A Great Big City — New York City News, History, and Events

Passengers Aboard Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas Cruise Ship Test Negative for New Coronavirus — AGBC Health page tracking the coronavirus Gunman Who Allegedly Ambushed Cops Due in Court as Tension Between NYPD, Elected Officials Escalates 64 years ago on February 8, 1956 — Eastern Air Flight 663 swerves to avoid an oncoming aircraft and crashes near Jones Beach, killing all 84 people on board 78 years ago on February 9, 1942 — The SS Normandie catches fire and capsizes into the...

Coronavirus Info for NYC 175 years ago on January 29, 1845 — 'The Raven' by Edgar Allan Poe is first published in the New-York Evening Mirror 63 years ago on February 1, 1957 — Northeast Air Flight 823 crashes on Rikers Island after takeoff at LaGuardia, killing 20 and injuring 78 28 years ago on February 4, 1992 — Area code 917 is introduced, originally used only for cell phones 4 years ago on February 5, 2016 — A crane working at 60 Hudson Street collapses on Worth Street, killing one...

11 years ago on January 15, 2009 — Captain Sullenberger lands USAir Flight 1549 in the Hudson River, an event that would become known as the Miracle on the Hudson 19 years ago on January 17, 2001 — A 2.4 magnitude earthquake strikes the Upper East Side of Manhattan 63 years ago on January 21, 1957 — The Mad Bomber is arrested after planting at least 33 bombs that injured 15 people 50 years ago on January 22, 1970 — The first Boeing 747 enters commercial service on a Pan Am route from JFK...

AGBC collects a variety of links from across the internet and analyzes them to power our links page. Links are selected and ranked based on whether they are about New York and interesting enough to share. A few times per day, this same system also re-ranks the past few hours of news links and creates our top stories page. Taking that same idea and expanding it, here are the top stories about NYC for each month of 2019, along with a bit of follow-up to see how things have progressed since...

Starting off with a bit more busway news this week: In a study released by Sam Schwartz Transportation Consultants [PDF link], the 14th Street busway has improved travel times on multiple modes of transit by evaluating a variety of data sources, including the Department of Transportation, independent traffic counting, and Citibike data. M14 A and D bus weekday ridership is up 24% compared to last year, and transit times between Third Avenue and Eighth Avenue are faster by 36%, making the...

Visit agreatbigcity.com/support to learn how to support New York City local news and allow us to keep bringing you this podcast. If you are a New York-based business and would be interested in sponsoring our podcasts, visit agreatbigcity.com/advertising to learn more. A moment of remembrance this week for Alelia Murphy, who I mentioned back in July on Episode 30 of the podcast when she celebrated her birthday as the oldest living American. The Harlem resident died at the end of November at...

Visit agreatbigcity.com/support to learn how to support New York City local news and allow us to keep bringing you this podcast. If you are a New York-based business and would be interested in sponsoring our podcasts, visit agreatbigcity.com/advertising to learn more. The ridership on crosstown buses at 14th Street has increased to more than 32,000 daily riders, an increase over last year's 26,000 daily riders, and now the city is looking at increasing service along the route. Now that...

Visit agreatbigcity.com/support to learn how to support New York City local news and allow us to keep bringing you this podcast. If you are a New York-based business and would be interested in sponsoring our podcasts, visit agreatbigcity.com/advertising to learn more. If you're one of the 26,000 people who visit the Wall Street Bull on a typical day, you may soon need to ask for a different set of directions. Back in April 2018, when it was announced that the Fearless Girl statue was going...

Take a trip through the slimy, sickening side of the city and prepare yourself for A Great Big SCARE! It's ironically appropriate that the subway celebrates its birthday right around the spookiest time of year, as it prominently features in New Yorkers' nightmares. 115 years ago on October 27th, 1904, The original 28 subway stations opened, stretching from City Hall to 145th Street in Manhattan. From 1904 until 1948, the price for a subway ride was just 5¢, a price range that's equivalent...

