A Record Year for New York Tourism

Andrea Mohin/The New York Times A few of New York City's 52 million visitors in 2012 stuck around for the end of the year on Monday.

New York City welcomed a record 52 million tourists in 2012, a 2.1 percent increase over 2011, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced Monday, crediting the city's cultural institutions and its reputation as the safest major American city for the record.

“When you ask tourists why they're here, visiting a cultural institution is the No. 1 thing they all talk about,” Mr. Bloomberg said as he stood in front of a Christmas tree covered with origami animals at the American Museum of Natural H istory, which received roughly five million visitors this year.

“The bottom line is we've just got to keep making New York more exciting and more attractive,” the mayor added, citing a goal of 55 million visitors by 2015.

New York City's share of international tourism to the United States has also increased in recent years. One-third of all international tourists to the country now come to New York, according to George Fertitta, the chief executive of NYC & Company, the city's marketing arm. The next most popular American city, Los Angeles, receives 13 percent of all international tourists.

In addition to the city's cultural institutions and low murder rate, Mr. Bloomberg said that innovations that his administration has introduced, like bicycle lanes and pedestrian plazas, h ad also attracted international attention and contributed to tourism.

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg danced with the Rockettes at the American Museum of Natural History on Monday.

The mayor will, as always, preside over the dropping of the New Year's Eve ball at midnight in Times Square, this year along with the Radio City Rockettes. On Monday morning, Mr. Bloomberg was flanked by half a dozen smiling Rockettes in sequined skirts that revealed stem-like legs.

Asked if his New Year's Eve with the Rockettes would generate as much electricity as his encounter with Lady Gaga las t year, when the superstar gave him a kiss on the mouth, Mr. Bloomberg fumbled for words.

“I â€" you know ­â€" I don't rem- - Lady Gaga â€" she was â€" what was - I don't know,” he sputtered. “I mean - I just - you know.”

Finally squeezing out a full sentence, he said, “There are a lot of great entertainers.”

“Lady Gaga is a great entertainer, and she's very good for New York. The Rockettes are a great group of dancers; they've been here for 85 years, I think? Lady Gaga is not 85 years old.”

Asked what goals he had for 2013, his last year in office, Mr. Bloomberg said there was a lot on his administration's agenda, including rezoning in Midtown and a possible deal to build a stadium for Major League Soccer in Queens.

As for personal goals, he said, “I'm always working on my waistline, my Spanish, my golf game.” And “I promised Diana I'd take her to a movie tomorrow,” he added, referring to his longtime girlfriend, Diana Taylor. “That's as far forward as I've thought.”

Mr. Bloomberg's administration announced another milestone Monday: water-main breaks in the city are down 20 percent from last year and have hit their lowest level since Mr. Bloomberg took office in 2002.

The mayor was asked if there was a causal link between high tourism numbers and unbroken water mains.

“None that comes leaping to mind, not even in jest,” Mr. Bloomberg replied. “I don't know how to put the two together.”

The Many Ways a Wreath Can Turn

Wreaths have existed for thousands of years, imbued with meaning by different societies and religions. In ancient times, they were symbols of success and importance. Pagan cultures created wreaths as reminders of spring's approach, with the circular shape evoking the turning of the seasons. And in modern times, of course, the wreath is a Christian symbol of eternal rebirth.

In a long-running annual art show mounted by the city's parks department, the wreath takes on a different role: that of blank canvas. The wreaths at this year's 30th anniversary incarnation of “Wreath Interpretations,” up through Jan. 10 in the gallery at parks headquarters in the Arsenal, at Fifth Avenue near 64th Street, incorporate everything from whole almond shells harvested from a grandmother's farm in Greece to Chinese-foo d take-out containers.

Of the 41 works in this year's exhibit, only one, “Nature's Nativity” by Madeline Yanni, evokes the spirit of Christmas. Not one employs traditional evergreens. Some are not even round.

“It's a grand tradition, having traversed four mayors and four parks commissioners, and it's always been funky,” said Jonathan Kuhn, the department's director of art and antiquities.

Indeed, Mr. Kuhn himself contributed a wreath in the 1990s that included a stuffed coyote and a radial tire. “The coyote had met an untimely end in Van Cortlandt Park,” he recalled. “It was an homage to Robert Rauschenberg's combine in which he took a stuffed goat and put a tire around it.”

Hurricane Sandy inspired a few of the wreaths this year, said Jennifer Lantzas, the department's public art coordinator and the curator of the exhibition. The deadline for submissions was extended because of the storm. One wreath, tit led “Sandy's First,” features a round wire wrapped with yellow caution tape. It is emblazoned with a fire truck patch from Ladder 164 in Queens and topped with a toy fire truck.

About a third of the wreaths were created by members of the parks department's own staff, including “The Almond Villager Wreath” by Leonora Retsas, who is an architect. George Kroenert, who is in charge of playgrounds, contributed “Cleaning Up,” a simple assemblage of red, green and blue floor-cleaning pads.

“This is a tribute not only to those who clean our bathrooms and hallways after hours, but also to the Hurricane Sandy recovery,” said Ms. Lantzas, noting that Mr. Kroenert planned to donate proceeds from the sale of his wreath to the American Red Cross. (While Mr. Kroenert's work is the least expensive in the show, priced at $100, several works exceed $1,000.)

Other wreath motifs include one central to the parks department's mission: sustainability. There is a surprisingly elegant wreath by Rita Coelho called “Blessings,” made from recycled milk jugs and eggshells. Another, “Salad Days,” by Angelyn Chandler, manages to cull beauty from a metal garbage pail, a salad spinner and LEDs. And a bicycle wheel, recycled bicycle tire tubes and artificial birds are the ingredients of Shira Toren's “Metrobike Wreath.”

Then there is Edward Gormley's quintessentially multi-ethnic New York wreath. Titled “Yetz is ze tzeit to essen” - loosely translated as “Time to Eat” in Yiddish - it is composed of Chinese food take-out boxes, rivets, wire and plywood. “A lot of what these wreaths represent,” said Ms. Lantzas, “is how you can turn something that you might otherwise see as trash into something really fantastic and unique.”

Live From Times Square: New Year\'s Eve

Thinking about spending the last few moments of 2012 in Times Square? Yes, it's a New York tradition, the first gathering having taken place in 1904. But for the 2012-13 party, it's probably already too late.

Last year, all pedestrian areas from 43rd to 47th Street were full by 1:30 p.m., according to The Times Square Alliance. By 9 p.m. you couldn't get into view of the ball drop from as far north as 58th Street. It should be noted that there will be no food vendors available tonight, and no public toilets either.

Enough said.

Tune in here instead, where we'll be featuring the official webcast of the celebration. Scheduled performers include Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen, Neon Trees and Psy. For more information and a full schedule, go to TimesSquareNYC.org. The party begins at 6 p.m. and continues for over 6 hours.

Happy New Year from City Room.

Obama Won New York City, in Case Anyone Was Wondering

However this fiscal cliff thing turns out, President Obama can take heart in one piece of news that broke on Monday: he won the election in New York City.

Nearly two months since Election Day and after the Electoral College met and voted, New York City's Board of Elections posted official presidential results.

Mr. Obama carried the city with 81 percent of the vote, 1,987,013 to Mitt Romney's 435,564. He beat Mr. Romney more narrowly on the write-in tally, 146 to 99.

A little more than 58 percent of the city's registered voters cast ballots, compared with 64 percent in 2008, when Mr. Obama carried the city with 79 percent.

A board spokeswoman said the certified results were delayed by the large number of people who cast affidavit ballots in other districts because their own polling places were closed as a result of Hurricane Sandy. In all, 245,115 affidavit ballots were counted, compared with 108,170 four years earlier .

