Arboricide committed by Waterfalls

From Gothamist:

Last year, when people started complaining that spray from Olafur Eliasson’s waterfalls was prematurely turning trees brown, officials assured everyone the salty, East River mist wouldn't cause any "long-term danger." (Though the Public Art Fund did pay to have the salt regularly cleaned off, and the waterfalls operating hours were reduced.) Well, now it looks like some of the damage may indeed have been permanent. Scott Stamford, general manager at the River Cafe, recently showed the Brooklyn Paper some sickly-looking trees on the property, which is right by the Brooklyn Bridge. Though other trees nearby are already budding, three weeping birches are showing "no sign of life at all."

Industry moving from Manhattan to LIC

From Globest.com:

A pair of leases totaling 43,000 square feet have been signed at 21-09 Borden Ave. in Long Island City, the first two deals in a program to make the 170,000-square-foot loft building available to outside tenants. The building’s owner and former sole tenant is relocating its operations to the West Coast.

Both new tenants at 21-09 Borden are relocating to Queens from Manhattan. DeAngelis, Ltd., a high-end upholsterer, has signed for 27,000 square feet, while digital printing company TouchStone Direct is taking 16,000 square feet. Both are five-year leases, according to Sholom & Zuckerbrot, which arranged the deals.

Worker hurt as wall falls at Brooklyn building

(AP) Officials say a wall in a small Brooklyn apartment building has collapsed and hurt a worker during renovations undertaken without a permit.

The city Buildings Department says the worker has been taken to a hospital with minor injuries after the accident Wednesday in a building on Division Avenue, near the Williamsburg neighborhood.

The agency says a non-load-bearing wall gave way on the second of the building's three floors. No one is living in the building.

The Buildings Department has stopped work on the project and cited the building owner with conducting the work without a permit.

No telephone number or representative could be found for the company listed in city records as the building's owner.

City admits it totally lied about Willets Point redevelopment

From Iron Triangle Tracker:

After taking the temperature of the current construction climate, the city said this week it will delay soliciting a developer for its massive Willets Point project and adopt a piecemeal approach to construction as they move forward.

The decision represents a significant shift for the city, who for months said the entire site would need to be developed as a whole to facilitate environmental remediation rather than piece-by-piece.

Courier not standing by Hiram

From Step Down Now, editorial from the Queens Courier:

State Senator Hiram Monserrate is having his day in court. He is charged with three counts of felony assault and three counts of misdemeanor assault, all of which could send the politician to jail for up to seven years.

Surveillance footage from the hallway in Monserrate’s building was shown to Supreme Court Justice William Erlbaum. The six-minute video, prosecutors say, shows Monserrate yanking a bleeding Giraldo in the stairway of his building.

Monserrate then took his bleeding, distraught girlfriend, who had been heard screaming for help and banging on neighbors’ doors, to a hospital over the Queens County line and far from the closest emergency room. So much for the accident defense.

We think Monserrate should step down from the Senate while working out his criminal case.

Assembly aide with criminal past busted again

POL AIDE IN $CAM BUST
By LAURA ITALIANO, NY Post

An aide to Queens Assemblywoman Vivian Cook (left)has been indicted on charges he stole $520,000 in a previous job as a temp for the city Health and Hospitals Corp., Manhattan prosecutors said yesterday.

Dennis Jones, 45, of Jamaica, Queens -- who has prior convictions for forgery and drugs from 1996 and 1989 -- pleaded not guilty to grand larceny and was held last night in lieu of $300,000 bail. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

Jones is accused of swiping the money between October 2001 and January 2006 while temping for the HHC's Construction and Maintenance Service department. His job was to prepare and organize the payroll paperwork for that department's employees, and officials said that he stole the half-million dollars by changing time sheets and forging payment requests.

Calls seeking comment from Cook's office in Queens -- where Jones has worked as a legislative aide since October 6, 2008, earning just under $1,000 a week -- were not immediately returned.

Money is no object for Dept of Education

From the NY Times:

City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. said on Wednesday that the Department of Education had vastly overspent on contracts for goods like photocopiers and cafeteria equipment, with one in five such contracts exceeding estimated costs by more than 25 percent.