Last week I walked you through the history of the Guggenheim Museum to mark its 60th anniversary on October 21, 1959, and this week I wanted to point you to a podcast by 99% Invisible, a design and architecture podcast, which worked with the Guggenheim to produce a special audio walkthrough that talks about the history of the building and some of the art that has been displayed in the museum over the years. For instance, you may not have known that Frank Lloyd Wright initially intended for...

Visit agreatbigcity.com/support to learn how to support New York City local news and allow us to keep bringing you this podcast. If you are a New York-based business and would be interested in sponsoring our podcasts, visit agreatbigcity.com/advertising to learn more. We've been following the 14th Street busway since it was first proposed, and after being blocked twice by legal complaints, the street has been swept free of cars and the buses have been roaming free for two weeks now. In a...

A surprising development in the city's fight against billboard barges — The company floating the LED billboards in the waters around Manhattan has thrown in the towel after new state regulations pushed them back 1,500 feet from the shoreline. The advertising company promoting the billboard boats has now settled with the city and agreed to be subject to a $100,000 fine if they operate within New York waters. The barge will be relocated to Florida, where the company set up a similar barge...

Visit agreatbigcity.com/support to learn how to support New York City local news and allow us to keep bringing you this podcast. If you are a New York-based business and would be interested in sponsoring our podcasts, visit agreatbigcity.com/advertising to learn more. 9 years ago on October 4, 2010 — 🎉 A Great Big City is founded 🎉 99 years ago — Two young women, Beverly Bayard and Lorline Davis, complete a cross-country walk from San Francisco to New York that took four and a half...

On previous episodes we've covered the threat of measles and West Nile virus, but this week another mosquito-borne virus took the spotlight as Eastern Equine Encephalitis, or EEE, was found in mosquitoes in the surrounding area. The CDC describes the disease as rare, with only a few cases per year, but one out of three people die from the resulting flu-like symptoms. Even though the weather is getting colder and will eventually end the mosquito season, take steps to protect yourself if...

Those new state license plates may have hit a bump in the road. As we predicted when online voting opened began to choose the new plate, the actual replacement of the plates became a contentious issue, just like when the gold 'Empire' plates were rolled out in 2010. The uproar surrounded the mandatory $25 fee and the additional fees if you wanted to keep your current plate number. Vehicle owners were taken aback and now Governor Cuomo and the DMV have released statements indicating the new...

A quick note on what is undoubtedly the top story of this week: The September 11th attacks. It's a uniquely difficult subject to cover, and one that has a unique interpretation within the city, whether you witnessed it first-hand or have come to understand it by living in the city and walking the same streets. I won't be playing excerpts from eyewitness video of people's final moments. I won't be reinterpreting the attack as a patriotic celebration. I will ask that you look around you and...

This may be the final measles update for this season: The city Health Department declared the Brooklyn outbreak over as of September 3rd. During the outbreak, 33,805 doses of the MMR vaccine were administered to people younger than 19 years old in Williamsburg and Boro Park, and the 2018 to 2019 outbreak involved 654 confirmed cases. Numerous others who were unvaccinated received vaccinations from other health professionals. Although the increased vaccination rates will help prevent...

The suspect wanted in connection with abandoning two empty rice cookers in the Fulton Street subway station and one in Chelsea was apprehended around 1am on August 17th. Larry Griffin of Bruno, West Virginia was seen in video being wheeled in a wheelchair out of a building in Longwood in the Bronx by paramedics with his head slumped to the side. Emergency responders had originally arrived at the location on reports of two people possibly overdosing, then identified Griffin from the subway...

Last week, I started out with a quick measles update saying that the outbreak has mostly subsided, but I want to reiterate how important it is to get yourself and any young children vaccinated before the next outbreak begins. Israel-based Ynetnews revealed this week that a 43-year-old flight attendant who had contracted measles while working on the New York to Tel Aviv route for Israeli airline El Al died this week after a long hospital stay. Rotem Amitai was a mother of three who fell ill...

In the latest city measles data, just six new cases were registered in July, with none so far in August. The number of new cases have steadily declined since the high point in April, when there were 183 new cases in one month. As the disease spreads through communities, it naturally reaches a maximum number of infections as the vast majority of people are vaccinated against the disease, and the city's efforts to distribute vaccinations ensured that the disease didn't spread further. Of the...