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For the first time ever, the total assessed value of Big Apple properties has topped $1 trillion

The MTA might totally shut down L-train service between Manhattan and Brooklyn for more than a year — creating a nightmare for hundreds of thousands of straphangers on the already cramped route. The drastic measure on hipster heaven Williamsburg’s transit lifeline would be the quickest and cheapest way to repair damage to the 80-year-old Canarsie Tube under the East River caused by Hurricane Sandy, said MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg. The step would be similar to when the MTA shut down R-train service through the Montague tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn for 14 months from August 2013 to September 2014 to...

Inside and outside of New York City's government, chatter is increasing about a once-unthinkable idea: shutting down the notorious Rikers Island jail complex. A coalition of dozens of advocacy groups says it intends to pressure the mayor and other elected officials to take a stand, arguing the 400-acre island in the East River where most of the city's 10,000 inmates are held is too broken to be fixed, plagued by a culture of brutality, misconduct and corruption. They are up against a formidable opposition that derides the effort as a fantasy that ignores political and practical realities. ...

U.S. cities that implemented big minimum-wage hikes to $10 an hour or more in 2015 have seen a strikingly similar aftermath: Job gains have fallen to multiyear lows at restaurants, hotels and other leisure and hospitality venues. The data aren't, for the most part, stark and reliable enough to amount to smoking-gun proof. But Chicago, Oakland, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. — all on the leading edge of the push for big minimum wage hikes — all show worrisome job trends.

NEW YORK, Jan 7 (Reuters) - New York's Mayor Bill de Blasio has submitted a resolution to the city's police pension fund, urging it to consider exiting investments in companies that manufacture assault weapons for civilians, the mayor's office said on Thursday.

NYC Settles Lawsuits Over Muslim Surveillance by Police By tom hays, associated press NEW YORK -- Jan 7, 2016 The New York Police Department will strengthen safeguards against illegal surveillance of Muslims in investigations of terror threats and install a civilian representative on an advisory committee that reviews the probes under the terms of a settlement of two high-profile civil rights lawsuits, lawyers said Thursday. The announcement of a deal following months of negotiations formally ended litigation over accusations that the nation's largest police department cast a shadow over Muslim communities with a covert campaign of religious profiling and illegal...

Proposed legislation was introduced into New York City Council to require that the city’s public schools provide Islamic-compliant food – halal – as an option in the cafeterias. The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) joined forces with council member Rafael L. Espinal, Jr. (Brooklyn) to support Resolution 54 at a press conference on the steps of New York City Hall on Wednesday, March 26. Fourteen other city councilmembers co-sponsored Espinal’s Resolution. The Resolution goes into explicit detail about what Islamic-observant students are permitted to eat and what they must avoid eating, as well as stating...

For decades, excited children visiting New York begged their parents for a visit to a toy store unlike any other - complete with 60-foot indoor Ferris wheel, 20-foot animated T Rex and a life-size Barbie dollhouse. For hundreds of thousands of youngsters, the Toys R Us store in Times Square, the brand's flagship property, held a special place in the imagination as a store where dreams really did become reality. However, that dream sadly came to an end after 14 years yesterday as the store closed its doors to shoppers - following on the heels of fellow toy shop F.A.O...

NYC Will Fine You $250,000 For ‘Misgendering’ A Transsexual Did you call a transsexual person “he” or “she” when they preferred to be called “zhe?” According to a newly updated anti-discrimination law in New York City, you could be fined an eye-watering $250,000. In the latest, astonishing act of draconian political correctness, the NYC Commission on Human Rights have updated a law on “Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Expression” to threaten staggering financial penalties against property owners who “misgender” employees or tenants. Incidents that are deemed “wilful and malicious” will see property owners face up to $250,000...

The New York Police Department moved swiftly late Tuesday and early Wednesday to beat back accusations of statistical manipulation leveled by its former commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, that called into question the city's official count of shootings and murders. In a briefing with reporters at Police Headquarters, a news release that contained a point-by-point rebuttal and an appearance on national television by the current commissioner, William J. Bratton, on Wednesday, police officials denied any altering of statistics and defended the city's low crime figures for 2015. "He is engaging in politics, and as you know the first casualty of politics...

