Any private, super-elite high school performing arts school in New York City?

Are there some Manhattan private performing arts schools in New York City? (well, erm, im sure there are, but) what are the best ones??? Like, the high school versions of Julliard and NYU Tisch?

What is New York City like Compared to San Francisco?

I was thinking about going to college there, but i'm just so nervous about going so far to the East away from family and friends. Will it be easy to live there while keeping up with college?

Washington Post (blog) - Anyone but New York

New York City

You're not going to believe this. For the second year in a row, my job requires me to travel on Super Bowl Sunday. Super Bowl Friggin' Sunday. Last year, I had to fly from L.A. to Dallas for a meeting first thing the next morning. This year, I have to fly to New York for the same reason. (And, no, I can't fly Monday morning because of flight times. And, yes, I could fly out on Saturday, but I'd rather spend the day with my lovely wife and increasingly silly daughter, who are the only people who can stand being in the same room with me these days.) Now, there is a great benefit to flying on Super Bowl Sunday: because so few people are flying that day, there's a decent chance that you can get an entire row of airline seats to yourself or, even better, an upgrade. (Note to anyone reading who works for Delta: an upgrade would be greatly appreciated.) Also, the flight attendants tend to be a little more generous with the pretzels when there are only four passengers. The downside, of course, is that you can miss the game depending on your flight times or delays, or you can end up watching it by yourself in a hotel room -- which is what I will likely end up doing. Yes, I may be in New York City on Super Bowl Sunday, watching the local team of which I happen to be a fan, the Jets, play in the Super Bowl for the first time in 40 years. Sounds pretty exciting, doesn't it? Well, it would be except for this fact: I don't want the Jets to make it to the Super Bowl, only to get slaughtered by the Saints or the Vikings, and you shouldn't either. Getting trounced in the Super Bowl is worse for a fan than not making the Super Bowl at all. I could spend a few paragraphs discussing the psychology of this phenomenon, but I won't; you know it's true, so I won't say more. (And if you don't believe me, please feel free to ask the nearest Bills fan.) No one wants to see a bad Super Bowl anyway, with the possible exception of the fans of the team doing the trouncing. As much as I hope to be wrong, I suspect that is precisely what I believe would happen if the Jets make the Super Bowl. They would get trounced, it will be an ugly game, and no one will enjoy themselves except for the fans of the Vikings or the Saints. I understand why the NFL would love to see the Jets in the Super Bowl. It's a great story -- first time in a Super Bowl since the 1960s. There's a rookie coach with a big mouth, a rookie quarterback with occasional jitters, a rookie running back with an oddly spelled first name, a troubled wideout with occasional butter fingers and the best defense in the league -- Revis. Plus, you get the one-two punch of a New York team that also happens to be an underdog. Match the Jets up against the Vikings, and you have another story: the Brett Favre saga. Unfortunately for Jets fans, the story ends like this: Vikings 24, Jets 3. Match the Jets up against the Saints, and the story ends the same way: Saints 24, Jets 3. (And please, Jets fans, don't feel the need to write in to tell me what an idiot I am. If you are a real Jets fan, you know that this is precisely how we must think in order to remain sane.) No, if you want to have a great game, a great matchup, a nailbiter like last year's Super Bowl -- which I watched in a movie theater in Dallas while eating cold nachos and chicken fingers -- you need the Colts. You need Manning against Favre, or Manning against Brees. Either would be a great game. But, simply because of what the city of New Orleans has endured the past few years, and what it would mean to the city and its team to win a Super Bowl, the best match up is Colts-Saints. Which is what I believe we're going to get. But if the Jets sneak in, I'm happy to be wrong. And if they happen to knock off the Saints or Vikings, I'll be even happier to be wrong. And I'll be in the perfect place to celebrate, New York City. In my hotel room. Eating all the pretzels I can talk the Delta flight attendants into giving me.

What things should I bring on a five day trip to New York City?

