Throughout our coverage of evictions and foreclosures these past few months, there's been a giant elephant in the room: Just about everyone one we've reported on has been black or hispanic.

Although there is no doubt the housing crisis is affecting minorities in the outer boroughs the most, this very serious problem can be found all over New York City.

Yesterday evening, a crowd of over 100, made up mostly of Lower East Side residents and activists gathered outside an apartment complex on 58 East 3rd Street to rally against the building's landlord, who has, apparently, demanded residents of the five-story apartment building, along with two neighboring buildings (50 and 54 East 3rd Street), to move out within 60 days.

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Okay, okay, we've been harsh on Amare, he deserves kudos for playing hurt on Sunday and helping his team to victory

Well, whatdoyaknow, the Knicks won game 4 on Sunday! The record-setting 13 game losing streak in the playoffs has been snapped!

Sunday's showcase was, in every way, the series many fans and basketball analyst had wanted/predicted/hoped to see. We finally got to see that Carmelo Anthony/LeBron James shootout everyone's been waiting for (These two go way back. They were rivals in high school and headlined the 2003 draft, when some thought Anthony should go #1 over James), as they traded buckets down the stretch in front of a rocking Madison Square Garden crowd.

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The New York Knicks were in an interesting predicament late last week as the NBA regular season was heading toward the finish line: They had the chance to choose their playoff opponent.

Heading into the final two games of the regular season with identical records with the Philadelphia 76ers, the Knicks could have fallen down to the 8th spot and face the Chicago Bulls, a team that, despite being the top seed, was largely considered an inferior team to second-seeded Miami Heat.

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Hello and welcome to the afternoon shift of the Village Voice's liveblog of May Day 2012, as the Occupy Wall Street movement calls for a "General Strike" and a day of protests around the city. Our reporters and photographers remain fanned out across the boroughs. We'll continue liveblogging their dispatches right here and bringing you the latest news as it happens. We also invite you follow us on Twitter (@VillageVoice) and you can also follow our correspondents from the scene: Nick Pinto, C.S. Muncy, Victoria Bekiempis, James King, Ben Sin, Sam Levin, John Surico, Robert Sietsema, Tejal Rao, yours truly, and, covering the OWS music events for our sister blog Sound of the City, Maura Johnston.

Stay tuned!

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Stoudemire leaving AmericanAirlines Arena with his arm, stitched up and in a sling

AP/Lynne Sladky

Well, the Knicks lost again to Miami, losing 104-94 to fall behind 2-0 to Miami Heat in this best of seven series.

The good news is that the Knicks, as a whole, played much better--at least the game was competitive compared to last Sunday's humiliation. Carmelo Anthony--you know, the guy some New York media have tried to play off as LeBron Jame's equal--actually played quite well, carrying the offensive load in the first half with his myriad of jab steps and pull up jumpers, and getting to the free throw line.

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Eleven years. Exactly.

Today, April 29, 2012, marks the 11th anniversary of the last Knicks playoff victory.

And judging by yesterday's smackdown at the hands of the Miami Heat, this drought may continue.

Especially considering that Iman Shumpert, the team's best perimeter defender by a mile--heck, he's one of three players on the roster who's not a bad defender, period--is out for 6-8 months with a torn ACL and meniscus.

While Miami's significant edge in free throw advantage (the Heat shot 33 free throws to Knicks' 11) had many fans roar out in anger over the officiating, blaming the loss on the refs is overlooking the fact that Carmelo Anthony had a horrible game, Tyson Chandler--suffering from the flu--wasn't his usual self, and LeBron James played out of his mind.

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The NBA playoff bracket is set, and the Knicks will take their talents to South Beach this Saturday to play LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and the Miami Heat.

It's a matchup that will garner more buzz than a typical two-seed-vs-seven-seed series, due of a myriad of subplots.

First, these two teams have history. Miami's general manager, Pat Riley, started everything when he famously left the Knicks' coaching chair for Miami in 1995. Oh yeah, he also resigned from the job via fax (that was like the 1995 equivalent of texting). The Knicks accused Miami of poaching Riley behind the scenes, and the bad blood boiled over on the court, culminating in the infamous 1997 playoff series between the two teams, when both sides participated in a bench-clearing brawl (The video to the brawl, which started with Miami big man PJ Brown flipping New York guard Charlie Ward in the air, here).

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The graphic on New Jersey Nets' front page

Last night marked the final home game of the New Jersey Nets, and although the franchise won't officially become the Brooklyn Nets until the beginning of the 2012-2013 NBA season (when they move from the Prudential Center to the Barclay Center), it's obvious those involved with the team couldn't leave Jersey fast enough, as evident by the graphic on their home page right now (the season isn't over yet... they're technically still the New Jersey Nets).

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie won't be missing the franchise, telling the Associated Press yesterday: "My message to the Nets is 'goodbye', they want to leave here and go to Brooklyn? Good riddance."

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It was a good Sunday for the Knicks. Carmelo Anthony had his best game of the season, scoring 43 points, including two long three pointers in the final seconds of the 4th quarter and overtime--the former forced overtime, and the latter won the game.

That the Knicks did it over the team with the best record in the league, the Chicago Bulls, made it that much more impressive.

Later that night, with the Philadelphia 76ers falling to the Boston Celtics, the Knicks even moved up to the 7th seed in the playoff picture...for now.

There are 18 days to go in the regular season, and things are about to get wild, as only one game separates the 7th seeded Knicks and the 9th seeded Milwaukee Bucks, with the 76ers in between.

Basically, three teams are fighting for the final two playoff spots, and each team has exactly 10 games left, including matchups against each other.

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awwwwkward

For the past year, the New Jersey (soon to be Brooklyn) Nets have banked their hopes on landing superstar center Dwight Howard--either through a trade this season or as a free agent this summer.

And by just about every account, Howard was set on leaving his Orlando Magic for the Nets until a last second change of heart hours before last month's NBA trade deadline.

So Howard probably won't be coming to Brooklyn, which sucks for the Nets on the basketball court, but look on the bright side: his prima donna act won't be here too.

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