“Today, we are all breathing a sigh of relief as the suspect behind eight vicious muggings of Asian-American East Harlem residents has finally been apprehended by police,” Mark-Viverito said. “These brutal robberies have shaken all of us.”

FURRY FRIENDS FOR SALE!
This February, bring home a puppy or kitten without breaking the bank. Bideawee, the pet welfare center located on East 38th Street at First Avenue, will be holding a monthlong “Name your own price” sale. The sale is in celebration of Valentine’s Day, and is Bideawee’s first adoption promotion this year.

Plus, if you think your brand-new pet is super-photogenic, Bideawee will be taking photos of each new adoption and putting them up for a public vote. The winner will have their pet featured as Bideawee’s Facebook timeline image. This promotion will run until Feb. 28.

DOT ANNOUNCES NEW SAFETY PROCEDURES FOR DELIVERY BIKES
The DOT announced recently that they have teamed up with Delivery.com to provide 1,500 commercial cyclists with free bike lights, bells and reflective vests. Delivery cyclists from all over the city can attend one of the multi-language commercial bicyclist forums to receive the safety equipment. Other bicycle safety efforts include NYPD enforcement and inspector visits to businesses that use delivery cyclists. These inspectors serve to both inform and enforce regulations.

DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan notes, “Safety is everyone’s business, so it’s significant when the private sector steps up to the plate to make efforts in the public interest.”

Jed Kleckner, CEO of Delivery.com, is one of many who share in this sentiment. “In a city where food, groceries and wine can be at your doorstep in moments,” he said, “We empower the neighborhood economy by equipping our merchant partners with the right tools for making safe and speedy deliveries.”

TWO U.E.S. BAKERIES NAMED IN FOURSQUARE’S ‘BEST OF’ LIST
Foursquare, the social app that lets friends check in to restaurants, bars and other places, has sifted its data of more than three billion check-ins and pulled up a list of the best New York City has to offer—from best eateries and clubs to best sights and theaters. And there’s good news for Upper East Siders with a sweet tooth. Two of the top 10 New York bakeries are on the Upper East Side: Sprinkles Cupcakes on Lexington between 60th and 61st streets and Two Little Red Hens on Second Avenue between East 85th and 86th.

Both of these bakeries offer tempting cupcakes. At Sprinkles, many of the fans on Foursquare rave about the “best cupcake place in the city,” and suggest trying the Red Velvet. At Two Little Red Hens, fans love both the cakes and cupcakes, and suggest going for the “Brooklyn Blackout,” a dangerous, chocolaty confection.

SECOND AVENUE SUBWAY NEWS
On Wednesday, Jan. 30, MTA held its fifth Second Avenue Subway workshop at Temple Israel on East 75th Street. The meeting brought together MTA employees and contractors to discuss how negative impacts or effects from the construction can be mitigated.

“It’s impossible to build a subway here without disturbing the people and environment around us,” said MTA Capital Construction President Michael Horodniceanu. “We’ve learned from past experiences that building on this scale requires more than a business-as-usual approach, and that working closely with the community is one of the best means of learning how we can become a better neighbor.”

Phase One of the new subway line, which will extend the Q line, is expected to be complete by 2016.

On Foursquare, most people recommend the chocolate chip walnut cookies at Levain, which is known for its big gooey cookies. Bouchon, meanwhile, is more of a French lunch and pastry spot, known for its unusual flavors of macarons—like peanut butter and jelly.

FURRY FRIENDS FOR SALE!
This February, bring home a puppy or kitten without breaking the bank. Bideawee, the pet welfare center located on East 38th Street at First Avenue, will be holding a monthlong “Name your own price” sale. The sale is in celebration of Valentine’s Day, and is Bideawee’s first adoption promotion this year! Plus, if you think your brand-new pet is super photogenic, Bideawee will be taking photos of each new adoption, and putting them up for a public vote. The winner will have their pet featured as Bideawee’s Facebook timeline image. This promotion will run until Feb. 28.

DOT ANNOUNCES NEW SAFETY PROCEDURES FOR DELIVERY BIKES
The DOT announced recently that they have teamed up with Delivery.com to provide 1,500 commercial cyclists with free bike lights, bells and retro-reflective vests. Delivery cyclists from all over the city can attend one of the multi-language commercial bicyclist forums held all over the city to receive the safety equipment.

Other bicycle safety efforts include NYPD enforcement and inspector visits to businesses that use delivery cyclists. These inspectors serve to both inform and oversee the legal regulations such businesses are required to follow.

DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan notes, “Safety is everyone’s business, so it’s significant when the private sector steps up to the plate to make efforts in the public interest.”
Jed Kleckner, CEO of Delivery.com, is one of many who share in this sentiment. “In a city where food, groceries and wine can be at your doorstep in moments,” he said, “we empower the neighborhood economy by equipping our merchant partners with the right tools for making safe and speedy deliveries.”

Revised administrative procedures regarding bike safety will be enforced starting this April.

FURNITURE FROM COLUMBUS EXHIBIT UP FOR SALE

Remember the living room that was perched atop the statue at Columbus Circle? Now you can own a part of the former exhibit, “Tatzu Nishi: Discovering Columbus” which closed in December. Art Space is selling the furniture that completed the look of the “living room above Columbus Circle.” Much of the furniture has been gobbled up by art collectors (or people who really need a couch). But a $1,500 MG + BW chair is still available, as well as a $2,700 Samsung 48” TV, and several other items. And members of Art Space get a discount that slashes prices in half. According to Art Space, while it was still on display, the artwork drew more than 100,000 visitors from over 30 countries around the world.

photo from Wikimedia Commons

According to a recent article in Mashable, New York is becoming a hotter and hotter site for start-up businesses and entrepreneurs. Where Silicon Valley is king, NYC, for many reasons, is rising in the ranks.

Young and popular companies like Foursquare and Kickstarter, as well as companies like Twitter and Facebook who have building offices here, are highlighting a vanguard of new and growing tech companies.

In April 2011 there were roughly 15,000 relatively new tech up-starts in the NYC area, but now that number has increased by about 11,000, the article says. It also says that…

“Last year, venture investors plowed $2.75 billion into 390 startups in the New York City area — the most money and investments since 2001, when the dot-com bubble was rapidly losing air in Manhattan’s “Silicon Alley” and everywhere else, too. So far this year, $942 million has been invested in 182 startups in New York.”

That number is merely a fraction of Silicon Valley’s funding —around 12 billion, according to Mashable— but it’s surely an auspicious spurt in jobs, opportunities, and innovation. New York is, actually, the second-largest technology hub in the U.S.

According to a May report by the Center for an Urban Future, New York has surprisingly sprung up to second and is the only major U.S. area to see an increase in venture capital deals between 2007 and 2011. It’s seen a 32% increase over the four-year span, opposed to a 10% decrease in Silicon Valley, 14% decrease in New England, 8% decrease in Orange County, and 11% decrease in the U.S. overall. IT is also the leader in NYC since job growth since 2007. (Publishing down 15.8%… uh oh…)

This is eerily similar to the dot com era, but we’re in a better position right now than we were at that time.

“You can get traction before you have to raise money. The tools are orders of magnitude easier,
and so investors aren’t funding ideas… They’re funding businesses”, Frank Rimalovski, the managing director of the NYU Innovation Fund, said in the report.

These numbers mark an auspicious future for the city’s employment, entrepreneurship, and innovation which, ultimately, marks an auspicious future for the city as a whole.

Who wants to start a tech company?!

Mashable