Grand Central Terminal

At least one person is dead and dozens were injured when a steam explosion ruptured the intersection at 41st Street and Lexington Avenue, right next-door to Grand Central Station, at the height of the Manhattan evening rush hour.  read more »

Shortly after 9/11, two American flags were placed in the iconic main hall of Grand Central Terminal. The first, a flagpole standard, was soon joined by an enormous 40-foot-by-20-foot banner, vertically suspended over the center of the room. Although smaller flags have been hung at Grand Central before, according to MTA Metro-North spokeswoman Margie Anders, a flag of this size—nearly four stories tall—is “basically unprecedented.”  read more »

It's on: The Times reports this New Year's Day that several recently approved projects will rumble seriously toward reality in 2007.

Approval or financing was given to a Second Avenue subway; an extension of the Flushing Line to the Far West Side; a spur to connect the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal; financing for tens of thousands of apartments for low- and moderate-income residents; the Atlantic Yards complex near Downtown Brooklyn, which includes a new home for the basketball Nets; and even the bus-stop shelters and public toilets that New Yorkers and visitors have demanded for years.

The city's also pushing to jumpstart the Moynihan Station project, and to rezone parts of Harlem as well as Jamaica and Willets Point in Queens.

- Tom Acitelli

Grand Central Station has some wonderful real estate, but nothing beats Vanderbilt Hall. And nothing beats a 15-foot-tall "white button mushroom cafe" popping up in Vanderbilt Hall.  read more »

See the press release below for phrases like "Mushrooms: small but MIGHTY," or "Confetti Mushroom Herb Egg Wraps" or "Local commuters stepping inside the mushroom."

- Max Abelson

The Citizens Budget Commission hosts a forum on how to balance the MTA's budget at the Metrazur Restaurant in Grand Central Terminal.

NYC School Bus Contractors Coalition and ATU Local 1181 will meet at the Ramada Plaza Hotel for labor negotiations.

Patrick Healy and Paul Rieckhoff will speak at the DL21C Political Author Series at the Housing Works Bookstore and Cafe.

The Municipal Art Society hosts A Eulogy to the East River's Lost Industrial Heritage.

—Nicole Brydson

Tomorrow is the day everyone has been waiting for: the beginning of petitioning season! Jonathan Tasini kicks off petitioning with Cindy Sheehan in Union Square at 8:30 am. Sean Patrick Maloney kicks off his petition drive for Attorney General in Chelsea at 8 am. Charlie King will petition for Attorney General in Grand Central Station at 2 pm. Tom Suozzi will petition in Queens and Brooklyn, pausing to hold a press conference "exposing Eliot Spitzer's hypocrisy in enforcing the law" at the McManus Democratic Association in Manhattan.

Christine Quinn and George McGovern will unveil a plan to increase enrollment in the school breakfast program at City Hall.

—Nicole Brydson

With an American flag draped from the cosmos-painted ceiling behind him, and former New Jersey Governor and Chairman of the 9/11 commission Thomas Kean seated in front of him, Mayor Bloomberg this afternoon presented his vision for public safety in New York City. Overlooking the terminal from the perch of Metrazur, a restaurant the billionaire Mayor partly rented out for the event, the Mayor outlined a plan to bring the MTA and the Port Authority under a single command, run by the NYPD, in the case of a disaster striking critical transportation infrastructure, like, oh, say, Grand Central Station. The Mayor said that because of its "size and sophistication" the NYPD was the obvious choice to lead any streamlined response. As for the Office of Emergency Management, (remember them?) they'll be responsible for sending advisory text messages in case of emergencies. For the NYPD to take control of interstate agencies, Governor Pataki and his counterpart, Richard Codey of New Jersey, would have to sign off. "We have briefed them," said the Mayor. "Nobody suggests that there aren't problems in doing so....they certainly haven't signed off yet." Mr. Kean said later that "somebody has got to be in charge. It makes sense to that it ought to be the Mayor." Just don't tell that to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.  read more »

Wednesday         3rd    read more »

The Post reports that a state panel has failed for the second time to approve a bond proposal for the MTA that would include $1.45 billion for transportation projects you probably thought were already well-funded and underway, including the Second Avenue subway and a LIRR tunnel to Grand Central Terminal. What's at issue is how that billion and a half will be split up: the Rail Link from downtown to JFK and Long Island is in the mix, too. The four people who make appointments to the state panel--the Governor and Mayor, Assembly Speaker Silver and Senate Majority Leader Bruno--each have a favorte. Five years ago, it took forever to put language together to put the bond issue on the ballot. That was when Voters narrowly rejected the $3.8 billion bond proposal put on the ballot to fund. Five years later the MTA is trying again, and not getting much traction. Unions, contractors and transit advocates are still complaining how they didn't have enough to promote the plan and worried they won't have any more luck this time around. --Matthew Schuerman  read more »

D'Artagnan is the last sort of restaurant you'd expect to find in this dour, businesslike part of to  read more »

It was pouring, and two pretty young Brazilian women in furs stepped forward eagerly as we alighted  read more »

At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, a bugler sounded "Taps" in the vast expanse of G  read more »

You may have heard, no doubt to your horror, that a midlevel employee of the Taxi and Limousine Comm  read more »

The whole point of an automat used to be that what you saw was what you got.  read more »

When it was completed in 1981, Boomerang , a sculpture that is cantilevered from the south side of t  read more »