It’s the calm before the storm at W’s, early evening on a Saturday night, the eve of St. Patrick’s Day. Across the city, droves of drunken co-eds and 20-somethings booze their way from one pub to the next, part of what is now ostensibly a two-day drinking holiday, with no semblance of Irish heritage being honored outside of green attire. But W’s keeps it old-school—corned beef and cabbage on the menu, taps of beer flowing, and scores of locals slowly… [More]

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn officially announced her campaign for mayor yesterday by touring one neighborhood in each of the five boroughs, an Ed Koch-esque attempt to introduce herself to voters and highlight some of her accomplishments, as well as showcase her outsized personality. Quinn’s campaign was officially announced a couple of hours before the five borough “Walk and Talk” tour began with a five-minute video posted on her campaign website of Quinn sitting in Moonstruck Diner in… [More]

Nine months out of the 2013 election—the first without an incumbent mayor since 2001—the field of candidates for citywide office has largely taken shape, and the media and pollsters have leapt ahead to handicap the races’ outcome. Consultants have already done their utmost to sow the narratives they hope will grow into victory in the primary and general elections, and insiders have already discarded a host of hopefuls as impossibilities, while elevating others to the status of frontrunners. But for… [More]

The Upper West Side is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city, a reliable bastion of liberal politics, home to Jerry Seinfeld, Eric Schneiderman and Scott Stringer alike. It’s also home to the city’s best delis and diners. Take Artie’s, for example. The 15-year-old delicatessen is a West Side institution that attracts middle-aged condo and co-op residents eager for the tastes of home. “In most families, both spouses are normally working a profession where they work late, and it’s… [More]

W’s Bar & Restaurant is easy to miss if you’re an outsider driving through this suburban enclave of Staten Island—the southernmost section of the borough, a stone’s throw from New Jersey across the Arthur Kill. Situated in a nondescript strip mall adjacent and in proximity to several other equally bland strip malls, from the outside it looks like nothing special—a dive, a hole-in-the-wall—but the atmosphere in the bar tells a different story. The bar appears not to have been redecorated… [More]

On this leafy street in northeast Queens, asking questions about who should be New York City’s next mayor invariably turn to the current mayor—and that’s about it. Several residents say that all they know is that they’re happy that Mayor Michael Bloomberg won’t be running City Hall next year. Even though more than two-thirds of Bayside voters cast their ballots for Bloomberg in both 2005 and 2009, the incumbent seems to have worn out his welcome in the neighborhood after… [More]

With Election Day rapidly approaching, the devastation from Hurricane Sandy could have residual consequences that may alter the outcome of local and federal elections. With many polling sites still without power and thousands of residents displaced due to flooding and damage to their homes, the New York City Board of Elections has been scrambling to come up with solutions that would allow voters to cast their ballot. With its Lower Manhattan offices incapacitated due to power outages and flooding, the… [More]

Rezoning New York City New York City has always been a city in flux, but in some ways it has been changing more quickly than usual under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Since he took office in 2002 the city has undertaken 115 rezonings encompassing 10,300 blocks, the most far-reaching effort of its kind across the five boroughs in decades. Here’s a look at some of the most high-profile development-rezoning projects around the city.  (Source: New York City Department of Planning)… [More]

A look at the 50-year history of New York’s Conservative Party One day in the fall of 1960, a New York lawyer named J. Daniel Mahoney and his brother-in-law, Kieran O’Doherty, met for lunch in the financial district to vent their frustration over the leftward shift of the Republican Party under Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. That day, the two decided the time had come to launch a political party of their own. Over half a century later, the upstart Conservative Party… [More]

Some local Conservative leaders buck the party’s platform, especially on same-sex marriage Mike Long, the chairman of the New York’s Conservative Party, isn’t the only party official known for his independent streak. Some local party leaders are supporting a few Republican state senators this fall, even though they strayed from the Conservative platform by voting to legalize same-sex marriage. Party officials in Erie County, Westchester County and Staten Island have also endorsed unorthodox candidates in recent years, owing to pragmatism,… [More]