Map via The NY Times Because of rising rents and lowering profit margins, supermarkets city-wide have been disappearing, according to a recent study. New York's boroughs have been especially hard hit, forcing low-income residents like Fort Greene's Della Dorsett to power her electric wheelchair several blocks uphill along Myrtle Avenue, "returning home with plastic bags dangling from handles and nestled between her feet." Something to think about next time the lines jam up at......

Photograph of damaged building from the 303 East 51st Street construction site's crane by John Zwinck on Flickr During a press conference yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg said, "I don’t think anybody should be fully satisfied with the Department of Buildings’ performance. Whether somebody could have done a better job — I’m trying to — whether they could have done a better job I just don’t know." The Mayor's criticism lies squarely with his hire, architect turned......

Photo of Marvin Sylvor's Bryant Park Carousel courtesy WallyG. World renowned merry-go-round designer Marvin Sylvor has saddled up for the great carousel in the sky following a kidney failure. He was 75. The Bronx-born Sylvor’s love for the fanciful rides dated back to his childhood, when his father, hell-bent to get to Rockaway beach, would always refuse to stop so the young Sylvor could ride a carousel near the Marine Park Bridge. Sylvor found his......

Wayne Frost, one of the original Bronx-based Rock Steady Crew and better known as Frosty Freeze, died at Mount Sinai Medical Center late last week at the age of 44; it was not specified of what, just that he had a "long illness". The NY Times notes that Frost, who began breakin' in 1976, garnered a lot of attention from a 1981 Village Voice cover which featured his photo along with the words: “Physical Graffiti:......

The New York Aquarium is mourning the loss of Bertha (pictured), their 43-year-old sand tiger shark who has resided in its waters since 1965. While their average life spans aren't known, Bertha was believed to have been the longest living sand tiger shark in any aquarium. Though just announced today, Bertha actually died on Saturday when she was euthanized. Marine biologist at the Coney Island aquarium, Hans Walters, said “It was a rough decision to......

A man called 911 after discovering his friend, whose face and back he had spray painted blue as a joke, would not wake up. The painted friend was pronounced dead at the scene. The two 19-year-olds, who were friends and worked together at a bar on Bleecker Street, had been drinking all night. When one passed out, the other spray painted him before falling sleep himself. According to the NY Times, the victim's body was......

A 29-year-old woman scheduled to testify in a kidnapping case today was possibly thrown from a Harlem building yesterday morning. Joy Blackman, who was a witness to a kidnapping and was also a witness against her accused rapist in a separate case, was found dead in an alleyway at 145 West 145th Street. The building's roof alarm had been triggered between 1:15 a.m. and 2:15 a.m., Newsday reports no one seemed to check the roof.......

CONTEST ALERT: Tomorrow night the indie-elite will gather at Terminal 5 for The Plug Awards -- featuring Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, St. Vincent, José Gonzalez, Dizzee Rascal, The Forms, DiVinci and more. Tickets are sold out, so you can either watch the show here, or you can win tickets from us! We're giving away 5 pairs, starting now. Just email [email protected] and tell us why you want to go. MUSIC: White Williams,......

Elettaria: Hendrix shredded here once upon a time, when it was a music venue called The 8th Wonder, but now the stage is an open kitchen and South Asian-spiced American dishes are the stars. Decorated by the man behind Allen & Delancey, the seductive 72-seat interior (pictured) features a rustic reclaimed barn-wood ceiling, plush banquettes, old-world paintings and exposed brick walls. Appetizers include a dish of dayboat sea scallops with celery root puree, oxtail, Meyer......

Today the Times’s Frank Bruni marvels at Manhattan’s new wave of high tone restaurant openings during a recession, and pins the trend not on entrepreneurial bravado but on the fact that it takes years to get a fancy eatery open, and most of these new places were envisioned in flusher economic times. It is true that in 2005, the top fifth of earners in Manhattan made 52 times what the lowest fifth make – $365,826......

