The report card is out and the “L” is the best subway line in the city.  Straphangers

Need further proof that East Village has gone soft? Rachael Ray is the newest resident.  The New York Observer 

The New York Times “discovers” Flushing’s Chinatown.  NY Times

First they ban smoking, then came the ban on trans-fat.  Will they ban bottled water next?  NY Daily News

Building a Costco on the Upper West Side has Mayor Bloomberg’s backing.  What’s next, a Wal-Mart in Tribeca?  The Sun

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How do Brooklynites feel about The Real World moving into their neighborhood?  Gothamist

Project Runway winner Christian Siriano’s line has hit the stores.  Racked

The Amish is leaving New York.  Amish in the City

The neighborhood is going downhill fast!  East Village’s Grace and Hope Mission is will open as a bar.  East Village Podcasts

Heat and jellyfish plague the New York City Triathlon.  Bloomberg

New Yorkers… unfiltered.  Overheard in New York

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Only in New York:  A handy guide to show you how to properly double park.  Streetsblog

Toting a small dog is passé.  You’ll be shocked (or maybe not) to see what the newest fashion accessory is.  Gawker

Veteran rock group Bon Jovi still manages to trash the joint.  Gothamist 

Is your nanny neglecting your child?  Find out here.  I Saw Your Nanny

iPhone frenzy strikes New York.  Racked

A Staten Island Ferry veers off course… way off course.  Brooklyn Heights Blog

These people are the ones to impress if you want prime real estate in Manhattan.  Cityfile

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At a recent Department of Housing Preservation and Development meeting in Brooklyn, HPD’s Edward Brownbear stated that five New York City subway stations have come up positive as being infested with bedbugs.  Among them are Union Square, Manhattan;  Fordham Road, Bronx; and Hoyt-Schermerhorn, Brooklyn. 

Bedbugs are not new visitors to the the United States.  Thought to be have brought to the New World by the early colonists, they were fully eradicated in the U.S. in the 1960s.  Since then, bedbugs have made a comeback, in part due to the increase in international travel.  

Here are some myths and facts associated with bedbugs:

• Myth: Bedbugs are only found in low-rent hostel and hotel beds.
• Fact:  Bedbugs thrive in any high-occupancy location, like hotels and cruise ships beds, train seats, and even subway benches.  Bedbugs don’t discriminate between a $19 hostel room, a $900 luxury hotel room, or apparently a subway bench.   
• Myth: Changing the sheets and vacuuming will get rid of bedbugs.
• Fact:  Bedbugs generally live inside crevices, be it a bed or not.  Changing the sheets or sitting on a mat will not keep bedbugs at bay.
• Myth:  Bug spray will kill bedbugs.
• Fact:  Bedbugs require commercial pest removal, your mosquito spray.  The mosquito spray that you used at Finger Lakes last summer will not help. 

Bed bugs are small, generally the size of an apple seed and can live up to a year without a meal (read: blood).  It has been reported that while bedbugs may carry disease, they do not transmit disease and the bites, though they may itch and look unsightly, are virtually harmless.

Here is what to do if a bedbug hitches a ride on you: keep them out of your house!  Inspect your belongings before bringing them into your house and if you find that a bedbug is hitching a ride on you, wash all items immediately.  An ounce of prevention will keep those bedbugs from biting.       

For notes from the HPD meeting and more information on bedbugs, visit the Greenpoint, Brooklyn-centric blog, New York Sh***y.

Photo credit: Wikimedia 

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Post from: The New York City Traveler

MTV has yet to announce which neighborhood will host the newest Brooklyn residents, but rumors are swirling that it may just be the hip hangout of Williamsburg.  The inaugural 1992 season featured the cast living in a Soho loft, long before Soho had was full of trendy stores, and 2001 season of The Real World: Back to New York was filmed in Greenwich Village.

The newest season will begin filming this summer and will be shown on MTV in early 2009.      

