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Saggy Pants Okay in Bloomberg’s Nanny State

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:15:01 +0000

Don’t be deceived by his crisp uniform; this man is not the fashion police. The notoriously regulatory Mayor Bloomberg—whose administration hasn’t hesitated to tell New Yorkers what they can eat , drink , and inhale —is refusing to use his power to protect citizens from the ubiquitous eyesore of saggy pants. After a judge threw out a disorderly conduct summons issued to a Bronx man because of his sagging trousers, Bloomberg weighed in on the divisive issue yesterday. But while other politicians, most notably State Senator Eric Adams, haven’t been afraid to make a stand on sagging , Bloomberg isn’t showing leadership. “I don’t know why people dress the way they dress,” Bloomberg told reporters yesterday. “I don’t judge people on how they look or how they dress. I judge people about how they act… Some dress the way I do. Some dress differently. I am certainly not the style police, much to my girlfriend’s annoyance… I don’t think the government should be in the business of telling people what they should wear.” We don’t know who this man is or what he’s done with Mayor Bloomberg, but it seems pretty obvious the powerful Saggy Pants lobby had a role in this.

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Saggy Pants Okay in Bloomberg’s Nanny State

Child Fatally Struck By MTA Truck In East Harlem

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:57:02 +0000

Google Street View of 125th Street and 2nd Avenue Around 9:40 a.m. this morning, a 7-year-old child and his mother were struck by a MTA tow truck at Second Avenue and East 125th Street. The boy was pronounced dead at Harlem Hospital. According to the Post , “The boy and his mother appeared to be jaywalking at the time of the accident” and the pair were trying to “coss an entrance ramp to the Triboro Bridge.” WABC 7 reports , “The tow truck was heading to assist a disabled vehicle on the bridge right when the mother and young boy were crossing the street. Sources tell Eyewitness News the driver probably never saw the two crossing the street. The tow truck is operated by the MTA Bridges & Tunnels.” The driver stayed at the scene and no criminality is suspected.

PETA Packages Human Flesh In Times Square

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:40:17 +0000

PETA got back to their “Meat Is Murder” basics earlier this week, wrapping up their members in cellophane, drenching them in fake blood, and letting them bake in the summer sun in Times Square. The organization blogged about the event, saying their mission was to get across that “all meat comes from somebody. And when you show human bodies in those neatly plastic-wrapped supermarket packages, the point hits home and it begins to look like a grisly scene from Dexter .” (Speaking of Dexter , this new season is going to be intense .) Would you Go Veg after stumbling upon this scene? If not, the organization also says that according to a new study , the more meat people eat, the more weight they gain over time—and chicken is allegedly the big culprit. They say, “researchers found that the people who were most likely to gain weight were also those who ate the most chicken, followed by processed meats and red meat. For every additional 8.8 ounces of meat that people ate daily, they packed on about four and a half extra pounds over five years.”

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PETA Packages Human Flesh In Times Square

NYC Rally Against Arizona’s Immigration Law

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:31:13 +0000

With Arizona’s controversial immigration-enforcement law taking effect yesterday, hundreds participated in a New York City march and rally. According to City Room , the rally started with “about 30 people. But the crowd grew quickly as local groups like Vamos Unidos from the Bronx, and DRUM, a Southeast Asian group based in Jackson Heights, Queens, gathered their ranks and found additional support among grandmothers dressed in skirts and sneakers, church groups, women in hijabs, and a former Arizona border patrol agent.” Rafael Samanez of Vamos Unidos said of a judge’s decision to block part of the law ( here’s a Q&A on the law ), “It’s a good start, but it’s not enough. Whatever happens in Arizona eventually makes its way to New York.” And associate minister of Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village told DNAinfo, “In the Bible, no rule is more often mentioned than welcome the stranger among you. This is a country built on the possibility that immigrants can come here and build a new life. Obviously you and I are not from here. That dream is not over.” But the marchers were met with a couple dozen pro-immigration-enforcement protesters. City Room reports that one Manhattan resident said, “There are illegals infiltrating every state; it’s not just Arizona. Do you think that they all stay in Arizona once they’re in? They’re everywhere,” while one from Queens said, “The illegal aliens have devastated the work force, the economy in Arizona and for the United States. They are devastating our education, all the schools are overcrowded. They are devastating our health care and they are taking jobs away from American minorities and unschooled workers.” However City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Queens) said that illegal immigrants are “taking jobs that Americans don’t really want.” The City Council rejected a total boycott of Arizona yesterday, but did allow Speaker Christine “Quinn to file a friend-of-the court brief on behalf of the Council supporting the federal lawsuit against the contested law, which calls for cops to check immigrants’ legal status.”