It may have looked like simple joyriding on a Friday afternoon, but the Parks Dept. employee careening around Battery Park near Whitehall St. yesterday afternoon was actually a man on a mission, i.e. to kill as many birds in the park as possible. Martin Hightower has been a Parks Dept. employee since 2005, but was arrested after 911 started receiving calls about a man driving recklessly on a golf cart at the southern tip of......

The Pentagon has charged six men accused of planning the September 11, 2001 attacks and will seek the death penalty (the Pentagon's terse press release was titled "Defense Department Seeks Death Penalty for Six Guantanamo Bay Detainees"). These would be "the first trials under the terrorism-era military tribunal system." The defendants will see the evidence and will have similar rights as U.S. soldiers accused of crimes. As for whether evidence and confessions gained through methods,......

Actor Roy Scheider died yesterday at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, after battling multiple myeloma for several years and suffering complications from a staph infection. He was 75 and had been living in Sag Harbor, New York (after moving out his house in Sagaponack that Billy Joel purchased). Scheider may be best known for his role as Police Chief Martin Brody in Jaws. One of his lines from the movie,......

Director of the legendary hip-hop documentary Style Wars, Tony Silver, died last weekend after battling an irreversible brain condition for several years. Shot in New York City in the early '80s and originally airing on PBS in 1983, his documentary is considered to be the first film about hip-hop culture. While the 70 minutes covers rap and breakdancing, its main focus is on graffiti, which at the time was viewed by some as a groundbreaking......

Yesterday afternoon, a contractor came into contact with a live cable at the Astoria substation and suffered a fatal heart attack. John Rodriguez worked for CKR Construction, not Con Ed, and had been installing a new cable. The NY Times reported on Con Ed's statement, "A contractor was excavating and installing grounding cable in the substation...It appears he came into contact with an energized cable....We are investigating the circumstances of the incident, and we are......

Yesterday, Kim Ledger visited his son's apartment on Broome Street. After Heath Ledger had been found dead in a Soho loft last week, mourners have left letters, flowers and other tributes to the 28-year-old actor. The building staff had collected the items and kept them in the basement; the building super told the Post Kim Ledger said the mementos were "beautiful." Kim Ledger, who spent an hour in the apartment, was accompanied by NYPD detectives......

After intense speculation about why the masseuse who discovered Heath Ledger's body last Tuesday called actress Mary-Kate Olsen multiple times, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly spoke to reporters yesterday to clear the air. Kelly said, "We believe that of the three phone calls by the masseuse to Mary-Kate Olsen, only one got through. That call was 99 seconds long." Commissioner Kelly further emphasized, "There is absolutely no indication that investigators were going to speak to Mary-Kate......

Photograph of the memorial outside 421 Broome Street taken on Friday by vinnie 716 on Flickr Last night, the G'Day USA Australia Ball was held at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, concluding Australia Week festivities. But the week held sadness, after Australian actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his Soho apartment on Tuesday. At the ball, Australian Counsel-General John Olsen read an unexpected letter from Ledger's father Kim:"Heath is, and always will be, an......

Photograph of the crowd outside the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home by David Karp/AP Yesterday, over a hundred people - made up of "fans, reporters and photographers" - waited outside the Frank E. Campbell funeral home, where the body of actor Heath Ledger had been kept since ME's autopsy. Ledger had been found dead in a SoHo apartment by his masseuse and housekeeper on Tuesday afternoon. The cause of death is inconclusive, but he......

Coachella Lineup Announced Sure, with the All Points West Fest announced, Coachella may not have the same appeal for east coasters this year, but the lineup announcement is still an exciting annual event. Over the last few years, it has established itself as the granddaddy and standard bearer of the American festival circuit. Unfortunately, most people are finding this year's lineup is a bit of a dud. Coachella's been operating at such a high level......

