New York City's comeback has been one of the hottest housing stories. 

Ex-distressed properties, home prices were up 21 percent in the last three months. And overall, home prices were up an annualized 18 percent.

But today we got a worrisome detail from RealtyTrac. New York saw a 200 percent year-over-year increase in foreclosure starts last month.

A rise in foreclosure starts – the pace at which mortgages enter the foreclosure process – is cause for concern since declining inventory is one of the main factors that had helped revive home prices.

New York is a judicial foreclosure state, and at 1,049 days, it has the longest foreclosure timeline in the country. This suggests that foreclosed properties will continue to trickle onto the market. Analysts and investors will be watching to see the pace at which foreclosures come through the pipeline, to gauge the impact on home prices.

SEE ALSO: MICHELLE MEYER: Here Are The 4 Hottest Topics In The US Housing Market >

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Grand St. is a New York City based startup that's all about gadgets. 

But the difference between Grand St. and Best Buy or Amazon is the curation of cutting edge products.

The gadget boutique sells some of the hottest toys around that you can't find anywhere else.

Important people are starting to notice Grand St.: the 7-person startup just secured $1.3 million in funding.

Grand St.'s products have included the MindWave Mobile, a headset that lets you control a toy helicopter with your mind, and the Lapka, an environmental smart sensor that lets you measure how organic your apple is.

Grand St. is planning on opening up the site to everyone this summer. For now, you can check out the site and sign up for the wait list.

We caught up with Grand St. to talk about the vision behind the hot new NYC-based startup. 

Read the whole piece over at Open Forum>

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Ticketmaster, Eventbrite, Ticketfly, and TicketLeap have competition. Splash aims to do for event planning what Facebook did for people: Give them easy-to-use tools, such as a web site, for promoting and planning events and parties.

This 1-year-old New York startup powered nearly 200 events at SXSW this year and collected 384,000 RSVPs, Splash CEO Ben Hindman says. 

Now, Splash is about four months into its ticketing service and has already processed $650,000 in gross sales. Earlier this week, Splash processed $25,000 in ticket sales in one day. Hindman says the company is approaching profitability, with a burn rate of less than $10,000 a month. 

We talked to the team at Splash to find out their whole story.

Check out the full story on Open Forum >

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Reuters World Editor Clare Richardson tweets this photo of the escalated police presence in New York's Times Square after Monday's explosions at the Boston Marathon. 

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday that the NYPD has deployed "1,000 members assigned to counter-terrorism duties" in response to the incident in Boston. 

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In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, Bike New York's 5 Boro Bike Tour pulled ads that depict two explosive flames bursting up in the air at the race's start line.

They have been plastered in city subway stations for weeks. The actual pyrotechnics were canceled as well.

Bike New York CEO Ken Podziba told Gothamist that the organization didn't hesitate to pull the signs.

"We had these ads all over the city, and beginning today, the MTA is removing all of them," he said. "We were getting phone calls and emails from people who thought the ads were inappropriate and we agreed. The last thing in the world we want to do is offend anybody in a time of tragedy."

No new ads will be put up.

"It will probably be blank, which I guess is a message in and of itself," Podzibe said. "Our hearts go out the victims and their families. We're in solidarity with them."

SEE ALSO: What massacres would look like if gunmen used 18th century muskets >

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New York City-based Fairway Market went public today, raising nearly $160 million to continue its regional expansion plans.

Consumers are mad about the supermarket chain, which started out as a mom-and-pop produce stand 78 years ago and has grown to a dozen locations in the tri-state area.

The company opened a store on the Upper East Side in late 2011, and we stopped by to speak with Howie Glickberg, the founder's grandson and current vice chairman of development, and his son Dan, who joined the family business after graduating from college, but recently resigned as a director, according to The New York Times.

The Glickbergs let us in on some company secrets, from how they keep their produce fresh to the logistics of stocking stores in some of the busiest parts of Manhattan.

Produced by Kamelia Angelova & Robert Libetti

SEE ALSO: 15 Ways Supermarkets Trick You Into Spending More

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Mike Brown spent the past year traveling all over the country. He made quick trips to rural towns and spent weeks in cities spanning coast to coast.

But none of it was for fun. That's just what it takes when you're 29, and you want to launch your first venture capital firm.