Ross C. (Rocky) Anderson, a human rights advocate, received the most write-in votes, 147.

Michael R. Bloomberg received one write-in vote, the same number as Chael Sonnen (the mixed martial artist), Tom Leykis (the talk radio host) and a Vern Wesche.

In 2008, the board appeared to have listed every write-in vote (Socrates and Tina Fey received one each). This time, the official tally described 1,792 simply as “unattributable write-ins.”

Presidential Election Returns NYC (PDF)

Presidential Election Returns NYC (Text)

City Room\'s Top Animal Posts of 2012

2012 was a big year for news in New York, and City Room was there for Hurricane Sandy, developments in the Etan Patz case, the brazen daytime shooting in Midtown Manhattan.

But enough about stories that do not involve animals. Here are 16 favorites that did, chosen and ranked more or less arbitrarily.

16

Victor J. Blue for The New York Times Frankli n, a pot-bellied pig, with Joe Franquinha, who co-owns the pig and Crest Hardware and Urban Garden Center in Brooklyn.

A Hardware Store's Four-Legged Star

On a chilly day, Franklin, a pot-bellied pig, was dressed in a black sweater with a stretched-out neck, his wiggling tail showing his joy at having free rein of the 5,000-square-foot garden at a hardware store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Soon, his world would shrink.

15

Famous Players-Lasky Corp Beware of bird: W.C. Fields examines an avian adversary in the 1926 film “So's Your Old Man.”

Before ‘Chickadee' Fame, Fields Had Canary Trouble

The judge, George Simpson of Magistrates' Court in Manhattan, read out the charge: the defendant “did carry a bird in his pocket and took the same from his pocket and permitted the bird to fly upon the stage and cause said bird to fall to the floor so as to produce torture.”

14

Robert Ca plin for The New York Times A carriage horse named Oreo lying on Ninth Avenue after being shot with a tranquilizer dart, minutes after he ran amok on Columbus Circle.

3 Are Injured When Horse Sheds Coach in Manhattan

The horse, a 6-year-old draft gelding named Oreo who has a white and brown coat, suffered a minor scratch to his muzzle in a high-profile mishap that sparked renewed debate over the ethics of the carriage-horse industry.

13

Julie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society Look, Pat agonian cavies! Click to enlarge

Rodents Too Cute Not to Share

Patagonian cavies are native to the steppes of Argentina and elsewhere in South America and are the world's fourth-largest rodent, reaching heights of about 18 inches. As of August, when these little girls were born (to Mara, at left in photo), they are native to the Central Park Zoo.

12

Michael Kamber for The New York Times The police carried nearly 50 dogs out of a basement in the Bronx where the authorities said they were being bred for fighting.

47 Pit Bulls, Bred for Fighting, Are Rescued in the Bronx

They stayed in cages, some two to a cage, and, the police said, some of them might never have seen the sun before their rescue.

11

Kirsten Luce for The New York Times The wayward peacock roaming a Queens neigh borhood for weeks has been captured and returned to John Bowne High School.

Wayward Peacock Returns for the First Day of School

After two weeks on the lam on the streets of Queens, Kevin the peacock was returned to the grounds of an agriculturally focused high school nearby.

10

Holy Herring, It's Sea Otter Awareness Week!

Tazo, 2, and Jacob, 10, the aquarium's resident Enhydra lutris, co-hosted an entire week of educational activities at the aquarium in Coney Island.

9

Julie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society A baby crested coua shows off its eye-catching mouth markings at the Central Park Zoo.

Open Wide, Baby Coua! We Want to Look in Your Mouth

The markings, different for each coua chick, are believed to be used by parents for identification or to visually remind them where to put the food. They fade as the bird matures.

8

Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times The groundhogs at the Museum of Natural History have never made an incorrect prediction about the weather.

Prediction: This Groundhog Will Never Change

It would be heartening to report that the stuffed hogs' first Groundhog Day on public view since the last millennium drew crowds of adoring, groundhog-starved fans. But it would not be true.

7

Nathan Elchert Sam Elchert has kept bees for the past three years in a community garden on 124th Street. The bees calmly go about their business as he performs his inspection.

On Roofs and in Gardens, the Beehives of New York

Since the veil has been lifted on this once clandestine activity, we asked readers to send us photos of their setups.

6

N.Y.C. Dept. of Parks and Recreation

In a Shoebox, an Owl and a Mystery

“He didn't stay, he didn't give a name,” a parks department spokeswoman said of a man who dropped off a box at parks headquarters in Central Park. “He just said, ‘Here's an owl.'”

5

Julie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society, via Associated Press A Siberian tiger and her cubs at the Bronx Zoo last month.

Man Mauled After Leaping Into Tiger Area at Bronx Zoo

On the last afternoon of summer, a 25-year-old man leaped from the Wild Asia Monorail and landed inside the tiger enclosure, where he was suddenly alone with Bachuta, an 11-year-old male Siberian tiger weighing 400 pounds.

4

Jean Shum Bobby approaches Rosie, who is perched on a cross atop Judson Memorial Ch urch.

Washington Square Park Hawks Consummate Their Union

He slowly landed on Rosie's back, where he stayed for about six seconds, then lifted himself into the air and then sat next to her for about 15 minutes.

3

Lucas Jackson/Reuters Researchers plan to conduct a necropsy of the whale.

For Dead Whale of Breezy Point, Necropsy and Beach Burial

A 60-foot finback, an endangered species that is one of the largest animals on earth, washed up, on the shore of a Queens neighborhood still reeling from Hurricane Sandy. It died the next day and was buried in the dunes nearby.

2

Brian Curry What's my name?

What Shall We Call This Frog?

There's a new frog in town, or at least a newly identified one: a variety of leopard frog first spotted on Staten Island in 2009 was declared its own species, based in part on its unique one-cluck mating call.

1

Randy Leonard for The New York Times Giovanni Schirripa with his 4-month-old zebra foal, Razzi, back at home on Staten Island Wednesday evening.

Spotted (and Striped): The Runaway Zebra of Staten Island

Razzi the juvenile zebra and his older mentor Casper the Pony went briefly galloping through the streets of Staten Island after their owner left a gate open at feeding time.

Promoter Who Revamped Capitol Theater Buys It

The concert promoter who revitalized the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, N.Y., this year as a rock music hall has bought the landmark building from its previous owner. The promoter, Peter Shapiro, who is also a partner in the Brooklyn Bowl, said he had paid $11.5 million for the 1,800-seat theater, closing a deal on Friday with the previous owner, Marvin Ravikoff.

Mr. Shapiro had been leasing the building, which in recent years Mr. Ravikoff rented out only for corporate events and private parties. But last summer Mr. Shapiro spent more than $2 million refurbishing the space and installing a modern lighting and sound system with an eye toward restoring its status as a rock-and-roll mecca.

And since September, when the theater reopened with a Bob Dylan concert, Mr. Shapiro has promoted more than 50 rock shows, showcasing acts incl uding My Morning Jacket and Fiona Apple, and a well-received series of reunion shows by the Rascals. “I'm doubling down,” Mr. Shapiro said. “I decided to have this theater for the rest of my life.”

Say It With Love: What Should Someone Else Resolve to Do?

The New York Times It's always easier to tell someone else how to live. What should your loved one resolve to do in 2013?

Every year around this time, people make their little lists of things they will do differently in the days to come.

This year, we're looking for something different: New Year's resolutions that you would like a loved one to make.

Please submit in the box below.

Spoiler Alert! List of Reviled Words Tries to Fight \'Fiscal Cliff\'

A group of language scolds has released its annual list of words and phrases to be exorcised from the English language, and … Spoiler alert! “Spoiler alert” is among them.

