THE FORGOTTEN 5TH - FIVE STORIES MAKING STATEN ISLAND HEADLINES With help from reality TV shows, the borough’s deteriorating image takes a personal toll STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Staten Island may not be the forgotten borough anymore — but some say its new reputation is even worse.  The borough’s national celebrities — the catty women married to career criminals on “Mob Wives” and the hard-partying beach bums of “Jersey Shore” — have sculpted an image of vacuous bubbleheads that Islanders say they confront regularly in social and workplace environments. READ MORE: http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/07/with_help_from_reality_tv_show.html Meet the Original JWoww and Snooki  The first time Brianna and Gabriella DeBartoli made plans to meet for this article, they canceled on account of a hangover. “Hey so my sister is, um … detoxing?” Brianna wrote over Facebook that morning. “And can’t leave the house.” It was Mother’s Day. This is the sort of introduction you’d expect from two sisters first delivered to the world screaming, sobbing, slapping, carousing, clubbing, and cursing on Perez Hilton’s trash-culture site last fall. On October 6, 2010, the Queen of All Media posted an “Exclusive!” video of Bridge & Tunnel, a reality series about Staten Island kids for which MTV filmed 12 episodes, but execs inexplicably canceled a month before its long-incubated premiere. READ MORE: http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-07-27/news/mtv-bridge-tunnel-original-jersey-shore/ Tracy Morgan & Sugar Hill Gang perform on Staten Island After Tracey Morgan’s gay joke controversy, he still went on to headlin the infamous St. George Theater on August 6th while hip hop lovers headed to Tappen Park in Stapleton on August 2nd to see ‘The Sugar Hill Gang’ in a free concert, which was a part of the Summer Stage series in all five boroughs. Great Kills Little League wins NY State Title In the hierarchy of Little Leagues in the youth baseball hot-bed of Staten Island, Great Kills isn’t a powerhouse. South Shore Little League sent a team to the Little League World Series inWilliamsport, Pa., just two years ago and Mid-Island was there in 2006.  Great Kills is knocking on the door of immortality now, though.  Aftera wild, 6-5 comeback win over Fayetteville-Manlius on Monday, the 11- and 12-year-olds from Great Kills American were crowned New York State champions for the first time in the Little League’s 59-year history. Port Authority pulling a fast one with toll hikes for 3 Staten Island bridges The typical Staten Island driver will pay $12 for the privilege of using the Goethals and Bayonne bridges and the Outerbridge Crossing as soon as next month, if the Port Authority has its way. The whopping hike is part of a menu of breathtaking increases the cash-strapped bi-state agency announced yesterday for the three crossings. Tolls also would spike on the Lincoln and Holland tunnels and on the George Washington Bridge. Motorists with E-ZPass who cross onto the Island during peak hours — constituting the majority — would see the toll rise from $8 to $12. The tariff at other times would be $10, but the daily off-peak windows would narrow. Participants in the Staten Island bridges plan who make the requisite 20 monthly crossings using E-ZPass would pay $6, up from $4. But it’s those unfortunates who fork over cash who would absorb the biggest pasting, with an 87.5 percent hike, to $15. That toll would be one of the highest anywhere in the country *BONUS STORY* No love for Staten Island from Nike An all-white new leather series from Nike features embroidered outlines of each New York City “borough” they represent on the left heel and the name of the borough on the right and each has a different-color tongue label and laces. 

While there’s a “Queens” “Brooklyn” “Bronx” and “Harlem” version of the shoe, there’s no “Staten Island” version available. The hot shoes went on sale Friday at the Nike Sportswear store in Soho.

”Since when is Harlem a borough and why are there only four boroughs?” Assemblywoman, Nicole Malliotakis wondered.
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THE FORGOTTEN 5TH - FIVE STORIES MAKING STATEN ISLAND HEADLINES

With help from reality TV shows, the borough’s deteriorating image takes a personal toll

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Staten Island may not be the forgotten borough anymore — but some say its new reputation is even worse.  The borough’s national celebrities — the catty women married to career criminals on “Mob Wives” and the hard-partying beach bums of “Jersey Shore” — have sculpted an image of vacuous bubbleheads that Islanders say they confront regularly in social and workplace environments.

READ MORE:

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/07/with_help_from_reality_tv_show.html

Meet the Original JWoww and Snooki 

The first time Brianna and Gabriella DeBartoli made plans to meet for this article, they canceled on account of a hangover. “Hey so my sister is, um … detoxing?” Brianna wrote over Facebook that morning. “And can’t leave the house.” It was Mother’s Day.

This is the sort of introduction you’d expect from two sisters first delivered to the world screaming, sobbing, slapping, carousing, clubbing, and cursing on Perez Hilton’s trash-culture site last fall. On October 6, 2010, the Queen of All Media posted an “Exclusive!” video of Bridge & Tunnel, a reality series about Staten Island kids for which MTV filmed 12 episodes, but execs inexplicably canceled a month before its long-incubated premiere.

READ MORE:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-07-27/news/mtv-bridge-tunnel-original-jersey-shore/

Tracy Morgan & Sugar Hill Gang perform on Staten Island

After Tracey Morgan’s gay joke controversy, he still went on to headlin the infamous St. George Theater on August 6th while hip hop lovers headed to Tappen Park in Stapleton on August 2nd to see ‘The Sugar Hill Gang’ in a free concert, which was a part of the Summer Stage series in all five boroughs.

Great Kills Little League wins NY State Title

In the hierarchy of Little Leagues in the youth baseball hot-bed of Staten Island, Great Kills isn’t a powerhouse. South Shore Little League sent a team to the Little League World Series inWilliamsport, Pa., just two years ago and Mid-Island was there in 2006.  Great Kills is knocking on the door of immortality now, though.  Aftera wild, 6-5 comeback win over Fayetteville-Manlius on Monday, the 11- and 12-year-olds from Great Kills American were crowned New York State champions for the first time in the Little League’s 59-year history.

Port Authority pulling a fast one with toll hikes for 3 Staten Island bridges

The typical Staten Island driver will pay $12 for the privilege of using the Goethals and Bayonne bridges and the Outerbridge Crossing as soon as next month, if the Port Authority has its way. The whopping hike is part of a menu of breathtaking increases the cash-strapped bi-state agency announced yesterday for the three crossings. Tolls also would spike on the Lincoln and Holland tunnels and on the George Washington Bridge.

Motorists with E-ZPass who cross onto the Island during peak hours — constituting the majority — would see the toll rise from $8 to $12. The tariff at other times would be $10, but the daily off-peak windows would narrow.

Participants in the Staten Island bridges plan who make the requisite 20 monthly crossings using E-ZPass would pay $6, up from $4.

But it’s those unfortunates who fork over cash who would absorb the biggest pasting, with an 87.5 percent hike, to $15. That toll would be one of the highest anywhere in the country

*BONUS STORY*

No love for Staten Island from Nike

An all-white new leather series from Nike features embroidered outlines of each New York City “borough” they represent on the left heel and the name of the borough on the right and each has a different-color tongue label and laces. 

While there’s a “Queens” “Brooklyn” “Bronx” and “Harlem” version of the shoe, there’s no “Staten Island” version available. The hot shoes went on sale Friday at the Nike Sportswear store in Soho.

”Since when is Harlem a borough and why are there only four boroughs?” Assemblywoman, Nicole Malliotakis wondered.