Bloomberg Says More Immigrants Are Needed

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:38:19 +0000

Photograph by Ozzdo on Flickr Mayor Bloomberg continues to express his dismay over Arizona’s controversial immigration-enforcement law . In an interview with MyFoxNY , he said, “The solution to our problems is more immigration, more immigrants. That’s been true since the Pilgrims settled here. And will continue to be true even more so in the future as we continue to live in a more global technological world.” He explained, “We have to an immigration law that everybody understands and that is enforced. And the ways to do it is very simple. It is four-pronged: You give permanent status, after [they] pay fines, learn English, whatever, to the 12 Million. You reduce the demand for labor from illegal immigrants by enforcing the laws that the companies cannot hire undocumented. And you can only do that if you give them the tools, which is a biometric Social Security card, probably nothing else. You make sure that we go and we provide visas for those that we want. And if you do those things, you have a strategy. If you don’t do those things, it’s not going to work.” When asked, “Is it not of a concern to you that 60 percent of Americans support the Arizona law, and a majority of New Yorkers also support it?” he responded, “I don’t think ‘concern’ is the right word. I think it is shocking and terribly worrisome.” And about the undocumented immigrants in NYC, ” This city depends on these people. This country incidently depends on these people. You would devastate the national economy if by some magic, and that’s the only way you would do it, you would find everybody who was here illegally and deport them.” Right now, a rally is being held at Cadman Plaza to protest Arizona’s law. While a federal judge struck down parts of the law , one of the rally’s organizers told NY1 , “The judge’s decision was really very limited. It’s also temporary. It means that key provisions are actually going to go ahead, such as people being able to sue the police department if they don’t enforce the law; workers are not going to be able to seek work in the streets, which is really important for people seeking day labor.”

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Bloomberg Says More Immigrants Are Needed

The Bronx Wants More Free Water Stations

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:21:06 +0000

Photo via hudson’s flickr Those free water stations are rotating throughout the boroughs—but is the Bronx being left to dehydrate? With ten stations on the move, the borough is only getting one, and only for four days this month. The Daily News reports that in comparison Manhattan will have several stations set up for 24 days this month. City Councilman Oliver Koppell told the paper, “Unfortunately our city government focuses more on Manhattan than on the outer boroughs.” The Water on the Go project was created to encourage people to drink water over sugar-loaded beverages, and as one Columbia professor noted, “The possibility of being overweight in New York City is 86% higher in the Bronx than in Manhattan” (sugary beverages can also lead to dehydration). The Department of Environmental Protection says locations were selected for the amount of foot traffic they get, and from the looks of the schedule , the Bronx isn’t the only borough being left thirsty.

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The Bronx Wants More Free Water Stations