By things I mean supplies, clothes, things to do. I'm going on a band trip, so two of the days will be spent on a bus. Things on my list so far include: iPod Phone Purse/ Wallet About six outfits. I'm looking for necessities and things to do on the bus mainly.

Does thinking about new york make you feel good?

i guess it just might be because i live in RI where nothing happens lol, but whenever i think about New York and the city i always feel like its home. I dont know why i just love New York and feel great everytime i go. How does it make u feel? I kno a lot of people dont like it at all.

Tips for visiting New York and attending a Yankees game?

Want to take my son to a Yankees game, but have never visited New York. Where should we stay, what transportation should we take, etc. Any tips appreciated - we're clueless! Also which seats are best - moderate budget. Thanks!

Aid Haitians, immigrants to help NYC economy -mayor

New York City

(Adds details on Haiti fund raising and comments in new paragraphs 5, 10-12)

Bonds

By Joan Gralla

NEW YORK, Jan 20 (Reuters) - New York City can revive its economy by helping Haitians and other immigrants get small business loans, creating jobs and other programs for at-risk youths, boosting anti-foreclosure efforts, and setting up neighborhood credit unions, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Wednesday.

Earthquake-stricken Haitian New Yorkers should be given the federal immigration agency's support of "Temporary Protected Status" so they can find better-paying legal jobs and send more money back home, Bloomberg said in a copy of his annual State of the City address.

New York City has the largest population of Haitian descent outside Port-au-Prince, the earthquake-torn capital city of this Caribbean nation.

Bloomberg, who won a third term by a slim margin, is an independent who has long campaigned for national immigration reform. He called on law firms, charities and community groups to form a new public-private partnership to help Haitians qualify for this legal status.

The Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City has raised $621,001 to help Haiti.

New York City's tax revenues slid when Wall Street nearly capsized last year, and the city's resulting deficit makes it much harder for Bloomberg to pay for ambitious new programs.

Several of his new initiatives rely on the private sector, and he also promised to "stretch" every public dollar, by merging agencies and excising fat in the form of unneeded office space and car fleets. Duplicative functions, such as human resources, will also be combined.

"We will continue going full tilt -- full time," he said.

"And, even as we face difficult budget choices, which will require painful cuts, we will continue insisting that government remain on the side of every hard-working New Yorker," Bloomberg continued.

A PLEA FOR 'LIVING WAGE'

Local politicians, including Council Speaker Christine Quinn and City Comptroller John Liu, both Democrats, largely praised the mayor's plans.

But a spokesman for the Center for an Urban Future, a think tank, said the "home-grown," untrained or undereducated residents, need more help learning new skills to avoid getting "stuck in low-wage jobs for years to come."

The Drum Major Institute said Bloomberg should boost salaries by enacting a "living wage" law to avoid increasing the ranks of the working poor who often need public aid. For example, city employers will hire 22,000 cashiers and 32,000 retail clerks in the next seven years -- but only pay them $17,000 to $22,000 a year, the research group said.

FOCUS ON LOANS AND JOBS

Another public-private program, a new loan pool, will give New Yorkers now "drowning in credit card debt at huge interest rates" a fresh start with the first-ever bank accounts that require no minimum balances and have no hidden fees, he said.

New "financing fairs" for immigrants will let them meet with lenders who speak their languages, he said. Some 5,000 more of the "newest" New Yorkers will offered English classes.

All business owners will benefit from a lighter paperwork burden, as license applications will be sped and coordinated among agencies, kick-starting new enterprises with a new business 311 telephone line.

Shifting $750 million to the housing marketplace rescue program from the capital budget will help protect tenants in "distressed" apartment buildings, he said. Landlords who own such buildings overpaid for their properties and overmortgaged them; upkeep and services can fall if foreclosures result.