The 38th annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Useless, released on Monday by Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., also included “fiscal cliff,” “trending,” “double down,” “bucket list,” “job creators,” “superfood,” “guru,” “YOLO” (you only live once), “kick the can down the road” and, perhaps most puzzlingly, “boneless wings,” which might seem like more of a culinary problem than a linguistic one. “Can we just call them chicken pieces?” asked John McNamara of Lansing, Mich., one of hundreds of people to submit nominations via the university's Facebook page.

Previous lists have failed to quash terms like “man cave,” “closure,” and “random” (used to mean strange or funny), but there may still be time to stop this year's most-reviled words. According to a quick database search, “spoiler alert” occurred some 39 times in The New York Times in 2012, up from 31 in 2011, while “double down” occurred 59 times, up from 39. “YOLO” occurred three times, including on a list of “Words of the Year” proposed by Graham Barrett of the American Dialect Society. There were no sightings of boneless chicken wings, though the dish did receive a lengthy dissection in this 2009 news article.

Copy of Beatles Album With Unusual History Sells for Nearly $20,000

When Chris Collins and his sister, Liz Chambers, put their prized copy of the Beatles' “Please Please Me” album up for auction in early December they expected the disc to fetch £15,000 (about $24,400). They had reason to be hopeful: the album not only was an original pressing, on the black and gold Parlophone label that was discontinued (and replaced with a sleeker, black and yellow update) a few months after the album was released, but it is also autographed. But when bidding reached only £12,000 pounds ($19,500), they withdrew the disc. Now the BBC reports that they have sold it privately for the price they had turned down at the auction.

The album has a fascinating provenance. Its original owner was Mr. Collins's and Ms. Chambers's father, Arthur Collins, who managed the Normandie Hotel, in London. At some point in early 1963 both the Beatles and another 1960's British pop band, Freddie and the Dreamers (best known for the hit “I'm Telling You Now”), were staying at the hotel. During a late-night card game with the Dreamers, the elder Mr. Collins used the album as a beer coaster, and when the Beatles returned to the hotel they joined the game. Both bands autographed the album.

The Beatles collecting Web site Moptop.org noted that a mono first pressing of “Please Please Me,” like the one Mr. Collins and Ms. Chambers were selling â€" but not autographed â€" sold for £750 pounds in 2004. Stereo pressings, which were produced less plentifu lly, typically command greater prices. Home of Records, a Web page that keeps track of auction prices for vinyl discs, listed a stereo pressing that sold for $3,738.85 in January 2012.

Little Changes in Big Ways

A young woman on a narrow sidewalk in Chelsea reached into her handbag the other day and pulled out a smartphone. Then she did a remarkable thing. She stepped to the side, getting out of everyone else's way while she checked her messages.

What made this worthy of note?

Simply that every day thousands upon thousands of New Yorkers walk with eyeballs glued to smartphone screens as if therein lies revealed truth. Every day thousands of those New Yorkers hog the sidewalk, walking so slowly that they may as well be standing still. Elsewhere, they practically crawl when entering elevators or reaching the top of subway stairs.

Totally self-absorbed, they couldn't care less about how they frustrate others who are walking behind them in a notoriously fast-paced city.

As I passed the young woman, I thanked her for her thoughtfulness. She smiled. She was only doing the right thing, she said.

It struck me, not for the first time, that New Yorkers ofte n make life tougher than is necessary for one another, that there are all sorts of small ways, like stepping to the side, in which we could ease up a bit - we, meaning both officialdom and individuals - without losing the grittiness that is a source of civic pride.

Is any of this cosmic? Of course not. Far more important issues loom, huge ones:

Homelessness is at record levels. Poverty rates are high. Too many children leave school barely educated, facing bleak futures that may include prison. Recovering from Hurricane Sandy will be difficult and costly. Serious planning is needed as to how, or even if, to build along the water. Far too many corrupt politicians grab every dollar they can lay their mitts on. The race for mayor will soon exponentially increase the tonnage of blather.

But life, including its vexations, tends for most of us to be built on the small stuff. This is, admittedly, a modest end-of-year reflection. It also happens to serve as a quiet farewell to my column.

After 20 months, it is time to call it a day for The Day. Actually, the end comes after more than 17 years of columnizing, including my long-running gig, which was called NYC. Unlike The Day, it appeared in print as well as online. But circumstances change. They have for me again, though I seem destined for at least one more act, of a different nature, at this newspaper.

I suppose this would be a convenient moment to dwell on the state of newspapers and of city columns. But, frankly, I don't feel like it. I did have some thoughts on that theme in my last NYC column, in April 2011; you may read them here if you wish.

Among the points I made then was that correcting injustices was never a sure thing for newspapers and their writers. Some readers believe - and bless them for it - that all we need to do is expose a problem and it will b e solved. To borrow from myself in that final NYC scribbling, “No columnist and no newspaper can make something happen if those who hold true power do not wish it. That's natural law.”

But I also wrote then that sometimes words can at least “make the day better for people.” To return to the theme set forth earlier, New Yorkers can do the same for one another in simple ways. Here are but a few observations, offered at random. Feel free to add your own in the comments section.

Must the subwaymeisters drive riders crazy with emergency exits that set off alarms that screech mercilessly? Nobody, absolutely nobody, responds as if an emergency were in progress when those doors are opened. All that the alarms do is assault people's ears and add a needless annoyance to the subway ride, with no apparent safety benefit. Shut them off.

While we're talking about the subway, how difficult can it be to repair broken escalators and elevators in a timely fashion? In a city with a population that is aging, these routinely useless devices are an insult to many older people â€" and to younger ones with strollers and bicycles - effectively telling them that they're not really part of the mass in mass transit.

Why can't the city crack down on landlords who encase their buildings in those hideous sidewalk sheds and then allow the work to drag on forever, assuming it is done at all? It's as if officialdom wants New York to be as ugly, and soul-deadening, as possible.

Are New Yorkers so self-involved outside their homes that they cannot hold onto their empty coffee cups or old newspapers until they pass a trash basket? Do they have to toss their garbage to the pavement or onto the tracks, thus making life harder for the poorly paid working stiffs who must pick up after them?

Hey you, is it really necessary to spit out your gum on the sidewalk? Or swear loudly nonstop in public, heedless to the sensibilities of others? O r barrel your car (typically an S.U.V.) into a crosswalk and send pedestrians scrambling? Or ignore red lights on your bike, or ride the wrong way on one-way streets?

Yes, it's nice to believe that discussing such matters in a newspaper column would produce solutions. But as with bigger issues, no change will comes unless people want it. That's still natural law.

Kanye West Has a Couple of Year-End Announcements

Lucas Jackson/Reuters Kanye West performs at a Dec. 12 benefit to raise money for the Hurricane Sandy relief effort.

Having emerged as only the second- or third-most talked about artist at the “12-12-12″ benefit concert for Hurricane Sandy, Kanye West was not about to let 2012 elapse without making sure that he and his expanding family were back in the spotlight.

After performing a concert in Atlantic City on Friday night dressed occasionally in a mask that made him look like a vintage “Doctor Who” villain, Mr. West returned to the stage on Saturday night to air a few grievances about the media and the Grammy Awards.

In an occasionally vulgar speech-slash-rap, Mr. West said: “They'll try to tell you Kanye's so crazy, so deranged. I ain't crazy, I'm just not satisfied.” He said that he was disappointed with what his fans are offered “on TV,” “in the movies” and “in the stores,” adding, “I just want y'all to have more.”