Judge: Paterson Showed "Poor Judgement" But No Criminality

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:51:21 +0000

AP Five months have passed since former chief judge Judith S. Kaye took over the investigation into David Paterson’s role in his aide’s alleged assault against a former girlfriend. Today Kaye released her report [ pdf ], concluding that Paterson did not break any laws when he repeatedly contacted the woman, Sherr-una Booker, after his former top adviser , David Johnson, allegedly choked her, tore off her Halloween costume, and threw her against a mirrored dresser last October. There has been widespread speculation that Booker dropped her court case against Booker as a result of pressure from Paterson and the State Police . (She dropped the case the day after a phone call from Paterson.) After the New York Times published a series of incendiary articles detailing the Paterson administration’s response to the alleged altercation, Paterson reached out to Booker again, and instructed his press secretary to draft a statement for Booker declaring that “though our break-up was not friendly, there was nothing acrimonious about our relationship or its ending.” Booker refused to issue the statement. Paterson also left a voicemail message for Booker after the story broke. Here’s the awkward transcript: Sherri, this is David. You should see the way they wrote this story. They’re trying to make it look like I pressured you into dropping this court case. Please help me. Your lawyer — his statement makes it sound the same way. Um, I mean — I was trying to find out about the rumors involving myself. You placed the call to me around ten minutes to four on Sunday, Feb. 7 — it was the day of the Super Bowl. And, um, in the conversation, we just talked about the things that — that — you didn’t say anything about me, and I didn’t say about you. Then we went on to talk about other stuff, but — I hope, uh — you remember that I was not trying to make you do anything, and — I hope your lawyer will do something to help me here, because this, uh, doesn’t look good for me, and I wasn’t in this. Apparently, Booker had plenty of room on her voicemail, because Paterson went on and on like Jon Favreau in Swingers : And this is exactly what they’re after. And I — I was just not in this and didn’t — um, you know — want to play a role in it. And, to be honest with you, I believe you. So — um, anyway, uh — if you can help to clear this up, because it — that portrayal, that conversation — we didn’t talk for one minute, we talked for 10 or 15 minutes. And, um — I did tell you that I was there for you, and you could call me. But I wasn’t doing it to try to trade it for you dropping the ca — I didn’t even know the court date was Monday, to be honest with you. I’ll talk to you later. Paterson later testified that he reached out to Booker because he had heard that she needed help handling press inquiries. Kaye’s report states that “there were numerous telephone contacts between the Governor and Booker, some that he initiated even after he became aware of the serious nature of her accusations, and even just after he referred this matter to the OAG. Regardless of any good faith reasons on the part of the Governor for contacts that he initiated, these were errors of judgment.” But Kaye found no criminality on behalf of the Governor. So we guess this means he’s cleared to run for Governor again! Watch your back, Cuomo. Kaye’s report does say that there is “evidence reviewed warrants consideration of possible charges” against Johnson relating to the alleged altercation with Booker, who last week decided to continue with her legal action against Johnson.

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Judge: Paterson Showed "Poor Judgement" But No Criminality

