Manhattan

To some residents of Midtown Manhattan, sex is a problem. Specifically, sex in cars is a problem and they've asked the Community Board to ban weekend parking on their streets.

Take a flight overseas and you may happen upon a Porsche Design store in an airport somewhere. That's because, while the automaker's product-design division has dozens of locations around the world, few of them are in the United States for a brand that is typically European in its focus. But all that's changing with the company's new flagship store.

NASCAR and New York may strike you as diametrically opposite pillars of modern America. But if Formula One can race in Texas, surely NASCAR can race in New York, right?

Next year, an underground museum commemorating the attacks on 9/11 will open on the site that once held the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan. And it just got one of its first exhibitions.

It took more than a couple of legal strategems, but New York City's mayor Michael Bloomberg has outwitted the city's powerful yellow taxi lobby. The State Legislature passed a bill making it legal for New Yorkers to hail livery cabs from the street. What's a livery cab? It's a private taxi, unmarked, often a Town Car, usually found in areas in and outside of Manhattan that aren't well served by yellow taxis. They don't run on meters, either

NYC DOT speed limit PSA spots – Click above to watch the videos

Coulomb Technologies opened its first public electric vehicle charging station in Manhattan this week as part of the ChargePoint America program. Under a Department of Energy-funded program, Coulomb and other charging station manufacturers are installing thousands of outlets in cities around the United States. The new Manhattan station has been installed in an Edison Properties parki

Citing "three people who know about the discussions," BusinessWeek reports that General Motors is ruminating whether or not to build a high-zoot showroom in Manhattan to gain favor among "high-fashion New Yorkers, tourists and high-rolling investors." The stated aim would be to raise awareness and cachet of the company's four brands as the IPO machine moves to the next gear. And who knows, it might also increase the 9.6% market s

While the New York Auto Show is under way at the Javitz Center, on the opposite side of the globe the Big Apple came up in an entirely different context. Speaking with Italy's sports journal La Gazzetta dello Sport during this past weekend's Australian Grand Prix, Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone revealed that n

Rendering of new VW/Audi complex in Manhattan – Click above to view in high-res

Many proponents of electric vehicles espouse the benefits of using them in urban areas. The problem is that in many of those cities – like New York or Chicago – people often live in apartments or row-houses and parking is at a premium. A private garage with a plug is a true luxury. Some property developers in Manhattan are now trying to address this problem by installing charging points in the garage facilities of new apartment buildings.

The crossroads of North America is about to become a lot more pedestrian-friendly. New York City's Times Square is reportedly getting a makeover to make it car-free. According to an Associated Press report, portions of Broadway from 42nd Street up to 47th and from 33rd to 35th are being closed to cars to cut down on pollution, traffic and pedestrian accidents.

Ford Fiesta in NYC – Click above for high-res image gallery

Manhattan's latest attempt at disguised taxation has ground to a halt in the most trivial fashion. Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed congestion charge for cars and trucks headed into the city below 60th street was summarily ignored by lawmakers. Rather than a contentious fight in the state assembly, the clock was simply run out and the bill died without being put to a vote. The failure of Bloomberg's plan means that New York City will also miss out on 350 million federally earmarked dollars for

To give you an idea of how much of a premium Manhattanites place on parking, consider that a new condo development on the Lower West Side is selling five guaranteed parking spaces for $225,000 apiece. That number is on top of whatever the condos themselves cost. The knee-jerk reaction is, of course, to laugh and dismissively say something like, "Who in their right mind is going to pay that to park their car?"

On my list trip to New York for the Auto Show it took an hour and a half to traverse the 15 miles from the Javits Center to Kennedy Airport thanks to the congestion that seems to be an inherent part of life on Manhattan island. Mayor Mike Bloomberg has recently floated the idea of a congestion charge similar to what London England has been doing for over a year now.

New York's mayor, Mike Bloomberg, is ready to steal a page from his London counterpart's handbook and announce plans to hit drivers who bring their cars into Manhattan below 86th street with an $8 congestion charge in a bid to ease gridlock in the city's crowded midtown business district. The fee would include the existing bridge and tunnel tolls drivers currently have to pay. Some people are understandably upset, and opposition groups are said to be forming in the outer boroughs.

During a speech he's scheduled to give tomorrow that will outline his remaining time in office, New York's mayor, Mike Bloomberg, will announce plans to charge cars entering Manhattan below 86th street an $8 congestion fee, similar to the controversial charge enacted by London's mayor, Ken Livingstone.