Noting that he has won 18 Grammy Awards in his career - “all in the black categories, but nonetheless, 18,” he remarked - Mr. West went on to criticize the Grammys for giving its best new artist award to Maroon 5 instead of him (back in 2005); for snubbing his album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” and his collaboration with Jay-Z, “Watch the Throne,” in the best new album category; and for failing to nominate their song “______ in Paris” for record of the year.

“So don't expect to see me at the Grammys this year, you know what I mean?” Mr. West emphatically declared.

Also, on Sunday night, Mr. West announced that his companion, Kim Kardashian, was pregnant with his child, an announcement that was subsequently confirmed by E! Entertainment, which broadcasts the various Kardashian reality-TV shows.

But people don't really care about that, do they?

The Pigeons Fly at Dawn

Victor Kerlow

Dear Diary:

As New Yorkers arise from sleep,
a flexing flock of pigeons sweeps
the rooftops of yellow-brick Brooklyn
and circles Bensonhurst by the sea,
their keeper standing by the coop,
eyeing every dip and swoop,
entranced by the white-and-gray whir
of their wings, a salt-and-pepper
semaphore signing the sky at dawn.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via e-mail: diary@nytimes.com< /a> or telephone: (212) 556-1333. Follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

\'The Hobbit\' Holds Lead at Busy Movie Theaters

Bloody violence (“Django Unchained”) and dirty actors singing (“Les Misérables”) both intrigued North American movie audiences over the weekend, but it was a furry-footed holdover that claimed the No. 1 spot: “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” distributed by Warner Brothers, took in a robust $32.9 million, for a new three-week domestic total of $222.7 million.

Quentin Tarantino's R-rated “Django Unchained” (the Weinstein Company) was second, selling $30.7 million in tickets, for a total of $64 million since opening on Christmas Day, according to Hollywood.com, which compiles box-office data. “Les Misérables” (Universal) was a close third, taking in an estimated $28 million, for a total of about $67.5 million since opening on Christmas; Universal said that girls and women accounted for 67 percent of the weekend audience for this musical.

The comedy “Parental Guidance” (20th Century Fox ) finished in fourth place, selling about $14.8 million in tickets, for a total of $29.6 million since its Christmas opening. The Tom Cruise thriller “Jack Reacher” (Paramount) was fifth, taking in about $14 million, for a two-week total of $44.7 million.

Several Eras End at One Lower East Side Building

The collapse and demolition in 2006 of the First Roumanian-American Congregation synagogue at 89 Rivington Street - the “cantors' Carnegie Hall” - seemed to have eradicated almost every trace of what was once a large and vibrant Jewish community.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times In the women's gallery.

But it had not. There is a remarkable vestige of the First Roumanian-American Congregation at 70 Hester Street, between Allen and Orchard Streets. It is the synagogue that the congregation built in 1860 and expanded as its membership grew, before moving to the much larger sanctuary on Rivington Street.

The narrow, two-story space still has a U-shaped women's gallery and a stained-glass window over the wall on which the ark was situated. Two octagonal skylights dimly enhance what little daylight reaches the space through vaguely Moorish arched windows. Gas jets poke out of the walls. Scraps of prayer books still turn up in crevices.

Last used for worship in the 19th century, the space housed a still during Prohibition and a raincoat and shower-curtain factory after World War II. In 1967, the artists Thomas Nozkowski and Joyce Robins moved in. They made their paintings and sculptures there. They raised their son there. And they lived much of their lives there until June, when they were told to get out in 30 days. With the help of a lawyer, they won a stay of eviction until the end of the yea r.

Through Brown Harris Stevens, 70 Hester Street was sold Friday. The asking price was $3,999,999. A spokeswoman for the brokerage did not identify the buyer or divulge the purchase price.

The existing building has roughly 4,000 square feet of space, but zoning rules would permit an 11,288-square-foot structure on the lot, which “makes this desirable for a developer,” the Web listing said. “But for the buyer who wants to renovate and own a piece of significant New York history, this dramatic synagogue is worth the restoration,” the listing continued. Whether the buyer considers it a tear-down or a fixer-upper is a mystery at the moment.

This much is certain: the Nozkowski-Robins association with 70 Hester is ending after 45 years. So is another chapter in the Bohemian era of the Lower East Side. The couple, now 68, met as students at Cooper Union. They were looki ng for a 2,000-square-foot loft for $100 a month. That was once a realistic aspiration.

On the day after their wedding in May 1967, they spied a “For Rent” sign at 70 Hester, owned by Sarah Feifer, an old-fashioned leftist. “The only newspaper she read was The Daily Worker,” Mr. Nozkowski said. Harry Snyder ran a fabric store on the main floor, but the former sanctuary upstairs had been vacant since the factory closed, leaving a floor full of grommets. Yet Ms. Robins, who had grown up in an Orthodox Jewish family, said she discerned something “very genial and obviously special” about the place.

Casimir Nozkowski The sculpture of Joyce Robins filled the upper walls of the loft.

In exchange for a few months of rent-free tenancy, the couple spent about $3,000 and a lot of elbow grease to replace windows, upgrade electricity and add plumbing. (From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.) The space was certified habitable under the city's artist-in-residence program.

Warm, it wasn't. When the couple decided to have a child, they built a small bedroom so there would be one easily heated space in the loft, which had only a potbellied stove in early years. “We spent winter nights with a stolen shopping cart out looking for wood,” Mr. Nozkowski recalled.

Their son, Casimir Nozkowski, now 36, attended Public School 124 on Division Street. You'd think a loft would be an ideal place to bring pals. It was - to a point. “The pro was that there was a lot of floor area,” the younger Mr. Nozkowski allowed. “The con was tha t everything was covered in art; not just on the walls, but mounted on the floor and hanging from the ceiling. You were so easily backing into a ceramic piece of sculpture.”

Casimir Nozkowski is a writer, director and video artist. He is working on a documentary about his family's last days at 70 Hester, remembering how he used to spend evenings enveloped in a couch from which he could watch a television set and, a few feet away, his father painting at his easel. Upstairs, in the women's gallery, his mother would be working on her paintings and sculptures. Music - often soul music - filled the space, which was ablaze in incandescent light.

When Casimir left for college, his parents moved their primary residence to High Falls, N.Y. In 1992, their lease expired at 70 Hester. They have been month-to-month tenants ever since, paying a rent of $1,100. They don't, in other words, expect a violin accompaniment. “We were n't so unrealistic as to think this wouldn't one day happen,” Mr. Nozkowski said. “But it's a shock when it does.”

“I was very conscious of the spiritual qualities of the space,” he said.

His son remembers something else: having a hard time going to sleep on occasion, looking out at Hester Street through three high Moorish arches. “It's a little creepy,” he said. “You're staring at these huge windows that have a vibe like ghosts are passing through.”

The real estate listing said, “Delivered vacant.” One wonders.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times Casimir Nozkowski, now 36, looked up at the gal lery where his boyhood bedroom had been constructed.

Game Theory: The Year of Antisocial Gaming

It had been a while since any of my friends had spent significant time together online in Call of Duty or Madden or World of Warcraft or any of the big-budget experiences we knew as multiplayer gaming. Things like deadlines, dinner parties and changing diapers were taking up all of our time. But suddenly, here we were, playing and competing with one another just like the old days.

The game was Letterpress, a lovely word game for the iPhone. Imagine if Boggle and Chess birthed a brilliantly gifted child who'd been raised by Steve Jobs. Beautifully simple at first, the game is deviously layered and complex and, even better, is played one-on-one in an asynchronous manner. When one player completes a turn he must wait for the other player to go before it's his turn again. This allows the player to take a turn anywhere, anytime.