Though New York City's foreclosure rates are lower than in some of the nation's other largest cities, 1,000 middle-class families will be able to refinance their homes at "reasonable terms" with a new $10 million mortgage assistance fund, Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg, who has made improving public school education a signature issue, proposed new anti-truancy and anti-pregnancy initiatives, noting that black and Hispanic young men are twice as likely not to graduate from high school and "far more likely" to become fathers than their white and Asian peers.

Further, poverty rates for black and Hispanic young men are 50 percent higher than for Asians and whites, while their unemployment rates are 60 percent higher, the mayor said.

Using federal stimulus money, he proposed creating 2,000 public and private-sector jobs for young people. (Reporting by Joan Gralla; Editing by Jan Paschal)

How much would a trip to New York City Cost?

I'm DFW (Dallas Fort Worth, Texas) and I want to know How much would it cost to travel to New York City and stay there in a decent hotel,travel by plane and do the things you usually do when you travel there. So how much would be the total cost of a trip?

Bloomberg Highlights Strategy of Savings for City Does anyone else feel enfuriated

New York City

nyt_text readability="84">

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg focused on the incremental rather than the innovative in his annual State of the City address on Wednesday, pledging to avoid any new spending, to consolidate government operations and to take modest steps in helping small businesses and minority youths.

It was a decidedly more low-key, less ambitious presentation than those Mr. Bloomberg has made in the past.

He promised to expand job training services and to organize financing fairs for immigrant small-business owners. He said five banks and five credit unions had volunteered to set up a program featuring bank accounts with no minimum balances or hidden fees. And in the city’s latest effort to help stanch the foreclosure crisis, he vowed to establish a $10 million fund that would help up to 1,000 families refinance their mortgages.

Mr. Bloomberg, who won re-election to a third term by a narrower-than-expected margin in November, said that a new interagency task force would “consolidate,” “centralize” and “reduce” government operations. Among the goals, he said, would be cutting the number of city vehicles, and shrinking the city’s office space by 10 percent — or 1.2 million square feet — over four years. The trim in office space would save $36 million in rent, and $4 million in energy, each year.

He delivered his address — his ninth since taking office in 2002 — at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens. And in a nod to “New York, New York,” which was played over a loudspeaker before and after his 45-minute speech, Mr. Bloomberg borrowed liberally from the lyrics: “As someone once said, ‘We’re going to make a brand new start of it. We’re going to do more than ever — more than any city has ever done — to find innovative ways to improve people’s everyday lives.”

In some ways, the speech was a bit of a departure for the mayor. He largely steered clear of anything controversial, unlike earlier addresses, which dealt with subjects like education, property taxes, ground zero, homelessness and term limits.

There was no slick video narrated by Ric Burns or a marching band, as was the case last time. He made no part of his speech in Spanish, as had been his habit when he was running for a third term last year.

Instead, Mr. Bloomberg offered a menu of grind-it-out ideas designed to help New Yorkers, against a backdrop of a $4 billion budget deficit and a national recession. “It was a different kind of speech,” said Bill de Blasio, the city’s new public advocate. “It was definitely incrementalist. A lot of the big-picture issues were kept to a minimum.”

Perhaps the most notable proposal was Mr. Bloomberg’s plan to combine the Department of Juvenile Justice with the Administration for Children’s Services.

“Make no mistake: there will be no coddling,” Mr. Bloomberg said, referring to youngsters in the juvenile justice system. “This is an anti-crime strategy based on real data, and we’ll measure results carefully.”

Two small agencies — the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting, and NYC TV — will also be merged. And at the Human Resources Administrations, two back offices will be combined, Mr. Bloomberg announced, resulting in an expected annual savings of $3.9 million.

And, in the kind of language that was typical of his tenure building his financial services firm, Bloomberg L.P., the mayor — who is the wealthiest person in the city — said that technology could improve government efficiency and customer service. He plans to start a pilot program to install GPS devices on city school buses. He also said the city would hand out bracelets that would enable families to locate the elderly or children.

