimaldi's, you have to stop by the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.

Lombardis
32 Spring Street, Little Italy; Spring Street on the 6 or Bowery on the J/M/Z
The 'first pizzeria in America' opened in 1905, and they're still packing them into the cramped restaurant. I've only gone once, but I remember an unusually fresh pie, with a good crust--they're on this list mainly because of the testimony of trustworthy fellow pizza-lovers. And all that history....

Nick's Pizza
108-26 Ascan Ave, Forest Hills, Queens; E/F/V/R to Continental Ave
The first time I walked into this place I thought I might've had the address wrong--there's nothing to suggest that the shiny, almost-fancy restaurant was anything more than your standard overpriced/overproduced pizza rip-off.

But then, you get the pizza--and it's good, and fresh, and chewy, and definitely worth telling your friends about. Be warned: they don't deliver, so you either have to go there or do carry-out.

Photo of a Grimaldi's pizza by Karen Wiles Stabile for Newsday