Letterpress

Games like this had come and gone. Words With Friends and Draw Something were both national phenomena. But for some reason, neither had grabbed us like Letterpress.

The game took over our lives this year. We made multiple moves an hour, with several games going at once. We played back and forth during any free time we had, rekindling old friendships and rivalries we hadn't exercised since the freeloading days of college.

Then, it all changed with a simple question: “Did you go yet?”

The first time I heard that, it was a friend at work as we passed by each other in the hall. I looked at him, confused at first, unsure of what he was asking. He reiterated, “In Letterpress. Did you go yet?”

“Oh, no. But I will.” I said, surprised to hear about this offline.

“Good,† he responded. “You always take so long to play.”

I take so long to play? Well, guess what, dude, I'm busy. I put in long days at work. I have to buy things from time to time. I eat. I have a family. And I was just told by my own children to put the iPhone down. So, yes, I take my time.

The interchange gnawed at me. This was an entirely new development. Guilt. Anger. Betrayal. All because I wouldn't play this dumb little iPhone game. Looking back, my friend probably did care about what was happening in my life at the time but he was blinded himself. He just wanted to play his turn.

I slowed way down, stopped opening the game. Other things took over my free time. The games began to pile up. Friends started coming out of the woodwork, trying to get me to play my turns. I got texts from some, e-mails from others. One guy even took the time to put a Post-it note on my computer. These people - who I work with and love - were suddenly on my back, all the tim e. I started to actively avoid places I knew I'd see them, turned corners more quickly, closed my door more.

It was in one of these moments, holed up in my office, wondering exactly how many people out there were waiting on me to just take my turn, that I decided to end it all. I pulled out my iPhone, held down the little icon, and deleted Letterpress. I took a deep breath and a wave of relief washed over me. I was out. Free.

At first, no one believed my departure would last. I assured them it was real. They scoffed, told me what I was missing out on, and would try to talk about the game to make me feel guilty. I didn't care. In less than a week, my life was back to normal and my friends went back to being friends.

They say 2012 was the year of the social game. Don't believe them. This was actually the year of the antisocial game and the smartest thing I did was get out.

At least until the next invitation shows up in my inbox in 2013.

Gavin Purc ell is the producer of “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” and has clearly surpassed Anders Ericsson's 10,000-hours rule when it comes to video games but with little positive effect.

Smoke, But Little Fire After Manhole Blasts in SoHo

The explosion echoed in the streets of SoHo on Saturday afternoon as tourists walked along dampened sidewalks and a crowd gathered inside the Fanelli Cafe, one of the city's older restaurants.

Eric Buechel, the manager of the cafe, which is on the southwest corner of Prince and Mercer Streets, said that the lights began flickering just after 2 p.m. He went down to his basement office to check electrical lines, then heard the noise which he said sounded like “a very deep pitch, muffled explosion sound” then a “multiple series of follow-up pops.”

Michael Beyer, who works at another nearby cafe, Angelique Express, described the sound he had heard as a “big boom,” then added: “a couple booms.” A moment later he saw a crush of people running from the intersection of Prince and Mercer, where swirling smoke poured from beneath a parked car.

Within minutes firefighters arrived and determined there had been a manhole e xplosion, said a Fire Department spokesman, Michael Parrella, adding that there had been reports of others.

Firefighters found elevated carbon dioxide readings in the area. They evacuated 94 Prince Street a five-story red brick building that houses the Fanelli Cafe, a speakeasy during Prohibition that later catered to factory workers and painters before SoHo became fashionable.

In the midst of the chaos the car's owner arrived and found that the rear bumper of his maroon Lexus had been blackened and its rear window was covered in soot. The owner, Tim Duff, 29, of Brooklyn, said that he had been away only a brief time, to visit the Apple store down the street.

“I'm more baffled than anything,” he said, gazing at the firefighters and police officers near his car. “I was all psyched I had found a great parking spot.”

Some of the Fanelli patrons fled without paying their tabs. Others stuck around outside. Then, after a second reading by firefighte rs revealed that the air quality inside 94 Prince Street was back to normal, a crowd again filled to the bar and resumed sipping drinks, even though the electricity was still off.

As men and women sat at the darkened bar, swapping stories, Mr. Buechel went downstairs and grabbed some tall white candles in glass sleeves emblazoned with religious illustrations. Then he arranged them across the bar.

“We have the same candles from Hurricane Sandy,” Mr. Buechel said. “The same ones, re-lit.”

Sometime after 5 p.m. explosions sounded again from outside but this time few people noticed.

Mystery Powder Leads to Evacuations in Greenwich Village

A search for narcotics in a Greenwich Village apartment on Saturday morning led to a call to the bomb squad and evacuations after detectives discovered explosive powder, the police said.

Members of the narcotics squad, who had executed a search warrant in the apartment building, at 8 West Ninth Street, were told by someone in the apartment that the powder was “some sort of organic explosive,” a police official said.

The police official said that it did not appear that the powder was being used to make a bomb. It was removed by the bomb squad, and it was unclear exactly what the substance was.

The police official added that two guns were also removed from the apartment and that charges in the case were pending.

Still, police tape stretched across sidewalks and parts of the street on Saturday morning, sealing off the block of Ninth Street, near Fifth Avenue, where the powder had been found.

Jennifer Han, 31, sai d that she woke up shortly after 7 a.m. and saw several police officers banging on the windows of buildings on the south side of the block and evacuating people. Officers later allowed those who could prove that they lived or worked on the block to duck beneath the tape.

As snow began to fall, some people walking up and down Fifth Avenue stopped to gaze at the police vehicles on the block and the officers posted near the tape, an unusual scene in an area filled with elegant brick townhouses.

“It's totally not normal,” said Scott Adams, a psychologist who was escorted beyond the tape and into his office by police officers about 10:30 a.m. “There's very little crime here.”

Week in Pictures for Dec. 28

See the slide show

Here is a slide show of photographs from the past week in New York City and the region. Subjects include the popular Peppermint Pig candy from Sarasota Springs; Christmas in areas hit hard by Hurricane Sandy; and a finback whale that washed ashore in Breezy Point.

This weekend on “The New York Times Close Up,” an inside look at the most compelling articles in Sunday's Times, Sam Roberts will speak with The Times's Floyd Norris, Cly de Haberman, Jeffrey Henson Scales and Margaret Sullivan, the public editor. Also appearing, Harold Holzer. Tune in at 10 p.m. Saturday or 10 a.m. Sunday on NY1 News to watch.

A sampling from the City Room blog is featured daily in the main print news section of The Times. You may also browse highlights from the blog and reader comments, read current New York headlines, like New York Metro | The New York Times on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Cause of Death Still Unknown After Necropsy for Beached Whale

Lucas Jackson/Reuters The whale was moved from its resting spot on the beach to higher ground for the necropsy.

The necropsy of the emaciated 60-foot finback whale that beached itself at Breezy Point in Queens found lesions in the animal's stomach and kidneys on Friday, but it is not clear what, if anything, they had to do with the animal's death, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service said.

The necropsy did not turn up any evidence of human-caused injury, said the biologist, Mendy Garron, the service's regional marine-mammal resc ue coordinator. Tissue samples from the whale, a male whose age has not yet been determined, have been sent off for analysis, Ms. Garron said. “No cause of death will be determined till those results come back,” she said.

There was no food found in the whale's stomach, Ms. Garron added. The whale, which washed up on Wednesday still alive, was declared dead on Thursday.

After the necropsy, the whale was buried Friday afternoon in the dunes on land belonging to Gateway National Recreation Area.

Main Facade Intact at Ladies\' Mile Landmark, but Damage Is Serious

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times The principal facade of the Hugh O'Neill department store on the Avenue of the Americas, between 20th and 21st Streets, was not damaged in the structural collapse.

