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	<title>The City Desk &#187; RJ White</title>
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	<link>http://thecitydesk.net</link>
	<description>Fictional urbanism.</description>
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		<title>Mafia Slaying Site to Become Museum?</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2010/06/04/mafia-slaying-site-to-become-museum/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2010/06/04/mafia-slaying-site-to-become-museum/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 04 Jun 2010 14:25:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[crime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Furleigh Park]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[museums]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[violence]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=759</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On first glance, the house at 719 South Decator Street, in the Elwyn Heights section of the city, doesn&#8217;t seem to be all that remarkable. It&#8217;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 with a longish memory of the seedier aspects of the City&#8217;s history. In 1979, organized crime boss Lorento &#8220;Lorry Boy&#8221; Scafia was slain on its marble steps while enjoying a glass of lemonade on a hot August evening. The ensuing mob war raged into the next decade, resulting in several more slayings and a couple of car bombings, finally calming down in late 1980. After the August 28 murder of &#8220;Lorry Boy,&#8221; Mrs. Scafia and their three children moved out of the house and the city, finally settling in Orlando, Florida. They retained ownership of the house, which was unoccupied for thirty years, except for a distant cousin who lived there briefly while attending Watson University in the mid-90s. When Mrs. Scafia passed away last June, the children decided it was finally time to sell the house. All in all, the slaying and its aftermath [...]]]></description>
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		<title>City&#8217;s First Subway Car Found</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/11/17/citys-first-subway-car-found/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/11/17/citys-first-subway-car-found/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:17:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Central Corridor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CSTA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Downtown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[old city hall]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ostahanoc River]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[transit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Upper Carsonhurst]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=738</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The second week of June 1901 saw the formal opening of the City&#8217;s first subway- what was to become today&#8217;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 in the Downtown/Central Corridor areas, as well as the bustling Fifth and Second Wards. With a flourish and burst of a Champagne bottle, the very first car to travel the line was the &#8220;Jenny-Anne,&#8221; an elaborate ceremonial car outfitted with carpeting, electric chandeliers, upholstered seats and even a small wet bar. The car was constructed at the behest of L. Mathewson Burlsworth, whose Ostahanoc Valley Northeast Line railroad was a partner in the project. From this point on, throughout the expansion of the subway system in the early 20th cetury, the car was occasionally pulled into service for various heads of state and other dignitaries, including President Theodore Roosevelt (It can be presumed that, for certain reasons, President Taft was not offered a ride during his 1911 visit). In 1914, the &#8220;Jenny-Anne&#8221; (named after the daughter of Mayor Orson Winthrop) was decommissioned and put on display at the Commercial Museum (adjoining the Atlas Exhibition Hall), [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>The Board of Trusts and the City&#8217;s Generous Dead</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/08/03/the-board-of-trusts-and-the-citys-generous-dead/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/08/03/the-board-of-trusts-and-the-citys-generous-dead/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:57:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=731</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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 has lost millions over the last two years and now officials are scrambling to work on ways to patch the gaping hole. There is one other arm of the City government, though, that has also been affected, but has not received nearly the same amount of coverage. The Board of Trusts was established during a brief reform period in the early 1920s, in order to consolidate various funds that had been bequeathed to the City by residents over the years. Unlike such large, well-known privately overseen trusts, like those of Beatrice Nussbaum ["Lack Of Swimming; Hole In District," 10.20.08] or Navin Masters [benefactor of the Masters Preparatory School for Orphans, later Masters College], the Board of Trusts manages the disbursement of a host of smaller funds meant for the &#8220;public good,&#8221; some of which go to general municipal services and some of which come with rather specific requirements- :: Each year, Harper East Elementary School, in the Oak Lane neighborhood, receives $30.08 toward the &#8220;subscription of new periodicals of a [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>The Blotter: Shots, Sheep, Sno-Cones</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/06/25/the-blotter-shots-sheep-sno-cones/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/06/25/the-blotter-shots-sheep-sno-cones/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:24:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hoyt Schermerhorn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[police]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the blotter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=600</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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 they are covered in the local papers with regularity.) 9:45 pm Corner of Simcoe and Newbury Streets: Officers from the 27th Precinct respond to reports of shots fired. Upon investigation, officers discovered that the sound was caused by a 1973 Ford Maverick owned by Edward Willis, 22, of 1785 W. 37th Street. Willis was issued $547 worth of tickets for safety violations. 