In blistering testimony before the City Council’s Education Committee, Mr. Thompson, a candidate for mayor, said a review by his office had found that over the past two fiscal years, the sum of certain contracts had ballooned to $1 billion from initial estimates of $325 million. That includes one contract with Xerox Corporation that was initially projected at $1 million and came in at $68 million, he said.

“It is outrageous,” Mr. Thompson said at a news conference that seemed aimed at chipping away at the educational accomplishments that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is making a cornerstone of his re-election campaign. “To see this lack of accountability on contracts is frightening.”

From the Daily News:

The DOE spent about $726 million above estimate. About a third of the companies got the contracts with little or no competition, the report says.

A three-year technical equipment contract estimated at $17,650 ballooned to $26.8 million.

A six-year textbook contract that was supposed to total $15,000 shot up to $6.5 million.

Richmond Hill vs. graffiti

From NY1:

Residents in Richmond Hill say they're fed up with what they say is a growing graffiti problem in their neighborhood.

Neglected sitting area

Let's see...3 seats missing, 2 seats flattened. No agency taking care of it. In the meantime, the Maspeth Memorial Square will continue to look like hell. Whose idea was the circle of yellow metal chairs, anyway?

McLaughlin gives up Petrocelli Electric boss

From the Daily News:

A Queens electrical contractor who did big business with the city was indicted for bribery Thursday - and sources say the union boss he paid off is helping prosecutors.

Santo (Sandy) Petrocelli Sr. is accused of handing disgraced labor boss Brian McLaughlin the keys to a brand-new Crown Victoria in February 2004, an indictment unsealed yesterday in Manhattan Federal Court charged.

Two months later, McLaughlin gave the car back and took cash instead, the indictment claims.

McLaughlin is identified in the indictment as a business representative for the J Division of Local 3, the streetlight and traffic signal workers union.

Hey, maybe he'll give up the Crowleys next!

NY1 confirms Crowley sold Maspeth out

From NY1:

"In a vote of 38-to-10, City Council members on Thursday approved a proposal by the Department of Education to build a new high school in Maspeth...Earlier we reported that Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley, whose district the proposed school would be built in was expected to vote no on the measure, but she did not ask fellow council members to vote no with her."

And from the speech she gave to the land use committee:

I’d like to also thank my colleagues in this body, your knowledge and advice has been invaluable and I am grateful for your support.

I am voting No. Let me clear, I want a school in Maspeth, but I cannot agree with this plan.

In an effort to alleviate the traffic and transit concerns raised by community I asked the Department of Education to compromise on a plan to allow this school to better address the needs and concerns of my community. They did not and as I result I do not support this plan.

As the plan stands now it does not have the approval of the community education council, it does not have the approval of the community board, it does not have the approval of the local civic association. It does not have the full support of local parents. It does not have the support of the local elected officials.

Notice that nowhere in this statement does Liz ask her colleagues to vote no with her.

Liz, you're as useful as tits on a bull. And you're fucking history.

Concern about cell repeaters on SI school

STATEN ISLAND (WABC) -- Dozens of worried and angry parents are protesting a cluster of cell phone towers built on top of and near an elementary school.

They claim the towers are a danger to students. Their fear is that the towers may be sending low-level radiation into classrooms at the Staten Island school.

Some officials are also asking the Federal Communications Commission to scrutinize cell phone towers.

State Assemblyman Lou Tobacco and City Councilman Vincent Ignizio said they filed a complaint with the FCC Thursday about their concerns regarding Our Lady Star of the Sea. They hope the agency will order the towers moved.

The FCC didn't immediately return a telephone call Thursday evening.

Studies indicate radiation detected in the school came from a nearby strip mall. The radiation levels were deemed safe under federal standards, and the mall's owner says the antennas have permits.

But as a precaution, Monsignor Jeff Conway has ordered metal window screens.

Northern Queens shoreline a victim of politics

From the Times Ledger:

A commission created to protect the northeast Queens shoreline, including Udalls Cove, Fort Totten and Alley Pond, was eliminated in state budget negotiations between state leaders, state Sen. Frank Padavan (R−Bellerose) said Tuesday.

While Padavan said he was not given justification for the dismantling of the Northeast Queens Nature and Historical Preservation Commission, City Councilman Tony Avella (D−Bayside) said he believed the move was politically motivated.

