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Mayor Eric Adams’ war on rats continues with new pizza-friendly garbage disposals in the shape of pie boxes that are being installed across NYC parks. In case you are confused: apparently, since the pizza boxes don’t fit in regular trash cans, New Yorkers have been leaving them outside the bins, causing overflow and basically inviting rodents to play around the receptacles. Hopefully, the new items will make our city cleaner while helping us get rid of the rats.

NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue made the announcement last week, noting a total of six new custom-designed bins.

The first one was installed in early August in Father Demo Square in downtown Manhattan (right across Joe’s Pizza in Greenwich Village) and, according to Gothamist, the other five—in Loreto Playground in the Bronx, Sobelsohn Park Playground in Queens, Jennifer’s Playground on Staten Island and two in Saratoga Park in Brooklyn—were set up on the Friday before Labor Day weekend. 

The outlet also reports that, depending on the success of the program, the $950-a-pop garbage cans might be installed across other portions of the city.

If the receptacles look familiar, that’s because similar ones were set up in Central Park back in May.

The park has always been the site of a ton of pizza parties and picnics. However, park goers could never properly get rid of their pie boxes because of their size—until just a few months ago.

Although wary of the many rat-adjacent proposals and projects that Adams has worked on throughout his tenure—from the hiring of a rat czar to the founding of a “rat pack” mitigation squad—we must admit that this new effort looks fairly useful to us. The less garbage we see floating around our town, the better.

* This article was originally published here

We love to do things big over here in New York City and that includes art sculptures, like this colossal pigeon sculpture that will soon be flying its way to the High Line. But that’s not the only massive sculpture heading to NYC this fall–a massive, 13-foot-tall chair installation is heading to Times Square this September.

Dubbed TOVAR The Chair, the sculpture comes from the late Dominican surrealist artist Iván Tovar and its arrival coincides with the start of National Hispanic Heritage Month. The sculpture looks to call attention to the 800,000 Dominicans living in the New York region as well as ask that the public reflect on Tovar’s legacy.

TOVAR The Chair is a large-scale version of Tovar’s earlier work, La Chaise Adulte (The Adult Chair). The stainless steel sculpture features both a “nude female and male form intertwined creating a throne-like monumental chair.” It’s just one of the more than 1,000 artworks Tovar created throughout his career.

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Héctor José Rizek, one of the organizations behind the installment, stated:

Iván Tovar made art to externalize his concerns and obsessions. Each of his works is unique yet simultaneously part of a transcendent visual language, a poem full of emotions. ‘TOVAR The Chair’ is a deeply impactful means to share Tovar’s collective vision in a large-scale public art exhibition to a greater audience beyond the confines of museums and private collections.

Beyond the sculpture, a 50-foot screen-printed timeline chronicling Tovar’s career will also be on display. You can find more outdoor art installations and public sculptures in NYC here.

Broadway Plaza between 45th and 46th Streets and 7th Avenue

On display September 15 – November 15, 2024

The post A Massive 13-Foot-Tall Chair Depicting Intertwined Nude Forms Heads To Times Square appeared first on Secret NYC.

* This article was originally published here

People have New Yorkers pegged all wrong. We’re not rude, we’re just blunt. No for real, there’s even data to back it!

According to a new study from Preply, an online language learning program, New York City didn’t even make the top 10 rudest cities in America. Stealing the top spot as the rudest city in the United States is actually Miami, Florida.

Using research from their 2022 study and information from a dozen new cities, Preply relied on the perceptions of citizens from each city surveyed to help create their very own rudeness score out of 10, and ultimately, rudeness ranking. Questions such as how often a resident of a city sees another behave rudely or how they view transplants vs natives were just some ways Preply gauged their ranking.

Not far behind Miami, FL, which received a rudeness score of 9.88, was Philadelphia, PA in second with a score of 9.12 and Tampa, FL in third at 8.88. According to locals, the most common acts of rude behavior include lack of self-awareness, talking on speaker in public, being loud in communal spaces, watching videos or listening to loud music in shared spaces, and lack of care for others.

Interesting enough, data from 2022 actually ranked NYC as the third rudest city in the U.S. Therefore, over the past two years it seems we’ve become more polite. The updated 2024 data ranks NYC as the 21st rudest city, so we’ll consider that some fantastic personal growth!

Preply also inquired how Americans react to the aforementioned rude behavior, with 88.43% saying they ignore it, 50.77% leave the area and 11.49% confront the person.

On the flip side, the least rude cities in the U.S. include Omaha, NE, Minneapolis, MN, San Diego, CA, Columbus, OH, and Kansas City, MO. You can explore the full study and rankings of the rudest and least rude cities in the U.S. here.

The post The Rudest City In America Has Been Announced, And It’s Not NYC appeared first on Secret NYC.

