Tom Robbins notes the irony of Bloomberg being showy offering $120,000 to encourage minorities and women to get involved in New York’s film industry while at the same time doing little to encourage an open call for higher-paid managers for his troubled NYC Media division:

The Bloomy Law & Order event also conveniently came a couple weeks after the Voice reported that the mayor handed the son of a close friend a $114,000 a year job at what’s now called NYC Media. The mayor’s managers never even bothered to interview anyone else for the post, or comply with the city’s own equal opportunity rules.

The mayor’s Law & Order minority hiring plan is also a step or two divorced from everyday reality. Since Wierson, Scotland and a few other miscreants were booted last spring, Bloomberg’s managers have filled at least four top jobs at the city station, all of which have gone to whites who either worked at Bloomberg’s own private TV outfit, or who are friends of station executives. Not a single minority has been hired.

City builders testify that the Parks Department’s tree pricing is arbitrary and possibly inflated:

Using one calculation method, the city Parks Department could estimate the price of an oak tree 24 inches in diameter at $15,600. Using another, they could charge an unfathomable $123,500.

Often, the bill falls somewhere in between — and always without explanation.

The City Council plans to vote legislation today that’s meant to clear things up.

. . .

Giving builders the option of planting trees would be a particular boost for the Island, Altman added, because it could help move development more quickly and potentially lower costs. The Parks Department charges $1,900 to plant one 8-inch sapling, and usually takes months to do so; builders who testified before the Council said they pay anywhere between $300 and $500 to purchase the same tree.

Not only do trees kill but they slowly wreak havoc on our infrastructure as well:

The devastation tree roots can have on sewer pipes is another problem.

“The older sewer connections were put together with cement, and the tree roots penetrate the connections. It happens frequently,” said John Figliolia, president of the New York Association of Water and Sewer Excavators. “You’re talking thousands and thousands of dollars.”

“No way would I want a tree planted in front of my property,” said Steven Kogel of Harris Watermain and Sewer Contractors in East New York, Brooklyn. “As a master plumber, I know what a tree can do to the sewer and the sidewalk. It’s a mess.”

And when there’s a tree in front of a house and the sewer pipes have to be changed, the contractor must take out a Parks Department permit and hire an arborist who will oversee the excavation and installation of the sewer, said Kogel. “The job, which would take two days, takes twice as long.”

The city is responsible for any trip-and-fall cases involving tree roots in front of a three-family home or smaller. The city Law Department said it had to pay out $39 million in judgments and settlements last year for cases involving sidewalk defects.

Don’t let them succeed:

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.

Its students apparently have a lot of free time:

A thrifty Columbia Law School student has taken to working out regularly at the city’s legion of gyms, yoga studios and dojos — without ever paying.

“All want my nonexistent money, and they’re willing to lure me with the offer of a free session, or sometimes even a free week,” said the hard-bodied Julia Neyman, 24, who blogs about her adventures on bunsofsteal.blogspot.com.

“But I’ve got an ace up my sleeve: desperation, and the willingness to travel all over the five boroughs to make sure my workout is gratis.”

. . .

At David Barton Gym in Chelsea, Neyman struck out when she tried to flirt her way into an extended pass.

“I realized the problem of working out at a predominantly gay gym: My gender had absolutely zero pull,” she wrote on her blog.

A buff employee at the Equinox on 92nd St., where Neyman worked out, said “gym grifters” are common these days and that his branch was cracking down.

Over half a billion dollars to prevent municipal waste . . . uh, yeah:

When development of CityTime began in 1998, officials promised it would use new-age hand scanners and other technology to eliminate abuse of employee timecards by thousands of workers.

The system has instead turned into an uncontrolled gravy train for high-paid consultants and a boondoggle for taxpayers.

CityTime “has a long history of extraordinary increases, rising from $68 million to $722 million over 10 years,” Liu’s director of contract administration, John Goddard, wrote on Feb. 9 in notifying Bloomberg aides of his rejection of the new contract for Spherion Inc.

Street money? Nah — just a house in Forest Hills:

When Mayor Bloomberg funneled $750,000 to a longtime Queens ally last fall, he thought he was buying a citywide poll watching operation.

He may have paid for a house in Forest Hills Gardens, too.

If you’re going to inflate expenses, do it within reason — say, $25 for a bagel, not $177:

If you ordered a Bits Best Bagel Platter and asked them to throw on extra toppings, like avocado, bacon, sun-dried tomato, steak fries, chicken wings and mozzarella sticks, that would still come to only $25.80.

Such an exercise in bagel-nomics was necessary and noteworthy on Wednesday, the day after Councilman Larry B. Seabrook was charged with money laundering, extortion and fraud.

