Can U.S. Men’s Tennis Rise Again?

Can U.S. Men’s Tennis Rise Again? - NYTimes.com

(Excerpt)
In May 1984, as Christopher Clarey of The New York Times recently noted, six of the world’s Top 10 were American, as were 24 of the Top 50. A decade later, there were four in the Top 10 and 11 in the Top 50. Last May, there was only one American in the Top 50, and that was the lumbering 29-year-old journeyman John Isner, who has never made it past the quarterfinals of a major tournament. Spain, meanwhile, has 10 players in the Top 50; France has seven.

Sand sculpting at Coney Island

My favorite...very powerful.

Coney Island Sand Sculpting Contest is set for Saturday

Coney Island Sand Sculpting Contest is set for Saturday - am New York
(Excerpt)
The contestants who vie for prizes ranging from $100 to $400 are diverse in age, background and aesthetic sensibility, but there is one fact upon which they all agree: The sand in Coney Island is among the best in the world.
"The sand in Coney Island is truly magnificent," for building and carving, affirmed Matt Long, a professional sand sculptor from West Brighton, SI, who also owns a wood restoration business.
Just as Manhattan schist makes a great anchor for skyscrapers, Coney's sand has "a fine angular grain and good silt content to help hold it together," that allows sculptors not only to build higher, but more elaborately, resulting in mind-boggling tall and precise sand sculptures, Long said.

Coney Island's Shore Theater now being used by homeless squatters - NY Daily News

Coney Island's Shore Theater now being used by homeless squatters - NY Daily News
(Excerpt)
A squalid and long-abandoned Coney Island movie palace has been taken over by homeless squatters.
A woman was seen Tuesday sleeping on a mattress among the peeling plaster and collapsing walls on the fourth floor of the historic Shore Theater on Surf Ave.
The interior has the apocalyptic air of a bombed-out shell that might be seen in a horror movie. Steel wires hang from the rotting ceilings above heaps of dust-strewn wood and bags filled with debris.

Robin Williams dead at 63 in suspected suicide | Fox News

Robin Williams dead at 63 in suspected suicide | Fox News

Andrew M. Cuomo, NY governor, signs New York City speed-reduction bill including Coney Island Avenue and Flatbush Avenue

Andrew M. Cuomo, NY governor, signs New York City speed-reduction bill - Newsday
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Saturday morning signed a bill to let New York City drop its default speed limit to 25 miles per hour from 30.
The bill signing ceremony, held inside the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, was attended by more than a dozen families who have lost loved ones in crashes involving motor vehicles.
"New Yorkers like to do things fast. Everything is time. Everything is pressure in New York. But this says 'slow down and save a life,' said Cuomo, standing between two "SPEED LIMIT 25" road signs.
The chance of a pedestrian's death is "cut in half" when the speed of the traveling vehicle is lowered to 25 mph from 30, the city's transportation commissioner, Polly Trottenberg, said at the ceremony.
The new speed limit can go into effect in as soon as 90 days, once City Hall enacts its own law formally lowering the limit, which it is all but certain to do.
The default limit is the maximum speed motorists can legally travel unless a posted sign indicates otherwise.

DiNapoli: Brooklyn is king of NYC economic growth

DiNapoli: Brooklyn is king of NYC economic growth - NY Daily News

 (Excerpt)
State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli released a report late this May that examined changes in Brooklyn’s economy from 2003 to 2012, and the results are encouraging.

• Private sector employment grew by nearly 20%, nearly double the growth in the rest of the city
• Private sector wages increased by 42%
• The number of businesses increased by 21%
• Manufacturing jobs increased for the first time in decades