New York City residents are remembering one of their most colorful mayors. Ed Koch served the city for three terms in the 70s and 80s, an era when New York was plagued by fiscal problems, crime, and the AIDS epidemic. He didn't disappear when he was voted out of office. With his radio show and a stint as a TV judge, he became almost a stereotype of New York's brash, tell-it-like-it-is personality.

Grand Central Terminal kicks off its centennial celebration today. Share your stories and hear from WNYC reporter Jim O'Grady on-site and Kurt Schlichting, professor of sociology and anthropology at Fairfield University and the author of the book, Grand Central Terminal: Railroads, Engineering, and Architecture in New York City.

When Ed Koch became mayor of New York City, he decided that what the city needed was a leader with an active will and gigantic personality. Specifically, his. He died Friday at 88.

A hundred years ago, when a child in America wrote a note to Santa Claus, it wound up in the "dead letters" room at the post office, never to be delivered. That changed in 1913, when an enterprising New Yorker named John Gluck founded The Santa Claus Association, a charity that matched children's wishes to donors.

Jim O'Grady, transportation reporter for WNYC and Transportation Nation, talks about the transit fare and toll increases approved by the MTA board on Wednesday.

Summary of Changes Starting March 1:

• The base fare for buses and subways will rise to $2.50
• New Yorkers will pay $30 for a weekly Metrocard
• Monthly card is now $112, up from $104
• Riders of commuter rail lines Metro North and LIRR will see an 8-9% increase in ticket prices 
• Tolls on the authority’s bridges and tunnels will go up by about the same amount. Details:
• Cash tolls on the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, Throgs Neck Bridge, Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, Bronx-Whitestone Bridge and Robert F. Kennedy Bridge will rise by a dollar to $7.50. E-ZPass users will pay $5.33, up from $4.80
• Toll for the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge will be reduced for Staten Island residents. Those with a valid resident E-ZPass who plan who make one or two westbound trips per month per account, will be charged $6.36 per trip. Those who make three or more trips per month will be charged $6.00 a trip. For non-residents, tolls will be $10.66 for E-ZPass users, and $15 for cash users.
• Express bus fares will rise by 50 cents, to $6

After weeks of battling insurance companies, including the FEMA-administered National Flood Insurance, Stephen Drimalas' determination is fraying.

"DOOMED" read yesterday's controversial New York Post cover. Tom McGeveran, editor of Capital New York who writes about the NYC tabloid wars, discusses the Post's decision to publish the photo of the pushed man. And Jim O'Grady, transportation reporter for WNYC, explains what we know about subway safety.

Do you have a reaction to the Post photograph? Got a question about subway safety? Call 212-433-9692 or post here.

Following the death of a man pushed onto the subway tracks, many New Yorkers are wondering what their best shot at survival in the unlikely event they wind up on the tracks.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York called Dorothy Day, founder of The Catholic Worker newspaper and social justice movement, "a saint for our time."

Staten Islander Stephen Drimalas is one of thousands of New Yorkers who are still without power. He's digging out from Sandy, showing up sporadically to his city job and, as of Wednesday, riding out a nor'easter.

Some family members of the victims of the September 11 attacks are angry that The National September 11 Memorial Museum will not have its planned opening on Tuesday, the 11th anniversary of the attacks. Construction of the building has been halted since last December, when a multi-million dollar dispute broke out between the museum and the Port Authority, the site's owner.

A disgruntled former women's accessories designer shot a former colleague to death Friday and then was killed in a shootout with police near the Empire State Building that left nine others wounded, officials said.

The Latest:  Alleged shooter showed no signs of distress this morning, super says • Some victims may have been hit by police bullets • "One of them shot me in the arm," victim says • Six of the nine bystanders shot have been released from the hospital

Steel plates covering a subway construction site failed to withstand the impact of a controlled blast that sent rocks flying into the street and damaged nearby buildings, the city's transit authority said Wednesday.

Jim O'Grady, WNYC transportation reporter, and Nancy Solomon, managing editor for New Jersey Public Radio, discuss their reporting on the ups and downs of trying to get around Penn Station.

There is a wide entryway in Penn Station that’s painted red with a stylishly carved leaf pattern. It frames the Long Island Railroad waiting room on the lower level and stands in stark contrast to the utilitarian style of the rest of the building. That’s because it’s a remnant of the old Penn Station.

Starting in September, Long Island Railroad and Metro-North riders have more time to use their tickets.  Tickets will be valid for two months, up from its current two week lifespan.

The New York-New Jersey Port Authority says the roadway of the Bayonne Bridge will be raised in time for the arrival of the next generation of extra-large container ships. The $1 billion project has been fast-tracked by the Obama administration, putting it six months ahead of schedule.

About 5,000 riders on Long Island Railroad will see their evening rush hour train either cut or delayed for as long as a month starting Monday.

Many of the thousands of half-human / half-mythical / one-quarter-clad creatures marching in Saturday’s 30th Annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade will arrive not by dolphin or clamshell but by subway.

Send in your photos of the Mermaid Parade to pics@wnyc.org and we will include them in our slideshow.

Every summer, as the heat builds and the atmosphere in the subway acquires the texture of a hound dog's mouth, straphangers wonder why stations aren't air conditioned. If train cars are reliably cooled, the thinking goes, why can't something be done to cool customers while they wait for them?