News of a facade collapse on Tuesday at the former O'Neill & Company dry-goods emporium conjured images of significant architectural loss. This gleaming white facade on the Avenue of the Americas, from 20th to 21st Streets, is among the largest single expan ses of ornamental cast-iron in the city. Its signature elements - gold-colored beehive domes at each corner turret and Hugh O'Neill's name boldly inscribed in the pediment - make it especially memorable.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times Zigzag cracks, some looking older, others looking new, are visible in the area above the column collapse.

A visit Friday morning to the 19th-century shopping district once known as Ladies' Mile brought quick reassurance. The principal facade appeared untouched. But the sense of relief was short-lived.

Troubling signs were evident in the brick facade on 20th Street. A grea t chunk was missing from the bottom of one of the westernmost columns. The horizontal beams connected with that column at the first-floor level seemed to incline slightly. Zigzag cracks were evident in the brickwork above. Some cracks had been patched, others looked new. It was as if the whole end of the wall had sagged just a bit.

During its inspection of the seven-story building on Thursday, the Buildings Department “found that a load-bearing column on the ground floor had collapsed, structurally compromising the building,” said Tony Sclafani, the associate commissioner for communications and public affairs. “As a result, the department issued a full vacate order to the building and a violation to the building owner for failing to maintain the building.”

Mr. Sclafani identified United American Land L.L.C. as the owner. (The company lists 655 Avenue of the Americas among its properties on i ts Web site.) A caller was told on Friday afternoon that none of the principals were in the office. A voice mail message left for one of the principals, Albert Laboz, had not been returned by Friday evening.

“The owner's contractor is in the process of installing shoring,” Mr. Sclafani said, “and the department has partially lifted the vacate order, allowing the store on the Sixth Avenue side of the building to reoccupy, along with the apartments on that wing of the building.”

“The cause of the collapse is still under investigation,” he said.

New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The collapsed column on the 20th Street side of the O'Neill building, as it appeared on Wednesday morning.

O'Neill & Company was among the largest department stores on Ladies' Mile, between Union Square and Madison Square, in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Its building, designed by Mortimer C. Merritt, opened in 1887 and was subsequently expanded. The store closed in 1907 after merging with Adams Dry Goods. It sits in the Ladies' Mile Historic District, created in 1989. (Pages 366-70 of the official designation report, available as a PDF.)

After several intermediate incarnations, including a spell as the Elsevier Science Publishing Building, 655 Avenue of the Americas was converted into a condominium apartment house six years ago, when its domes - missing since the early 20th century - were restored. Construc tion work during the redevelopment caused damage to the small cemetery of Congregation Shearith Israel, around which the O'Neill building wraps like an L.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times The damaged column, at left, as it appeared Friday morning. A protective sidewalk shed has been erected and workers are preparing to shore up the facade. “OEM” is the city's Office of Emergency Management.

Ancient Arts Center Discovered Under Rome\'s Piazza Venezia

ROME-Eighteen feet below one of Rome's most-trafficked junctions is a 900-seat arts center dating back to the reign of Emperor Hadrian, Italian archaeologists announced earlier this month.

The discovery, widely seen as the most important in Rome in 80 years, took place as a result of digging being done for the city's third subway line. Archeologists spent the last five years excavating two halls of the structure under the Piazza Venezia, which is believed to be an arts center, or auditorium, built by Hadrian. Beginning in 123 A.D., Roman noblemen gathered under the auditorium's 13-meter-high arched ceiling to hear rhetoricians, lawyers and writers recite their works. Archaeologists have also identified a third, previously known hallâ€"located under a 20th-century building opposite the terrace where Mussolini addressed his followersâ€"as part of the complex.

According to the archeologists running the excavation, Hadrian's auditorium is the biggest find in Rome s ince the Forum was uncovered in the 1920s. In Byzantine times, Hadrian's auditorium was most likely used as a mint to smelt ingots and mint coins, they said, as evidenced by the the presence of fire pits. From the 16th to the 19th century, one of the halls served as the cellar of a hospital.

The excavation also found evidence of the fragility of Rome's cultural heritage. An earthquake shook the city in the 9th century, leading a large part of the structure's monumental roof to collapse onto the floors of one of the halls, where it remains today.

The discovery has forced city authorities to rework their preliminary plans for one of the Piazza Venezia subway exits, which was to have been built in the location of the auditorium. The site itself is expected to be opened to the public in three years' time.

The Week in Culture Pictures, Dec. 28

Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times Salomé Chamber Orchestra at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

More photographs.

A slide show of photographs of cultural highlights from this week.

Big Ticket | Sold for $21,450,000

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

Throughout his career as a developer, David Edelstein has had a knack for buying low and selling high, and he has done it again with the Upper East Side town house that he owned with his wife, Susan, at 122 East 70th Street. The five-story brick and limestone house, which they bought for $12.85 million in 2010, sold for $21.45 million, making it the biggest sale of the week, according to city records.

Mr. Edelstein is the president of Tristar Capital and the developer of the W South Beach Hotel in Miami Beach, where he also owns a penthouse condominium. He started his career in the 1970s, canvassing buildings for a real estate management company by day and driving a cab by night. He bou ght his first building on the Upper East Side with a $15,000 loan. He has since teamed up with major New York real estate entities, including the Vornado Realty Trust and RFR Holding.

The Edelsteins' purchase of the house in late 2010 caused a bit of a stir - at least among Upper East Side town house brokers. The house had been on the market for more than a year, with an asking price that started at $20.2 million and was eventually reduced to $14.9 million. Brokers who had nearby town houses listed upward of $25 million feared that the $12.85 million sale price would wreak havoc with property values in the neighborhood. But the large profit that the Edelsteins have turned has no doubt held such worries at bay.

Michael Kafka, an executive vice president of Douglas Elliman Real Estate, represented the Edelsteins. He declined to comment on the sale.

The listing describes the renovated town house as “perfect for private use or lavish entertaining,” having been “redesigned and reimagined for modern living while maintaining the traditional elegance and beauty of its spaces.”

The house comes with an elevator, a garden, four terraces, south-facing rooms at the back that have floor-to-ceiling windows and glass doors, and six wood-burning fireplaces, including one carved out of alabaster to look like draped fabric (it was designed for the previous owners by Samuel Botero).

The ground floor has a large kitchen and a family room. The parlor floor has a 30-foot living room that opens onto a terrace, as well as another kitchen and a large dining room with arched floor-to-ceiling windows. The three upper floors have three bedrooms, a wood-paneled library and a media room. The roof deck has a kitchenette, and the finished basement has a staff room, a laundry and a storage space.

The house was bought under a limited-liability company; the buyers were represented by Elizabeth Sample and Brenda Powers of Sotheby's International Realty. Ms. Sample declined to comment on the deal.

Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.

A Mountain Goat for Top Poet Perch?

Rahav Segev for The New York Times John Darnielle performing at Webster Hall in 2008.

If one were establishing the odds of a songwriter being named U.S. Poet Laureate, the logical favorite might be Bob Dylan. Or Paul Simon. But what about John Darnielle?

Far less famous than Mr. Dylan or Mr. Simon, Mr. Darnielle, who is the leader of the band Mountain Goats, has rabid fans that view him as a writer as much as a musician, and now many of them are petitioning the government to name him Poet Laureate. The petition, created on Wednesday, seeks to compile 25,000 signatures. As of this writing, it has 634.