Mr. Bloomberg, who toyed with the notion of a presidential run in 2008, and was later reported to be on Senator John McCain’s short list of vice presidential contenders, did not completely confine himself to local issues.

Citing President Obama’s announcement that undocumented Haitians who were in the United States before the Jan. 12 earthquake would get temporary protective status and be allowed to remain legally for 18 months, Mr. Bloomberg said that the city would lead an effort to help Haitian New Yorkers get legal and administrative support to apply for such status.

“That will allow them to find legal employment here, and allow more money to find its way back home to their loved ones,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

Afterward, city officials offered mixed assessments. Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, praised Mr. Bloomberg’s commitment to small businesses, and his attempts to deal with foreclosure problems.

John C. Liu, the new city comptroller, commended Mr. Bloomberg for focusing on small businesses and immigrants, but said that the foreclosure plan sounded like “rhetoric we’ve heard before.” Mr. Bloomberg should have been more critical of Wall Street, Mr. Liu added.

Meanwhile, Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, and Rubén Díaz Jr., the Bronx borough president, expressed surprise and disappointment that Mr. Bloomberg did not say anything about establishing a commission to overhaul the City Charter — a commission that is expected to change the term-limits law.

Of course, Mr. Bloomberg being Mr. Bloomberg, a few verbal miscues were on display, as well. Beyond botching a couple of names, Mr. Bloomberg may have committed a bit of a Freudian slip when he summed up his speech as the “State of Our Union,” and not the State of the City.

What's the best and cheapest way to go from Niagara Falls to New York City?

Should I go back to Toronto and fly from there?

JetBlue CEO talks of moving headquarters to Orlando

New York City

Dave Barger met Tuesday with Gov. Charlie Crist, who said the state may be able to offer financial incentives to help persuade JetBlue to make the move.

It would bring about 800 jobs to Orlando, where the company already has a training facility.

Barger said JetBlue had been looking at several cities but narrowed the choice to Orlando or staying in New York. He said the company expects to make a decision by the end of March.

Tuesday's headline is now NYC to address PCB-contaminated caulk in schools

New York City

The Environmental Protection Agency and New York City are developing a program to address potentially hazardous PCBs in school construction materials.

PCBs are chemicals that were widely used in caulk and other building materials until they were banned in the late 1970s. They can harm the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems and can cause cancer if they build up in the body over long periods of time.

Under an agreement announced Tuesday, New York will conduct a pilot program in five schools to determine how best to minimize exposure to PCB-contaminated caulk. The goal is to develop an abatement protocol that can serve as a model for school systems across the country.

New York City's public school system is the nation's largest with 1.1 million pupils and 1,600 schools.

New York City is making waves - City Agrees to Conduct a Study on the Risks of PCBs in Schools

New York City

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New York City school officials have agreed to assess the environmental risks posed by PCBs in school buildings and to come up with a plan for cleanups and for reducing potential exposure, federal officials said Tuesday.

Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency said that the city, under a binding accord, would conduct a pilot study to address potential violations of the Toxic Substances Control Act related to the presence of caulk containing PCBs above the allowable level of 50 parts per million.

They said the city had found unsafe concentrations of PCBs in testing during construction and renovation projects. They added that the city had estimated that hundreds of school buildings could have the same problem.

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are a class of highly toxic chemical compounds that were widely used in construction materials and electrical products in many buildings, including schools, from the 1950s until they were phased out in 1978, the E.P.A. said. They were commonly used around windows and door frames and in masonry building materials; with long-term exposure, they can cause cancer and affect the immune and reproductive systems when they are released from the caulk into the air or through direct contact, the agency said.

As part of the agreement between the E.P.A. and the city, officials with the School Construction Authority will test, assess and reduce exposure to PCBs in five schools. The pact is intended to lead to a citywide approach.

The five have yet to be chosen. Ross J. Holden, vice president and general counsel of the School Construction Authority, said one that was built between 1950 and 1977 would be selected in each of the five boroughs.