Brown met with dozens of high wealth individuals – potential limited partners –  and pitched his idea for Bowery Capital. It'd be an early stage firm based in New York, and it'd go after startups working on enterprise solutions. Nearly all of the people Brown pitched were strangers, some without an in-depth knowledge of the tech industry.

The tiring year paid off. Brown, who formerly invested Richard Branson's money at Virgin Group and is a partner at AOL Ventures, raised $33 million for Bowery Capital. Each LP invested about $1 million. Brown will be off on his own as a sole partner with two employees who worked with him at AOL Ventures, Nic Poulos and Keegan Forte.

Through AOL Ventures, Brown invested in startups such as behaviorally-targeted content company, Sailthru, advertising CAPTCHA startup, Solve Media, and content syndication platform, NewsCred. Brown is also personally invested in a few startups, including former TechCrunch Disrupt winner, Qwiki. Brown's personal investments will be tucked into Bowery Ventures' portfolio. 

Brown will be investing in about 25 startups, spending between $250,000 and $3 million on each. He'll be investing in their seed and Series A rounds. Seed investments are often the first money put into a startup; Series A rounds provide enough capital for startups to begin scaling.

Brown isn't the first twenty-something to start a VC fund. Joshua Kushner, 27, raised money for his own New York startup fund, Thrive Capital. He has since invested in companies like Instagram and GroupMe.

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One week after Google met Ori Allon in a tiny, server-crammed office in Sydney, the young developer had a first-class ticket to Mountain View.

Allon, then 26, had created and patented a search algorithm that was used by his peers at UNSW instead of Google. On Orion, users could pull up search results related to the typed keywords as well as exact matches. 

Yahoo and Microsoft caught wind of the Google meeting and asked to meet Allon too. Negotiations to buy Orion started at a few million and ended in a bidding war won by Google. Orion is now an integral part of Google searches.

Allon, who has triple citizenship in Israel, Australia and the United States, rose through the ranks at Google and managed multiple teams overseas. But he missed coding, so he left Google to start a new venture, Julpan. Julpan was another search algorithm, but this one accommodated real-time search results.

Again, large tech companies caught wind of Allon's startup and started a bidding war. Ultimately, Twitter won Julpan. Until Bluefin Labs' $100 million exit in February, Julpan was Twitter's most expensive acquisition. 

While Allon was financially successful from his two exits, he didn't feel fulfilled as an entrepreneur. Twice, Allon built companies that didn't generate revenue and sold them. So his latest venture, Urban Compass, is a much different challenge.

This time, Allon wants to make money right away and build a long-standing company. He's trying to solve a big headache for New Yorkers: housing.

Urban Compass launched today before a room full of press with Mayor Bloomberg at Allon's side. It's positioned to be the ultimate apartment-finding tool for Manhattan. On it, users can search listings by price, number of bedrooms, and location. They can also schedule times to view available apartments, and read neighborhood reviews.

Urban Compass charges a broker fee that's much lower than the typical one month's worth of rent. Eventually, Urban Compass wants to accept all monthly rent charges from tenants for landlords on its platform.

Allon and his co-founder were able to raise a monstrous $8 million seed round and hire 63 people before today's launch announcement. Employees include ex-Googlers, Twitter and Microsoft employees, and Harvard MBAs.

Allon's investors are strategic real-estate moguls. The Kushner family is involved through Thrive Capital, which also gives Allon access to the Trumps through Jared Kushner (Ivanka Trump is his wife). The Tisch family, which has names plastered on at least a dozen NYC buildings, is also working with Urban Compass. Goldman Sachs, which never dips its hands in early stage startups, is an investor.

From his investors' and personal connections alone, Allon expects he can get 20-30% of New York's real-estate market to use Urban Compass. There are more than 6,000 listings currently on the site. Once Allon's team perfects the New York experience, Urban Compass will expand to other cities.

An apartment-finding tool for a single city sounds like a tired idea. But Allon's grand plan is smart. 

Ultimately, Allon wants to build a social local platform, like Foursquare or Nextdoor. But instead of ramping up users, Allon wants to ramp up revenue first.

Urban Compass hopes to onboard the major real estate companies in the area, which in turn will onboard all of their tenants. Then the platform will have real-time details of who's moving in, who's moving out, and what types of local venues will enhance a resident's experience. Once Urban Compass accepts rent payments, users will begin visiting monthly, which ensures user retention and site engagement.