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Some fans waited up to 60 hours to see Madonna perform at New York City’s famed Roseland Ballroom.  You can see the performance for free.  MSN 

“Subway Idol” is in full swing as the MTA tries to find more “official performers” for the underground platforms.  NY Times

Is New Jersey the next French Riviera?  Ordinance 08-07C in Long Beach Township cracks down on beach nudity.  Saltwater Cowboy

Park Avenue New York socialite, soon-to-be-ex-wife, and now a You Tube sensation!  Tricia Walsh Smith is at it again.  You Tube 

Oh, yes, she’s also selling her wedding dress on eBay.  eBay

What car would you drive if taxpayers paid?  NY Politics

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The Boston jersey that they dug up at the new Yankee stadium is on eBay. Proceeds will go to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund. Next on eBay auction block: the Yankee’s pride. Proceeds go to Alex Rodriguez’s $300 million dollar contract. eBay

Sure to be on the reading list at every Upper East Side school, this new picture book helps children understand mommy’s new look after plastic surgery. Dlisted

Is everything in New York for sale? La Guardia Airport will auction slots. NY Times

Move over Betty Crocker! Manischewitz crowned a new queen of Kosher cooking and she is from Queens. Mazal tov! Gothamist

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Breaking News on WABC-New York!  Pope Benedict’s chartered Alitalia airplane, nicknamed Shepherd One, has just landed at Andrews Air Force Base.  His Holiness is embarking on a six-day trip that is to include three days in Washington D.C. and three days in New York City.

Security will be tight in all parts of New York City until Pope Benedict XVI leaves on Sunday evening.  Security measures will include undercover police, bomb-sniffing dogs, scuba divers in East River (not a job I would want), patrolling helicopters, and counter-snipers on rooftops.

During his visit, the pope will stay at the Upper East Side residence of Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the papal nuncio to the United Nations, on East 72nd Street.  Tickets are sold-out to events, but if you are a big fan, outlined below is the New York schedule of the pope’s visit.  Perhaps you can catch a glimpse of the white-robed pope.  If you are indifferent to the papal visit, it would be best to avoid the following areas this weekend.

Friday, April 18

• 9:45 am  Kennedy International Airport  Arrives in New York.
• 10:45 am  United Nations, First Avenue between 42nd & 48th Street  Gives address to the General Assembly, as did Pope Paul VI in 1965 and Pope John Paul II in 1979 and 1995.
• 5:00 pm  Park East Synagogue, 163 East 67th Street  Meets with Jewish clergy.
• 6:00 pm  Church of St. Joseph, 371 Sixth Avenue  Prayer service with leaders from other Christian denominations.

Saturday, April 19 

• 9:15 am  St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 460 Madison Avenue  Mass for priests, deacons and members of religious orders.
• 4:30 pm  St. Joseph’s Seminary, 201 Seminary Avenue, Yonkers  Meeting with young Catholics.

Sunday, April 20

• 9:30 am  Lower Manhattan  Visit to ground zero.
• 2:30 pm  Yankee Stadium, Bronx  The pope offers Mass. The 200th anniversary of the Baltimore Archdiocese and the anniversaries of the Dioceses of Boston, New York, Louisville and Philadelphia will be celebrated.
• 8:00 pm  JFK International Airport  Departure.

For a more detailed list on streets closures and MTA bus re-routes, visit the NY1 website. 

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For those of you who don’t follow urban myths and baseball superstitions, here is the short of it:  In August 2007, a construction worker buried a Boston Red Sox jersey in the ground of what would be the future visitors clubhouse at the new Yankee Stadium.  This information, which came to light just last week, caused panic in the community.  A second worker was quoted in the New York Post as saying, “I don’t want to be responsible for sinking the franchise. I respect the stadium.”

As the week continued, there were many question surrounding the story, which seemingly had no answer.  Was there really a Red Sox jersey interred in the new stadium?  Or was this just pure fiction, an evil ploy by the Boston Red Sox to plant seeds of self-doubt in the Yankees?  The story oscillated between truth and fiction for the remainder of the week.

The case was solved on Sunday morning with a jackhammer, two construction workers, and multiple members of the media.  An “excavation ceremony” was held, the construction workers hammered through two and a half feet of concrete to dig up… a Boston Red Sox jersey. 

The #34 David Ortiz jersey is now on its way back to Boston where it will be auctioned off for charity.  The Bronx district attorney’s office is deciding whether the original construction workers who buried the jersey committed any criminal acts.  And the rest of Manhattan is left wondering how much over budget this stunt puts the new $1.3 billion Yankee Stadium.

Play ball!

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Mayor Bloomberg’s traffic plan which included a congestion pricing scheme died a painful death in Albany.  NY Post

A new shopping experience come to New York City– buy clothing by the pound.  Guerilla Shopper NYC

Baseball: Out, Cricket: In at New York City Public Schools.  Telegraph

Disgraced former Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer heads back to work.  Gothamist 

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