What’s That Building? The Serbian Orthodox Cathedral Of St. Sava

December 3rd, 2012 by Alyssa Rinaldi

There are some buildings that just don’t seem to fit on this rather cramped island of ours. One of these buildings is the Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Sava. Similar to the house of the little old man in UP, this church built in the mid nineteenth century has seen the buildings around it creep closer and closer to the sky, but has managed to remain pretty much the same as it has been for over a hundred years.

The Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Sava lies on a block full of shops and office buildings on West 25th Street, and by no means does it fit in with those surroundings. This block of neo-Gothic brownstone buildings sticks out from its modern surroundings, and has stood here since the mid-nineteenth century. Over the years, this church has been passed between religions, yet has survived multiple threats of being town down, and continues to stand today. Read more…


Embrace The Best Cliché: Rockefeller Tree Lighting Is Tonight

November 28th, 2012 by Alyssa Rinaldi

The semester is over in less than a month, and December is four days away. Most of us will fall prey to necessary finals cramming and paper writing in the depths of Bobst all too soon. However, when you come up for air or decide to leave LL2 for an afternoon, a New York City awaits you. Now that Thanksgiving is over, it is officially Christmas, which means it’s time for ice skating in central park, Flurry, and checking out holiday windows. Of course the biggest and best cliché of them all is the Rockefeller Center tree lighting, happening tonight.  Here’s when and where it is, how to get there, and a little about the tree-lighting’s history

Read more…


What’s That Building? The Blue Building In The Lower East Side

November 19th, 2012 by Alyssa Rinaldi

New York has a lot of things worth ogling, and you see some crazy stuff in the streets. In addition to the odd people we come across daily, we’re also surrounded by really diverse and sometimes odd architecture. You know those buildings that just don’t seem to fit? The ones that always catch your eye? In the new series “What’s That Building?”, we plan on shedding some light on the obscure architectural gems or just straight up weird structures that stick out like a sore thumb and make you think “what’s the deal with that?” Read more…


Why Was Rikers Island Left Out Of The Evacuation Plan For Hurricane Sandy?

November 5th, 2012 by Alyssa Rinaldi

Rikers Island is a prison island located in the East River between Queens and the Bronx, and hosts 12,000 inmates. In the days before Sandy released her wrath on New York and New Jersey, despite the island’s location—extremely close to areas such as LaGuardia Airport, which was zoned for evacuation, Rikers Island was not among the places marked for evacuation come storm time. While only zone A was supposed to receive flooding, New Yorkers saw flooding and damage come well into the B and even C zones in some cases. Rikers Island was not classified as Zone A, B, nor C and ended up not reportedly facing any significant troubles during the storm—but given its location near the mouth of the Long Island sound, which we saw flood heavily—provoked the question in many New Yorkers’ minds: Is there an evacuation plan for Riker’s Island? And if so—what is it?

Last Sunday, in response to a question about the island’s evacuation, Mayor Bloomberg, seeming to misunderstand the question about inmate evacuation, remarked: “[on]Rikers Island, the land is up where they are and jails are secured…Don’t worry about anybody getting out.”  The reporters were not, in fact, worried about people escaping, but rather about the safety of the Prisoners who could potentially be stuck on a death trap of an island, whose only point of access is via the Rikers Island Bridge.  As we saw with Sandy, before the worst of the flooding, power outages, and the strongest winds arrived, bridges were being shut down, as the wind levels were unsafe. If the island were to need to be evacuated—what is the capacity for it to do so? Read more…


NYC Is The Dirtiest City In America: What Are We Breathing?

October 9th, 2012 by Alyssa Rinaldi

 

Coming to NYU, we tend to look at the benefits of the city: 24-hour anything, job opportunities, shopping, nightlife, fashion, theater- the list goes on. What we don’t always consider is the health effects the city has on our bodies. It’s common knowledge that cities come with their smog, germs, and dirt, but the question arises: in a city like NYC, where the pump of pollutants into the air is extreme and constant, is what we breathe harming our bodies? What do we New Yorkers inhale on a day-to-day basis?