More than a dozen of New York City's most famed hotels are pledging to get greener. The Waldorf-Astoria New York, the Lotte New York Palace, the Pierre-A Taj Hotel and the Crowne Plaza Times Square are among the 16 city hotels - all currently thronged with tourists visiting New York for the holidays - whose owners have agreed to cut greenhouse gases from their buildings by 30 percent or more in the next decade. ...

The apartments in a new Manhattan building boast little balconies, tall ceilings, dishwashers and storage space. All in 360 square feet or less. It's micro-living in the nation's biggest city, and New Yorkers could be seeing more of it. Planning officials are proposing to end a limit on how small apartments can be, opening the door for more "micro-apartments" that advocates see as affordable adaptations to a growing population of single people. Critics fear a turn back toward the city's tenement past and question whether less space will really mean less expensive.

An alleged jihadist arrested in June on charges that he plotted to blow up Times Square may also be the fiend who stabbed a 9-year-old Staten Island boy in the neck five months earlier in what some investigators now believe was a botched ISIS audition. But NYPD detectives investigating the Jan. 9 knife attack have been frustrated by the feds, who won't give them access to terror suspect Fareed Mumuni, said a source familiar with the probe. Mumuni, 21, lived only 600 yards from Jermaine Culver, who was stabbed as he walked to school in the Mariners Harbor section of...

<p>The New York City Police Department is ramping up security around tourist hotspots, but denies a report claiming it received a "credible threat" against the city ahead of Christmas.</p> <p>Commissioner William Bratton held an emergency meeting with authorities Tuesday to urge police officers to remain vigilant during the busy holiday season, sources told PIX11 News.</p>

Welcome to your future, America. If New York City is at the forefront of trendsetting social science experiments -- and it often is -- you are in trouble unless you bow to political correctness and refer to transgendered people using the proper pronoun. That's right. You can now be charged with discrimination under New York City law if you refer to a female transgender as "him" or "Mr." From Reuters: New York City has warned landlords, employers and businesses they could be running afoul of the law by purposely calling a transgender woman "him" or "Mr." when she prefers a...

Restaurant owners can't require ties for male diners only. Gyms can't tell clients which locker room to use. And in most cases, an employer can't put "John" on a worker's ID if she prefers "Jane." New York City's Human Rights Commission is establishing what advocates called some of the most powerful guidelines nationwide on gender-identity discrimination, releasing specifics Monday to flesh out broad protections in a 2002 law. "Today's guidance makes it abundantly clear what the city considers to be discrimination," which can lead to fines of up to $250,000, Commissioner Carmelyn P. Malalis said in a statement. Officials said...

Vice President Joe Biden once compared it to a "Third World country" - but LaGuardia Airport has become so riddled with homeless that it could now even make some of those nations look good. The number of derelicts living at the airport has increased dramatically in the past year, turning the main terminal into the city's most popular de facto flophouse, where they sleep, eat and wash up while competing for space with passengers, according to Port Authority sources.

In New York City, even sidewalk space is coveted real estate. Street vendors sometimes spend a fortune or languish for years on waiting lists to acquire one of the permits that allow them to sell goods in tightly regulated locations. But once a year, there's an exception, laid out in an artfully worded city ordinance: During the month of December, anyone may sell "coniferous trees" just about anywhere - no license required. It's a rare tree-for-all. Peddlers flock in from across North America. Big trucks carrying huge loads of trees arrive in the dead of night. Stands selling coniferous trees...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has been discharged from a hospital after undergoing surgery for a hernia. [...] De Blasio is now resting at Gracie Mansion and will return to City Hall on Monday. ...

New York City's new warning label for salt-laden chain restaurant food is headed for a court fight, after restaurateurs sued Thursday to argue that health regulators overstepped legal bounds to enact the first-of-its-kind requirement. The National Restaurant Association's suit came just two days after the rule took effect, compelling chain eateries to put a salt-shaker icon on menu items that top the recommended daily limit of 2,300 milligrams of sodium -- about a teaspoon. The group had vowed to challenge the city Board of Health-approved rule, which will sprinkle salt warnings on some dishes ranging from burgers to pizzas to...