Arun Venugopal

New York, NY —

A stretch of West 53rd Street in Manhattan has been temporarily rename "U2 Way." WNYC's Arun Venugopal took today's ceremony with city officials and a few fans.

REPORTER: They may be the world's biggest band but U2 isn't all over the airwaves these days. So frontman ...

New York, NY —

The mayor and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein were in Sunset Park yesterday at one of 42 new schools that will be open this fall. According to Klein, the schools include a new Cinema School in the Bronx and other schools for struggling students, as well ...

New York, NY —

Governor Paterson pulled out a baseball reference to describe how he thinks federal stimulus money should be spent in New York. Speaking to Brian Lehrer on WNYC this morning, Paterson said money for transportation projects should be spent the way St. Louis Cardinal Ozzie Smith ...

New York, NY —

A coalition of business, airline and tourism groups is calling for a $22 billion upgrade of the nation's air traffic control system.

The new, satellite-based system would replace the existing one, which operates by radar.

Kathy Wylde heads the Partnership for New York City. She says the ...

New York, NY —

The Port Authority is leading a major coalition of business and tourist groups in calling for a $22 billion upgrade to the nation's air traffic control system.

The existing system has been in place since the 1960s, and relies on radar, which has been around since ...

Mayor Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Kelly and Queens District Attorney Brown, announce results of Saturday buyback. (Edward Reed)

The NYPD says ...

Mayor Bloomberg says President Obama needs to give the public confidence and concrete solutions with his prime time speech to Congress tonight.

"I don't think they want to hear that there's going to be a chicken in every pot and there's no pain. People are smarter than ...

New York, NY —

In the last six months the city has received 3,500 weapons through the gun buyback program, which assures gun owners of complete confidentiality. And at $200 per gun, the program isn't a bad way to make some extra cash. But officials say the smartest thing ...

New York, NY —

The NYPD says 919 guns were traded in for cash at the most recent gun buyback program, in Queens. That brings the total to over 3,500 guns handed in at houses of worship around the city in the last six months. Councilman James Sanders says ...

We've all got our ways of coping with the economy. Since I always forget to bring lunch from home, I have become a regular customer at Mamoun's, which makes a mean $2.50 falafel sandwich. And as I was walking back to work with said falafel, I chanced upon this chalkboard outside the Native Leather store on Bleecker St.

It says: 'YOU ARE MY ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE.'

Native Leather has been around since 1968 - it sells Italian caps, Argentinian belts and fine Laguiole knives from France - but these days, its owner since 1993, Carol Walsh says things aren't going so well. People continue to buy leather hats and gloves and belts ranging from $20 to $55, but the nicer items just don't move off the shelf. Thus the chalkboard plea, which went up a week ago, right after President Obama signed the economic stimulus package into law.

New York, NY —

The city is launching an ambitious plan to shore up Wall Street, and prevent a brain drain of its employees, by encouraging out-of-work financial service workers to do what Mayor Bloomberg did, and start their own companies.

BLOOMBERG: I was fired, and nobody offered me a ...

New York, NY —

A first of its kind report on climate change and its impact on New York City has just been released. Expect hotter weather, more rain, and a lot more flooding as the century progresses. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more on the report, and the city's ...

New York, NY —

2,200 attendees from around the world crowded the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Women Emissaries, in Crown Heights.

Chana Weisberg came from Toronto, where she edits www.chabad.org. She says outsiders may have their own notions of Hassidic women, but that many of those in attendance are essentially ...

New York, NY —

The International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Women Emissaries drew twenty-two hundred attendees from around the world to Crown Heights, Brooklyn Sunday.

REPORTER: Chana Weisberg came from Toronto, where she edits chabad.org. She says outsiders may have their own notions of Hassidic women. But she says many of ...

Council Speaker Christine Quinn gave her annual State of the City, and she tried to pack it full of sunshine.

New Yorkers, she says, have a "resounding belief in the future of this country. We may be in the midst of the worst fiscal crisis in decades. But New Yorkers know better than anyone, that no crisis has ever stopped our city from moving forward. As EB White reminds us, New York is the city that reached the highest point in the sky at the lowest moment of the depression."

Lots of policy proposals in her speech, but the splashiest one is certainly this: take all those vacant new or luxury apartments that are scattered around the city, gathering dust, and turn them into affordable housing for the middle class. She says the city would negotiate for the best possible price with developers who are eager to offload their luxury units. She didn't get into the numbers, only saying that there are "thousands" of such units, "just waiting for someone to call them home."

She also announced an ambitious plan to reform the city's tax code, her own version of the so-called Millionaire's Tax that's gaining momentum in Albany. Under this plan:

Clinton and Buddy (Getty)

If Governor Paterson tends to go heavy on the classical references - he'll quote the Greeks, anytime, anywhere - Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has a lighter touch.

Today, ...

New York, NY —

The Senate voted to approve its version of an economic stimulus package yesterday. It now heads into final deliberations between Senate and House leaders. But across the country this past weekend, many other conversations took place at thousands of economic stimulus house parties. The gatherings ...

New York, NY —

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says he's hitting the road to convince local municipalities to consolidate services and save taxpayer money.

Streamlining the many townships and villages across the state is part of his latest effort to reform state government, but he knows lawmakers won't embrace the ...

New York, NY —

About 600 supporters of President Obama -- and others hoping to volunteer -- gathered near Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn yesterday. The event was billed as the "Continue the Change Service Fair." WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more.

REPORTER: The event was organized by members of Brooklyn ...

New York, NY —

A new report finds that, even as New York City's population is growing, its middle-class is shrinking.

The think tank, Center for an Urban Future, says more people left the city for places like Philadelphia, Charlotte, even Allentown, in each of the years between 2002 and ...