Plum Crazy

In Your Own Backyard

Sometimes you forget where 30 minutes on a subway can bring you.

It's a funny thing living in a big city. Mostly you don't take advantage of all the things it offers. You think "Oh, I'll do that next weekend," but next weekend doesn't come. Life gets in the way.

I've been meaning to go to the Cloisters for years. Literally. Since I was in my 20s. Finally, today, thanks to A, I went. Very lovely.

And because you're on a hill in northern Manhattan, you get a wonderful view of the beautiful Hudson River.

Oh Joe Bruno

I find this a little bit hard to swallow from the third most powerful man in New York State*:

“Nobody wants to hear it, but my being in office has cost me a fortune — millions, literally millions,� he said. “I’m worth a hell of a lot less today than I was 30 years ago. That’s kind of sad. I’m worth a hell of a lot less now than I was 10 years ago.�

You're absolutely right, Joe. Nobody does want to hear it. You wield a tremendous amount of power in New York State. You could have chosen not to run for re-election any number of times. You made your choice, and it was power over (more) money. Stop whining.

Bruno is under investigation by the FBI right now for possible conflicts of interest surrounding his consulting business. I suspect this is the cause of his whining about his monetary situation, even though he's still pretty well-off by any standards.

It will be interesting to see how this investigation turns out. Right now, the Republicans have only a four-seat majority in the State Senate. The Democrats have a 59-seat majority in the State Assembly. If Bruno, the state's top-ranking Republican since Spitzer won the gubernatorial election, is indicted, it's likely that lead will shrink to three seats (I assume Spitzer will appoint a Democrat to hold Bruno's seat until the next election). New York State's last Democratic governor, Mario Cuomo, was not particularly willing to campaign heavily to bring the State Senate under Democratic control. Spitzer has indicated he's far more willing to do so. The play of politics in New York State may be about to get much more interesting.

*I'm giving the edge now to Sheldon Silver, the Democratic Speaker of the Assembly, since Spitzer became governor. A few months ago, when Pataki was still governor, I'd have said Bruno was the second most powerful man in New York State.

Dear Alan

Don't worry about paying for the legal advice. I told you there was no charge. But thanks for taking my advice and giving up the ghost. Better for all parties concerned.

Sincerely,

Jon

Dear Alan

Allow me to offer you some free legal advice. Cop a plea and resign your position. Better to have done it six weeks ago, but better late than never.

Sincerely,

Jon

Dicey Times

Life is growing bleaker for Alan Hevesi. Elliot Spitzer has determined that Hevesi owes another $90,000 in the Driving Mrs. Hevesi scandal, the independent prosecutor George Pataki appointed to investigate the case has wrapped up his investigation, and the nose is tightening in the polls (4 to 12 points). Honestly, I'm getting a bit nervous that Hevesi may lose this election. IMO, Chris Callaghan is in no way qualified to be NYS Comptroller, and I'm afraid we may get stuck with him for four years. The best scenario, as repulsive as it seems, is for Hevesi to win the election and then get replaced once he's tossed from office. Still, I cannot bring myself to vote for him and will abstain from the Comptroller balloting.

New Yorkers' Dilemma

Vote for Alan Hevesi and you support a thief of public funds and the public trust. Elect Chris Callaghan, and you have installed a man utterly unqualified to be NYS Comptroller. Do you elect Hevesi to ensure that the NYS Legislature can choose a more qualified replacement? It's a question that I will wrestle with over the next week and a half. Most likely I will wind up abstaining from the election.

Fatal Flaw

In classic tragedy, the tragic figure has a fatal flaw that leads to his or her demise. In King Lear, for example, Lear's fatal flaw is hubris, as is often the case in tragedies.

Alan Hevesi seems to suffer from the same problem. The correct course of action for Hevesi is to resign from office, withdraw from the election, and when indicted, which no doubt he will be, to strike a plea agreement. Instead, he insists on fighting to the bitter end and enduring continued public humiliation that will only get worse as the days pass.

It's hard to fathom why, but I suspect that it's hubris, plain and simple. He felt that the law didn't apply to him, and in the words of the NYS Ethics Commission, that he could substitute his own judgment for theirs. Now he insists one mistake, no matter how criminal, should not erase 35 years of public service. Yes, it should. You break the law and abuse your authority and the public trust, especially as New York's chief auditor, and you don't deserve to be in office. He is pathologically unable to understand this fundamental truism. He is the big bad Alan Hevesi, the trusted public servant and steward. New Yorkers should be allowed to choose their own Comptroller, independent of what he feels are partisan machinations. True they do, but he has forfeited the right to earn anyone's trust, and I suspect he will find that New Yorkers will choose Chris Callaghan over him.

One way in which Hevesi does differ from classic tragic figures. He doesn't recognize his flaw. As a result, he deserves no sympathy or absolution. He will suffer a well deserved public humiliation.

My Faith in Eliot Spitzer is Vindicated

Eliot Spitzer has withdrawn his support for Alan Hevesi in the upcoming New York State's Comptroller's race.

And my lack of faith in Shelly Silver has also been vindicated. I don't know what he thinks is the possible excuse for this lapse on Hevesi's part, but I don't know what Shelly Silver's thinking most of the time anyway. "I forgot" or "I made a mistake" are no excuses for the top financial watchdog of the State of New York, and these seem to be the only excuses Hevesi's offered. If he's got a better one, I'd be curious to hear what it is. However, as he is responsible for making sure the State has strong financial controls in the first place, I cannot envision an excuse that would be acceptable.

The Steve Martin Defense

Alan Hevesi: "I forgot."

Moderator: "You forgot?"

Hevesi: "Well, excu-u-u-u-se me!"

Note: the last line is made up. The rest is not.

Scary Stuff

Last night on the subway - we were riding in the 10 pm hour - I read the NY Post's story about the chainsaw-wielding maniac who decided to carve up a man waiting on the platform. That brought to mind other recent incidents on the subways, including the serial stabber last month, who attacked a Texas man without any warning signs. Now comes news that terrorists were plotting to bomb the PATH tubes in an effort to flood lower Manhattan. It all makes you realize how vulnerable you whenever you're on public transportation or out in the public for that matter. Someone could strike you down anytime, anywhere for any reason or no reason. It's just something I'll have to put out of my mind when I ride. I can't live my life like a hermit, but perhaps I can be more vigilent of my surroundings.

The Kindness of Strangers

We tend to focus on the negative in life, and there's a lot of negative for me to focus on right now. With NYC Transit workers on strike, as a manager for the Long Island Rail Road, I have to be at the Forest Hills Station from 1-9 pm to assist customers who want to talk the Rail Road into Manhattan. That means 8 hours outsdie in the cold dealing with unhappy customers. Yesterday, however, two people saw my running nose and offered me a pack of tissues and wad of napkins, respectively.* For their compassion and kindness, I thank them.

*Yes, Mom, I did have tissues of my own, but not always the opportunity to use them right away.

Almost Oops

I nearly sent a co-worker on a wild goose chase tonight. He asked me how to get to the Met from Penn Station. I told him to take the E train to 53 Street/3 Avenue, transfer to the uptown 6 to 77 Street, and then walk from 77 and Lexington over to 82 and Fifth. Then, because by a fluke I happened to know what exhibit is there now, I asked him if he is going to see the Van Gogh exhibit. At which point, he informed me he is going to the opera. At which point I realized the horrendous mistake I almost made. I promptly gave him the correct directions. Afterwards, I called Lesley with the exact same question Arnie had asked me. She had the awareness to ask whether I meant the Museum or Opera. Lesson learned.

A Pure Canard

From today’s Newsday article on opposition to Mayor Mike’s proposal to restore the commuter tax:

There is only so much the commuters can stand, said Gerry Bringmann, chairman of the LIRR Commuter's Council, an advocacy group. The commuter tax might be the straw that broke the camel's back and makes people decide they can't afford to work in the city anymore.

