In Bronx School, Culture Shock, Then Revival

NYT Video!

Junior High School 22, in the South Bronx, had run through six principals in just over two years when Shimon Waronker was named the seventh.

On his first visit, in October 2004, he found a police officer arresting a student and calling for backup to handle the swelling crowd. Students roamed the hallways with abandon; in one class of 30, only 5 students had bothered to show up. “It was chaos,” Mr. Waronker recalled. “I was like, this can’t be real.”

Continued in the Extended Article!

Tickets and Car Thefts on the Decline

NEW YORK, NY — Believe it or not, fewer car windshields got slapped with parking tickets in Brooklyn last year.

Overall, cops wrote 59,589 less tickets in 2007, an 11% drop from 2006, preliminary city records show.

Stats in the Extended Article.

Severe Weather Alert for NYC

NEW YORK, NY [CHI] — A heavy snow warning remains in effect from 9:00pm this evening to 12:00pm Monday.

A mixture of rain and snow is expected to begin this evening… changing over to all snow by midnight. The snow may be heavy at times overnight into early Monday morning before tapering off around noontime. Total snow accumulations are expected to range from 5 to 8 inches.

More info in the Extended Article.

Big Apple Warms Up To Winter

January 8, 2008 — Hot times!

The weather was a balmy 62 degrees yesterday and it’s expected to be 63 degrees today.

That’s more than 20 degrees above normal.

And it’s expected to last through Saturday – with maybe a few showers here and there.

Four Slain in City Hours into 2008

NEW YORK, NY — The city recorded its lowest murder count in four decades last year – but violence erupted Tuesday just hours into 2008.

Three people were shot dead and another was fatally stabbed.

Cops were targeted, but not hit, by gunfire at three separate scenes, and at least five people were shot and wounded, all before sunrise, police said.

EVE’S TRASH LITTER-ALLY MASSIVE

NEW YORK, NY — A million New Year’s revelers trashed Times Square with at least 42 tons of party hats, noisemakers and confetti, which an army of city sanitation workers beautifully swept up yesterday.

Armed with brooms, 16 mechanical sweepers, 13 collection trucks and 14 leaf blowers, 109 of New York’s Strongest took to the streets to do the heavy lifting.

645 Rookie Cops to Hit High-Crime Streets

BROOKLYN, NY — There may be fewer homicides in Brooklyn’s high-crime neighborhoods, but the number of people getting shot and robbed there is on the rise.

Home burglaries, car break-ins and muggings also have increased in central and north Brooklyn – even as the same crime rates have decreased citywide, NYPD statistics show.

Woman Searching For Her NYC Subway Hero

Click Here to watch a Newscast

BRONX, NY — The woman you’re about to meet, knows a lot about the spirit of giving. She’s a blood donor who gave the gift of life just one night before a Good Samaritan would save hers.

City Is Doubling Police Program to Reduce Crime

NEW YORK, NY — Every new police officer in New York City will be sent onto the streets of some of the city’s toughest neighborhoods as part of a broad anticrime operation that the authorities say has helped produce historic drops in crime, the city announced on Wednesday.

Click here to download the 71st Precinct Crime Stat Sheet (PDF)

Crown Heights Couple Featured in NY Times – The Hunt

NEW YORK, NY — In the fall, when Yael and Eli Hanover planned to move to the Upper West Side to be within walking distance of Mrs. Hanover’s new job, real estate agents warned that it would be tough to find large enough rental space that also allowed dogs.

Angry OnStar Customers Count Down To Shutdown

SAN JOSE, CA — The network that launched the U.S. wireless industry with brick-sized — and brick-heavy — cell phones 24 years ago will switch off in most of the country next year, leaving a surprising number of users in the lurch.

Older OnStar systems for cars, home alarms and up to a million cell phones will lose service starting in February under a 2002 federal decision that allows carriers to switch the spectrum over from analog to digital technologies, which would use it more efficiently.

Board Approves Subway and Bus Fare Increase

NEW YORK, NY — After an unusually vigorous and spirited debate, the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted at 10:50 a.m. today to raise fares on subways, buses and commuter railroads and tolls on bridges and tunnels.

The M.T.A. chairman, H. Dale Hemmerdinger, called the vote “an important step in putting the transit system on a sound financial system.”

Yeshiva Aide gets Ticket at Phantom Stop

Moshe Zenwirth has been waiting since June for a bus that hasn’t come – and likely never will.

The Borough Park yeshiva administrator was slapped with a $115 ticket after he parked at a “bus stop” on 51st St. – even though the closest bus route is one block north.

Since the June 13 fine was issued, Zenwirth, 34, has appealed the decision, but has been stymied by two city administrative law judges, most recently in October.

‘ROUGHEST’ FINEST – Gripes Soar Under Mike

NEW YORK, NY — Despite a leadership style that has spared Mayor Bloomberg the scorn heaped on his predecessor for aggressive police tactics, the NYPD was hit with more allegations of wrongdoing in the last two years than at any time during the Rudy Giuliani years, a Post analysis has found.

“Giuliani had a reputation for being real hard, but the data belie that,” said Doug Muzzio, a political science professor at Baruch College. “The data seem to suggest that despite the conventional wisdom, Giuliani’s cops were less complained about than Bloomberg’s.”

City Water Customer about to get Hosed Again

NEW YORK, NY — Property owners are about to get a nasty New Year’s surprise from the city – a water rate hike of up to 18 percent.

Acting at the behest of Environmental Protection Commissioner Emily Lloyd, a gloomy Water Board voted unanimously yesterday to set the process in motion that would hike rates by 12 to 18 percent on Jan. 1, the middle of the fiscal year.