Arun Venugopal

New York, NY —

Supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage held competing rallies yesterday. in hopes of influencing State Senators before they vote on the issue. WNYC's Arun Venugopal attended both rallies and has this report.

REPORTER: People sang and danced and waved Bibles in the air outside the Governor's ...

New York, NY —

The City Council is holding hearings on the Fire Department's budget today, including the contentious issue of whether to close 16 fire houses. Mayor Bloomberg says the city can save $17 million, either through the closures or by reducing the number of firefighters at more ...

New York, NY —

Yes, subway fares are going up, but not as much as they could have. That's the glass-is-half-full perspective of riders like Erin Roth. She's a Broadway dresser from Woodside, Queens, who buys an $81 monthly Metrocard.

ROTH: I don't think it's a bad hike, because we ...

(Edward Reed)

Listen carefully and you might just hear a certain billionaire mayor in there, playing the congas at a restaurant in East Harlem earlier today. Mayor Bloomberg spent a couple minutes on the drums, backed ably by ...

I finally saw my first mask-wearing subway riders today - one guy, and a couple seats away, the woman you see here, in this highly atmospheric and stylized photo. That was in the morning. This afternoon, I saw another woman walk out ...

I was on MacDougal Street, in the West Village, getting some lunch, when I saw four full-grown men huffing and sweating and just about havin' a collective coronary. They were doing something most of us can relate to: trying to move something big and heavy on the narrowest of ...

New York, NY —

To mask or not to mask one's face, that's one question on the minds of New Yorkers thinking about the swine flu. Jeremy Beiler [BY-ler] is an actor who arrived at work on a bike in the West Village. He says he's reluctant to travel ...

New York, NY —

Mayor Bloomberg says swine flu appears to be spreading in New York City but he says it's nothing to be alarmed about. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more.

The mayor repeatedly emphasized that the local swine flu is mild and that people should keep going to work ...

Mayor Bloomberg was in the Bronx this morning, helping open a Home Depot at the new Gateway Center mall. The Home Depot will provide 200 of the mall's 2100 jobs. Asked if he ever did any home repairs himself, ...

New York, NY —

A new Home Depot opened in the Bronx today and the borough's new president-elect, Ruben Diaz Jr., was there to take a look. The big box store is part of the Gateway Center mall, which replaced the old Bronx Terminal Market and the Bronx House ...

New York, NY —

Mayor Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn are pushing a raft of proposals, meant to make existing buildings more energy efficient. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more.

REPORTER: The legislation would target buildings over 50,000 square feet, requiring owners to perform energy audits every 10 years, then ...

Mayor Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn used this Earth Day to roll out four bills, aimed at getting older buildings to install more energy-efficient lighting, heating, and cooling systems. Quinn says the legislation would require buildings of 50,000 ...

The Miss Subways contests lasted from the 1940s through the 1970s, but now and then some of the winners put on their sashes and get together again. I joined the latest reunion of the former beauty queens near Times Square.

New York, NY —

The Miss Subways contests lasted from the 1940s through the 70s but now-and-then some of the winners put on their sashes and get together again. WNYC's Arun Venugopal was at the latest reunion of the former beauty queens, near Times Square.

PHOTOGRAPHER: one, two, three...

WOMEN: Yay!

REPORTER: ...

New York, NY —

The mayor and Council Speaker Christine Quinn are pushing a raft of proposals, meant to make existing buildings more energy efficient. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more.

The legislation would target buildings over 50,000 square feet, requiring owners to perform energy audits every 10 years, then make ...

New York, NY —

Thousands of property owners in the city face eventual foreclosure for unpaid taxes or water bills - even if they owe just a thousand dollars. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more.

While some property owners have more than a hundred thousand dollars in unpaid water bills, most ...

New York, NY —

What Kurosawa is to Japan, and Fellini is to Italy, director Satyajit Ray is to India. The filmmaker is getting a major retrospective at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater, as well as an academic conference devoted to his work. WNYC's Arun Venugopal sat down with ...

Today, in a room packed with local, state and federal officials, as well as gay rights advocates and of course, the press, Governor Paterson announced he'd introduce a bill to legalize same-sex marriages. From the outset, he forcefully joined the cause to that of civil rights, going all the way back to 1857. That's when the Supreme Court made its infamous Dred Scott decision - essentially declaring that a black slave does not enjoy the rights of a citizen, and has no claim to freedom. Paterson's point was not merely moral: he noted that the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, just five and a half years after Dred Scott.

In essence, he said, change can come fast, if people push for it. Fast forward to the present moment, when the "complete confusion and stunned disbelief" that reigned in California after Proposition 8 - that was just a few months ago - have given way to a more hopeful mood for gay marriage advocates, now that it's been legalized in Iowa, Vermont, Massachussetts and Connecticut. 

New York, NY —

Officials at CUNY are reporting a 33 percent spike in students applying for financial aid this year -- that's over the same period last year. Standing outside Baruch College earlier today, Congressman Anthony Weiner said that despite additional aid in the federal stimulus package, Congress ...

New York, NY —

After a 75 year lull, competitive ping-pong is hoping to stage a local comeback. The New York City Open Table Tennis Tournament was held at Columbia University over the weekend, bringing together some of the sport's biggest names from across the continent. Tournament organizer Ben ...