Having once worked for the Council, I highly respect the organization, but that comment is blatantly stupid. The commuter tax would be 0.45%. Say you earn $100,000 a year, a relatively decent salary for the region. Your tax would be $450 a year. That’s not exactly a pittance and would force people to make some sacrifices, but come on, you’re not going to give up a high-paying job over $450 a year. Mr. Bringmann's sentiment, while well meant, is nothing but a red herring.

Don't Take People With You

A man is on trial in Long Island for a traffic accident in which he killed two people. According to the prosecutor, he deliberately drove into the other car because he wanted to kill himself. Next time drive into a tree.

Dear Anne

Yeah, like you could last a fucking day on the streets of New York. And I'm not talking about the nice, pretty shops on Fifth or Madison. Put your platinum card away, girlie, and visit the real New York.

Don't wear your 3 1/2" stilettos either. You won't be able to run fast enough.

As Republicans were saying repeatedly – captured on Lexis-Nexis for a year before it showed up in a Frank Luntz talking-points memo in 2004 – the savages have declared war, and it's far preferable to fight them in the streets of Baghdad than in the streets of New York (where the residents would immediately surrender). That strategy appears to be working. Then again, maybe it's just that it's so damnably hard to find parking in New York ...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure it was meant as a joke. But, you know? Not funny, bitch. Oh, I'm sorry. Was that not effete enough of me?

What *You* Should Do

Some helpful hints passed on by Londoners who lived through 30+ years of IRA terrorism. A lot of common sense stuff, really.

• Make sure you keep your bags and packages with you at all times.
  
• Look around when you're leaving a public area to be sure you have taken all your bags and packages.
  
• Throw away your garbage, instead of leaving it on the seat or floor. [Which, really, we should all be doing anyway, because it's just good manners.]
  
• If you see an unattended bag or package, ask the people around it if it belongs to them. If it does not, leave the area and notify someone in authority of its presence.

Something Must Be Done

This is something. Therefore, we must do it.

Of course, any would-be terrorist will just refuse the search (which they have the right to do according to the policy), leave that subway station, and walk to the next subway station instead. Net effect? Average New Yorker, inconvenienced. Increase to subway safety, nil.

Inspired by CGHill. And one of my favorite Britcoms - "Yes, Minister".

Dear Weather

I'd just like to point out to you that it's now MAY!

Thanks for your kind attention to this matter.

AIG = Vote for Spitzer

Can you say, "Conflict of interest?"

Via Leaning Towards the Dark Side (ignore their bias against the Yankees).

Not Going Your Way

The MTA's slogan is The MTA: Going Your Way. Not these days. In the latest in an alarming string of major service disruptions, a smoke condition forced the evacuation of hundreds of A, C, B, and D riders this evening morning. The incident is the fourth such delay in the last few weeks, coming on the heels of a shutdown of Lexington Avenue service for the better part of a day, a smoke condition that left 7 train riders trapped under the East River for an hour, and a fire that stopped service near Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. At first, I wanted to believe NYC Transit's line that these problems are merely a fluke rather than a trend, but I'm not so sure anymore.

West Side Story Continued

In a development that surprised. . . no one, the owners of Madison Sqaure Garden have filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the MTA's decision to award the air rights over the West Side rail yards to the Jets. This saga could run longer than the original West Side Story when it came to Broadway in 1957.

The Mystery Is Solved!

Finally we find out what the nearly invisible George Pataki has been doing for the last 10 years. I did once see him in a restaurant in Manhattan too. So presumably he also eats, at least once in a while.

A Walk & Lunch

One of the fabulous things about life here in the Big Apple is the range of ethnic foods. It's actually easy to become jaded because there are so many choices. If you want Asian food, you can choose not only from Chinese and Japanese, but also Vietnamese, Korean, Thai, and Malaysian. Yet, there are times I have passed on one of these choices because I am tired of Asian food, even though there are notable differences between these foods.

Alas, I digress. This afternoon, I walked from my apartment in Forest Hills to Shea Stadium, obviously not because there was a game, but because it was a nice afternoon for a walk. Instead of walking home, I hopped on the 7 train to Jackson Heights to transfer to a train back to Forest Hills. As I was descending to the Queens Boulevard line, I remembered that Jackson Heights is home of the wonderful Jackson Diner, an Indian restaurant. On the spur of the moment, I decided to get some take out, which turned out to be goat curry, rice, and Nan. I just polished it off a few minutes ago. Delicious and well worth the side trip.

Now, if I want to do some work the rest of the evening, I won't feel I am missing out, having spent an excellent few hours this afternoon. Nor will I feel bad about being cooped up tomorrow when bad weather hits. I even have some goat curry left over for lunch.

Tme for a Second Helping

No more persuasive argument can be made for building the Second Avenue subway in New York than Wednesday's stand still on the Lexington Avenue subway. When signal outages shut down the 4, 5, and 6 lines for much of the day, hundreds of thousands of commuters were left scrambling for alternatives in an area bereft of them. Above 23 Street, there is only one subway corridor on Manhattan's east side. On the west side, commuters can choose from 4 separate north-south trunk lines. With the federal government seemingly on board to help fund the Second Avenue subway, it is up to Governor Pataki to join the game and show us the money. Hopefully, he will play and not punt.

Take My Seat. Please.

A Daily News reporter used his pregnant wife to test how long it would take for subway riders on SRO trains to offer a pregnant woman a seat. This little experiment strikes me as a sham. If she's able to traipse about from subway line to subway line, then she doesn't need a seat, does she?

Flush This Plan Already

This obsession with building a new stadium for the Jets on the West Side of Manhattan has got to stop. They're even considering slating it for the 2010 Super Bowl, even though the stadium doesn't exist, and there's no guarantee it will ever exist.

Any Jets stadium in New York City belongs in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, adjacent to Shea Stadium and the National Tennis Center. There's ample room for a stadium there, the site is easily accessible by car and train (the subway and the LIRR), and isn't located smack dab in the middle of one of the world's most congested areas. It's got to be cheaper since you don't first have to put a platform over existing rail yards.

When Philadelphia built new stadiums for all three of their pro teams, they put them all in the same place. Ditto when Seattle built separate stadiums for the Seahawks and Mariners. Besides, aren't most Jets fans from Long Island anyway and would have a much easier time traveling to games in Queens than Manhattan.

Have I convinced the world now? Say yes.

Moonlightening Things Up

A couple of views of last week's full moon over Manhattan.

Toddler Saves the Day

Lesley may not be able to read a map, but it's a good thing this woman's three-yeard old daughter can read rudimentary sign language. The precocious tot saved her mother's life.

Brilliant

So, I'm on the LIRR heading home to Forest Hills from work tonight. I'm riding with a co-worker who's continuing on to Penn Station. (For the non-New Yorkers, Forest Hills is in Queens, east of Penn Station, but west of where we work.) We pass by a part of Forest Hills where I used to live. I comment, "I used to live here." Which sounded patently stupid because I still live in Forest Hills. Of course, I tried to clarify what I meant, but the moment was gone. It was too late to save myself from sounding like a space cadet.

Coming Distractions

I dislike all the ads and previews before movies these days as much as the next person. They add a good 15 minutes to the actual start time of a movie. But the NYC Council's proposed bill to require movie theaters to advertise the true starting time of movies, adjusted for the "pre-feature entertainment", strikes me as hurting matters, not helping.

People already know that features don't start as promised. Yet, they arrive early to get good seats and to avoid fumbling around in the dark. Now tell them that the movie starts at 3:40 instead of 3:20, and you'll have people showing up in the middle of ads and previews. When the lights are down.

If the Council really wants to help, figure out a way to restrict the number of previews and eliminate ads. That I can go for.

West Side Story

The battle for the air rights over the Long Island Rail Road’s west side rail yard in Manhattan is heating up. Where New York City and the New York Jets are pushing hard to build a multi-use stadium in the area, neighborhood activists and Cablevision, which owns Madison Square Garden, are striving equally as forcefully to derail the stadium.