Among the items in the 13-count federal indictment was the curious case of the $177 bagel sandwich and soda. Mr. Seabrook, a Bronx Democrat and former assemblyman and former state senator, bought a bagel sandwich and diet soda for $7 one day and submitted a doctored receipt that inflated the cost to $177, according to the indictment.

More on the mysterious Bloomberg Independence Party campaign contribution in the Daily News:

The Manhattan DA is investigating how the state Independence Party and a prominent GOP operative handled a $750,000 payment from Mayor Bloomberg’s personal checkbook — and why they can’t fully account for how they spent it.

Earlier: Did Bloomberg Pay Street Money To Get Reelected?

The Daily News’ Adam Lisberg shows what raising bonds for what could be the most expensive subway stop of all time means for this year’s city budget:

So next year’s budget includes $83.3 million to pay for the 7 train extension, even though it’s highly unlikely all of it will be spent.

At the same time, the budget closes four FDNY companies to save $5.6 million. It closes a center for the homeless to save $2.4 million. It closes four swimming pools and shuts the rest down two weeks early to save $1.4 million.

It also lays off 834 city workers.

The city can’t afford to pay their salaries anymore, but it can still afford to set aside money in reserve to impress the bond markets. It’s cold comfort to those workers, but the bankers will be happy.

Street money? Are you kidding me? Was he watching that Cory Booker movie or something? That’s what some are suggesting after details of a mysterious campaign expenditure emerged in the Post:

A $750,000 personal campaign contribution that Mayor Bloomberg channeled through the state Independence Party during last year’s mayoral election landed in the hands of a top aide, The Post has learned.

The aide, John Haggerty Jr., served as a Bloomberg “volunteer involved in some of the activities” of Special Election Operations LLC, a hastily formed company that hired 200 to 300 workers to do poll watching on Election Day, according to Ken Gross, counsel to the campaign.

. . .

One veteran GOP consultant said he believed Special Election Operations was designed to dispense “street money” — cash that’s spread around on Election Day to volunteers and for such incidentals as lunch.

But Howard Wolfson, the mayor’s campaign spokesman, insisted the $750,000 — part of a $1.2 million personal contribution Bloomberg made to the state Independence Party right before the election — didn’t go for that purpose.

“The [Independence Party] made the same Election Day expenses that all party committees make every election for Election Day workers,” he said in an e-mail.

“Because the IP does not have the infrastructure to handle this kind of activity in-house, it used Special Election Operations to handle the payroll payments to all these individuals.”

Wolfson’s “explanation” even sounds like it’s street money. And $750,000? That’s not even close to what was suggested Obama would have to spend to get elected in Philadelphia. We’re taking a lot of pizza parties!

See also: Bloomberg For Mayor 2009.

It’s a genius plan — taxing jet fuel will raise millions and mean that fewer of us will leave the city, leading to even more spending at home:

He proposed a sales tax on airplane fuel yesterday as part of his spending plan for the 2011 fiscal year, a move that could mean the cost of flying will soar.

. . .

By extending the 8.875% sales tax to jet fuel at airports, he expects to raise $169 million. Airline executives wouldn’t say how the tax would spill over to customers – but they are against the plan.

I thought we had this big traffic congestion problem, so why the need for speed cameras? Another gadget, I guess:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg will push state legislators to allow the city to install cameras equipped with devices to capture speeding motorists, similar to the ones already installed at dozens of red lights.

The big “I love it! Island roads are too dangerous and we need to do something”/”I hate it! That technology does nothing but take money out of the wallets of unsuspecting drivers” poll in the Advance is running two-to-one against the idea . . .

As far as it being a big money-making mechanism, that tends not to turn out as well as some think it will.

It’s like old-timey-time patronage, just that fewer people get to benefit (“more for fewer” has been kind of a theme in America in recent years):

Even as he warns that the city may have to lay off thousands of workers, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has found city jobs for 15 members of his re-election campaign, many of whom are earning six-figure salaries, records and interviews show.

The hirings suggest that while Mr. Bloomberg is calling for a leaner government that reflects the economic downturn, he is finding money in the budget for those who engineered his unexpectedly close re-election.

In addition, seven city employees who left their jobs to work on the campaign have returned, in many cases at higher salaries. Together, the appointments cost taxpayers more than $2 million in government wages.

Then there’s this:

A person close to the mayor said Mr. Wolfson would play “a key role in developing policies and lead in selling them.” He is likely to focus on promoting national issues like gun control and immigration reform, a priority for Mr. Bloomberg.

Mr. Bloomberg has talked to aides about hiring Mr. Wolfson since shortly after the election. He formally offered him the job in the last few weeks, aides said.

“It’s one of the biggest stages in the world,” said a strategist close to the mayor. “He can shape the agenda and get the message across in a way that possibly nobody else in the country can.”