Despite his two exits, serial entrepreneurs like Allon are never sure bets for investors. Sean Parker raised $33.5 million for Airtime and it never took off. Bill Nguyen raised $40 million for Color and it tanked. You don't have to look beyond Foursquare or LivingSocial to know how difficult it is to sustain a location-based business. 

But 63 employees and a slew of investors are banking on Allon figuring out his third startup. And with Allon's new mindset, the results could be greater than before.

"I could do another startup, build something very specific, and sell it to a larger company," Allon told The Verge. "But I’ve done that already, you know. It's not about the money. I’m ready for a different challenge. I want to build something really, really big."

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The biggest sector in New York tech remains ad tech.

One of the biggest names in New York ad tech is Michael Barrett. 

He made his name running ad sales at MySpace (back when that was still a big deal). 

Then he sold a company, Admeld, to Google for bank.

Then his buddy, interim Yahoo CEO Ross Levinsohn, poached him from Google to run ad sales at Yahoo.

Then Levinsohn left Yahoo, and Yahoo's new CEO, Marissa Mayer, gave Barrett a big exit package.

For those keeping score, that's: Cha-ching. Cha-ching. Cha-ching.

The old cha-ching times three.

So everyone's been wondering: What's next for Barrett?

We just found out.

A couple sources close to the situation say he's joining the board of a company called TapAd.

TapAd allows brands to buy ads targeting the same person across multiple platforms (Home PCs, smartphones, smart TVs, etc.)

We hear it's valuation is close to $140 million, and that people at the company believe 2013 revenues will be around $40 million.

An official announcement is coming tomorrow.

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There has been a small explosion around 34th and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City.

NYC Firefighter Tommy Schwaber told Business Insider it was a manhole fire and that it has already been extinguished.

There are no reports of injuries, but some people are saying power around the Empire State Building has gone out.

Pictures from the scene are a little crazy, however:

Explosion on 34th Street just now. twitter.com/Citygirl15/sta…

— Citygirl15 (@Citygirl15) May 8, 2013

Fire on 34th between 5th and Mad. Smoke billowing out of manhole. Just heard an explosion. twitter.com/saverio/status…

— Saverio Mondelli (@saverio) May 8, 2013

@wework 34th street blocked off from manhole explosion. #epicmorningtwitter.com/ShoT_Tr3s/stat…

— Sebastian Rodriguez (@ShoT_Tr3s) May 8, 2013

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There are multiple reports of a fire on 25th Street in New York City.

The fire appears to be around 25th and Sixth Avenue near Madison Square Park.

"We're on scene for a transformer fire and waiting for ConEd to investigate further," Mike Parrella, FDNY told Business Insider via phone. "We're securing the area."

There are no injuries reported, but that portion of the street is shut down.

Photos from the scene look a little nuts:

Fire on 25th street twitter.com/bakaraw/status…

— Bakara Wintner (@bakaraw) May 9, 2013

Keepin it hot here on 25th st twitter.com/imnoah/status/…

— Noah Dinkin (@imnoah) May 9, 2013

W 25th Street is spontaneously combusting. #firetwitter.com/jeremykoren/st…

— Jeremy Koren (@jeremykoren) May 9, 2013

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An international gang of cyber thieves stole more than $45 million from thousands of ATMs in carefully coordinated attacks conducted in a matter of hours, US authorities said Thursday.

Seven people are under arrest in the US in connection with the case, involving thousands of thefts from ATMs using bogus magnetic swipe cards.

The accused ringleader in the US cell, Alberto Yusi Lajud-Pena, was reportedly murdered in the Dominican Republic late last month, Wired reported, adding that he was shot and killed while playing dominoes.

Several people are under arrest in the US and arrests have been made in other countries, though prosecutors have not elaborated.

The robberies took place over a seven-month period ending last month, with hackers hackers breaking into the computer networks of financial companies in the United States and India, the Washington Post reported.

Prosecutors said the thieves eliminated the withdrawal limits on prepaid debit cards and then fanned out around the globe to drain ATMs.

The Associated Press cited Brooklyn lawyer Loretta Lynch as calling the operation "a massive 21st-century bank heist" and comparing it to the Lufthansa heist in the late 1970s, immortalized in the movie 'Goodfellas.'

According to the AP, an indictment accused the eight alleged members of the New York cell of withdrawing $2.8 million in cash from hacked accounts in less than a day.