Padavan was in a prolonged and contentious battle to retain his seat in November against Councilman James Gennaro (D−Fresh Meadows), who lost the race by 480 votes in what became the longest contested election in the state’s history.

“I’m not surprised that the funding had been eliminated since the funding came from Sen. Padavan,” Avella said.

NYRA to sell land to Queens Crap developers

From the Times Ledger:

The New York Racing Association is set to auction off 64 lots of property it owns near Aqueduct Race Track in June, the nonprofit said Tuesday.

State Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer (D−Rockaway Beach) said the first $1 million generated from the sales will be put toward NYRA’s IRS bill, with the remainder to be set aside for interior capital improvements.

The properties range from 2,000 to 75,000 square feet in an area bounded by the Nassau Expressway and Cohancy Street. The lots are vacant land and can be purchased separately or in bundles, according to maltzauctions.com.

The lots are zoned R−4, meaning they can be developed into single− or two−family detached houses.

Sorry to break the news to Howie the reporter and the good people of Ozone Park, but R-4 zoning = guaranteed Queens Crap. R-4 allows for all types of housing – attached, semi-detached and fully detached single, two or multi-family buildings – which may be no taller than 35’.

Avella stops developer in his tracks

From the Times Ledger:

City Councilman Tony Avella (D−Bayside) led a protest outside a North Flushing home Tuesday where he said a developer is making a “bizarre” attempt to “beat the clock” on a forthcoming rezoning.

Avella and more than 30 North Flushing residents rallied outside of a Tudor home at 166−43 26th Ave., where a tenant said the owner, Paul Rufino, recently began excavating with little notice. Avella said Rufino had been negotiating with his office and area residents over plans to construct an eight−family home on the property.

Now, with the North Flushing rezoning plan expected to go into effect April 14, Avella and residents of the area said he is trying to complete enough construction on the property to get his plans grandfathered into the new rezoning.

Hey does that say "notice to revoke" on 4/1/09? Way to go, Tony!

Water Board ready to screw us again

From the Queens Gazette:

City Comptroller William Thompson, on the attack again against the Bloomberg administration's water rate increases, has proposed using federal stimulus funds to head off another water hike.

Thompson, who plans to challenge Mayor Michael Bloomberg in this year's mayoral election, said he will propose the stimulus funds solution on Friday when the Water Board meets to consider raising water rates again. He will be joined by City Councilmember David Weprin, who will also be pressing efforts to avert another rate hike.

Last year the board approved a 14.5 percent rate increase.

Astoria Diner damaged in fire

From the Queens Gazette:

The Astoria Diner, a fixture at 32-50 Steinway St. for many years, was damaged in a fire on Tuesday morning, March 31. Fire Department sources said an alarm was called in at 7:45 a.m. and the first units arrived on the scene seven minutes later, at 7:52. The blaze went to all-hands, with 12 units of equipment and 60 firefighters on the scene at 7:59. Nearly an hour later, at 8:55 a.m., the fire was deemed under control. No injuries to firefighters or civilians were reported. The fire was believed to have originated in the restaurant's ductwork.

Caught painting the town

From 1010WINS:

A 27-year-old woman accused of tagging her way through Europe with her boyfriend has been charged with writing graffiti on subway cars in New York.

Danielle Bremner has been charged with second- and third-degree criminal mischief. If convicted, she faces up to seven years in prison.

Queens prosecutors say she spray-painted her tags "Erin" or "Dani" on at least six subway cars, causing more than $6,000 in damage. Authorities say a search of her home turned up more than 450 spray cans as well as other materials used to tag. Her attorney had no comment.

Authorities say Bremner and her boyfriend wrote graffiti on train cars across Europe last summer, including in London, Paris and Madrid.

Car break-ins rampant along Woodhaven Blvd.

From the Queens Courier:

Imagine getting out of work, eager to get home. You walk to your car, only to find it has been broken into – there is glass everywhere, and your belongings are gone.

This is exactly what Paul Challita said happened to him about a year and a half ago – and he says it’s still going on.

Challita and many of his colleagues say they park – or used to – on the Woodhaven Boulevard northbound service road, just south of Jamaica Avenue. But, with what they claim is an ongoing rash of car break-ins, they are more wary of where they leave their cars.

Whitestone arsonist going away for a long time

From NY1:

A Queens man was sentenced to up to 14 years behind bars Wednesday for setting fire to a diner.

