By Steve Huff 10/28/12 6:41pm

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Hurricane Sandy: Mayor’s Office and Google Team to Create The Crisis Map

Mayor Bloomberg’s office has teamed with Google to create Hurricane Sandy: NYC. It’s a handy “crisis” map that links to the latest N.Y.C. Emergency Management alerts, various city-related Twitter accounts and advisories about Hurricane Sandy from the National Hurricane Center.

Residents may be particularly interested in the map’s color-coded evacuation zones–currently Zone A is under a mandatory evacuation order.

Here are Google’s tips on how to best use the map: Read More

By Anna Sanders 2:32pm

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The Carriage Horse Wars Stampede Through City Hall

The following article has been updated to include a statement from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Ruby looked restless. The brown horse shifted in place, turned around, and occasionally poked her white muzzle between the red bars of her 8 by 10-foot stall on the second floor of the Clinton Park Stables. Her golf ball-sized eyes glistened and she sighed, staring out at us all the while. The Observer reached in and stroked Ruby’s snout between the bars, wondering if the horse had any clue of the battle raging around her.

Since the death of Charlie, a carriage horse that collapsed on 54th Street last month, the struggle for—and against—the City’s horse-drawn carriage industry has grown into an all-out war, with the Horse and Carriage Association of New York now filing formal complaints against some of the industry’s biggest challengers.  Read More