After obtaining debit card data, they eliminated withdrawal limits on the accounts, created access codes and then sent a network of operatives fanning out to rapidly withdraw money in multiple cities, authorities said.

One of the New York suspects was caught on multiple surveillance cameras while others took selfies features giant wads of cash as they raided machines around Manhattan.

The cells would take their cut before laundering it through expensive purchases or ship it wholesale to the global ringleaders.

The scheme involved attacks on two banks, Rakbank in the United Arab Emirates and the Bank of Muscat in Oman.

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They're here!

The first 17-year cicadas from the group known as Brood II were spotted on the Upper West Side on Wednesday, according to the "Swarmageddon" map created by WNYC's RadioLab. 

A handful of the grasshopper-looking bugs were seen on West 108th Street near Central Park, DNAinfo's Elizabeth Barber reports. 

This is only the beginning.   

The insects, which spend nearly two decades underground, emerge by the millions every 17 years to mate and reproduce. The adult cicadas will die after about six weeks, subsequently sprinkling the ground with their crunchy, lifeless bodies. Meanwhile, the eggs will hatch, drop to the ground, and bury under the soil to begin the 17-year cycle all over again.  

Manhattan is not a hot spot for cicadas — the bugs will be more populous in suburban areas where there are lots of trees and shrubs for them to feed on — but they are expected to make a relatively strong showing in Central Park and Staten Island. 

Cicadas are not a threat to humans — they do not bite — but they can be extremely loud. The males make a loud buzzing noise to attract females.  

Weary New Yorkers can report and track cicadas using RadioLab's map, embedded below:

SEE ALSO: Everything You Need To Know About The 17-Year Cicada

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Lot18, a wine e-commerce site that once dominated the New York startup scene, is undergoing more layoffs.

This morning, eleven people were let go, dwindling the staff down to 36. Last year, Lot18 had nearly 100 employees.

The cuts were made across all of Lot18's departments.

Lot18 last laid off workers in January, when 25 positions were cut. Over the past year, Lot18 has lost multiple executives, shut down verticals and offices abroad, and pivoted the business from flash sales to a direct response company.

The company says the layoffs are the result of that shift, and Lot18's acquisition of Tasting Room earlier this year. 

"The flash business of Lot18, now a retail business, can operate – and flourish – with a much smaller staff, while all remaining resources are being dedicated to Tasting Room," a company spokesperson tells Business Insider. Tasting Room has been beta tested, redesigned and relaunched.

Lot18 gained a new CEO, Jay Sung, a few months ago. Sung was hired in December following the departure of Lot18's co-founder, Kevin Fortuna. There were a number of months between Fortuna's departure and Sung's hiring where the company operated without a chief operator. Fortuna's co-founder, Philip James, is still at Lot18 in an operation role.

"The people who are leaving the company worked extremely hard, and their focus and dedication have ensured that the company will grow and thrive," says Sung of the layoffs. "I attribute much of the company's successes, to this point, to their efforts, and it's difficult to see them go. I wish them the very best."

The story of Lot18 is one of the more tragic startup tales. When Lot18 launched in 2010, it gained users and generated revenue quickly. Investors were impressed and gave it $44.5 million. 

Unfortunately, the early traction was the result of aggressive, unsustainable user acquisition marketing campaigns. Ecomom, a eco-friendly ecommerce site for moms, used a similar tactic and failed under its now-deceased founder, Jody Sherman. Both companies spent extraordinary amounts attracting users with unbelievable discounts which were costly to the companies' bottom lines. Neither could convert the one-time users into repeat customers who were willing to pay full price.

In addition, wine is a difficult product to ship and sell online. It needs to be packaged carefully and shipped promptly in temperature-conscious environments, which costs a fortune. Orders must also meet each state and country's legal requirements, making it an inefficient business to scale.

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The three buildings at the World Trade Center site have massive vacancies, and with over 5 million square feet of space in the complex on or due to hit the market, landlords are racing to secure tenants at the $14 billion development, Crain’s reported.

No office lease has been signed at the site since publishing giant Condé Nast took 1.2 million square feet at 1 World Trade Center two years ago. At the time, the deal was hailed as a sign of the area’s hot office prospects, but the site has since been unable to compete.