Midweek Special: NYC Restaurant Reviews

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:20:19 +0000

In his most well-written review to date, Times dining critic Sam Sifton files a nuanced one star review on The Lion , a see-and-be-seen restaurant from chef John DeLucie, formerly of the Waverly Inn. This place is so disgustingly fashionable you might assume the food’s an afterthought, but Sifton says DeLucie’s still got it, and the critic has a fine time despite “a shouty crowd with corkscrew necks looking to see who will be next into the dining room, who next on the stairs… Only a Berkshire pork chop with fermented black garlic and what the menu calls ‘applewood smoke’ really disappoints. It arrives at the table on a wooden cutting board, beneath a glass dome filled with acrid smoke. The flavor it imparts seems to be that which might have been achieved if someone had simply stubbed out a glowing Marlboro on the meat.” New York ’s Adam Platt also reviews The Lion, and he’s not having it. “The service on my visits was generally exemplary,” Platt opines , “But the wait between courses routinely stretched on for too long, during which time the noise bouncing around the little Hobbit Hall dining room grew from a low murmur to a hysterical din. ‘Put it in your article: This is the most obnoxious restaurant in America,’ shouted one of my debonair uptown guests as she took possession of her $25 Amish chicken, which consisted of a single well-prepared breast cut in half to make it look slightly larger than it actually was.” The “most off-the-wall thing” on the menu at Buka, a Nigerian restaurant in Clinton Hill, is isiewu ($14), “a goat-head stew typical of the cooking of the Igbo tribe of eastern Nigeria,” writes Robert Sietsema at the Village Voice. “Strips of face flesh are mired in a thick, brown sauce at once creamy and spicy, flavored with onions, lemon, palm oil, and utazi leaves, which are dark green and bitter; one can buy them dried in most West African groceries here. The dish is unspeakably rich, and you can play a game with the rest of your table trying to identify each individual facial feature. ‘Here’s a piece of lip,’ crowed a dining companion. ‘I think this must be forehead,’ roared another. But I won the prize when I pulled an eyeball out of the sand-colored goo.” Sietsema’s Voice colleague Sarah DiGregorio reviews Korean-esque restaurant Mrs. Kim’s in Greenpoint. “At Mrs. Kim’s, if you want banchan—the array of small dishes that usually come complimentary at Korean restaurants—you must order and pay for them,” reprots DiGregorio. “This momentary annoyance is quickly assuaged by the quantity and quality of its kimchi selection. For $6, you receive a stone slab bearing five different kinds of pickled and cured vegetables that vary day to day, save the always available napa cabbage classic. We particularly admired the sesame leaves softened in an incendiary chile-garlic paste, tasting herbal and faintly of cinnamon.” The Commodore Oliver Strand at the Times likes Williamsburg’s The Commodore , which “feels like the bar next to the bus station, only without the daytime drinkers and sticky floor. Instead, there are skinny young things wedged between the bar stools ordering blender drinks like the Commodore ($9), a piña colada with an Amaretto float. Most important, there’s a kitchen that turns out a vaguely Southern array of crunchy, spicy, greasy, gooey and salty dishes that push all the right buttons when you’re rolling through your third drink of the night.” The New Yorker’s Lila Byock says Torrisi Italian Specialties, the instantly popular little Italian-American restaurant in Little Italy, “offers a convincing diorama of the dwindling neighborhood. Salamis dangle in the window, Coke comes in miniature glass bottles, and men in paper hats slice lunch meat behind a counter… The entrées… displayed excessive force: a skate filet was so drenched in butter as to obviate any other flavor; a pork chop tasted mostly of vinegar from the marinated peppers heaped on top. As for the pastry course, it recalled the ubiquitous parcel of sweets left behind at a wake. You might nibble absently at a rainbow cookie before waddling out to join the other mourners on Mulberry Street. Little Italy is dead. Long live Little Italy.” And Time Out’s Jay Cheshes gives four out of five stars to Bay Ridge’s Tanoreen and its “almost-narcotic” Middle Eastern fare: “Palestinian-born Rawia Bishara, who runs the restaurant with her daughter Jumana, prowls the dining room nightly, a maternal hostess generously handing out hugs, handshakes, and big party platters lavishly garnished in tomatoes, parsley and za’atar dust. Her cooking—Middle Eastern soul food, you might call it—is based on tradition but not enslaved by it. While many dishes are just like what her mother made, plenty of others chart their own course. Attention to detail distinguishes all of them.”

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Midweek Special: NYC Restaurant Reviews

Bloomberg Supports Canada Goose Killings

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:42:27 +0000

Mayor Bloomberg was asked about the recent Canada geese gassings—with 290 killed in Prospect Park, and around 170,000 more to go. But while many New Yorkers are upset about the mass killings, Bloomberg is in full support of it. He told the Wall Street Journal , “Look, the Department of Agriculture has to deal with the fact that all these geese are a danger to people flying. People are not going to stop flying and we have to make a decision. It’s geese or human beings—I can tell you where I come out on that. I don’t think you need a quote from me.” In the past 10 years, there have been 78 goose strikes in New York—the most famous being that of US Airways Flight 1549 , which was forced to land in the Hudson River.

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Bloomberg Supports Canada Goose Killings

On the Market: Turtle Bay’s Alexander Bounces Back with $17.25M Penthouse

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:14:53 +0000

Click the image above to view the full photogallery. The team at The Alexander seems really torn up about the fact that all the buyers were offered refunds and developer Alexander Gurevich was ousted from the project and banned from selling apartments in New York for three years. Or not. A few months after everything went down with the Attorney General and a new manager was appointed, the building has recovered enough unleash its combo penthouse , now on the market for $17.25 million , or $3,138/square foot, pretty pricey for Turtle Bay. That’s the kind of confidence we like to see! The penthouse’s two components, units PHA and PHB, were originally on the market for $6,085,115 and $7,507,500, respectively, but are no longer being sold separately. So how will the combo look? The penthouse listing doesn’t have a combined floorplan yet, but we tossed the separate ones, and a few renderings, into the gallery above. · Listing: 250 East 49th Street [Corcoran] · Official Website: The Alexander [thealexanderny.com]

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On the Market: Turtle Bay’s Alexander Bounces Back with $17.25M Penthouse