It’s Good To Be Beep!

Parking spaces? We don’t need no stinking parking spaces:

Borough President Marty Markowitz has 13 coveted parking spots in traffic-congested downtown Brooklyn — but that hasn’t stopped him and his staff from using the Borough Hall pedestrian plaza as an illegal parking lot.

The Daily News found up to 17 cars at a time parked on the flagstone plaza in the last three months — even though it’s in the middle of Columbus Park, a city park.

“It is illegal for anyone to park on the pedestrian plaza around Borough Hall,” said a city official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Markowitz’s own black SUV is routinely parked on the sidewalk on Joralemon St. next to a busy newspaper kiosk amid a throng of pedestrians.

. . .

“You don’t need a car,” said [Larry] Johnson. “There’s a bus and train on every corner. They should be subject to the same tyranny as us, and park on the street.”

Shh, Don’t Tell PETA . . . But It Works!

The buzz in Queens is about the new electrified subway trusses that are keeping pigeons away:

Pigeons have long plagued a stretch of Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside, making a home among the trusses and girders under the rumble and roar of the No. 7 train and leaving their mark on the sidewalk, stairs and lampposts.

After a decade of requests, New York City Transit is providing some relief in the form of low-voltage wires that give the birds a little shock.

New York City Transit, a division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, began installation of the pigeon deterrent at the 52nd Street stop of the No. 7 train in August as part of a pilot program to rid the area of the birds, and the work continues, a New York City Transit spokesman said.

. . .

The preventive measure is comprised of a flexible wire and plastic molding carrying a low voltage that gives a mild and non-lethal shock to the birds, according to the manufacturer’s Web site. The system, called Shock Track, is manufactured by Bird-B-Gone Inc. of Mission Viejo, Calif.

City Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Sunnyside) also lobbied on behalf of the deterrent system, writing his first letter about the pigeons to the president of New York City Transit only weeks after taking office in 2002.

The Woodside location is the first site where New York City Transit has installed this system, which is considered a pilot program, Transit spokesman James Anyansi said.

. . .

Jose Sanchez, a newspapers salesman who has been working just outside the station for the past eight months, said the bird droppings still coating parts of the sidewalk had been a problem for commuters.

“It would fall on many people. It was a problem, but not so much for me,” he said.

He said the system appeared to be working: “There are fewer pigeons in the past five weeks.”

State Assemblywomen Catherine Nolan (D-Ridgewood) and Margaret Markey (D-Maspeth) lobbied the agency for a cleanup.

“I am pleased that the MTA has started to address this serious health and sanitation issue. It is a relief to know that this unsightly and unsanitary situation will soon be fixed,” Nolan said.

Train Whistle Blues

Longtime Sunnyside residents are struggling to cope with train noise related to maintenance work at the nearby Amtrak-Long Island Rail Road train yards. Hopefully the work will end before the luxury lofts — going up literally right next to the train yards in neighboring Long Island City — are completed. The Queens Chronicle tells the story:

Trains passing by their building with the horns blaring are leaving some Sunnyside residents sleepless, stressed out and feeling like they live on the wrong side of the tracks.

Horn noise from the Long Island Rail Road and Amtrak trains that pass by Sunnyside Towers has increased recently, say occupants of the 39th Avenue co op building, which the trains pass by 24 hours a day.

. . .

Ayne Horyn, a 20 year resident of the building, finally started complaining last week to the railroad about the noise. By the weekend, nighttime horn blowing had mostly subsided, at least temporarily. Horyn also consulted with a noise expert to find out how the horns could be affecting her health.

Les Blomberg is the executive director of the Noise Pollution Clearing House based in Montpelier, Vt. He said that even intermittent noise can have a negative effect on residents, and one that isn’t always recognized by the industry. “In the recent train horn study that the (Federal Railroad Administration) did, they wouldn’t even say that train horns wake people up, but they absolutely do,” he added.

Assuming that a Sunnyside Towers resident is 100 feet away from the train horn when it blows, Blomberg estimates the sound they hear is likely around 110 decibels — as loud as a rock concert and about 30 times louder than a normal conversation.

Even if residents are able to sleep through the sound, Blomberg added, their bodies still respond with a little burst of adrenaline, interrupting their sleep cycle. “Whether they acclimate or not, there are going to be some lingering effects to it,” he said.

Then again, maybe the Sunnyside Rail Yards will be covered one day . . .

And We Can Have Him Study Criminal Justice — Or Theatre Even!

Was this ever an idea for a film script? If not, someone should get on it:

John A. (Junior) Gotti could be headed to the Midwest — and to college — after his latest trial on racketeering charges dead-ended yesterday, buffing his contention that he put a life in organized crime behind him.

“If they let us alone, I’ll leave. I’ll take my family and I’ll go [to the Midwest],” vowed Gotti, who spoke of his desire to further his education.

. . .

In the latest trial, prosecutors tried to prove Gotti was part of a racketeering conspiracy because he has continued to receive mob money and benefit after 1999 from property and other assets he accumulated with proceeds from his crimes.

His defense lawyers say Gotti paid a large fine when he pleaded guilty to racketeering in 1999 and was permitted to keep his assets, regardless of where the money originated.

The Gotti camp clearly saw yesterday’s mistrial as a victory. “We’re just thrilled right now,” said his sister Victoria. “Today’s a humongous step. This win meant a lot to us.”

Did We Mention That This Would Probably Be A Tough Sell?*

A super-secret poll commissioned by Council Speaker Christine Quinn confirms what should have been obvious — voters don’t want the City Council to self-servingly overturn term limits:

The poll showed that only four in 10 New Yorkers favor having the council members stay longer than the current limit of two four-year terms.

Following months of speculation, the lawmakers were briefed yesterday on the results of a survey of 700 registered voters that the council speaker, Christine Quinn, commissioned in the spring. A consulting firm, Kiley & Co., asked voters whether they supported an extension of term limits: 40% responded that they did, while 57% were opposed, according to several council sources with knowledge of the poll results. The speaker paid for the poll with campaign funds.

The results appeared to confirm that Ms. Quinn and her colleagues would be igniting a political firestorm if they decided to take on term limits. Mayor Bloomberg is opposed to changing the law, and the businessman who originally championed the term limits initiative, Ronald Lauder, has vowed to fight an effort to overturn the law.

There are many reasons to get rid of term limits — the instability of revolving doors, the need for an institutional memory, the potential for increased grandstanding — but this is the best reason:

A Brooklyn council member, Kendall Stewart, said voters were “disenfranchised” in the earlier referenda because Mr. Lauder spent so much money, about $4 million, in support of term limits.

Huh.

*Why, yes we did.