Last week, Cablevision made things a lot more interesting when it offered the MTA $600 million to the development rights for the yard. Instead of the stadium, which Cablevision fears would lure business from the Garden, the company is proposing to put up residential and commercial buildings. The offer gained legs today when Cablevision met an MTA deadline to answer 46 questions about its proposal.

Naturally, New York City hasn’t reacted kindly to the bid, dismissing it as essentially fantasy and last-ditch desperation by Cablevision to protect its flank. Yet, what is most interesting about the city’s response is the positively hysterical allegations being hurled by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. You see, the stadium is the lynchpin to Bloomberg’s efforts to land the 2012 Summer Olympics, which he presumably sees as his legacy, never mind that he’s built a billion-dollar, world-renowned business empire.

In a truly choice quote, Bloomberg said, "It is just an outrage. It is more than a public relations gimmick; they want to take away the Olympics. They want to take away the future of this city. I've just never seen a company behave this way, and hopefully they won't get away with it."

He sounds like a kid who’s been sent to his room without his ice cream. Cablevision doesn’t want to take away the Olympics. Nor is it trying to take away the future of the city. Essentially, Bloomberg is saying that the city he is mayor of has no future, no hope, unless it hosts the Olympics. Nice thought.

He went on to say that Cablevision isn’t acting in the best interests of the city. Granted, Cablevision is motivated by its own needs, yet who is to say that the city needs a stadium more than it needs residential and commercial space. Or that a stadium is a better use of the land.

My own take is that dropping this mammoth facility smack in the middle of a mixed-use neighborhood will cut the community in two and destroy the community like the Gowanus Expressway marginalized Red Hook. In places where they have put new stadiums – Philadelphia and Seattle, for example – the stadiums were placed in areas off the beaten path. Close enough to be easily accessible, but not so central as to get in the way of everyday life.

Let’s hear Cablevision out. Let’s hear others such as the RPA (link to large PDF file) out. Let’s have a legitimate dialogue on the best use of the land before rushing to a decision. And Mayor Mike, grow up.

On Your Mark, Get Set, Get Ready, Go!

I coined a new phrase tonight: the Continental Dash.

A popular move for Queens Boulevard subway riders living at the 67 Avenue and 63 Drive stations is to ride the express train through to Continental Avenue and transfer to the opposite tracks for a local train back one or two stops rather than ride the local all the way from Roosevelt Avenue. For me, the decision hinges on whether there's a local train or promise of a local train at Roosevelt.

Often, when the express pulls into Continental, there is a Manhattan-bound train waiting across the tracks. Thus, anyone looking to pull this maneuver off successfully moves to a door by the stairs, crowds by the door, and is off like a shot when the door opens. A mad dash up the stairs, across the mezzanine, and back down the stairs to the waiting train. Too slow? You might as well have just waited at Roosevelt. You make it? Sweet, as you've shaved precious minutes of your commute.

p.s. I am quite good at ascertaining whether there will be a local train waiting at Roosevelt Avenue. As we are passing the local stop before Roosevelt, I scan the platform first to see if a train is there. If not, my next sign is the number of people on the platform. Few people waiting or a bunch of people heading up the stairs is a good sign that a local just pulled out. Last sign is the signals on the local track. Still red or turning orange? Thumbs up on a local train plodding its way toward Roosevelt. Ah, we sophisticated (and modest) New York subway riders.

Bummer

Seems that I was wrong that the V train would run on weekends as long as it was replacing the C. No sir, the C will be replaced by the A on weekends, which is somewhat perplexing. Are they running extra A trains to make up for the loss of C or is service just going to be sliced on weekends until the mess is sorted out. With the capacity constraints caused by last week's signal fire, I assume it's the later.

So rather than funnel the money saved by not running the C into alternative service, NYCT is simply going to pocket the spare change. Something's not right about that.

For Me The Question Is Why, Not How

Wouldn't it have been easier to swap the properties instead?

Running Weather

The sidewalks are reasonably clear, the skies are clear and sunny, and it's not absurdly cold. A run doesn't promise to be an exercise in hypothermia this morning. Unfortunately, my hands will be cold, since I lost my glove liners. Obviously, I neglected to stuff them in my hat.

Uodate: like I thought, a glorious and basically perfect day to go running, though my building super did look at me cross-eyed and ask, "Heat wave?"

Did We Say 3 To 5 Years?

Instead of the original three to five years that NYC Transit was saying it would take to restore full A/C train service after a signal room fire, the agency is estimating service will be restored within six to nine months. Sounds much more reasonable. In the meantime, while C train riders suffer, I will enjoy having the V train on weekends.

On The Bright Side

A small but extremely damaging fire has caused such extensive signal problems that service on the A and C subway lines in NYC could be disrupted for as much as five years. Right now, service on the A is running at one-third of its usual level, while the C is suspended indefinitely. There is, however, one silver lining in this if you are a Queens denizen.

At the risk of being selfish, because I am also seeing this through my eyes, the resulting service plan will actually benefit me and all other residents along the Queens Boulevard subway corridor. The V will replace the C train, which means that for the first time since NYC Transit rerouted the F train several years back, there will be two weekend trains operating through the 53rd Street tunnel and along Queens Boulevard (ok, under Queens Boulevard). That also means two local trains operating along this corridor on weekends, where right now there is often only one because the G train generally is cut short for track work. Of course, it will suck for G train riders because their trains will terminate in Long Island City for the duration rather than run through to Forest Hills. They will have to transfer to E or V service, which makes for a mighty long underground walk.

Is this what people mean by the "butterfly flapping its wings" theory?

When Will We Ever Learn?

By we, I mean my employer, the Long Island Rail Road. In the teeth of this weekend's blizzard, the Rail Road ran regular service, which may seem ok on the face it of it, but is actually an uncessary risk.

As electric trains run through snow and ice, their motors get wet and can short, leading to a shortage of functioning cars. It happened to Metro-North in a blizzard about 10 years, prompting changes in its procedures for operating during snow (basically they don't), and has happened to us in the past.

Well, guess what? It happened again, with service disruptions likely for the rest of the week. As the saying goes, those who don't learn from history are fated to repeat it.

New York's Finest

This is why New Yorkers know that our police are the best in the world: No Police State.

Courtesy of Imshin

Big Apple Bloggers Bash!

Well all right!

January 23rd. I'm there.

Bwahahaha!

There's nothing like the sales pitch of a real estate broker. A broker from Cushman & Wakefield had the following to say about potential tenants for the new Freedom Tower:

"I think there's a huge desire, not just by leaders of companies but also by individuals, to overcome" fears of terrorism, said Bruce Mosler, president of U.S. operations at Cushman & Wakefield in Manhattan.

I think you're nuts, Mosler. Speaking as someone who worked at the World Trade Center up until the very day that my office was destroyed by a 757, I'm telling you that I feel no need to overcome my fear of terrorism by going back to work in a stupidly tall tower. How Freudian can you get, anyway? "Ooh, look, my tower's bigger than your tower! I'm so mighty!" The very fact that people still live and work in New York City is indicative of having overcome fears of terrorism. Working in a tall, ugly building proves nothing. Although I can imagine the rental ads: "The Freedom Tower. Rent space now, or The Terrorists Will Win^TM."

Besides, the real reason companies will rent space in the Freedom Tower was summed up by a businessman, not a real estate broker:

Some survivors agree. Anthony Schirripa, chief executive of Mancini Duffy, an engineering firm, was in the south tower Sept. 11, 2001, but none of his employees were hurt. Schirripa said he would return to the trade center if the numbers worked.

"I don't think anybody would be squeamish about it," said Schirripa, an East Northport resident. "It's an economic decision."

That's right. It won't be about overcoming fears of terrorism. It'll be about the bottom-line. Just like it always is.

A Victory for Party Politics

But a loss for those of us who feel our two-party system needs an overhaul. The quote that best sums up why I think our current system needs some major changes.

Democrat Norma Hart, a 73-year-old retired schools psychiatrist, said, "Some people think the party system is evil, but I don't. If there are no primaries, how would we know who was good?"