* This article was originally published here

As NYC public school students prepare to make their return to classrooms, some may also be returning to emptier streets and outdoor fun as 70+ schools have joined NYC’s Open Streets Program–up from 64 last year and 51 the year before!

The NYC Department of Transportation recently announced that 71 schools will participate in the launch of Open Streets for Schools across the city, a record-breaking expansion of the program since the program first launched during the height of the pandemic. The program was codified into law this past spring.

While the open streets are in effect, they’ll temporarily close to vehicles. The program not only enhances safety for students by helping to facilitate smoother pick-ups and drop-offs, but also creates new space for outdoor recess and learning.

The program is nothing new–NYC has a roughly 100-year-history of closing streets for children to play and to support educational opportunities during what was once called “Playstreets”–but Open Streets for Schools establishes a legal structure to support schools through the Open Streets program for the first time.

71 schools across the five boroughs will participate in the program, most of which are located in underserved communities in the outer boroughs. In total, 12 Bronx schools, 12 Brooklyn schools, 26 Manhattan schools, 20 Queens schools, and one Staten Island school will participate. The full list of participating schools can be found here.

NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez stated:

The streets have historically been a place for children to play and socialize—and through our Open Streets program, we have created a new framework to give this space back to our school children to safely learn, develop new skills, and make pick-ups and drop-offs much easier for parents and guardians.

This year’s expansion of Open Streets is part of DOT’s recent $30 million commitment to create and sustain high-quality public spaces around the city, specifically under-resourced neighborhoods. In 2025, DOT will offer funding to schools for Open Streets management, operations, and programming for the first time. Applications for 2025 Open Streets will open in October.

The post 70+ Schools Join NYC’s Open Streets Program This Fall For Outdoor Learning & Recess appeared first on Secret NYC.

* This article was originally published here

After six weeks of spotty G train service that threw a wrench in straphangers’ commutes this summer, today, Tuesday, September 3rd marks the first day that full service has resumed to the line!

Back in December 2022 the MTA announced plans to upgrade and modernize the train’s signal system, bringing straphangers more reliable service. The caveat: it required the line to shut down for a total of six weeks. The repairs were thankfully split into three sections, meaning the entire line didn’t have to shut down at once, though it still made commuting quite the headache.

The Crosstown Line, used by the ​G train, still had its original signal system from when it opened over 90 years ago. The repairs brought new tracks, new switches, and new signals to eleven-miles-worth of the line. Ten stations also received deep cleanings.

And though these repairs have been completed, there’s still work to be done to bring more modern, reliable service to the 160,000 riders who take the G​ each day. Major service disruptions will hopefully come to an end by 2025, though there will be occasional shutdowns on nights and weekends.

The next service changes are currently planned for late September as the MTA continues signal modernization on the Culver Line.

Jamie Torres-Springer, MTA Construction and Development President, stated:

We’ve got immediate benefits that our riders are seeing today. There’ll be a smoother ride, we’ve cleaned up the stations, we’ve improved a lot of track. We’re going to be providing frequent and reliable service. And when we complete this project over the next couple years and fully re-signal, we’ll have even more reliable, faster service for our G train riders.

The remaining project won’t be fully completed until the end of 2027. Considering the G train is the only direct train line between Brooklyn and Queens that doesn’t cross through Manhattan, we’re sure straphangers are looking forward to the day when its modernization is fully complete.

The post G Train Service Fully Restored Following 6-Week Shutdown appeared first on Secret NYC.

* This article was originally published here

There’s nothing like that drop in your stomach when your bag gets pulled aside for inspection at airport security. Maybe you weren’t aware you packed a liquid over the 3.4 oz liquid limit, nonetheless, it can still be simultaneously embarrassing and intimidating.

But have you ever wondered where your confiscated or lost TSA items really go—especially as an average of 90,000-100,000 items are left behind at security checkpoints monthly? Well, according to the official TSA website, any lost and found items left behind at an airport checkpoint that have been unclaimed for 30 days are either destroyed, given to the state as surplus property, or sold by TSA.

In fact, there’s even a website you can go on to search for various items acquired by TSA. Known as GovDeals.com, this website is used as an online auctioning site for government surplus items. The site has more than 15,000 sellers and more than one million registered buyers.  New York State even has its own page specific to the state’s surplus assets, ranging from consumer goods to real estate and beyond.

To filter your search on GovDeals to surplus items from TSA, just type “TSA” in the website’s search function. From there, you’ll see a page populate with various chargers, pocket knives, watches, tools, sunglasses and more. According to the TSA website, all of the profits from sold items that have been retained by TSA go towards the state.

Of course more illegal items such as drugs and firearms get directed to local law enforcement.

Not interested in purchasing your lost item back? You can attempt to retrieve it within the 30 days by contacting the lost and found and going to pick it up at the airport.

The post Here’s Where Your Confiscated Items At TSA Really End Up… appeared first on Secret NYC.

* This article was originally published here