The Queens District Attorney says Michael Trantel, 42, pleaded guilty last month to third degree arson.

The November fire severely damaged the Lollipops Diner and neighboring stores in Whitestone.

Prosecutors say Trantel broke into the diner early in the morning and set a bag of Halloween candy on fire after stealing cigarettes.

Ridgewood clock rescue

"This clock on a building at the corner of Forest and Metropolitan Avenues in Ridgewood had been an unofficial neighborhood landmark for decades.
Here is a closeup of what it looked like a few years back when Forgotten-NY had it featured on a page. Yikes...
Well, the building it was on is no longer extant. (The site is slated to become a Walgreens.) But what about the clock?
Luckily, yours truly noticed the clock was still hanging around, made a phone call, and a friend procured it from the demo company. There are plans to restore it to working condition and install it on another local building. If anyone knows a good coppersmith or clockmaker, we'd welcome your referrals." - anonymous

And the final vote tally on the Maspeth school was...

Council Members Crowley, Vacca, Avella, Ignizio, Ulrich, Oddo, Fidler, Vallone, Nelson and Mealy voted against the school. Everyone else voted yes.

Gee, I wonder where this is going...

From the Daily News:

The world's most popular sport will soon have a home in Queens.

A new soccer team called F.C. New York is coming in 2010 - and it's looking to build a soccer-specific stadium in the borough in the next five years, team officials announced Wednesday.

F.C. New York will join the United Soccer League as an expansion franchise, and play its first game in April 2010 at Hofstra University.

The Hempstead campus will be the home turf, with occasional games at Columbia University's Baker Field until a new home is built, officials said.

The team recently met with Borough President Helen Marshall to discuss building a 9,000-seat stadium in Queens.

See previously:

Willets Point Headscratcher Series, part 5

Wilpon wants soccer stadium to replace Shea

Wilpon at Wellington Pointe

Quinn, Council to stab Crowley in the back

Bucking the tradition of the City Council voting to back up the local council member on an issue, Council Speaker Christine Quinn has told her puppet colleagues to vote yes to the Maspeth high school and they will shoot down Crowley's anticipated no vote first at the 9:30am Land Use Committee today and then at the full Council. I guess during an election year, the support of Bloomberg and the UFT is more important to third termers than the quality-of-life of constituents. What do they care? It's not their neighborhood.

This is also an amazing show of no confidence in the freshman council member from district 30. But Dizzy Lizzy probably doesn't care. Let's remember that "Schools First" was her special election platform. Unfortunately this won't be a school that puts Maspeth, Middle Village and Elmhurst kids first.

What about the unnecessary use of eminent domain at this site when there are other more suitable sites available where the owners have never even been made an offer? Since a small business and not a developer owns this land, it's therefore not of concern to the Council.

You are all a bunch of pigs and must be shown the door come November.

A good question

Lost City is wondering why this chandelier exists considering the piece of crap that's wrapped around it.

Getting porked by state Dems

From the Daily News:

State lawmakers are back to playing hide the pork despite a recent reform law designed to open up the budget process, the Daily News has learned.

Senate Democrats did not itemize a single "member item" project in the $132 billion budget they are to begin passing today.

Instead, they simply listed an $85 million lump sum they say they will spell out in a separate resolution next week - long after the budget is approved.

Austin Shafran, a spokesman for the Senate Democratic majority, cited "time constraints" for leaving out the details.

Assembly Democrats managed to detail $65 million worth of pork spending, but listed an additional $20 million in a lump sum that will also be outlined at a later date.

The Post says we're gonna get hammered.

Day laborers becoming homeless

From City Limits:

Queens resident Roberto Garcia hasn’t been able to find regular work since autumn, when he was laid off by a contractor. Instead of standing in an unemployment line, he stands at a day laborer hiring site. Like thousands of other workers in New York City, Garcia is undocumented – but that didn't keep him from receiving steady work before the economy sank. Now, his career in an underground economy is mirrored by unemployment in the shadows.

While last week the city’s official unemployment rate reached a troubling 8.1 percent, indicators suggest that the population without working papers is faring even worse. The desperation can be particularly felt at day laborer sites in Woodside, Queens where Garcia stands with dozens of others competing for low-skilled jobs in construction, carpentry, moving and cleaning. They used to get picked up for day jobs – but now they just keep waiting. The lack of work has led some to become homeless.