Yes, that's right, in what signals a death knell for critical thinking all over New York City, apparently we need to be told who's good. Heaven forfend we should have to actually research candidates' stances on issues and their backgrounds and, gasp, come to a decision for ourselves. It's so much easier when someone else can tell you who's good.

The trust in the parties to tell us who is good is naive, at best. Most primaries are reflections of who the power brokers in the parties want to see in office for their own reasons, not who is the best candidate.

It's seldom that I agree with Mikey on anything, but I'm right behind him on this one. The stranglehold that the two major parties have on this country is detrimental to it. They have become voices for special interest groups, bought by whomever can offer them the best deal. They'll sell out their base if they believe that another group can get them elected. These are not people out to represent our best interests, but to represent their own best interests. Doing away with party affiliations would be one way to at least make politics accessible to people who otherwise don't have a hope of getting on the ballot, because no party will support them.

What the Hell Did They Think Would Happen?

I'm sorry, but sometimes a reaction to a product is so obvious that the store should foresee it. Like with this Monolopolyesque game Ghettopoly.

The game replicates Monopoly but replaces the game pieces with "ghetto" characters including "playas," crack houses and pimps.

In a news release promoting the game's release, the objective is described.

"If a playa owns all the stolen property in da same color pattern, da playa can buy crack houses from da Loan Shark and set 'em up on da property," it reads. "If da playa has four crack houses on each of the stolen properties of da same color pattern, he can buy projects from da Loan Shark."

Yeah, it takes a genius to figure out that this game, using racist stereotypes, is going to cause outrage. Whatever useless M.B.A.s* in their marketing department decided stocking this would be a good idea should be axed. Leading me, yet again, to ponder when we might break down and impose criminal charges on monumental stupidity.

*Yes, I do have an M.B.A. I maintain it is a degree useful only for making your resume look good and helping you find jobs. In other words, it is useful to me individually, but not so much to my job.

A Nobel Day for New York City

It was a good day for New York City. The Nobel Prize for Chemistry went to two professors - Roderick MacKinnon, a professor at Rockefeller University in NYC; and Peter Agre, a professor at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. The Nobel Prize for Economics went to Robert Engle, a professor at my own alma mater, New York University. Sadly I never had a class with Professor Engle. Although I did study bankruptcy with Edward Altman. I doubt most people know who he is, but he is the man when it comes to bankruptcy. Back in the late 1960s he developed a little bankruptcy predictor model which has come to be known as Altman's Z Score. So prevalent is the use of the Z score for bankruptcy prediction that Bloomberg terminals automatically calculate it for public companies.

Random Thoughts

I'm going to post thoughts that stray my mind today about 9/11. This post will be updated as the day goes on.

My office at the WTC was always a mess, with stacks of papers all over. Frank used to joke with me that the only way to clean my office was to throw a match in it. In a fit of black humor on 9/11, I remember thinking "Well, that's a bit of overkill, wouldn't you say?" [Note: Mercifully, although I didn't think so on the day he told me, Frank, who worked for me, had resigned in June, 2001. On 9/11 and thereafter, I was grateful he had. Frank always got in around 7:30 a.m. If he hadn't resigned, he'd have been killed.]

9 months was the hardest time for me. I was freaking out so badly, I was seriously considering leaving the country. By the one-year anniversary, that terrible fear had passed.

I'm glad my company moved us to Hoboken. I'm glad I moved to Hoboken. At the end of every day, I would feel "Another day passed without a terrorist attack." And I never knew which would be worse - that I would be killed in the next attack or that I would survive again but more people I knew would be killed. I don't worry so much about the former, although I do still fear the latter. How do people in Israel live with that fear all the time? How do they get through their lives? It's amazing.

9/11/01 started off as such a beautiful day. After the attack, I remember thinking how wrong it was for such a horrible day to be so sunny and beautiful. It should have been gray.

In retrospect, I'm glad it was sunny. The grayness would have reflected my mood, but the sunshine was like a tribute to the people who were killed. That is much more important.

Today

Here we are. The second anniversary of 9/11. A terrible day for this country. The worst day of my life.

What a difference two years makes. 17,520 little hours.

I still think about 9/11 every day. Maybe a day will come where I don't think about it for an entire day. I don't know, but I don't think so. It was just too big.

But I can think about it now without tears immediately springing to my eyes. I can talk about it now without my eyes welling up, without the choking lump in my throat. Usually. Well, at least sometimes.

There are still the sudden reminders. One of the guys I knew who was killed was named Joe Sisolak. Not a particularly common name, I would think. Two months ago, I get a prescription filled in a pharmacy in my new hometown of Hoboken. The pharmacist's name? Joe Sisolak. That one really caught me by surprise. It was a flashback to 9/11.

My tribute to the victims and survivors of 9/11 this year was to help Michele with the Voices project. I think it's such a good thing she is doing. It's a testimony to the impact 9/11 had on real people. 9/11 happened to America; it happened to New York; it happened to D.C.; but most of all, it happened to us. Thinking of it as something that happened to a place makes it too abstract. But I dare anyone to see it as an abstraction after reading all the entries there.

I remember two years ago, going back to work on the afternoon of Thursday, 9/13/01. They needed people to go through the lists of names of people to confirm who was safe and who was not. I spent two weeks, including weekends, looking at the names of people I had known for years. I had to learn to put aside the pain while doing that in order to get through it. I knew that the work was important. I knew I could do it. So I did.

I took some time off from work on Saturday, 9/15/01, to volunteer in the crisis center our company had set up. By that time, I had accepted that anyone we hadn't confirmed as safe was dead. I just did not believe that many people could have survived in the rubble that long.

We had lost so many of the senior managers in the technology department that they needed anyone who knew the victims to talk with their families. As I was speaking to them and hearing the desperate hope in their voice that their loved one was still alive, out there somewhere, I felt so badly. What could I say? What could I say to the mother who was convinced that her son had been on the subway at the time of the attack and was still alive in the subway tunnels; that it was only a matter of time before he was rescued? Soon enough, she would have to accept the truth. But I wouldn't take away her hope. Not then.

I still have never seen footage of the towers collapsing. I have consciously avoided it. One day I may be ready to see it, but today is not that day. We worked in the North Tower. The plane only hit the corner of the North Tower. We know that some of our colleagues survived the impact. There were text messages and cell phone calls. That is still what bothers me most. People I knew were still alive when the towers collapsed. I am not ready to see that.

I know a lot of people are angry, and I understand why. They have every right to feel angry. Even two years later. But I don't feel much anger. I can't be angry at a faceless enemy, a group enemy. I can be angry at a specific person, like Osama bin Laden, and I am. I just can't be angry at an abstraction. I don't think I'm wired that way.

But I can be sad. Sad for the people I once knew. Sad for all the victims, for the families of the victims.

I can be happy. Happy for the people who survived. Happy that I survived. Happy for the memories I have of the people I once knew.

Today will be bittersweet. I will remember my friends and colleagues. The happy memories I have of them will be laced with the sadness that there will be no more happy memories made of them.

Today I will remember that I am lucky to be alive. That I can still make happy memories of other people; other things. That life goes on.

One Year Ago Today

I started a poem not long after the attack as a way to verbalize my emotions. I also decided to make it an alphabetic acrostic as a challenge to myself and because many prayers in Judaism are alphabetic acrostics. I didn't finish it at the time. I revisited it one year later and finished it. I have never written a poem before. I probably never will again. It is what it is. Not a great work of art. But it is mine. Read it if you like.

Another Day Came

Another day came,
But I barely noticed.
Consumed as I was by petty things.
'Do I wear grey or red?'
'Eat now or at work?'
For how could I know that in an instant the whole world would change?
Gone in a moment - friends, work, safety.
Here to replace them - grief, anxiety.
If I could only have gone back one day earlier,
Jealousy, envy, pride I would have erased.
Kept only finer emotions.
Lost the unimportant, the petty, the vain.
Madness consumes the world.
Now the unity, so fleeting in the aftermath, is gone.
Our nation yet again torn apart by internal strife.
People still hate each other for nonsensical reasons.
Questioning why are you not the same as me?
Robbing ourselves of joy.
Seeing only the minor differences.
Taking no note of our similarities.
Using others to bolster our identities.
Vesting ourselves in one group; excluding the others.
What a waste.
eXclusion is our modus operandi.
Yet on and on it goes.
Zealous in our self-enforced isolation.

