2008 Is Gonna Blow This Popstand

Those of you planning to stumble around NYC tonight, ringing in the New Year, should probably plan ahead when it comes to your exit strategy. Weather Underground is predicting 1 to 3 inches of snow, and winds gusting up to 60 miles per hour into the evening...wind chills approaching zero. You get the picture.

Based on the past few years, getting out of Williamsburg after midnight tonight will involve standing in a block-long line in front of the Northside Car Service base on Bedford (they stop answering calls when they get backed up). In those weather conditions (and in your New Years hipster party frocks), you'd better be either well-insulated or well-numbed (or both).

Happy New Year!

Bike Lane Activists Defiant:Illegal Detour Sign Is Back!

If you've been closely following the ongoing controversy that's pitted Orthodox Jews in South Williamsburg against proponents of the new Kent Avenue bike lanes, you'll know that the homemade detour sign shown above was installed atop a Kabbalah Energy Drink trailer parked on a lot at Kent Avenue and Broadway. The extremely wordy sign offered southbound drivers on Kent a suggested alternate route to avoid the frustration of school buses that will - by the sign writer's own admission - be intentionally "in an angle blocking the road and bike lane for safety".

You'll also know that by the NY Post's account Sunday, the DOT confirmed the sign is illegal, and Gothamist ran a piece Tuesday titled "Phony Detour Sign Comes Down!" with the requisite "had no idea it was there" quote from the owner of the lot, and even a couple of photos of a guy removing the sign.

The thing is...as of this morning the sign is back, in all its safety orange glory!

Is this a defiant first shot in what will ultimately grow into neighborhood anarchy, pitting angry Hasids against neighborhood cyclists, drivers and the DOT?

Or just a 'screw you' to city and state officials who are likely too busy planning their five-day New Years' weekend to do anything about it until Monday? Stay tuned...

Tuesday Eye Candy: Night Moves

Jumping the tower crane at Northside Piers' Tower 2 Tuesday evening.

Monday Eye Candy: Lower Manhattan

From a DUMBO rooftop Monday morning.