2 am 1200 block of N. Merkel Street: A 20-year-old man was treated at Nilsson Hospital for a gunshot wound to the leg. Detectives were only able to locate the scene of the shooting based upon the victim&#8217;s blood trail. There has been no arrest and no motive given. 4:03 am 3800 block of Van Dam Street: Harbor Division officers arrest Summit Heights resident Hugo Allen, 34, for theft of services after attempting to walk out of the Harborfront Diner without paying for 3 cups of coffee, a cheese omelet, hash browns, four sausages, two stacks of pancakes, and four glasses of orange juice. Allen also had an [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Friday Facts: Charlie&#8217;s Angels Lunchboxes, Roadside Cabbage, Fake Squid</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/06/12/friday-facts-charlies-angels-lunchboxes-roadside-cabbage-fake-squid/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/06/12/friday-facts-charlies-angels-lunchboxes-roadside-cabbage-fake-squid/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:47:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[construction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[farming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[friday facts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Morris]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[museums]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ordinances]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sex]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[zoo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=574</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[:: 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 prurient interest for the sole purpose of titillation” on children’s metal lunchboxes. :: The Seventh of the Eight Great Zoo Hoaxes was committed on this day in 1968. :: Number of regular weekly Farmer&#8217;s Markets (regulated) within city limits: 12 :: Number of regular weekly Farmer&#8217;s Markets (regulated) within city limits three years ago: 4 :: Number of stands where it&#8217;s just guys selling produce streetside: At least 47 (according to a story this week by the Clarion-Journal) :: Number of these out of a station wagon: 10 :: Number of these out of a van: 22 :: Number of these out of an old ice cream truck: 1 :: Number of vacant lots/properties being used for farming, under the city&#8217;s new UrbanFarm program: 18 :: When First Amendment activists blocked a 1979 attempt by the City Council to pass an ordinance against the sale and display of shirts bearing the legend “FBI: Federal Breast Inspector,” the City Council successfully retaliated by passing a different ordinance requiring three-hundred hours of [...]]]></description>
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		<title>The Brothel Five Levels Below the Street</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/06/08/the-brothel-five-levels-below-the-street/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/06/08/the-brothel-five-levels-below-the-street/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:39:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Central Corridor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CSTA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Downtown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[historic preservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[old city hall]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ostahanoc River]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sex]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[subway]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[transit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[transportation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[urban exploration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Watson University]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=567</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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 and decoration which one doesn&#8217;t find much in today&#8217;s construction. It certainly isn&#8217;t found in its replacement, the City Centre Square building, a long rectangular affair, completed in 1972. Below the glass and brown brick-covered box, the City-Suburban Transit Authority (CSTA) has its Ludlow Plaza Station, the only remnant of the old depot. It&#8217;s one of the nicer stops in the subway system, with some of the old architectural details still showing through slight neglect mandated by tight budgets over the decades. Central Depot was the showpiece of the of the Ostahanoc Valley Northeast Line, a regional railroad that did very well with both passenger and freight transport during this city&#8217;s booming industrial age. As such, the railroad&#8217;s offices were located on the upper five floors of the massive limestone edifice to transportation. The first two floors were dedicated to the grandly-designed passenger concourse and two levels of tracks were located below, which are now used for CSTA subway and regional light rail. But few know about the levels which [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>Friday Facts: Abe Beats Chuck, Budget Fun, The Old Condor</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/02/13/friday-facts-abe-beats-chuck-budget-fun-the-old-condor/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/02/13/friday-facts-abe-beats-chuck-budget-fun-the-old-condor/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:56:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[budget]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[friday facts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=544</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[:: 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&#8217;s 200th birthday at Bowman House (the city&#8217;s longstanding Republican club): 470 :: Number of people who showed up for the ceremony and symposium commemorating Charles Darwin&#8217;s 200th birthday at Watson University&#8217;s Liechner Hall (NatSci building): 75 :: Number of times Abraham Lincoln visited our city: 3 while alive, 1 while no longer alive :: Number of times Charles Darwin visited our city: 1, lecturing to the Gentleman&#8217;s Philosophical Society at Bowman House in 1871 :: Due to budgetary issues, trash collection will only be done every other week, effective March 1. Recycling will still be done on a weekly basis, due to the terms of various grants funding the program. :: Percentage cut Mayor Cosgrove and her deputy mayors have taken in their salaries for FY 2009 and 2010: 20% :: Percentage by which