The Westside Rifle & Pistol Range, not far from the Flatiron Building, looks like some dire conservative prophecy come to life—America’s gun-lovers stripped of all rights, forced to target-shoot in windowless bunkers. To the range’s regulars, that’s sometimes how it feels. While their brethren in Texas or Florida roam free, idly polishing pistols in line at the grocery store, Manhattan’s gun owners are confined to a drop-ceilinged basement, where exposed pipes, peeling rolly chairs, and thrifty fluorescent lighting bring to mind a repurposed boiler room.

Have you heard? The Manhattan District Attorney says you will no longer go to jail for publicly drinking and peeing in his borough. You may want to hold it in for just a minute before you start celebrating.

Good news for people who hate the people of Brooklyn, or at least the idea of the people of Brooklyn: Gothamist reports that forthcoming Hurricane Sandy-related repairs to the the L train, which connects Williamsburg to Manhattan, could shut the line down for at least three years.

Now available for rent in Manhattan: a 360-square-foot “micro-apartment” for $2,750 a month. And in Brooklyn, “5 Great Neighborhoods Where You Can Find a One-Bedroom Under $2,600.” I love this town!

The NYPD is looking for a man accused of masturbating in a subway station, then pulling a gun when someone tried to catch him on video.

In 2009, developer Sharif El-Gamal’s Soho Properties purchased the lot at 45 Park place in lower Manhattan for $4.85 million. The next year, he proposed to build a 15-story Islamic cultural center—two blocks north of where the former World Trade Center once stood—which came to be known as the “Ground Zero Mosque.” The response was so virulent that El-Gamal abandoned his plans; now, Bloomberg Business reports, the developer has proposed a 70-story, ultra-luxury condominium building for the location. So ends the biggest political story (“story”) in the country in 2010.

The corner bodega is the latest victim to Manhattan’s ever-ascending cost of living and operating an independent business, having been supplanted in some cases by chain supermarkets and pharmacies. That means even more premade Duane Reade bacon egg and cheese sandwiches for you, you filthy animal.

During the evening rush hour on Thursday, an alligator crawled out of...somewhere, and crossed a street in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Inwood. Officers from the NYPD’s 34th Precinct captured the ‘gator and brought it to a shelter where it died Friday morning, the New York Times reports.

In the summer, Manhattan doesn’t just smell like garbage—it is actual garbage. If you’re stuck in the city while all your friends escape to their share-house hellholes and parents’ country houses, it’s easy to fall for the city’s summer siren call. Outdoor drinking, yoga in the park, free movie screenings, it all sounds so wonderful, right? Sure, I guess—there’s no accounting for taste.

Pranna, Madison Avenue’s opulent palace where the mimosas flow like waterfalls (and so does the vomit), may not be long for this world. Despite making small changes to appease its long-suffering neighbors, the brunch spot that gave us the fake heir to “half of fucking Manhattan” had its application for a new liquor license aggressively rejected by the community board Wednesday night.

Your very latest New York City apartment hunting intelligence report: hope is lost.

Actress Mariel Hemingway apparently spent her youth turning down advances from famous old guys—according to a Page Six report, Woody Allen was so intent on taking her to Europe he flew out to her parents house in Idaho to convince the whole family.

For decades the hulking former bank building at 190 Bowery in downtown Manhattan was stuck stubbornly sometime in the mid-1970s, covered in graffiti and oblivious to the remodeling happening around it. Recently, it was sold to a real-estate developer for $55 million, and soon it will become condos or some shit. Here's your last look inside.

The average monthly rent for a studio apartment in Manhattan has reached $2,350, the highest on record—"incomes aren't rising as fast as Manhattan rents, leading tenants to seek affordability by finding smaller spaces."

"Manhattan apartment prices jumped to the highest point since their 2008 peak as buyers competed for a limited supply of homes... Price gains are accelerating as demand from domestic and international buyers alike outpaces the number of properties for sale."

According to the New York Times, at least 6,500 new condominium units are scheduled to hit the Manhattan market below 96th Street in 2015—the most since 2007 and twice as many as last year, which is great news if you can afford a condo.

Look at 1 West End Avenue. Look how shiny it is. How tall. Contemplate the view. Savor it. If you're among the people slated to rent one of its 118 units of affordable housing, you won't be seeing it from this angle often, because you'll be entering through the back door.

David Kim, formerly of the Corcoran group, was sentenced to up to five years in prison this week for breaking into and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property from a $7.6 million Upper West Side townhouse shortly after he'd sold it to the happy couple living there.