The Aquazanies of Astoria

From Ephemeral NY:

These boys, clad in signature jailhouse-striped swimsuits, were part of a group of Astoria kids who called themselves the Aquazanies.

In the 1940s, they regularly put on a diving and comedy show (with props, music, and even animals joining them for some high-dive fun) on Wednesdays nights at Astoria Pool, one of the massive public swimming facilities Robert Moses built in the 1930s.

Queens projects on rehab list

From the Daily News:

Queens Plaza, with its serpentine traffic patterns and dangerous pedestrian crossings, is receiving the lion's share - $39.4 million - of the direct federal funding to the borough. That allows the city to ante up more of the $135 million price tag for the project, Mayor Bloomberg announced Monday.

The borough's share of the $261 million in federal funds will also be used to rehab bridges, resurface and extend streets, and repair the Rockaway Boardwalk.

A dilapidated stretch of College Point Blvd., from Fowler Ave. to the Whitestone Expressway, will get a new concrete top to accommodate an anticipated increase in truck traffic.

The Greenpoint Ave. Bridge, which connects Long Island City and Brooklyn, will get $6 million in upgrades to extend the life of the bridge by 10 years.

Photo from Forgotten-NY.com

Freight railyard ready for its closeup

From City Noise.

(Trespassing on railroad property in the post 9-11 world is not recommended.)

Brooklyn blighted by unfinished buildings

From the Daily News:

As the economy faltered and building boom turned to building bust, luxury housing construction in Brooklyn has stalled — leaving residents living with skeletons of half-erected buildings and abandoned lots with rusting foundations.

Building owners are just as unhappy, saying they’d love to finish their projects but can no longer get financing.

“It looks like a bomb hit over here. It’s just blocks and blocks of everything torn down, and most of the permits are expired,” said Williamsburg housing activist Philip DePaolo about the neighborhood’s large swaths of boarded-up lots.

“What’s going to happen to all these sites?” said DePaolo. “It’s blight.”

Also from the Daily News:

Retired Army Capt. Gary Collier, 63, purchased his house in Brighton Beach 10 years ago hoping to enjoy his twilight years with his wife, Jane.

It was a sweet life in the sweet two-story house for the couple - until a developer started putting up condos right next door in 2005.

It was bad enough that workers putting up the Brighton 4th Condominiums cut Collier's sewer and gas lines and that work on the project caused power outages.

Worse than all that, said Collier, is that after four long years, all that stands on the property next door is an ugly skeleton - and the city has been no help.

City dropping the ball on abandoned & stolen cars

MYFOXNY.COM - New York City insists that parking tickets help keep the streets safe and clean. Tickets are also supposed to keep traffic moving But wait until you see what Fox 5's John Deutzman found in one neighborhood.

The story of a nice f*ck up by the City. And if that's not enough for you, he has a second report about a stolen car that was tracked down by the owner.

St. John's ambulance now a dust collector

This is the parking lot in back of Wyckoff Heights Hospital.


This St. John's Queens Hospital ambulance has been sitting here since shortly after the hospital closed.

Guess they just plan on keeping it as a spare. Let's recall that it's Wyckoff management's fault that 2 hospitals closed a month ago. They might want to try to ease their consciences a little by hiring one of the ambulance crews off the unemployment line to do an extra patrol in the now underserved neighborhoods they screwed over. Oh, sorry, my bad - I almost forgot that they don't have consciences.

A genuine April Fool

From the NY Times:

A 20-year-old Brooklyn man was charged on Wednesday with raping a woman on a dark street in Chelsea in February. The authorities said the man stole the woman’s iPod but left behind his own cellphone, enabling investigators to track him down.

The man, Jonathan Salva, who lives in Bedford-Stuvyesant, was indicted on charges of predatory sexual assault, rape and and four counts of robbery, the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, announced.

Barron calls hearing attendees "segregationists"

A Council Land Use Committee was held yesterday about the proposed Maspeth high school and after SCA reps spun their lies for a 1/2 hour, Councilmember Charles Barron told the members of the public who attended that they were trying to "turn back the clock to the 1950s," called them "segregationists" and said he was looking at a bunch of white faces saying they wanted to have the school priority zoned so only their white children could attend it. Then he got up and left.