Time Warner, the biggest tenant currently shopping for Manhattan space, has set its sights on Hudson Yards, and has already spoken with several developers to ink a potentially 1.3 million-square-foot deal.

And Jones Day, which many real estate players believed would become the anchor tenant at the stillborn 3 World Trade Center, is instead close to a 400,000-square-foot-deal at nearby Brookfield Place.

“It’s definitely disappointing,” Christopher Ward, former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the World Trade Center site, told Crain’s. “Jones Day should have been the deal that 3 World Trade Center landed.”

The situation has led to a duel between developers to lock in tenants.

“There’s only one 1 World Trade Center,” Douglas Durst, chief executive of the Durst Organization, which co-owns the 3.5 million-square-foot tower with the Port Authority, told the Journal. “Those who want to be in the best building will come here.”

But Silverstein Properties, which is behind the 75-story, 2.5 million-square-foot 4 WTC, is confident that the building would be a better bet. “We have a building that’s going to feel like a tower on Park Avenue,” Janno Lieber, president of Silverstein’s World Trade Center Properties, told Crain’s. [Crain’s]

More from The Real Deal:

1. Steve Witkoff revealed as “friend” of indicted Russian mobster 
2. Manhattan renters: get ready for a cutthroat summer
3. “Million Dollar Listing New York” season debut: The real story

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Back in the violent 1980s and 1990s, a Brooklyn detective prided himself on playing by his own rules to get his man.

It turns out he may have screwed up a ton of cases in the process.

The Brooklyn, N.Y. District Attorney is reviewing 50 murder cases investigated by Detective Louis Scarcella after David Ranta was cleared of murder following a 23-year prison sentence, The New York Times reports.

Prosecutors found Scarcella screwed up the investigation that landed Ranta in prison for killing a Rabbi, even removing "violent criminals from jail to let them smoke crack cocaine and visit prostitutes in exchange for incriminating Mr. Ranta."

Even more troubling allegations about Scarcella are emerging now, including an allegation of what The Times referred to as a "common eyewitness." A crack-addicted prostitute named Teresa Gomez served as a witness in six different cases that Scarcella had investigated.

Lawyers called Gomez "Louie's go-to" witness, according to The Times.

One murder defendant Robert Hill, who got convicted after Gomez testified against him, told the Times he thinks Scarcella railroaded him.

Scarcella, who is 61 and retired, told the Times he never "fudged a lineup" but he has acknowledged playing by his own rules. He appeared on the self-help guru Dr. Phil's TV show back in 2007 to discuss false confessions. Here's what he said, according to the Times' account:

"Are there rules when it comes to homicide? No. No, there are none. I lie to them. I will use deception. The bad guys don’t play by the rules when they kill Ma and Pop, shoot them in the head, ruin the lives of their family. I don’t play by the rules.”

He went on: “I would use a lie. I had a case, and I said: ‘I have your prints. You were there, and that’s it.’ He said: ‘No. No way. I wasn’t there.’ It’s like 4 in the morning. I take him into the bathroom, and he says to me, ‘Louis, you were right. I was there, but he kicked me, and I shot him by accident.’ I said, ‘Don’t you feel better now?’ And he’s now doing 37 ½ years to life.”

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When Jonathan Mayers started interning at Jazzfest he didn't exactly know he would one day helm a company responsible for putting on some of the biggest and best music festivals in the United States. But that is exactly what happened.

While living in New Orleans, in addition to interning he was booking a club called Tipitina's where he met Rick Farman and through him Kerry Black. The three of them started thinking about doing their own events and Mayers brought in Richard Goodstone, a friend from high school who moved down to New Orleans. And Superfly was born.

They started with concerts and concert series around special events like Jazzfest and Mardi Gras. The four focused on creating unique one off events, "thinking about it almost like an art project," as Mayers told Business Insider, putting extra effort into getting cool art for the posters and creating engaging environments at the concerts.

With their expertise growing the four decided to launch Bonnaroo in 2002 and it quickly blossomed into one of the premier summer festivals. As that event has grown over the years the group has added more festival and more staff.

The 4-man team has grown to around 60 full time employees in offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. And on top of festivals they've also moved into brand marketing programs, creating unique experiences around brands and companies.

To stay grounded and continue the fun, family feel they started with, Superfly has created an open and relaxed office environment. This keeps it easy for people to work together and collaborate and come up with the new and exciting ideas that keep their events fresh.The occasional late night karaoke session helps too.

