Vote for Nurse Ratched! - Fictional Campaign Sign Contest

The Morning News is running a contest inviting you to submit photos of actual campaign signs for fictional candidates. Got that? Real signs, fake candidates. Deadline is this Friday, November 3rd, at midnight. Start painting those placards.

Happy Halloween, Spooky

Washington Square Park, by Joe's NYC

Where Do All Those Damn Tourists Come From?

Worldmapper, out of the University of Sheffield, has signed the death warrant for the standard world map that hung in our world history classrooms. Instead, they give us maps where the countries expand or shrink like distended balloons based on variables like income, population, and more. Here you can compare the origins of tourists across the globe with the origins of refugees.

Tourist Origins

Tourists made 665 million trips in 2003. Most were residents of Western Europe, North America and Eastern Europe. From Central Africa, South Eastern Africa and Southern Asia - not so much. While residents of Antigua and Barbuda left their islands 3.66 times per year (lucky bastards!), residents of Angola traveled on average 0.0002 times per year.

Refugee Origins

In 2003 there were 15 million refugees and internally displaced persons internationally. The highest numbers came from (1) Serbia and Bosnia, (2) Iraq, Afghanistan and Azerbaijan.

Up Close & Personal with the Gowanus Canal

gowanus, originally uploaded by f.trainer.

Ghosts of Old Brooklyn Farmhouses

It's an age-old story. Brooklyn transplant falls in love with his new borough and sets about photographing it voraciously, aware that what he sees through his lens is changing every day and might soon fall victim to the relentless pressures of urbanization and modernization. 2006? No, 1906.

Between 1905 and 1911, Clinton Irving Jones traveled the outer boroughs, using a bellows camera with glass plate negatives to preserve the old farmhouses, barns and mills of neighborhoods like Flatlands, Flatbush and Elmhurst. The negatives were recently rediscovered and were bought through ebay by Dumbo gallery owner David Sokosh. Sokosh is displaying them until next Sunday at his gallery, Underbridge Pictures, at 111 Front Street.

Photo: 1224 Fulton St., between Bedford and Nostrand, under the elevated train [map]
The Last Strains of a Pastoral Song [NY Times]

Phony Demolitions as Brooklyn Eviction Tactic

Five buildings in Prospect Heights and Park Slope face eviction based on their landlord's claim that he plans to wholly demolish or do a gut rehab of their building. The landlord, Frank Farricker, is currently running for Connecticut State Senate on an affordable housing platform.

Although Farricker insists that he will respect tenants' rent-stabilized leases, which guarantee tenants the right to renew their lease, Farricker's real estate investment firm's application to the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal suggests otherwise. The application asks the agency's approval for Farricker "to refuse renewal of" tenant leases "and/or proceed for eviction."

Bennett Baumer, who works for the Metropolitan Council on Housing, charged that "this is a mass eviction that he's applied for, so his intention is to have everybody out on the street. He says one thing in Connecticut and does another thing in Brooklyn."

Read more: Greenwich Times, New York Times.
Photo: 217 St. John's Place, one of the buildings Farricker seeks to gut.

Graffitti on the Gowanus

Graffitti on the Gowanus, originally uploaded by daltonrooney.

Photo of the day from the Gowanus Canal.

Good News From Around the City for Bikes & Pedestrians

Ever tried to cross from the Central Library at Grand Army Plaza to the farmer's market? Then you know that the timing of the lights will leave you stranded on a tiny traffic island as traffic whizzes by you in both directions. Streets Blog reported today that the Department of Transportation has corrected the timing of the lights, after repeatedly insisting that to do that would have a disruptive ripple effect on neighborhood traffic. DOT is also planning to implement other pedestrian-friendly changes at Grand Army Plaza over roughly the next year. Check out Streets Blog for the full report.

What effect does traffic have on neighborhoods? Besides what you might expect, Transportation Alternatives' new study, Traffic's Human Toll, found that New Yorkers living on streets with high volumes of traffic spend less time outside and are more likely to restrict their
children's outdoor play compared to people who live on "medium" and "low" traffic streets. The study also finds that compared to residents on low traffic streets, residents on high traffic streets are twice as likely to be disrupted by traffic while they are walking, talking, eating, playing with kids and sleeping.

Want to check out the Bronx waterfront? The Department of City planning has just released the Bronx Harlem River Waterfront Bicycle and Pedestrian Study, which proposes to improve pedestrian and bike access to the waterfront by adding off-street paths or striped bike lanes. Click here for the full report.

Photo, an inventive entrance to the bike path in Toronto, by mute*.

This Sunday

Bye sun, originally uploaded by Mazda6.

For Kaija, originally uploaded by pirate johnny.

Gloomy days are upon us.

Maps of Other Lands: Narnia

First of an occasional series.

Zombies Take Manhattan

Zombiecon 2006 kicked off on Saturday with a bloody mary brunch on the upper east side. The locals who showed up to watch the game on the telly were, shall we say, a little befuddled to see that so many people who belong below 14th Street had taken over their bar and were busily applying zombie blood and make-up.
After traipsing through the Bloomingdale's perfume floor - we definitely needed something special to cover up that funky grave smell - we hit the subway to head to Times Square.
There's nothing more classic than a subway car full of New Yorkers, who, when zombies crowd into the car, look up briefly from their newspaper, make a snarky comment or two, and go right back to their reading. Does nothing phase you? Nothing?
FAO Schwartz management was not exactly thrilled to see us. Neither was Red Lobster - despite bringing our own bibs and politely asking the maitre de for a "table for 95, please," they kicked us out too. Passers-by were very sympathetic about the zombie discrimination.
Next - zombies gotta eat. Ordering from a waitress who's seen it all at the Times Square Pub.
Revitalized, we hit the street again. Next up: Union Square and a few more bars. Somewhat surprisingly, the tourists were way more playful and into the whole thing than the downtown New Yorkers.

1964 World's Fair Subway Map

On this date in 1964, the New York World's Fair ended its first six-month run at Flushing Meadows. More than fifty-one million people saw the Fair, which was planned by the infamous Robert Moses and is now best remembered for the "Tent of Tomorrow" and Unisphere.

To mark the occasion, the MTA published a special subway map that explained how to get there - I guess some things don't change, we still need help getting to Queens.

Map courtesy of Ryn

Neckface Kicks

Graffiti artist Neckface has teamed up with Vans to put out a series of skate shoes emblazoned with his designs. After being based out of NYC for a number of years, Neckface has moved back to his native California. You can still see his prickly arms stretching across NYC walls and rooftops - a great view of a big one is from the F train as it goes above ground at Smith/9th. My personal favorites are his stickers (below), which show his irreverent and self-deprecating sense of humor.

"Die Brooklyn Yuppies"

IMGP5757, originally uploaded by amg2000.

Found in the men's room at Bonnie's Grill on Park Slope's hipper strip, 5th Ave. The snarky reply to "die Brooklyn yuppies" says "before or after brunch?"

Part II: Halleck Street Ikea

On a recent trip to the planned Ikea site in Red Hook, I checked in on the former truck loading zone next to where the graving dock used to be. Although the graving dock was destroyed by Ikea in the last month or so, the truck loading zone next door still remains and is virtually unchanged. I believe Ikea plans to turn this area into a parking lot, and I imagine they'll leave it for a while longer while they're building the store. Soon enough, though, another of the few wild and forgotten places hidden in the city will be gone.

inside, graffiti on the concrete walls

jury-rigged fencing

"Do not pick up / girls in this / area thay got / aids"

where truck used to exit the loading zone, viewed from Hallack Street