This year Travel + Leisure Magazine ranked NYC as the dirtiest city in America, up from its place at number 5 last year. While internationally it didn’t make Forbes’ list of 25 most polluted cities in the world, its dirtiness index does serve as the standard of which all of the dirties cities are measured against. These facts are cause for alarm.

Read more…


Sports In The City: How To Get Tickets, Get There

October 3rd, 2012 by Alyssa Rinaldi

There are some of us who like sports, and some of us who don’t.  There are also some of us who are too confused by the options of  where to get tickets and/or are too lazy to figure out the logistics of getting to a respective sport stadium.  However, since we live in New York, where you literally have all of your basic food groups of sports and some great teams (depending on where your alliances lie), we figured it would be smart to provide  some tips to buying tickets  and directions of how to get to your fave sporting arenas.

Buying Tickets: Rule number 1 of the game is do not, under any circumstances, buy your tickets through Student Rush. They advertise sports tickets like they know what they’re talking about, and being the school known for its lacking interest in sports, we may be inclined to buy their charade. Instead of getting crappy seats through NYU, go to StubHub instead! What you’ll be getting on that site is 10x more likely to be cheaper, and the seats will most likely be better, too. If you don’t like StubHub for whatever reason, or are looking for an alternative there’s always the Craigslist ticket section if you have the patience and trust of going through the hell that can be. Once you’ve gotten your tickets, it’s off you go to your stadiums of choice.

Read more…


Get Out of The Village and Go Taste Some Wines This Weekend

September 27th, 2012 by Alyssa Rinaldi

Vino, krasi, wijn, vin, wine. For all of you who like wine, aren’t sure how you feel about wine, or want to find out how you feel about it, we’ve rounded up three great places to taste this weekend. Whether you’re a sommelier or you’ve recently asked the question “isn’t rose just like….red and white wine mixed together?” (the answer, by the way, is no), you should check out tastings at the following places. Why? Well, because wine is great. Wine is so great. And secondly, because at these places it’s free.

Read more…


A Love Affair With The Financial District

September 19th, 2012 by Alyssa Rinaldi

The southernmost neighborhood of Manhattan is often stereotyped as being full of a ton of really tall buildings, fancy bank people in their fancy business attire, and, of course, those pesky Occupy protestors who hate the fancy bank people. But the truth of the matter is, the Financial District is a lot cooler than we give it credit for. At Local we think that the FiDi actually kind of rocks. So we generated a list of things to do down there to prove that the neighborhood actually does have a lot more to offer than just 300 Starbucks that all close by 7 pm.

Read more…


Six Videos That Are Better Than ‘Boyfriend’

May 9th, 2012 by Alyssa Rinaldi

JBiebs has been getting around recently, from our very own NYU to boxing matches.  Amidst all of this Bieber activity, he also released the video for his song “Boyfriend” last week, and it’s terrible. It opens with him all up on some girl, and then cuts to a lot of nonsense happening in a parking lot, and him in shades driving some expensive car. It’s videos like these that make us sigh and wonder what’s happening to the next generation.

In light of the Bieber video being so uninspired, we have compiled a list of videos of people who, at Beiber’s age, did it better. This may not qualify as productive procrastination, but get off Facebook and take a look at our list of throwback videos instead.  Read more…


Where To Go For Free Rooftop And Outdoor Films This Summer

May 4th, 2012 by Alyssa Rinaldi

Those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer are just around the corner.  Unfortunately for most of us, those days won’t be too lazy what with internships and jobs on the horizon. However, for those of us remaining in NYC, those days will indeed be hazy, and with the warm weather coaxing you out as frequently as possible, craziness is definitely in store.

The city in the summer is a different type of beast altogether with things like summer concert series, festivals, markets, and outdoor activities happening every day of the week.  This year, as in years past, many groups around the boroughs will hold outdoor and rooftop film screenings. So, here’s a list of places where you can get some fresh air, sit back, and relax in the evenings and enjoy dozens of different types of films, from foreign to mystery to the classics.  Read more…


« Older