Don Hoffman, a representative at Beth Israel, says the new Teladoc feature is the first “virtual doctor’s office” in the city, though there are similar programs popping up all over the nation.
This innovation comes just in time for the flu season. Doctors encourage people with flu-like symptoms not to wait to go to a doctor. Hoffman says that this eliminates waiting at a hospital or doctor’s office, and will hopefully encourage more people to get treatment during this especially dangerous flu season.

THREE LOYOLA STUDENTS GO TO NEXT ROUND OF MLK ART CONTEST
The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be hosting a Dream@50 art contest award ceremony on Jan. 26 in honor of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Three students from Loyola School on East. 83rd Street have been selected as semifinalists in the contest: Lova Blavarg, Nicole DiTolla and Stephie Brack.

The Dream@50 contest is a nationwide art contest for K-12 students in 10 U.S. cities including New York, Boston and Los Angeles. Grand-prize winners from each city will be honored at a Capitol Hill ceremony and exhibit in August.

CONSTRUCTION BEGINS ON NEW MET MUSEUM PLAZA
Government officials broke ground on Monday, Jan. 14, for the new David H. Koch Plaza at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The plaza is set to open next January.

The plaza will run along Fifth Avenue from 80th to 84th streets and will be named after the billionaire trustee who donated the money for the project. The plaza will feature new fountains, approximately 100 new trees, seating areas and energy-efficient nighttime lighting. The whole plaza will be environmentally friendly.

“It will give the Met a portal outside that is truly worthy of the masterpieces that grace our galleries inside,” Museum Chairman Daniel Brodsky said.

WINTER RESTAURANT WEEK BEGINS
Restaurant Week (really three weeks) kicked off on Monday, Jan. 14. Hungry customers can choose from a wide array of NYC’s best restaurants and eat a three-course gourmet dinner for just $38 per person ($25 for lunch). The deals end Feb. 8. Hungry Upper East Siders who want to stay in their neighborhood can choose from restaurants like David Burke Townhouse (61st and Lexington Avenue) and Park Avenue Winter (63rd and Park Avenue).

17TH PRECINCT COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING SET
Residents of Sutton Place, Turtle Bay, Beekman Place, Tudor City and Murray Hill are invited to the monthly Precinct Community Council meeting to discuss safety issues in the neighborhood on Jan. 29 at 6 p.m. The meeting will take place at Sutton Synagogue at 221 E. 51st St.

FATAL FLATIRON DISTRICT BICYCLE ACCIDENT
A female bicyclist was fatally struck Jan. 4 by a Citywide demolition and rubbish removal truck at East 23rd Street and Madison. The bicyclist was traveling East on 23rd Street when she was hit, according to several sources. Police said that she was pronounced dead on the scene.
Private sanitation trucks like Citywide Demolition actually have the highest pedestrian kill-rate of any truck vehicle according to a 1999 study produced by Right of Way. However, city law states that large trucks like these sanitation trucks must have safety convex mirrors on trucks that allows them to see in blind spots. On its website, Citywide Demolition emphasizes the company’s “safe, reliable service.”

This pedestrian death is especially relevant in the wake of the city’s fight to increase bike lanes across Manhattan.

LULEMON TEMPORARY STORE APPEARS ON 3RD AVENUE
Lululemon Athletica, a popular Canadian yoga and sports apparel store, will be opening a small pop-up for four months across the street from its flagship store on Third Avenue between 66th and 67th Streets.

The flagship store will remain closed for renovations during this time. But with the new pop-up, Upper East Siders will be able to stay in shape in style.

“Exercising and staying in good shape are inherent to the character of the Upper East Side lifestyle,” says Joseph Aquino, executive vice president of Douglas Elliman’s Retail Group that handled the transaction. “This brand resonates with people here.”

The temporary shop is replacing a Uniqlo store.

MIDTOWN LIBRARY SET FOR MAJOR RENOVATIONS
The New York Public Library’s main branch is getting a very expensive makeover. The work will begin this summer in a renovation worth $300 million. The project will create a multi-level atrium complete with views of Bryant Park inside the Fifth Avenue landmark.
The plan stirred up some controversy when it was initially proposed that mil

Chinatown: Stop letting the other ’hoods use me. If they don’t want to meet for dim sum during the day, then they can take their club beats elsewhere at night. And tell Nolita to quit invading my space.Photo by Christopher Schoenbohm

Look at you, New York! I hardly recognize this group of non-smoking, exercising, healthy-eating and organized individuals. What happened? You used to be fun. Interesting, at least.

The truth is, if everyone in New York sticks to their resolutions, it could throw off the balance of this entire city, country and world at large. Grocery stores will sell out of fresh produce, and SeamlessWeb will go under faster than it can send a confirmation email. Gyms will become so overcrowded that citywide riots will break out in a moment of elliptical desperation. Cigarette companies will—er, bad example.

Countless livelihoods depend on your laziness, unhealthy habits and destructive behaviors. Think of the artisan baker who relies on your sweet tooth to pay the bills. Don’t you believe in supporting small businesses? Don’t you want to stimulate the economy? Or how about the bartender who depends on your liquored-up generosity to support his true passion? Thanks to your selfish resolution to drink less, you may be robbing the world of his future Oscar-winning documentary exposing the slaughter of bonobos in the Congo. Maybe that film would have started a worldwide movement to save the bonobos from extinction. Perhaps even inspired an end to the Congo’s years of devastating warfare in the process. Don’t you want to end violence in the Congo? Don’t you think bonobos are cute?

So go ahead and smoke your first cigarette of 2013. Bite that hangnail. Fall so hard off the donut wagon that you might have broken something if not for their—and your—pillowy softness to cushion the landing. It’s the least you can do.

Our neighborhoods, however, are another story. They could use a few resolutions, and from the look of things, they have their work cut out for them in 2013:

Meatpacking: Drink lesssss [hiccup]. And learn Italian.

Chelsea: Stop making fun of MiMa. He didn’t make it up.

West Village: Start growing vegetables on the roofs of my restaurants. Oh wait, that was last year’s.

Midtown: Separate my work from my social life. Leave my Blackberry at—sorry, gotta take this … What? Now? I’m just finishing a scorpion bowl with my boys at BroJim’s. I’ll be at the office in 10.

East Village: Keep my beard clean.

Tribeca: Stop letting myself be defined by my friends. Tell De Niro I need some space. Again.

Nolita: Stop giving all the other neighborhoods adorably personalized gifts from my shops. When did anyone ever give me a necklace made of gilded flower petals in the shape of my name?

Little Italy: Go gluten-free.

Murray Hill (hers): Stop wearing my Kappa Delta Phi butt pants to unlimited champagne brunch.

Murray Hill (his): Stop hitting on girls wearing Kappa Delta Phi butt pants at unlimited champagne brunch.

Times Square: Meditate more. Like, all the time.