But at the end it is about the music and show and when we stopped by their office they were gearing up for this year's the Great Googa Mooga which will take over Prospect Park on May 17-18.

Welcome to Superfly!

The company has a fun entrance that can also serve as a workspace. Julie Daly, seated at the desk, has been an administrative assistant at the company for a year and a half. She enjoys the "family vibe" around the office and loves the company's music festivals. For Googa Mooga she is looking forward to seeing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

A souvenir from last year's Great Googa Mooga, a fun way to kill time if you have to wait in the waiting area.

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One of the weirdest homes on the New York real estate market has lowered its asking price from $13.588 million to $10.999 million, according to The New York Daily News.

The 14,000-square-foot Chapel Hill Mansion in the Bronx was originally built in 1928, and remodeled by the head of the New York Theological Society for the preparation of the "second coming of Jesus Christ."

The home was supposed to house "the Christian savior once he returned to earth to judge the living and the dead," listing broker Sean McPeak of Prudential Douglas Elliman told The Real Deal in 2012.

Perhaps the creepy backstory has caused the house to remain on the market — the new property listing on Halstead Property glosses over the home's weird history.

Instead, it talks up the tile from the Holy See, a replica marble fireplace like the one at the White House, and a chandelier from The Plaza.

This is the 14,000-square-foot Chapel Hill Bronx mansion meant for Jesus Christ's second coming.

The home features marble floors imported from the Vatican and chandeliers from the Plaza Hotel.

The dining room boasts an original hand-carved marble fireplace.

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The New York Police Department say that the fatal shooting of a man in Manhattan's West Village early Saturday morning is being classified as a hate crime, NY1 reports.

The shooting took place shortly after midnight at West 8th Street and 6th Avenue near Gray's Papaya. The 32-year-old victim was shot in the face at point blank range and pronounced dead at Beth Israel Hospital.

“This fully looks to be a hate crime; a bias crime,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters today. “There were no words that would aggravate the situation that were spoken by the victims. They did not know the confronter. There was no previous relationship.”

According to the New York Post, the victim and a friend were walking on Sixth Avenue when they were approached by three Hispanic men. These men apparently asked the victim and his friend if they were "gay wrestlers" and made other homophobic slurs.

The victim and his friend were followed by two of these men, before one pulled out a gun and shot the victim in the cheek.

The shooter then ran downtown before being caught by police at MacDougal and West Third streets, the Post reports. The gunman has not been identified yet as he had phony ID on him.

The Post also reports that the shooter had earlier got into a confrontation after urinating outside a bar on Barrow and West Fourth streets. In that confrontation, the shooter had allegedly told a member of staff at the bar that he would shoot him, and that he was behind last year's school shooting in Sandy Hook.

There have been a spate of attacks on homosexuals in New York in recent weeks — Gothamist reports that there have been four such hate crimes in the past two weeks. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters today that there had been 22 bias attacks in the city so far this year, significantly higher than the 13 that had occurred at this point last year.

In a sad coincidence, Friday was the International Day Against Homophobia.

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The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) is working around the clock to get the Metro-North Railroad back to full service after two trains collided Friday evening in Connecticut.

72 people were injured when one train derailed and crashed into another, outside Bridgeport.

As of Sunday, nine were still hospitalized, and one was in critical condition, according to NBC New York.

Repairs of the tracks began Saturday night, once the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is investigating the accident, authorized the removal of the train cars.

As of noon Sunday, the MTA had used cranes to remove seven cars and re-railed nine others. Most of the damaged overhead wires were removed, and the MTA expected to have them replaced by Sunday evening.

Workers will lay 2,000 feet of all new track in about two days. Then new wiring and components will be installed, inspected, and tested, before full service can resume. That won't happen until "well into the work week,"the MTA said.

In the meantime, the MTA has organized a fleet of 120 shuttle buses for affected riders, and warns all customers to be prepared for "significantly longer than normal" travel times, and "significantly crowded" trains.

One commuter told Business Insider service was relatively normal this morning. A train scheduled to arrive at Grand Central Terminal at 8:14 was 10 minutes late, and an 8:30 train was on time and not more crowded than usual.

Here are MTA photos from the scene of the ongoing repairs:

SEE ALSO: Explore The Cavernous Construction Zone Below Grand Central Terminal

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