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Mafia Slaying Site to Become Museum?

On first glance, the house at 719 South Decator Street, in the Elwyn Heights section of the city, doesn’t seem to be all that remarkable. It’s just another in a string of large brick twin houses that populate the neighborhood. However, the mere mention of the address is apt to flip a switch in those… »

Friday Facts: Narnia, Math, Linguistics, Lascivious Radios

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:: Median age of mathematics texts used in city public schools:  18 years :: Median tenure of mathematics teachers in city schools:  4.5 years :: Median SAT mathematics score, city schools (2008):  485 :: Percentage of 12th graders in city schools who know how ‘median’… »

City’s First Subway Car Found

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The second week of June 1901 saw the formal opening of the City’s first subway- what was to become today’s Brown Line- a modest straight line connecting the old Central Depot (across from Old City Hall, now Ludlow Plaza Station) and the Ostahanoc River, taking… »


The Board of Trusts and the City’s Generous Dead

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The current economic situation has given our already cash-strapped City a rough go of it, especially with regard to any funds tied into the stock market. Its pension fund alone… »

Snapshots: Col. Barstow’s Private Police Force, 1910

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May 26, 1910- Caption from this Sun-Recorder photo: “Across from the Cathedral of St. Vitus on Lorimar Avenue, Col. Harrison Barstow demonstrates one of the new mechanical call boxes installed for his… »

Friday Facts: The Honorable Harold Ramis, No Batmobiles

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:: On this day in 1889, boxer John Lawrence Sullivan punched Mayor John Overholt’s wife directly in the face, knocking her out instantly. No reason was ever given for the… »

The History of Barkay Bros. Funeral Home: Part II

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Joel and Isaac Barkay, proprietors of Barkay Bros. Funeral Home on East Folkim St., announced recently that they had accepted an undisclosed sell their business. The local funeral home had… »

The History of Barkay Bros. Funeral Home: Part I

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Joel and Isaac Barkay, proprietors of Barkay Bros. Funeral Home on East Folkim St., announced last week that they had accepted an undisclosed offer from the giant mortuary services conglomerate… »

A Bridge Too Far: Stimulus funds to destroy city landmark

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The current economic downturn and an infusion of $14 million from the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (stimulus bill) passed by congress earlier this spring have brought back… »

The Blotter: Shots, Sheep, Sno-Cones

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As a public service, The City Desk periodically offers up selected items culled from recent City police reports. (Note: More violent, standard items do not frequently show up here, as… »

Food Truck Congestion Pricing

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Hundreds of food trucks slowed traffic during afternoon rush hour last Thursday in a mass protest of the city’s new congestion-pricing scheme. The act of civil disobedience, coordinated by the… »

Opinion: Gritty Glamour is Bunk

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Occasionally, The City Desk will present to you a real opinion piece concerning the cities in which we live. Maybe it’s because I was a failure as a bohemian (one… »

Friday Facts: Charlie’s Angels Lunchboxes, Roadside Cabbage, Fake Squid

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:: A City Council ordinance passed on this date in 1975 expressly prohibited the “display of images of a licentious, erotic, salient or pornographic nature, or which otherwise arouse the… »

The Brothel Five Levels Below the Street

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The old Central Depot, which sat across across Ludlow Plaza from Old City Hall from 1896 until its demolition in 1968, was a wonderful, massive gothic structure, covered in ornament… »

Nice Work If You Can Get It: Fighting Faux Mormon Corn

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An occasional survey of jobs both unusual and extraordinary, and the people who make them happen. The company which employs Torbjorn Bruhn keeps this bookish, blond-haired, forty-two year old lawyer… »

Mysterious Giant-Food Thefts Continue

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An eight-foot-tall fiberglass doughnut was stolen from a billboard in the 2200 block of Baleson Avenue sometime Thursday night, the fifth such large representation of a foodstuff stolen over the… »

Update: Gov Nixes Mayor’s Guantanamo Deal

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Mayor Maribeth Cosgove’s offer to the Obama administration to accept Guantanamo detainees [Our City to Become the Next Guantanamo?, 2.23] has been rescinded by an angry state governor’s office. In… »

Our City to Become the Next Guantanamo?

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Mayor Maribeth Cosgrove held a press conference this morning to publicly express the city’s willingness to accept detainees from Guantanamo Bay into our prison system, making us the first city… »

Nice Work If You Can Get It: Blowing Up the Auto Industry?

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An occasional survey of jobs both unusual and extraordinary, and the people who make them happen. It’s an exciting time at Ridley Motors, headquartered in the Howard Street Anchor Architecture… »

The City’s Pneumatic Mail Delivery System

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“Nobody writes letters anymore,” or so the saying goes. But for over one hundred years our city was home to thousands of letter writers and the nation’s fifth largest post… »

Friday Facts: Abe Beats Chuck, Budget Fun, The Old Condor

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:: 565-acre Pratt Park disappeared into a sinkhole on this day in 1905. ::  Number of people who showed up for the ceremony and forum commemorating Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday… »

The Eight Great Zoo Hoaxes

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It’s for no small reasons that our fair city is often called “The Home of Zoo Hoaxes.” What follows are the Eight Great Zoo Hoaxes, as determined by the Board… »

Nice Work If You Can Get It: Larger Parking In Rear

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An occasional survey of jobs both unusual and extraordinary, and the people who make them happen. Although his business card describes him as merely an engineer, Hank Beck’s assistants and… »

Divers Unable to Find Source of Oil Sheen

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Despite a day-long search, scuba divers from the city’s police and fire departments were unable to locate the source of a thin slick of oil that spread yesterday over the… »

Snapshots: Last Days of the Riverfront Transit Center, 1933

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April, 1933 – This photo was taken one week before construction was “temporarily” halted on the City Transportation Company’s (Now the City-Suburban Transit Authority) planned transit center on the Ostahanoc… »

A look back: City Timeline 1600 – 1899

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By no means complete, this timeline serves to give a general overview of major events in the city’s history, from previously posted items here on The City Desk. Please note… »

Friday Facts: Impes, “Leapin’ Lepean,” Debtors Prison

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:: Mayor Cosgrove is expected to deliver to City Council on Monday her administration’s plan to make up the city’s now $728 million five-year deficit. :: Expected remedies: Rec Center … »

Will The City’s Modern Architecture Masterpieces Be Destroyed?

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The start of the City’s modern preservation movement can be traced back to one date: August 19th, 1959. That’s the date that demolition started on Davis Hall, the historic structure… »

Nice Work If You Can Get It: The Man of a Thousand Theraputic Faces

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An occasional survey of jobs both unusual and extraordinary, and the people who make them happen. Your average celebrity impersonator finds themselves working along the Las Vegas strip or in… »

Dockside Residents Will Finally Ride Like The Rest of Us

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The City-Suburban Transit Authority has agreed to add full-length buses to lines serving the Dockside community, in a reversal of current policy and in response to harsh, ongoing criticism from… »

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