The Times's Jon Pareles has called Mr. Darnielle a “literary thinker” whose songs “have revolved around their lyrics: autobiography, travelogues, couple chronicles and character studies.” Sasha Frere-Jones at The New Yorker once called Mr. Darnielle “America's best non-hip-hop lyricist,” and wrote of the people in one song: “Cyrus and Jeff are familiar Mountain Goats characters, long on bad luck and short on problem-solving skills, and Darnielle, through his poetry, grants them the dignity that eludes them in their lives.”

The petition reads, in part: “An insp iration to poets, artists and sundry other human beings both in America and worldwide, Mr. Darnielle is a unique voice in modern word and music. For over 20 years, Mr. Darnielle has struggled on our behalf to come to terms with the base instincts of the human psyche.”

Though jovial when performing, Mr. Darnielle is quick to explore dark corners in his work. The song “No Children,” which elicits perhaps the loudest sing-along participation from fans at concerts, is a bleak tale of a rotting marriage, with this verse near the end:

“I am drowning
There is no sign of land
You are coming down with me
Hand in unlovable hand”

On Twitter, where he has more than 57,000 followers, Mr. Darnielle has been having fun with this latest show of support, writing, among other things: “Do I get powers of clemency if I get this poet laureate g ig or are those only for third-level clerics[?]”

Art Insurance Losses from Hurricane Sandy May Reach $500,000 Million

Two months after Hurricane Sandy caused severe flooding in many Chelsea galleries, the bill for the art world's recovery is shaping up to be hefty. By mid-November, AXA Art Insurance, one of the largest art insurers, estimated that it would be paying out $40 million, and a Reuters report last week quoted industry estimates suggesting that insurance losses for flooded galleries and ruined art may come to as much as $500,000 â€" or the rough equivalent of what the art insurance business takes in each year. That would amount to the largest loss the art world and its insurers have ever sustained.

Included in this half billion dollar total, Reuters reported, is a claim for losses sustained by the pop artist Peter Max, whose works on paper are said to have been stored in a warehouse that was flooded. Reuters, quoting unnamed sources, put the claim on Mr. Max's work at $300 million. A message left for the representative listed on Mr. Max's Web site was not returned on Friday.

In a telephone interview on Friday, Filippo Guerrini-Maraldi, the executive director of fine art at R.K. Harrison, a London-based insurance broker whose clients include several Chelsea galleries, said the industry-wide figureâ€"which he estimated at between $400 million and $500 millionâ€"covered the physical damage to the galleries themselves as well as art losses.

“Chelsea got hit hard,” Mr. Guerrini-Maraldi said, “and there were other consequential losses. Because many of the galleries lacked power for a while, and because it then got cold in New York, things that needed to be in a controlled environment were affected. Works on wood, for example â€" we're seeing those kinds o f claims.”

The scope of the claims could have other ramifications for art dealers and insurers, including higher insurance rates. Mr. Guerrini-Maraldi guessed that the rate increases could be as much as 5 to 10 per cent, reversing recent rate reductions caused by competition and rate wars in the art insurance business.

“A lot of underwriters have felt that art insurance was a good business to be writing,” Mr. Guerrini-Maraldi said, “because it's profitable, and because losses are rare â€" although when they do happen, they can be big. Already, we're seeing that cost reductions are out. People are holding their prices firm, and I'm convinced that we will see a rise in the coming months.”

Meanwhile, a recent visit to Chelsea suggested that gallery owners' initial estimates that the area would be fully back in business by mid-December were overly optimistic. While some street-level galleries were up and running, others were shuttered, and at several, signs posted on their doors said that only authorized workers could enter. Construction crews and gallery staff could be seen through the windows, working on walls and shelving, with no art in sight.

A Long-Closed Park Is Soon to Reopen, Improved Yet Still Hard to Reach

David Gonzalez/The New York Times

All David Shuffler wanted to do when he was 14 years old was play basketball on the street and go to Starlight Park â€" which despite its name was a dimly lighted, dusty sliver tucked between the Bronx River and the Sheridan Expressway.

A lot has happened since that time. The park, thanks to the work of grass-roots groups and New York City and State agencies, has been remade into a green gem and will soon reopen after more than a decade. It's part of a trail known as the Bronx River Greenway, which was designed to connect the tip of the South Bronx and the shaded, grassy parks up in Westchester County, with parks, pedestrian bridges and bike paths along the way.

And some things haven't changed. Mr. Shuffler, 33, still lives in his childhood home. And it's still a hard trek getting to the park.

A bridge over railroad tracks and the river, which would connect his neighborhood to Starlight Park, and to the rest of the greenway, has yet to be built. The span and the development of 11 more acres of green space fell victim to a 2009 impasse between Amtrak and the New York State Department of Transportation over indemnification issues.

So while Starlight Park will welcome back the public in the spring, the best Mr. Shuffler can do now is catch a glimpse of it through a chain-link fence by a dead-end street jammed with cars being repaired.

“It's looked like this for my entire life,” said Mr. Shuffler, who is executive director of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, a community group long active in environmental issues. “The idea has always been to open this up. On the other side of the Sherida n they're building new housing. All those things have forced us to look at the neighborhood in a more comprehensive way. But the real problem is the bridge at 172nd Street.”

Talks continue between Amtrak and state officials, nudged by elected officials. Adam Levine, a spokesman for the Transportation Department, said his agency was committed to the next phase of the greenway project.

The river itself had once been notorious for pollution and garbage. So many cars had been dumped there that swimming in it â€" not walking across it â€" would have been miraculous. But starting in the 1970s, a coalition of environmental and community groups sought to reclaim their river as well as the land that lined its banks, which was often clogged with industrial uses.

That coalition, which led to the formation of the Bronx River Alliance, has already spurred surprising transformations, like at Starlight Park and, to its south, at Concrete Plant Park, whose very name is a tip of the hat to its former life. But without the bridge, environmental advocates worry that their part of the greenway will be a broken path for some 100,000 residents in nearby neighborhoods.

“It's an incomplete vision,” said Kellie Terry-Sepulveda, who leads the Bronx River Alliance. “It's not about making something look cute or nice. We can do that. Our issue is about sustainability. It's a people issue. That's the resource that doesn't run out. We have an obligation to make sure everybody has access.”

Even when Starlight Park reopens after a cleanup and renovation, getting there will be a challenge. The easiest route would be from the north, along the 174th Street Bridge, where a mid-span stairway descends to the park. But farther south, where Mr. Shuffler lives, the only means would be to walk to Westchester Avenue and then along the side of the Sheridan Expressway, past an auto-parts store and a motel. And empty sidewalks.

“At night, yo u don't want to be walking down there, even with your crew,” he said. “It's a pretty bad street.”

The remaining phase of the parks reconstruction would not only cross the river, but also create a verdant path behind the private homes that line Bronx River Avenue. It would form a loop â€" both literally for runners and walkers, and symbolically for people like Anthony Thomas who have waited decades for the improvements.

Like Mr. Shuffler, Mr. Thomas grew up and still lives in the area. Both of them joined Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice as teenagers and work there as adults. Mr. Thomas remembers as a teenager going up to see the parks in Westchester County.

“They had so much green space along the Bronx River,” he said. “It was an affluent community. We felt this peace up there. Then we came down to our part of the river and saw it lined with factories. And that was only 10 minutes away. It wasn't long.”

Graphic Books Best Sellers: Jack Kirby\'s \'Kamandi\'

Jack Kirby, who died in 1994, was one of the comic-book industry's most famous creators. Much has been written about his contributions to Marvel Comics - he worked with Stan Lee in creating the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk and the X-Men, among others - and the continuing legal battle in which Mr. Kirby's family is trying to win the copyright to those figures.