Two Years Ago Today

Following are two posts I wrote for a politics forum at the time of the attack. One I wrote on 9/11 itself, after I finally got home. My phone didn't work that day, but my cable modem never went down. The other I wrote two days later.

Written on 9/11/01

I'm still in shock. Nothing I ever saw compares to the sight of the two buildings on fire with gaping holes in them. I am just grateful to be alive. I just pray that many of my colleagues are also alive. I'm also glad I was not downtown when the towers collapsed. I'm not sure I could have handled seeing that. Hearing it on the radio was bad enough. People were crying on the buses. I was crying on the bus and while walking on the street trying to get home. It took me two hours to get home, but at least I made it.

Written on 9/13/01

I was on a bus on the FDR Drive approaching the Brooklyn Bridge exit, on my way to work at the World Trade Center Tower 1. Suddenly, people on the near side of the bus start looking out the window, shocked. Someone said "A plane just hit the World Trade Center." I couldn't even believe it, it really didn't register. The bus driver pulled off at the Brooklyn Bridge exit, stopped the bus, and told us we had to get off and "Good luck getting home." I got off the bus and looked up. Only now did this start to sink in, as there was a gaping black hole in the building, flames rising, and chunks of the building falling off. I couldn't figure out which tower it was, though, as I was in too much shock to remember which had the radio antenna. I tried to get on my cellphone, but it was not working. I walked about a quarter of a block, found a payphone to call my parents to let them know I was not in the building when it happened and to ask them to tell me which tower it was. I suppose at this time I still had some stupid idea that I would try to get to work if Tower 1 was not the one that was hit. Of course, at this point, we all thought it was an accident. Anyway, after I called my father, who hadn't even heard yet, I walked back down to look at the building. By that time, the second tower was on fire, with an even worse gaping hole. I started to cry even harder at that point, because I realized that this could not possibly have been an accident. People all around me were just staring up at the building in shock, some in tears, some unable to do more than stare.

Eventually, I started to walk uptown again, with some vague idea of getting on a subway home. I had a portable MP3 player with an FM radio with me, so I decided to listen to the news while I was walking. Unsurprisingly, and if I had been thinking clearly I would have realized this, the subways were not running. I did see that local bus service was still running, so I walked a ways to a bus stop and got on the First Avenue bus. I was sitting on the bus listening to the radio. Since no one else on the bus had a radio, I was telling the other passengers what I was hearing. I told them that the Pentagon had been hit also, and everybody's faces went even whiter at that. Somewhere around 34th Street, the news came on that Tower 2 had collapsed. At that news, the bus got very quiet. Around 50th Street, traffic was so bad that most of us got out to walk. I walked up a bit, still listening to the news, when I heard that Tower 1 had also collapsed. At that, I started crying again. Some very nice man stopped to reassure me, and then I went to find another payphone to call my parents again. Took me a while to find one, but eventually I did and called them. Then I walked a little ways further until traffic had cleared up and got back on a bus the rest of the way home. All told, it took me two hours to get home that morning.

The rest of the day was spent trying to let people know I was okay. I couldn't make outgoing calls for hours, but I was able to get some ingoing calls and so got some news about some of my coworkers who had not been upstairs at the time of the plane crash. I sent an e-mail to a guy who used to work for me who had moved to Chicago a couple of months earlier to let him know I was okay and to find out if he had heard from anyone else. He had not, at the time, but that got me on an e-mail list wherein we would all report when we contacted someone, so we had a list of people who were okay. I basically spent the rest of the day in shock on the Internet and phone, waiting for news of my coworkers, combing the survivors lists, crying off and on. I have not, to this time, seen actual footage of the towers collapsing, and I'm not sure when I will be able to watch that. It's enough for me to know that my office is completely obliterated and that hundreds of people I know are dead. I don't think I can bear to see it on tape.

If I Can Make It There

I have a meeting in Manhattan tomorrow afternoon. Since relocating to Hoboken, I have made the trip many times, on PATH and subway, without second thought. Now I'm freaking out about it. I am sure it's related to the upcoming anniversary of 9/11. Maybe I'll get a bus schedule.

That's the Night that the Lights Went Out

I imagine that a regular topic of discussion among Northeasterners for the next few weeks will be "Where were you when the lights went out?" (Gee, that sounds like a great title for a movie, maybe starring Doris Day.) Fortunately people took the blackout in stride. I have heard from those not affected by it that they expected New Yorkers to be really freaked out. Based upon my own experience, those of my friends, and news reports, that simply didn't happen. I was discussing that with a colleague, and I attributed it to the fact that after 9/11, this seemed like a mild annoyance and even slightly comical. A friend in Manhattan tells me that NYC was one big block party last night. Far from freaking out, people were partying down. Here in Hoboken, things were quiet, but calm.

Meanwhile, I'll share my story of "Where I was when the lights went out". Why don't others affected by the blackout share theirs too?

It was about 4:15 pm. I was having a discussion with one of my colleagues in his office when the lights started to flicker. They went off. They went back on. They went off. They went back on. Then they went off, and this time you could tell that the power was just out and it wasn't coming back on real quick. However, the building I work in is a brand-new building (just finished July 1 of this year), so it has a backup generator. So we were switched to emergency power, meaning that not all the overhead lights were working, and the air conditioning wasn't running on high anymore, but there was still power.

We had lights, we had phones, we had computer access (although the servers were going to be shut down in an orderly fashion so we knew that wouldn't last long), we had circulating semi-cool air. Our vending machines still worked, so we stocked up on cold sodas, water, and junk food to be prepared for when they were shut down to conserve the emergency power. I told the member of my staff who drives to work (he lives in New Jersey) just to head on home and give a ride to one of the other members of my staff who doesn't live too far away. The last member of my staff lives in Long Island, so he was S.O.L. I figured I'd hang out for a while, myself, since I knew the office had power, but my apartment wouldn't.

I made a few phone calls, and was actually on the phone with my mother when the phones went dead. My cell phone was working only spottily, but after about 5 tries, I was able to make a phone call to let her know what had happened, albeit the reception was lousy. Shortly thereafter, facilities management told us that if we wanted to remain in the building, we had to go down to the cafeteria. So down we went.

Once we settled in at a table by the window (with a lovely view of the Hudson and a nearly completely dark Manhattan), I played a game of chess with the guy from Long Island. He keeps a board at the office. Amazingly, despite not having played in years, I won. Sure, it had something to do with a stupid move he made early on in which he lost his queen, but hey, I'm not fussy.

The company decided not to risk all the food in the cafeteria going bad, so they brought out all the dairy products, cookies, bags of cheddar cheese popcorn, fruit juice, and water. I ate a cookie and then decided I would see how bad my apartment was. I asked the guy from Long Island (henceforth to be known as John) if he wanted to join me, but he declined. I walked the 8 blocks home, forgetting how amazingly dark my lobby and the stairwell would be. Fortunately my keychain has one of those little red lights on the end, so I was able to use that to give me enough light not to kill myself while getting up to my apartment. It was still somewhat light outside, so once in my apartment, I was able to get around fine. My apartment was sweltering hot. And, lucky me, my windows don't open. I actually had ordered new windows just two nights earlier, but alas, not in time.

I pulled out my taplight from the closet and went into the kitchen to retrieve my hand-crank flashlight with radio. Sadly the hand crank didn't work, so I was stuck with just the taplight. I changed my clothes and decided to head on back to the office, since they had power. I grabbed Trivial Pursuit before heading back down, taplight in hand while navigating the stairwell and lobby, and walked back.

