New York City’s Citi Bike bike share program is finally ready to launch, with 6,000 bikes and 330 docking stations spreading in Brooklyn and Manhattan, but plenty of New Yorkers have already found something to complain about. 

The just-placed docking stations are causing parking and delivery problems for residents and business owners. According to CBS Local, drivers are being forced to stall their vehicles in no standing zones while others have noted that the docking stations block loading docks and drop-off points. “I don’t know how we’re going to be able to operate really now effectively. It’s sad, dramatic negative impact,” Carlo Giurdanella, owner of Bella Tile told CBS. 

'Installation frustration' is just the beginning of the gripes that city-dwellers have with the bike share program. It's been noted that the Citi Bike rules include a statement about overweight riders, effectively banning persons over 260 pounds from using the bicycles. Appalled by the statement, many are calling the program discriminatory and the rules unfounded.Continue reading...

When Jon Stewart and Bill O’Reilly faced off Saturday in a mock debate, the topic of whether the government should decide what size soda consumers should drink was brought up and summarily dismissed, but there are plenty of other folks — like New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg — who aren’t letting the issue go.

The just-passed law that Bloomberg pushed to help keep New Yorkers healthy by making it illegal to sell sodas larger than 16 oz. in many New York establishments will go into effect on March 12. And Bloomberg isn’t alone. A soda-tax measure was put on the ballot in Richmond, California, that would discourage consumers from drinking soda and collect money through a soda tax “for neighborhood gardens, recreation and other youth projects that would help fight childhood obesity,” BeyondChron.com reports.

Sick of being called a bad guy in the war against obesity, the American Beverage Association (and the soda giants it represents) today launched a "Calories Count" vending machine program that will start being distributed in the new year. The ABA's new initiative will help consumers identify lower-calorie sodas in vending machines by placing soda calorie counts right on the buttons of vending machines.Continue reading...

First Chobani came along and revolutionized the yogurt Americans eat in their homes or on the go, by mainstreaming Greek-style yogurt and creating one of the biggest phenomena in the CPG industry in years. Now enjoying its first Olympics tie-in with its Team USA sponsorship, the New York-based company wants to change the way that Americans consume yogurt with "yogurt bars."

Starting in New York, of course. Chobani just opened its first retail store, on Prince Street in SoHo, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who hailed a new PepsiCo yogurt plant this week in upstate New York — dispatched his lieutenant governor, Robert J. Duffy, to drop by for the store opening. The former site of a Swatch store offers plain Chobani starting at $2.75 as well as "yogurt creations" for $3.75, created by on-site "master yogurt makers."

"Governor Cuomo is proud of that fact that New York State has become the yogurt capital," Duffy commented, according to the New York Times.Continue reading...

Everybody is looking for cash these days, but how to drum it up when everybody is also paying extra close attention to where a wallet’s contents are disappearing to. Cities are no different. Government services are hurting for cash and there are only so many ways to generate more dough.

So cities are getting creative, the New York Times reports. Baltimore is currently trying to sell space on its fire engines to raise some extra pennies. And why not? The city’s current budget has made the elimination of three city fire companies necessary this summer.

Philadelphia is selling ad space on its subway fare cards and one of the city’s main train stops is now named for AT&T. Chicago is selling naming rights to its eleven "L" subway stations. As for the Times' hometown, the naming rights for the Atlantic Avenue subway station at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn were sold in 2009, and the MTA implemented the Barclays name change in May.Continue reading...

Starbucks has been spreading its wings in recent months. First the news came that some of its outlets would start serving beer and wine. Then Starbucks opened its first Evolution Fresh juice bar in suburban Seattle. Earlier this month, the ubiquitous coffee chain purchased the Bay Area's La Boulange bakery for $100 million in a bid to upgrade its food offerings. (That deal was done in cash, by the way. No word if the money was in a briefcase handcuffed to anybody’s wrist.)

That’s a lot of wing-spreading, but Starbucks execs over there must be cranking down extra double espressos these days because now comes word that Starbucks is giving more love to another sub-brand by opening its first Tazo tea store this fall in the hopes of doing for tea what the company has done for coffee drinking.

The plan is for the Tazo store, located in its corporate hometown of Seattle, to “sell more than 80 varieties of loose-leaf tea and other tea products,” Reuters reports, and “also offer hot and cold tea drinks, brewing equipment, pastries, packaged chocolates, infused sugars and honey.” As it is now, Tazo is a $1.4 billion brand for Starbucks, but the company would like to grow it since it estimates that the global market for tea is $95 billion.

And today Starbucks announced its first Seattle's Best Coffee "commuter concept" store in Brooklyn, near the NYC borough's new Barclays Center sports arena that will be home to the Brooklyn Nets this fall.

According to a press release, SBC's "concept menu, which debuted as a test in Chicago in March, boasts delicious coffee beverages, and commuter-friendly sandwiches and snacks that will appear for the first time on the East Coast." We assume that Brooklyn Nets co-owner Jay-Z will approve.

Many small businesses steer clear of anything controversial or political so as not to offend any potential customers. After all, the customer is always right, even if they are saying exactly the opposite thing from what the last customer said.

Brooklyn Industries, a 14-store outfit that's based in (where else?) Brooklyn, NY, and sells hipster-licious clothing, bags, and small household goods, is not afraid. Its store windows are provoking conversations about subjects that not everybody wants to talk about, necessarily, when all they want is to grab a t-shirt.

The retailer explained the thinking behind its thought-provoking window displays: "Inspired by Spike Lee's film Jungle Fever, we wanted to take a closer look at race in Brooklyn. We asked local residents about their lives and experiences growing up here."Continue reading...

To most of the world, Brooklyn is a place that once was home to Jackie Robinson and the Dodgers. For all time, it’s been mostly envisioned culturally as a working-class, ethnic-rich borough filled with (depending on the era) plenty of kids playing stickball, unbelievable street basketball, Mafioso, or young toughs. Like Saturday Night Fever’s Tony Manero, everybody in Brooklyn is supposedly looking to get across the Bridge into a supposedly bigger, better, brighter life.

Throughout time, though, there are plenty that have been perfectly happy staying in Brooklyn. You can tell from some of the street signs welcoming motorists there: “Believe the Hype!” “Welcome to Brooklyn – Home to Everyone From Everywhere!” “Name It…We Got It!” Not to mention the ones that some motorists see as they leave the borough: “Oy Vey!” or “Fuhgeddaboudit.”

These are likely the work of work of Borough President/Head Cheerleader Marty Markowitz, but there is another man who is also working to help showcase the borough’s brand: filmmaker Dustin Cohen, who is paying tribute to Brooklyn's artisans and heritage through a series of short films.Continue reading...

Amazon is set to unveil the Kindle Fire e-reader on Wednesday, with Conde Nast, Hearst and Meredith on board, but Time Inc. negotiations going down to the wire.

Boeing confident about Dreamliner output as All Nippon Airways prepares for aircraft's first commercial flight.

Chrysler lets car buyers track production and delivery.

Coca-Cola CEO is "cautiously pleased" with company outlook.

Jay-Z announces the New Jersey Nets will be renamed the Brooklyn Nets, and that he'll kick off the NBA team's new home at the Barclays Center with an eight-concert series in Sept. 2012.

John Hancock extends "Who Knew?" campaign.Continue reading...