If he had stayed and listened to the testimony, he would have found out that no one was there to testify about having the school priority zoned. Approximately 25 people testified against the site location selected due to factors such as traffic, proximity to other schools and lack of public transportation and parking availability at the site. One person testified in favor of the school (without mentioning local zoning). Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley was the only person who pushed for local zoning for the school.

So apparently the white folk of Queens County were racially profiled by an elected official. But by Charles' standards, the only racist in the room was his colleague, Elizabeth Crowley.

Of course, this was said by the same person who at one time uttered, "I want to go up to the closest white person and say, ‘You can’t understand this, it’s a black thing’ and then slap him, just for my mental health."

And the Democratic Machine unsurprisingly has no problem with this.

It's a shame that in the era of "change" someone still has the mentality of a 1970s Black Panther. Who's the one that's really in favor of turning back the clock?

Mt. Sinai inundated with patients

From the Daily News:

The state may be short of cash, but Albany has come to the rescue of a Queens hospital swamped by a recent spike in patient volume.

Despite a $16.2billion state budget gap, Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens in Long Island City has been tapped to receive $1 million in reimbursements from the state Health Department, said agency spokeswoman Claudia Hutton.

Like a number of other Queens hospitals, Mount Sinai has treated an increasing number of patients since St. John's Queens Hospital in Elmhurst and Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica closed at the end of February, after filing for bankruptcy.

The quintessential April Fool

1990s here we come!

From the Gotham Gazette:

According to Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr., chair of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, the city will soon see a police headcount that rivals the 1990s.

Reminder: Crime in the 90s was way, way up (In 2008, crime was down nearly 78 percent from 1990).

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told the City Council this morning that the city could see a peak police headcount of 35,707 officers this year, including a police class this summer of 250. In the mayor’s preliminary budget, the January 2010 class has been eliminated. Under less dire economic circumstances, the city would have two, 1,000 member police classes annually.

This revelation did not sit well with Vallone, who said, under these circumstances, the police headcount could go as low as 33,200 officers. Kelly said the department currently had 5,000 fewer officers than in 2001.

Admiral's Row to go

From Crain's:

Most of the buildings that comprise the historic Admiral’s Row in the Brooklyn Navy Yard will be torn down to pave the way for a supermarket in an agreement reached by the Yard’s operator and the homes’ owner, the National Guard, sources close to the negotiations say.

The plan, which is slated to be revealed to community groups in late April, would salvage only one of the 10 crumbling residences and a structure known as the Timber Shed, according to sources. The compromise would likely enrage preservationists who were hoping for a plan that would save all the buildings.

An April Fool and his money are soon parted

From NY1:

So let's add it up: parking, four tickets, two kids meals, and hot dogs and beer for mom and dad. Throw in two baseball hats at $19 a pop and a $5 program they can fight over, and we're looking at a grand total of $212.50.

Will billboards disappear?

Judge OK's Limiting Big Billboards in New York City

NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal judge has ruled that New York City can severely limit the number of billboards placed along its roadways.

Judge Paul Crotty ruled against two companies that own hundreds of billboards in a decision Tuesday. The companies had argued that the city was discriminating against their billboards since smaller signs are allowed throughout the city.

But Crotty wrote that it was appropriate for the city to value small signs on lampposts, taxicabs and phone booths that create harmony in an otherwise chaotic streetscape.

He said allowing the small signs doesn't stop the city from restricting large billboards that can distract motorists and lead to accidents.

Doorman an April Fool nominee

From the Daily News:

Councilman Eric Gioia is adamant about where New York's most dangerous pervs should not live - city housing projects.

But when asked to suggest neighborhoods where they might reside he couldn't come up with a single suggestion.

"I don't think government should be telling people where to live," Gioia offered.

Isn't that exactly what you are doing?

CitiField quirks

You can look right through Darryl Strawberry and see the parking lot.

The new Mr. Met bobblehead has a disturbing open-mouthed grin and apparently he only has upper dentures.

Teamwork and determination apparently weren't enough to get this spot ready before the place was opened to the public for the first time.

You can get sushi at the ballpark now.

Glad they saved this. Wish it was someplace other than above a concession stand.

I'm sure the ad revenue will pick up in a few years.

No comment on this one.

Taxpayer Field springs a leak