Once at the office, I located John. We settled back in the cafeteria and played a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit. I won that too. I frequently win at Trivial Pursuit. But both of us still had fun.

After the game was finished, it was around 9 pm. John mentioned that Mars was very close to the Earth, so we went outside by the water, figuring that a blackout would be our only chance to see Mars above New York City. And there it was, hovering very brightly to the side of the moon. It was a weird sight, to see Manhattan almost completely blacked out, though. I'm so used to seeing the bright lights of the big city. But, since the temperature had cooled off a fair amount, we sat by the water for about a half-hour, seeing if our cell phones would work. Eventually both did, so we each made calls to friends and family.

We then decided to head back in and roust up some of that food in the cafeteria. We dined off of Cookies & Twix bars, cheddar cheese popcorn, and orange juice. Around 10:15 pm, we decided to try to get some sleep. He snuck back up to his office, but I opted for a booth in the cafeteria. I had brought a book from home and had my iPod, so I lay there listening to music and reading. Eventually I nodded off.

At first I woke up every hour until 2:00 am. During the 2:00 am awakening, the security guard told me that the building would be closed Friday except to essential personnel (and anyone stranded in Hoboken). Then I was able to sleep until 4:00 am, at which time I noticed, for the first time, that street lights were on outside the building. Hoboken had power back (or so I thought). However, it was 4:00 am and dark, so I decided to wait until it got light before walking back home. I fell asleep again and woke up at 6:00 am. That's when I walked home, stopping off at a little market to buy a few dairy products. I wasn't going to risk the dairy products which had spent 14 hours in my power-free refrigerator. That's when I discovered that not all of Hoboken had power back. The market did, but someone else in the market mentioned that his apartment, one block from my own, was still blacked out. I figured that meant I didn't have power yet either, but decided to go home anyway.

Upon arriving home, I found that I had figured correctly. Still no power. The apartment had cooled off a bit overnight, though, so I decided to wait it out. I figured if part of Hoboken had power, it wouldn't be long before the rest of it did. The town isn't that big. I was rewarded around 7:30 am, when I heard an odd loud beep outside. Somehow it dawned on me that that probably meant power had been turned on, so I looked at my cable box. Sure enough, it was rebooting itself.

I turned on the air conditioner, but kept it low. If I could open my windows, I wouldn't have done that, desiring to conserve electricity in case the power grid was still unstable. Alas, I could not. With the exception of the time I took my shower, when I turned on the lights in the otherwise very dark bathroom, I have kept my lights off all day, only used my wired phone, and kept off the TVs. Yes, I am using the computer, though (obviously). I'll turn that off soon too.

Later on I'll risk turning on the TV for a bit to see if I can find out when the power grid will be stable. Other than that it'll be me, my low air conditioner, and a battery-operated booklight for reading. All in all, this hasn't been a really hideous experience. It sure could have been a lot worse.

Taking Out the Trash

The Sanitation Department will increase trash-basket pickups to help deal with the trash collecting on NYC streets. This is good news. Unfortunately this still does not address the reduction in recycling pickups I discussed earlier this week.

I can't resist pointing out this quote from Mikey.

Earlier yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg — when asked about reports of garbage piling up on the streets — blasted the Daily News, which reported that city residents should get used to large trash piles.

"What is really disturbing is that there are some newspapers that think what we should do is settle for a bad condition, if it exists," Bloomberg said. "Number one, it doesn't exist. And, number two, we have no intention of settling for it."

Actually, I doubt the Daily News was suggesting we should settle for it. I think it was suggesting, Mikey, that you wouldn't do anything about it. Fortunately the Daily News was proved partially wrong (as was I). Prove us 100% wrong - Restore recycling pickups too.

Mikey's Ratings in the Trash

It is no surprise that Mikey's ratings have dropped to an all-time low of 24%. Unfortunately, like the trash on city streets, nobody is taking out the garbage. I wonder if the 24% approval comes from the rats, who must be the only ones pleased with the latest budget-cutting move - recyclables will now be picked up only every other week.

Those of you who are familiar with New York will understand the ramifications of this. The amount of trash produced in NYC is mind-boggling. Leaving it around to ferment in basements achieves nothing except allowing the city's already out-size rat population to grow even more. Then we'll have a public health hazard that will need to be dealt with, meaning more money will have to be spent on extermination. You see, these rats aren't your cute, friendly little rats that a cat can chase around and kill. These rats are bigger than cats. If you saw one move quickly, you might think a smallish dog had just run by. They also aren't your slink-around-by-night type of rats. The rats will be chasing the cats. In broad daylight.

Lovely. Just another reason I'm glad I moved out of the city.

New York's Most Wanted

Gizmo the kitten has done hard time - more than 40 hours in solitary at the Union Square Transit Police station in the subway. His offense? Sleeping in the subway station without a leash or carrier. Being a threat to the safety and well-being of subway passengers throughout the system. Damn hoodlum kittens.

Okay, actually it was Gizmo's owner who committed the offense by not putting Gizmo on a leash or in a carrier. Angel Melendez, a subway musician, brought Gizmo to the subway tunnels to hang out during Mr. Melendez's plastic-drum playing subway gig. Mr. Melendez was arrested and held for 40 hours before being arraigned and released with a sentence of time served. You would think there would be a less onerous punishment for having an unleashed kitten in the subways. Maybe one of those $50 tickets the Mikey administration likes handing out so much? Jail time seems a wee bit severe.

Story via my brother.

Making Enemies and Influencing People

Mikey must be the anti-Dale Carnegie. In his latest bid to prove that, in his case, you can't please any of the people any of the time, he offers a different standard for public drinking on Rockaway Beach than in Central and Prospect Parks.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said earlier yesterday that partygoers in the Rockaways should not be allowed to drink beer on the beach because "people are going to get drunk and go into the water and drown."

Well-behaved people should be allowed to drink wine at classical music concerts in city parks because "I don't know of anyone who's died in a tuba recently."

"People at Prospect Park...and Central Park...were behaving, and the police used their judgment and their discretion to enforce the laws in practical and common-sense ways," Bloomberg said.

While I certainly agree that the dangers of drinking and swimming are greater than the dangers of drinking and listening to the New York Philharmonic, I doubt Mikey even sensed the class bias inherent in his comments. So in Bizarro Mikey World, drinking while listening to classical music is okay, because, after all, classical music listeners are a high-tone, well-behaved lot. However, what indication was there that the people at the 9/11 fundraiser were misbehaving? And, when asked why they were enforcing the rules on Rockaway Beach, the police answered "The law is the law." Oddly, listeners of classical music are not exempt from that law either. So apparently it isn't just a matter of the police enforcing the laws in a practical, common-sense matter.

And in related news, this latest bit of Mikeyness has driven my brother from the minority to the majority - he now dislikes Mikey too. This despite the fact that my brother is not known for hanging out on Rockaway Beach knocking back a few cold ones. I guess I'll have to find something else to call him a freak about now.

Think He'll Get a Ticket?

We know the Mikey 24% administration doesn't balk at having cops ticket pregnant women resting on stairs or handing out $12,500 fines for awning violations. But, you think that former First Deputy Commissioner (of Police) Patrick Kelleher will get a ticket for fraudulently using paid spaces reserved for chiefs and inspectors? Me neither.

Set My Awning Free

In a scheme that proves the City Council has half a brain (but no more than that), they have decided to put a six-month moratorium on enforcement of the stupid awning regulations previously discussed here. If they had a full brain, they would have simply voted to rescind the damn regulations. But I suppose half a brain is better than none.

Take That, NYC Bashers!

To all the morons who have told me over the years what a crime-ridden cesspool New York City is - This one's for you. Our crime rate is about the same as Henderson, Nevada. Ne-freaking-vada.

Long Island Now Has Senator Pothole Federal Courthouse

In his 18 years in the U.S. Senate, Republican Alfonse D'Amato's reputation for fighting for New Yorkers big and small earned him the nickname "Senator Pothole."