Less has been written about Mr. Kirby's contributions to DC Comics, where he also created, or co-created, a legion of characters and concepts. One of them was Kamandi, the last boy on earth, who is the star of the collected edition that sits at No. 3 on the graphic books hardcover best-seller list this week. The series ran from 1972 to 1978. It was set in a future in which the planet has been devastated by a “Great Disaster,” and in which the ruling class is evolved animals. The first omnibus collected issues 1 to 20; this second, final volume collects 21 to 40 and includes a confrontation with a giant crab monster and a quest for Superman's costume. Other works by Kirby that have been included in this omnibus format include “Challengers of the Unknown,” the “Fourth World” saga and “The Demon.”

As always, the complete best-seller lists can be found here, along with an explanation of how they were assembled.

Tomorrow, It Will Snow, Perfectly

Longwood Gardens The snow is expected to fall through much of the day and well into the night, forecasters say.

The ideal city snowstorm, meteorological Platonists say, blankets the landscape without burying it, beautifies but does not burden, transforms and cocoons without paralyzing or even particularly inconveniencing.

Such an event is expected to come our way on Saturday.

Jericho Historical Society, via Associated Press Opportunities to photograph snowflakes, as Wilson Alwyn Bentley of Jericho, Vt., did in days of yore, will abound.

Flakes should begin falling around 11 a.m., as a low pressure system passes south and east of the metropolitan area, giving children plenty of time to finish a hearty breakfast.

The temperature will hover in the mid-30s â€" just cold enough for the snow to safely stick, but no colder. The breeze will be sufficient to make cheeks rosy, but will not slash at the skin or penetrate down the necks of parkas.

For the better part of the day, the snow will continue â€" gently, never blinding. By the time it ceases for good shortly before midnight, two to four inches will have fallen â€" just enough, perhaps, to permit sledding.

“Definitely snowfall that can be plowed,” said Dan Hof fman, a National Weather Service meteorologist, “but definitely not crippling by any means.”

At least that's what they're forecasting. Who knows what will really happen.

Paul Kolnik/New York City Ballet The snow should be perfect for dancing.

The Sweet Spot: Dec. 28

The best moments of 2012 from A. O. Scott and David Carr - “two guys, sitting at a table, talking.”

Some Subway Arrival Times Are Now Just an Apple Device Away

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority unveiled a smartphone app on Friday that will provide real-time information on subway arrivals for six of the system's numbered lines and the 42nd Street shuttle.

The app, MTA Subway Time, which covers 156 stations on the No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 lines, will offer arrival estimates - to the minute - based on the same information used for the stations' popular countdown clocks above train platforms.

“Today is the day that generations of dreamers and futurists have waited for,” Joseph J. Lhota, the authority's chairman, said in a statement. “The days of rushing to a subway station only to find yourself waiting motionless in a state of uncertainty are coming to an end.”

Initially available only for Apple products, including iPhones and iPads, and in a desktop version available online, the beta test version of the app can be downloaded free. The authority is leaving to private developers the production of apps for non-Apple hand-held devices.

Similar apps were already available for information on buses, Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road trains, and bridges and tunnels.

Perhaps most significantly, with the introduction of the app the authority has also agreed to provide a free live stream of arrival time data to app developers, which could lead to a spate of new services for riders in the coming months and years.

The technology was made possible by the authority's Automatic Train Supervision, which allows train dispatchers and managers to control train movement on the numbered lines using a more modern computer system. Installation of the program began in 1997 and was largely completed by 2008, at a total cost of $228 million.

Movements on the L line, which relies on a more advanced signaling system, called Communications Based Train Control, are expected to be available by app i n 6 to 12 months. The No. 7 train line is expected to be upgraded to the same signaling system by 2016, at which point its information will most likely be available by app.

For the rest of the subway system, though, the information gap is likely to persist. Officials said there was no timeline for details about most lettered lines to on an app.

The only certainty is that any change will happen after Mr. Lhota has left the authority. He announced last week that he was resigning his post, effective Dec. 31, to explore a candidacy for New York City mayor.

“Starting next week,” he said at a news conference on Friday, “I'm just going to be another regular customer.”

Book Review Podcast: An Expansive Protagonist

Pierre Mornet

This week in The New York Times Book Review, Julie Orringer reviews Jami Attenberg's “caustic, entertaining and bighearted” new novel, “The Middlesteins,” which stars Edie Middlestein, a woman who is slowly eating herself to death. The book traces the impact of Edie's problem on the rest of her family. Ms. Orringer writes:

The burning questi on, which Attenberg explores with patience and sensitivity, is why Edie has embarked on her self-destructive path. The answers themselves aren't surprising: Edie married too early, felt ambivalent about parenthood, became disillusioned with her career. What's remarkable is the unfailing emotional accuracy and specificity with which Attenberg renders Edie's despair.

This week, Ms. Attenberg discusses her novel; Leslie Kaufman has notes from the field; Maxwell Carter talks about “The Art Forger” by B. A. Shapiro; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus is the host.

Popcast: The Year in Pop Trends

Moses Robinson/Getty Images for Heineken Kendrick Lamar told tales of survival in “good kid, m.A.A.d. city.”

In an article in Sunday's Arts & Leisure section, the critics Jon Pareles, Ben Ratliff and Jon Caramanica discuss the year's biggest pop trends, and those that will be reshaping the genre for years to come.

They expand on the topic in this week's Popcast. Listen on this page, download the MP3 here, or subscribe in iTunes.

This Week\'s Movies: Dec. 28

This week, Times critics look at Tom Hooper's “Les Misérables,” Quentin Tarantino's “Django Unchained” and the documentary “West of Memphis.” See all of this week's reviews here.

Crime Is Up and Bloomberg Blames iPhone Thieves

Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Hold onto your iPhones!

Crime in New York City inched up this year, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Friday fingered the culprit: too many iPhones and iPads were being swiped.

A rise in thefts of shiny Apple products accounted for the slight increase in the city's annual crime index, a statistic that includes major felonies including murder, grand larceny and robbery, Mr. Bloomberg said on Friday morning during his weekly radio show.

As of Monday, the Police Department recorded 3,484 more crimes in 2012 than for the same period last year. The increase in Apple product thefts: 3,890.

A full breakdown of the year's crime statistics was not immediately available, but city officials were quick to focus on the Apple figure.

“If you just took away the jump in Apple, we'd be down for the year,” said Marc La Vorgna, the mayor's press secretary.

IPhones have long proved irresistible to city thieves, particularly on the subway, where crime rates shot up in 2011 after police investigators discovered that robbers were targeting the expensive, high-tech gadgets. The Police Department has used dozens of decoy officers and unusual methods to try to stanch the thefts, which usually occurred as trains entered and left stations, allowing for a quick getaway.

“The proliferation of people carrying expensive devices around is so great,” Mr. La Vorgna said. “It's something that's never had to be dea lt with before.”

Through Monday, the city had recorded 108,432 major crimes for the year, up from 104,948 over the same period in 2011, a rise of 3.3 percent.

Youth Killed by Hit-and-Run Dump-Truck Driver in Queens

A teenage boy was killed by a hit-and-run dump-truck driver in Jackson Heights, Queens, Friday morning, the police said.

The boy, believed to be between 13 and 15 years old, was crossing Northern Boulevard in a crosswalk at 80th Street around 8:45 a.m. when the truck, headed south on 80th Street, turned right onto Northern Boulevard and struck him, the police said.

The truck, which was white and was towing a green generator, continued west on Northern Boulevard, the police said. The boy, who was declared dead at the scene, was not immediately identified.

The crash yielded the third hit-and-run fatality in Queens in three days. On Wednesday night, a 38-year-old woman was struck and killed crossing Hillside Avenue in Floral Park, and a 30-year-old woman was killed crossing 111th Street in Jamaica.