all city departments will be forced to cut their budgets across the board, by June 1: 15% :: Mayor Cosgrove has asked the library system to explore the possibility of auctioning off or selling certain  rare books and [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Snapshots: Last Days of the Riverfront Transit Center, 1933</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/30/snapshots-last-days-of-the-riverfront-transit-center-1933/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/30/snapshots-last-days-of-the-riverfront-transit-center-1933/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:18:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CSTA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[snapshots]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[transit]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=533</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[April, 1933 &#8211; This photo was taken one week before construction was &#8220;temporarily&#8221; halted on the City Transportation Company&#8217;s (Now the City-Suburban Transit Authority) planned transit center on the Ostahanoc Riverfront. To be built in stages, the center would have facilities for regional and local buses, planned subway and elevated train lines and even an &#8220;auto-gyro landing pad.&#8221; However, an excessively rainy spring, leaks from the nearby Ostahanoc River and the economic realities of the Great Depression caused the CYC to suspend construction. This city did not receive nearly the amount of New Deal largess afforded its municipal bretheren. The site remained in a sort of half-built decaying limbo until 1949, when it was purchased from the cash-strapped transit company by the N.L. Lancaster Mfg. Co., a manufacturer of ball bearings, for the purpose of constructing a plant. The company went out of business in 1994 and the property has sat abandoned since then. CSTA repurchased the land several years ago for a new riverfront transit center and had to pay millions in environmental cleanup costs. Now that the site is ready, the once-again cash-strapped transit agency&#8217;s capital budget has become far too stretched in the current economic climate. Construction [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Friday Facts: Impes, &#8220;Leapin&#8217; Lepean,&#8221; Debtors Prison</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/23/friday-facts-impes-leapin-lepean-debtors-prison/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/23/friday-facts-impes-leapin-lepean-debtors-prison/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:42:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[budget]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[city council]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Craig Gaines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Downtown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[friday facts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holidays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Morris]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prison]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=521</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[:: Mayor Cosgrove is expected to deliver to City Council on Monday her administration&#8217;s plan to make up the city&#8217;s now $728 million five-year deficit. :: Expected remedies: Rec Center  and library cutbacks, trash collection, city vehicle usage cuts, wage rollbacks, hiring freeze. :: The plaque on the Trade and Securities Building (43rd Ave and Roosevelt) remembers investor Tom Lepean, who on October 28, 1929, had made the decision to sell his sizable portfolio of stock and retire to a secluded wooded area. Although Lepean had been inspired by the book Walden, several scorned investors the following day – suspicious of Lepean’s timing &#8211; accused him of either benefitting from inside information of the coming stock market crash, or possibly engineering it. The legend of Lepean’s perspicacity exceeded public temperament, and the once-lucky investor was pushed out a 16th story window by a stenographic pool secretary whose father had been ruined in the Crash. :: Fast-Cash Plus, a national chain specializing in your-auto-title-for-easy-cash swaps, has opened an outlet in the Crestmoor Shopping Plaza, at 35th and Wallace Streets. That plot of land was the location of Munson Prison until 1938, which contained a sizable debtors prison wing. :: Alfred Garret, [...]]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Friday Facts: Budget Woes, FDR, Himmler Bay</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/09/friday-facts-budget-woes-fdr-himmler-bay/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/09/friday-facts-budget-woes-fdr-himmler-bay/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:11:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[art]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[budget]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Count Film-Ula]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[friday facts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Morris]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mabel Tripp Gardens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[police]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=503</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[:: Estimated five-year city budget deficit awaiting Maribeth Cosgrove when she is sworn in as mayor on Monday: Over $650 million :: Portion of the city budget in ten years that will have to be paid for pension and benefits, according to current union contracts : 61% :: City union contracts up for renewal this year: Police, fire, administrative staff :: When asked during an informal poll, more than twenty percent of respondents believed that the most physically powerful American president was either Teddy Roosevelt or George Washington. Physically weakest American presidents selected by the majority of respondents included Martin van Buren, John Quincy Adams or George H.W. Bush (though, surprisingly, not Franklin Delano Roosevelt) :: The so-called “Gipsie Murals” were sand-blasted into obscurity on this day in 1960. :: Memorial services for Laura Bonnie Tripp will be held this Tuesday at the viewing promenade at Mabel Tripp Gardens, the public parks facility named after her great-grandmother. The 70-year-old was better known as a former Playboy pin-up girl and third wife of local late night horror show host Count Film-Ula. :: Until popular opinion forced the change in 1944, Mean Harbor had been originally known as ‘Himmler Bay.’ (It was [...]]]></description>
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