Judith Enck, the E.P.A. regional administrator in New York, said in a statement, “We believe that the program outlined in this agreement, along with general E.P.A. guidance on managing the issue, will serve as a model for school systems across the country.”

Miranda K. S. Massie, a senior staff attorney with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, which sued the city’s Department of Education over the issue, called the agreement “a healthy start.”

She said her group was withdrawing its lawsuit because of the accord and because of an assurance by city officials that the school attended by the plaintiff’s daughter, P.S. 178 in the Bronx, would be chosen for the study.

Mondays headline story Daley and Bloomberg heap praise on each other

New York City

Posted by Hal Dardick at 8:07 p.m.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had nothing but praise this afternoon at a South Side school for his Chicago counterpart, Richard Daley, as Bloomberg announced a grant to help the Daley administration promote volunteerism.

“Chicago is a role model,” Bloomberg said, singling out Daley’s efforts to reform education. “I’ve always thought if you called central casting and said send me a great mayor, Richie Daley would be the person that they would send.”

Daley, in turn, praised "my good friend Mike Bloomberg" and called his East Coast colleague someone who “brings mayors together.” He praised Bloomberg for championing tougher gun-control laws.

What good universities are there in New York City?

I'm currently a junior in high school and I live in California but I'm thinking about moving to New York City and going to a college there. Is there any universities that you guys would recommend?

Which of these cities is better, New York City or San Diego?

I live in San Diego, but I prefer New York City. I hate it here and I really want to visit New York someday. Which is better?

This one poked my funnybone: Empire City - New York City jokes always will ;)

As soon as I saw this funny picture I knew I had to share with you Click for the location of the original New York City photo because it is the polite thing to do.



Can anybody discuss this in a calm way?

How much emergency money should I bring to New York City?

Me and three friends are going to New York from the south. We want to know how much money we should bring, in case the car breaks down, or something absolutley terrible happens.

What would be the fastest way to get from New Jersey to the New York Public Library in Manhattan?

Also probably the fastest that's the least expensive. I was assuming driving to Staten Island and taking the ferry and then a bus uptown would be the better of the ways. Any other suggestions?

Mayor Bloomberg's House Is Fair Game for Protest, Fans of Public Schools Say: I'm sure we must all feel sulky

New York City

     MANHATTAN (CN) - Activists say New York City unfairly denied them a permit to demonstrate in front of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's house to protest his support of a policy that could close 22 public schools.

     Bloomberg declared himself a "strong supporter" of charter schools, which the students, parent and teacher plaintiffs say "have generally denied parents meaningful involvement in their children's school affairs, denied teachers the right to unionize and often have worked to the detriment of the education of students."

     In their federal complaint, the plaintiffs say that under Bloomberg's plan, "There are approximately 22 schools currently slated to be closed, at least in part to make way for charter schools, including secondary schools with longstanding ties to the communities in which they are located."

     The Department of Education will convene a 13-member Panel for Educational policy to vote on the 22 closings on Jan. 26.

     The activists say they planned to protest in front of the mayor's house before the vote, on Jan 21, but the city denied them a permit.

     "Unlike previous New York City mayors, Mayor Bloomberg lives in a five-story townhouse on the north side of East 79th Street between Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue, rather than the Gracie Mansion," according to the complaint.

Though there is a space near Gracie Mansion commonly used by protesters, the city has barred the plaintiffs from gathering near Bloomberg's house. The students, parent and teacher say that Bloomberg's house is fair game because it has been used for fund raisers, meetings with political leaders and receptions for visiting dignitaries.

     They say the NYPD allowed people to protest the closing of a firehouse in front of Bloomberg's house in the summer of 2003. And they add that demonstrations have been permitted in front of the homes of former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, former New York City Fire Department Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta and State Senator Carl Kruger.

     The plaintiffs say New York City has violated First and Fourteenth Amendments.

     They are represented by Norman Siegel, formerly of the NYCLU.