We were encouraged to hear a statue would be unveiled in Central Park memorializing the racehorse Barbaro, the Kentucky Derby winner who remained undefeated in all of his races before tragically breaking a leg in the Preakness Stakes (video). The sculpture by Daniel Edwards - whose Paris Hilton and Britney Spears sculptures are familiar eye-openers - is scheduled to be unveiled on April 30th to coincide with this year's Kentucky Derby. Unlike the beloved statue......

Okay people, time for your morning update on The Ledge – come on, you know you want it. Even Daniel Day Lewis says there’s nothing else to talk about. (Scroll down.) Sorry we’re late, but there are a lot of new developments this morning. First and foremost, Heath Ledger is, sadly, still dead. Second! Before calling 911, Diana Wolozin, the unlicensed massage therapist who found Ledger’s body, used Ledger’s phone to speed dial Mary-Kate Olsen......

Some more details surrounding Heath Ledger's death have emerged, even though the autopsy is inconclusive for the actor's cause of death. Though CBS 2 initially reported that a rolled up $20 bill in Ledger's SoHo apartment had narcotic residue on it and that cops had found unidentified drug packets, the NYPD now confirms that lab tests found nothing to indicate the bill had been used to snort drugs and that no illegal drugs were......

Photographs outside Broome Street The NYC Medical Examiner's office says Heath Ledger's autopsy is inconclusive, citing the need to more tests. Spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said, "The autopsy is inconclusive and we have to do further testing which includes toxicology and tissue testing. We expect to have results in about 10 days to two weeks." Initial reports suggested pills were found scattered around the actor's body, prompting speculation that Ledger could have committed suicide. Ledger's......

Yesterday afternoon the world learned of Heath Ledger's untimely death. Both old and new media gossiped, rumor-mongered, and pitched their circus tents outside of his building on Broome Street the moment word spread. Sadly, most of his close friends and relatives, including his parents, heard about the tragedy through the newswire. The young actor was embraced as a fairly new resident of New York (first in Brooklyn, then in Manhattan). The NY Times recalls that......

Giano: Owned by three Milanesi paisans, this new addition to the East Village’s Italian scene is a high-concept homage to duality. (You know, the Jungian thing.) Named for the two-headed Roman god Janus, the restaurant (pictured) sets the modern and traditional side by side to see how they inform each other. In the back room, the typical rustic affectations contrast with a sleek, minimalist design at the front of the space. The menu, too, is......

Queens Boulevard, dubbed the "Boulevard of Death," was the scene of yet another fatal accident yesterday. This time, a cement truck hit a woman in her 60s as she was crossing the street towards the Queens Center Mall, scattering the contents of the victim's purse into the street. Witnesses at the scene say that the truck was turning from Woodhaven Blvd. just and hit the woman just as she entered the crosswalk trying to beat......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a ceiling collapse at Franklin Ave. and Union St. in Brooklyn, a pedestrian was fatally struck on Queens Blvd. in Woodhaven, Queens, and an unusual rescue on the south bound tower of the Throgs Neck Bridge in Queens. An undercover cop forgot to turn off the wire he was wearing while discussing 11 bags of cocaine he seized in a Brooklyn bust that were never turned in. He was......

A judge has decided not to grant murder suspect Natavia Lowery bail. Lowery is accused of killing her boss, broker to the stars Linda Stein, by bludgeoning her to death. Police say that Lowery confessed to snapping after Stein verbally abused her and blew pot smoke in her face. However, her lawyer Ron Kuby had claimed she deserved bail because the videotape confession (which he once referred to as being like a hostage video, since......

After friends and family became worried that 25-year-old Yolande Beckford and her 6-year-old daughter Monique did not arrive at work or school, the police went to their home and found their bodies yesterday morning. The two were stabbed to death, and there were no signs of forced entry. This morning, WNBC reports that the police have arrested Beckford's boyfriend for the murder, while Newsday reports that a relative confessed to the crime. The Daily News......