About 3,000 New York City taxi drivers routinely overcharged riders over two years by surreptitiously fixing their meters to charge rates that would normally apply only to trips outside the five boroughs, according to the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission.

. . .

The Taxi and Limousine Commission directed meter manufacturers to modify the equipment, to warn riders when the rate rises.
The drivers’ scheme, the commission said, involved 1.8 million rides and cost passengers an average of $4 to $5 extra per trip. The drivers, officials said, flipped switches on their meters that kicked in the higher rates, costing New York City riders a total of $8.3 million.

An internal letter sent to liquor stores recently by the London-based liquor wholesaler Diageo reveals it has been quietly subsidizing The Last Store on Main Street, the self-proclaimed “mom and pop” coalition pushing to cork Paterson’s wine-in-groceries plan.

Earlier: Modernize New York!; So Why Can’t We Buy Wine In Grocery Stores, Like Basically Everywhere Else On The Planet?; Wine, Whine; News You Can Booze.

Two state lawmakers at opposite ends of the political spectrum united to bar a controversial proposal by Gov. David Paterson to permit the sale of wine in grocery stores, bodegas, delis, mini-marts and gas stations statewide.

Controversial? Only in New York, kids . . .

Manhattan shops are less likely to have candies, chips, sodas and other munchies at the checkout than stores elsewhere in the country, according to researchers at the Tulane University School of Public Health.

Nationwide, 41 percent of non-food stores stock the treats, but in Manhattan, just 32 percent do.

The upside is that Manhattan’s obesity rate is 16 percent, compared with 33 percent in the rest of the country.

The acting head of the MTA said on Tuesday she can’t rule out a fare hike to pay for raises granted to bus and subway workers, which hiked their pay 11.3% over three years.

Irony alert: Bloomberg has the gall to grandstand about it.

Then there’s this tidbit, from the Post: “The MTA will have to raid $360 million from its federal stimulus dollars, the budget that funds mega-projects like the Second Avenue Subway, and from its reserves to fund fat raises for rank-and-file transit workers, angry officials said yesterday.”

Or even this, from the Times:

During contract talks, the agency dropped its demand for one-person train operation, instead of two, thinking that Transport Workers Union Local 100 would make health care concessions in return.

But an arbitration panel has found there had been “no evidence” of a quid pro quo — handing a victory to the workers, who had been seeking to limit their health care contributions.

Establishing one-person train operation has been a major goal of New York City Transit for more than a decade. Using one-person crews would save millions in labor costs, and the agency, which wanted to start the program on the No. 7 and L lines, has already invested in new compatible subway cars.

Hot spots around the city have been nailed by the State Liquor Authority for refilling top-shelf liquor bottles with cheaper booze, watering down drinks or serving up cocktails full of fruit flies.

The SLA slapped staggering penalties on some of the city’s hippest clubs for a slew of violations in 2008-09, records show.

Some of the popular joints found themselves in violation of Subdivision 2 of Section 106 of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law — meaning they kept their booze in “containers the contents of which were not represented on the labels affixed thereto.”

“We may find contaminated liquor or contaminated products, which may include refilling of liquor bottles with inferior liquor or fruit flies contaminating the bottle,” said SLA spokesman Michael Smith.

Recession-hit restaurants are helping themselves to your wallet by serving you an extra side of super sneaky charges.

The Post last week found city eateries subtly billing customers for things usually free — including bread and butter.

. . .

Unexpected costs found by The Post include . . . $3 for bread and another $2 for butter at Company, in Chelsea.

No cost was mentioned when bread was requested and delivered to a Post reporter last week — and a waiter refused to give a refund.

“It’s clearly on the menu, and we do have a famous baker,” restaurant spokeswoman Danielle Pagano said, referring to owner Jim Lahey.

The menu listing is in Italian.

Update, 4/28/09: This correction doesn’t change the fact that Company charges $2 for butter:

Due to an editing error, a story in yesterday’s Post misattributed a quote explaining the cost of bread and butter at Company, in Chelsea, to restaurant spokeswoman Danielle Pagano instead of to a waiter. Also, the menu listing is not in Italian.

The average cabby works nine and a half hours a day. A cab’s busiest hours are 6 to 8 p.m. And even as the economy has fallen deeper into recession, the number of cab rides each day in New York has remained relatively steady.

Those are among the most vivid bits of information about the yellow cab industry to emerge from a trove of new data collected by the Taxi and Limousine Commission from cabs equipped with new computerized systems that record each trip and fare.

Among the more surprising findings is that credit cards may be saving the industry from feeling the worst effects of the recession.

“The credit card that we put in cabs has helped keep them afloat,” said Matthew Daus, the chairman of the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

By last November, every yellow cab in the city was equipped with a credit card reader — as a part of the new computerized system — and as a result, Mr. Daus said, many corporations that once ordered black cars for their employees have begun telling them instead to take a cab (which costs less) and charge it.

That has hurt the black car business, which was already reeling from the impact of the Wall Street crisis on its main customers, financial services firms. The black car business is down at least 30 percent, Mr. Daus said.

But the shift has helped yellow cabs and appears to have made up for lost business as tourism and air travel have slumped and the disposable income of ordinary New Yorkers has dwindled.

*And yes, I know the drill: Get in the cab before telling the driver where you want to go, but he caught me off guard as I was fumbling with the luggage (where did he think we were off to?)

New York City eateries have begun tacking on automatic gratuities to meal checks, making up for the economic downturn by socking the wallets of unsuspecting customers.

The Post last week found a dozen restaurants foisting tips on diners — sometimes as high as 20 percent and regardless of party size and without noting the policy on the menu, all in violation of consumer laws.

“I felt cheated and taken advantage of,” said Dazi Chen, who discovered a 20 percent tip stealthily added to his check at Midtown’s Bombay Eats, where he dined with a friend.

“They’re trying to get double gratuity,” fumed Chen, 31.

When he complained to a waitress, he was told the tip is “programmed” into the cash register and could not be refunded.

Rebecca Christian, a resourcing manager from Manchester, England, who visited the swanky River Café in Brooklyn over the holidays with her boyfriend, said she was hit with an unannounced 15 percent gratuity on a $400 check.

In fact, the menu said, “Gratuity and sales tax not included.”

Despite being “absolutely shocked,” she said, she paid the bill because she thought it was an American custom.

The eatery denies adding on secret gratuities.

“It’s very, very rarely that we would do that, and if we do, we always inform the guest that it has been added to the calculation, both on the check and verbally,” the maitre d’ told The Post.

For women across New York City and beyond, it basically amounts to being taken to the cleaners. Women’s shirts often cost much more to launder than men’s, even if they are smaller and made of the same cloth.

Many women grudgingly accept the higher prices, much as they accept the perennial lack of pockets in their pants and the lengthier lines outside their restrooms. But not Janet Floyd, a 44-year-old mother, community volunteer and newly minted missionary for gender equality in the wash place.

Ms. Floyd’s crusade began in November, when, she said, she and her husband brought their nearly identical blue Brooks Brothers oxfords to be laundered at Best Cleaners in Chelsea. The shirts came back clean, but Ms. Floyd discovered that hers cost $8.75, his $7.

“We had the same shirts — I paid more and his was larger,” recalled Ms. Floyd, who wears a size 4 petite (her husband, Joe, wears a 15.5-inch neck and 33-inch sleeve). “That’s what was so infuriating.”