They seem to think that was an affectionate nickname. I don't remember him having a reputation for fighting for New Yorkers big and small. I remember him having a reputation for fighting for Long Islanders big and small.

Yesterday, Long Island's federal courthouse in Central Islip was named in honor of the pugilistic politician. Among those heaping praise was Sen. Chuck Schumer, who defeated D'Amato in the 1998 Senate race.

"It was gracious of Sen. D'Amato to personally pick up the phone and invite me to come," Schumer said.

Yeah, that's a heap of praise, all right.

For his part, D'Amato was self-deprecating in his speech to several hundred gathered in the lobby of the 12-story building.

"The next time my name is carved in stone, I won't be there to enjoy it," he said, noting his own mortality.

Must resist temptation. Must resist temptation.

Mikey 24% Update

I figured out who the 24% of New Yorkers who think Mikey is doing a good job are - his alternate personalities. And my brother. Ah well. Fortunately Mikey isn't interesting enough for families to come to blows over. It's nothing more than me saying "You like Mikey? Freak."

It sure isn't police officers making up any of that 24%. Interviews with over 200 cops show that they're unhappy about Mikey's ticket quota summons performance measurement. Let's sum up: The police don't like him. The firemen don't like him. 76% of New Yorkers overall don't like him. And yet Mikey still thinks he's going to be reelected. At least he has his $5 billion net worth to fall back on.

Thanks Mom for sending me the article links.

Bizarro Mikey World Part 2

Mikey 24% thinks he's going to be reelected in 2005! Mikey, Mikey, Mikey -- 24% approval rating. The worst approval rating in the history of approval ratings. 8% drop from a few weeks ago. People pissed off at receiving bizarre tickets. Cops telling people who get bizarre tickets to "Blame it on Bloomberg." Mikey, you are so not getting reelected.

Thanks to regular reader Justin for the barber/loitering ticket story.

Mikey 32% 24%

"The mayor is making tough choices in tough times," Bloomberg spokesman Ed Skyler said on Friday. "Leadership is about doing what is right, not what is easy or popular."

If true, that would be good news for Mikey, because he sure ain't popular. Unfortunately for Mikey, however, Mr. Skyler leaves out one essential component of leadership - inspiring people to do what is right, rather than what is easy or popular. Mikey and inspiring are two words you wouldn't use in a sentence together without a "not" between them.

By that definition, Ed Koch was a leader. He did a lot of the same things Mikey is doing now (minus the ticketing pregnant women for sitting on subway steps kind of things), but he got New York City behind him. "Uncle" Ed, as he was affectionately known, went to the people and made his case. Most New Yorkers loved him. Mikey, on the other hand, sits in his office and just gives orders. When criticized, he falls back on the old "right, not easy or popular" schtick. Nobody is going to call Mikey "Uncle" or even "hey, Mayah!" He's just Mikey 24%.

Thanks to Andy for sending me the article.

Assault With a Deadly Stiletto Update

The woman who was charged with manslaughter and weapon possession after beating her ex-boyfriend to death with her shoe now claims that the killing was accidental. "Really, your Honor, I simply fell over straddling his chest. My shoe then flew into my hand and I had a freak spasm where my arm just started uncontrollably hitting him with the shoe." Interestingly, she is also claiming that she beat him because he threatened to kill her. So, was it an accident, self-defense, or murder? Hmmm. Think, think.

Things That Make You Go WTF?

There was a rally to protect the vision for the WTC replacement. This vision:

Taxing the Fat Cats

No, not the rich. A New York State assemblyman wants to tax junk food, video games, and TV commercials to fund an obesity prevention program. Can't we have some kind of tax on politicians for introducing nanny-like legislation instead?

UPDATE: The Brits are on this as well, proposing an additional tax on saturated foods. They raise a point I was thinking about on my way to work this morning -- Cheaper foods tend to be the ones that are highest in carbs and fat. Poor people are more likely to eat cheap foods for obvious reasons. Therefore any "fat tax" will have a greater impact on the poor than on the wealthy.

A levy on fatty foods would be widely perceived as a regressive tax because people on lower incomes tend to eat proportionally larger quantities of cheap, high-fat food.

"We need to educate people about the benefits of eating healthy foods and make them more responsible for their health," said Belinda Linden, Head of Medical Information at the British Heart Foundation.

"We also have to be sure that a fat tax does not just end up penalizing the poor without actually changing eating habits."

But Breach said the tax would hit food manufacturers hard and have little effect on the poor.

Dr. Breach is talking through his hat. The food manufacturers would raise their prices to offset the increased taxes they would be paying. It would absolutely have an effect on the poor; simply not a direct one.

It strikes me that if the government wishes people to eat better, it might better incent them by offering tax credits or deductions on good behavior. If, for example, someone joins a gym or buys exercise equipment, there might be a tax credit for the amount paid. It could offer insurance companies tax credits or deductions in return for the insurance companies lowering premiums for people who are fit. This type of program would have the benefit of not penalizing poor people by making their food bills higher than they already are.

Real Estate Update

Finally, things seem to be looking up a bit. The board approved my buyers, although they want 24 months of maintenance in escrow of which I'll be putting up 18 months. But better I should have $10,000 in an interest-bearing account I'll get back then lose $30,000 by having to break my purchase contract.

The mortgage company also fixed the commitment letter, so I'm set for the purchase. The seller still needs to fix a couple of things. Hopefully that will be taken care of soon.

Real Estate Woes

Buying and selling real estate really sucks. Co-op boards really suck. Mine is meeting with my buyers tonight, and I'm hoping it goes well. But apparently they feel that there are difficulties, even though it's an all cash offer and the only housing payment the woman will have is $580 per month in maintenance. Ah, but she just graduated from college and has no job history, and even though her parents will be on the proprietary lease and the stock certificate, well, they're all the way in Michigan. From the way they're talking about it, you'd think they were in Afghanistan or something.

And my mortgage company didn't take everything into account on the HUD-1 settlement that is a closing condition, even though I told them about all the fees. Trying to get the commitment changed is dragging on and on.

I hate real estate!

MTA = Monetary Tricksters Anonymous?

A month ago, a New York State Supreme Court judge issued a ruling ordering the MTA to rollback its mass transit fare hikes claiming the agency had knowingly misled the public about its financial condition. Now a second judge has ordered it to rollback its toll hikes for the same reason. Unfortunately, the agency has appealed both rulings, meaning the fares and tolls will remain higher pending outcome of the appeal.

A Quota by Any Other Name...

...is a "summons performance measurement". But in a bit of political doublespeak, Mikey says that telling beat cops that their performance will be judged, in part, on how many summonses they write is not an informal quota. No quotas for New York City cops. Nope. Nothing to see here, folks. Just move right along.

I've heard this bit about the numbers before. Ostensibly it's true that parking tickets and moving violations are down, but that doesn't mean that other types of tickets aren't up. Notice the administration ignores discussing any other sort of ticket. Furthermore, the parking ticket and moving violation fees basically doubled, so even a 17% and 7% decrease in summonses respectively equates to some nice pocket change to the city coffers.

Continuing to Hate Mikey

One of the downsides of moving to Jersey, I thought, was that I would no longer be able to stoke the flames of my fire of hatred for Mikey. After all, he won't be my problem any more, right? But it turns out, he will! Thanks to Mikey's smoking ban, people who used to party in New York City are now heading across the river to Hoboken to party. And I'm moving to Hoboken.

Having previously lived in Hoboken 12 years ago, I can assure you that even without the influx of additional partiers, Hoboken was always a party town with tons of people flocking there Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, generally making finding parking more of a nightmare and making a lot of noise. Now it will be even worse, and I can blame Mikey for it! At least until Jim McGreevey decides to implement the same type of ban throughout New Jersey. But then, at least, I will have my very first reason to hate Jim McGreevey - taking away my reason to continue to hate Mikey. Ain't politics grand?

How to Screw a Good Thing Up

As much as I hate to say anything nice about Mikey, it is true that he has handled the death of Alberta Spruill very well. Unlike his predecessor, he accepted responsibility for her death to her family. But he put a kink in that when, not content to sit back and let others praise him for his handling of the case (like former Mayor Ed Koch), he had to come out and gracelessly state that he did a better job than any of his predecessors could have done. While that may be true, and Koch said as much, sometimes it's better to be gracious and not appear arrogant. Most of what he said would have been fine.

"The most important thing is to tell the public what happened, which isn't always done in government," Bloomberg said of the probe. "There's a natural inclination to hide the facts because somebody may have made a mistake ... If you make a mistake, stand up and say 'We made a mistake.'"

I completely agree with him on that. He is 100% right. The government should be more forthcoming when it screws up, rather than trying to deny it ever does so. If only he had left his remarks at that.

New York's Finest

I don't think I can blame this bit of lunacy on Mikey, although maybe it's another in the increasingly long line of stupid tickets being written to bring cash to the city coffers. Police gave a Queens woman 3 tickets for having broken headlights. What's wrong with that, you say? Well, it wasn't just the headlights that were broken - the entire car was totaled. The woman was waiting for the insurance adjuster to come by to assess the damage.

Tax Hike Snafu

New York City bureaucracy at its finest. Due to some bizarre legislative "aging" law, New York City residents will be seeing two sales tax hikes. The .25 point state sales tax hike will take effect on Sunday, but the .125 point city sales tax hike will take effect later. The City Council approved the city sales tax hike yesterday, but apparently there is some law that states a bill must "age" for 5 working days before the Mayor can sign it, meaning Mikey can't sign it until next Wednesday. There is finger-pointing galore, with Mikey blaming the City Council for putting off approval, and the City Council blaming Mikey for not getting them the bill earlier. Although consumers won't mind waiting the extra week, merchants will now have to reprogram their POS machines twice.

I was thinking last night that one good thing might come out of Mikey "32% approval rating" Bloomberg's one term as mayor. Some of these ridiculous bureaucratic laws are coming to light, and maybe after he's out of office, they'll be repealed.

Mikey Strikes Again

In his never-ending quest to make New York City a less attractive place to live and visit, Mikey is having the police write summons for minor quality-of-life infractions. The two latest idiocies occurred when an Israeli tourist was fined $50 for taking up more than one seat on a nearly empty subway and a pregnant woman was fined $50 for resting on a subway stairwell. Lenore Skenazy of The Daily News comes up with a list of other infractions she'd like to see tickets handed out for, all of which sound better to me than the real examples. Meanwhile, I can't wait until 2005, when New Yorkers will be saying "Mikey, we hardly knew ye, but what we did know was more than enough."

Tip from Solly Ezekiel.

Mikey Gets One Thing Right

Okay, I've spent enough time bashing Mikey on this blog, and undoubtedly will return to bashing him in due course. However, I must give credit where it is due. There is one thing Mikey has done that I approve of - Pressured the City Council to trim its budget. In a time when 2,000 municipal workers were just laid off, there is just no good reason for the following.

Nearly three dozen staff members earn more than elected council members' base annual salary of $90,000. Four aides to Miller each earn $160,000, including the legislative counsel, land use division chief, general counsel and chief of staff.

There are also three $140,000 deputy chiefs of staff, a $120,000 senior adviser to Miller and a district-based Miller aide who gets $99,000 a year. Twenty-three central staffers are assigned to Miller alone.

Three attorneys were hired as consultants even though the council has at least 26 attorneys on its legal staff. CUNY professor John Mollenkopf got a $50,000 contract for redistricting assistance. In another consulting deal, Eric Lane, a Hofstra University law professor and an expert on the City Charter, was hired for $80,000 for one year as "special counsel to the speaker."

Council members get $240,000 each for staff and rent and are allowed to set staff salaries themselves. Some have hired their own press secretaries despite a 12-person council public affairs office in City Hall. Its director, Policano, earns $140,000.

If we are closing firehouses and reducing garbage pickups in Queens to once a week, I think City Council staffers need to make some sacrifices too.

Bizarro-Mikey World

More reasons to hate Mad Mike. The city is now fining businesses with awnings that have too many words. One gym in Brooklyn received a $12,500 fine for having the club's logo and phone number on his awning. The horror! A logo and phone number on the awning. But that's just Mikey, preferring to do the right thing instead of being popular. Sure, the right thing would have been to rescind the idiotic 1961 zoning ordinance that prohibits having a logo and phone number on an awning, but we're now living in Bizarro-Mikey-City, where doing the right thing equals whatever enters Mikey's head.

Via Asymmetrical Information

One-Termer

Mad Mike just doesn't get it. He is destined to be a one-term mayor. Mike, really, it's not just the tax and fee hikes. It's not just the idiotic "cross streets" which has made traffic worse. It's not just that you wouldn't march in the Columbus Day Parade because your poor little feelings were hurt when they wouldn't allow your actor friends to march. It's not just that you wouldn't allow people to give meaningful speeches at the 9/11 memorial. It isn't even just that you think you're too good to live in Gracie Mansion like a normal mayor. Although certainly all of those things are factors.

But, Mike, ultimately it's you. You come across as a stiff, uncaring little wanker. And when the city starts losing business and residents because of your tax and fee hikes, no one's going to be looking around saying that someone made the right decision. Unfortunately, I won't be here not to vote for you in the next election. I'm moving to New Jersey.

Double Jeopardy

As we recall, Lemrick Nelson was acquitted of state murder charges in the death of Yankel Rosenbaum during the 1991 Crown Heights riots. He was then convicted at a federal trial for violating Rosenbaum's civil rights, but an appeals court overturned the conviction on the basis that the trial judge improperly interfered with jury composition. Now that he is getting his retrial, he has changed his tactics. He now admits that he stabbed Rosenbaum, since he's safe from a murder charge, but is claiming that he did it because he was drunk, not because Rosenbaum was a Jew. Should this defense be successful, he will walk on the civil rights charges too, since they are predicated on his having stabbed Rosenbaum because of Rosenbaum's religion. Feh.

Pave Useless Organization, Put Up A Parking Lot

Useful Fools asks the question "What would you do with UN Headquarters?" Well, being a Manhattanite, I'd put up a parking lot. We need more parking. And less diplomats breaking our traffic laws.

West Side Story

The Jets hope to build a stadium with 85,000 seats on Manhattan's West Side. The proposed stadium will have no parking. As a result, Jets president Jay Cross estimates that 70% of fans will take mass transit to the stadium and, thus, will not make traffic even worse than it is today. I wish I had some of what he's smoking. It must be some good stuff, if he can convince himself that an 85,000 seat stadium won't make Manhattan traffic worse.

One Gutsy Thief

Apparently nothing is safe any more, when a thief can steal a Dali sketch from Rikers Island.

Just What New York Needs

Another tall, ugly building. Yes, the "winning" design for the new WTC has been selected. See it below.

Media Circus

The media has been all puffed up with its own importance today. Pre-empting programs to bring us shocking news - it's snowing outside. Damn, I couldn't tell that by looking out my window. No, I need the media to interrupt regularly scheduled programming to tell me that.

Not just that. They also told us that flights were being cancelled. Not anything useful to travellers like which flights. Just "lots of flights" are being cancelled. Flights being cancelled in a blizzard? Couldn't have figured out that would happen without the media to tell us.

They pre-empted programming to bring us other helpful news too. Things like "traffic is lighter than usual," or "you should stay indoors unless you have to go outside." Thank G_d the media is here to tell me those things. I never could have figured out on my own that many people would not be driving in heavy snowfall or that I should stay inside.

At one point they were interrupting programming every 15 minutes to bring us updates on these important items. That's when I turned the TV off.

Snow Update

18.5 inches of snow in Central Park now. Of course they pre-empted the first few minutes of General Hospital to tell us this, just when Jax was about to call off his wedding to Brenda! Have they no priorities? Well, there's always SOAPnet.

Grand Central

A friend of mine snapped a picture of Grand Central Station this morning for your viewing pleasure.