There’s still a big nasty pothole on my street you know . . . will Wolfson advocate for that?

In case you were somehow unclear about why these guys put their names on garbage cans:

Former Councilman Michael McMahon (D-SI) spent $24,000 in city funds on 46 bright green bins bearing his name in July 2008, while he was a member of the council and a front-runner to fill an open seat in Congress.

But after he won the congressional election that November, the then-outgoing city lawmaker had the Sanitation Department revise labels on the baskets to read, “Sponsored By Former Council Member Michael E. McMahon.”

See also: Unanswered Questions: City Council’s Phantom Funds (Gotham Gazette, April 14, 2008).

The state’s real message behind the soda tax? Save money, drink beer:

“A six-pack of soda is going to cost you approximately $4.99″ if the penny-an-ounce tax goes through, [New Yorkers Against Unfair Taxes chairman Nelson] Eusebio said, “where you can pick up beer from $2.99 to $3.99.”

Bloomberg goes to bat for the fashion industry to the detriment of the homeless:

New York City officials destroyed tons of new, unworn clothing and footwear last year that had been seized in raids on counterfeit label operations, abandoning a practice of giving knockoff garments to groups that help the needy.

. . .

Another government agency that confiscates large volumes of pirated clothing, United States Customs and Border Protection, donated $78 million in such goods last year. The donations are made only with the consent of the trademark holder, and are limited to essentials like clothing and shoes; they do not include fake Rolex watches or Gucci handbags.

In Los Angeles, shoes that would otherwise have been destroyed were given to Samaritan’s Feet, said John Saleh, a spokesman for the customs agency. Other ports that have participated are Detroit, El Paso and San Francisco. In New York, customs officials recently began working with World Vision.

“Usually the holder of the intellectual property rights allows us to do it,” Mr. Saleh said. If the trademarks can be removed, the goods are given to organizations near the ports, Mr. Saleh said. If they can’t be, they are shipped abroad.

Until recently, New York had a similar policy. In 2006, Mr. Bloomberg announced that the city would send shipments of knockoffs to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina. In that case, said Jason Post, a spokesman for the mayor, the city had the assistance of World Vision in sorting through the materials, a daunting task — but one that World Vision and the clothing bank say they still do.

Many major fashion brands have their headquarters in New York City, and Mr. Bloomberg has made prosecution of trademark infringement a priority for his administration. The companies also take actions in civil court against the pirates, an expensive process, to protect the designers’ names.

“These are people who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, some of them millions, to get counterfeit goods off the street,” said Robert Tucker, a lawyer with the firm of Tucker and Lafiti, whose fashion clients include Chrome Hearts, Steve Madden, Zac Posen and Ed Hardy. “Everyone wants to feed and clothe the homeless. But how are you going to spend all this money and then put it back on the street?”

Another campaign against another food additive . . . and the Campbell Soup Company weeps big, salty tears as they shake in their boots, hoping against hope that Supernanny Bloomberg finds another blighted neighborhood or some great new gadget to focus his attention on instead:

On Monday, the Bloomberg administration plans to unveil a broad new health initiative aimed at encouraging food manufacturers and restaurant chains across the country to curtail the amount of salt in their products.

The plan, for which the city claims support from health agencies in other cities and states, sets a goal of reducing the amount of salt in packaged and restaurant food by 25 percent over the next five years.

The BATC Editorial Board weighs in:

• First thought, Wow, it’s pretty ballsy for a city government agency to attempt to change the food industry. Second thought, This might work, but… Third thought, Hey, wait, why is a city government agency doing this? Don’t they have something better to do with their money and time?
• The Health Dept. is really cheesing me off now. Just glory hogs using the agency as a stepping stone. I buy that transfats are bad, but salt is not universally bad for you, and it’s a lame slippery slope to other goofy shit, like smoked/charred foods (possible cancer link), or whatever else. Fewer glossy ad campaigns, more stuff like vaccines.
• But maybe they don’t have something better to do…? Salt is a big issue in the American diet, that’s not in doubt, the question is just what to do about it and who should lead the change. Even if pressuring the food industry to change its ways — a la the transfat issue — is the way to make us healthier, I think it’s still something I’d feel better about seeing come down from the Surgeon General (beats talking about masturbation, anyway) than Bloomy.
• I’m guessing they do have a lot of better stuff to do, including vaccines, probably HIV/STD campaigns & education, probably putting money into their low-income clinics. I just really, really mistrust glossy media-whoring campaigns like this.
• There’s good point about whether this is more appropriate for a federal agency — right now, most of the places that have taken on trans fats (and who knows who will jump on the salt bandwagon) are cities and counties on the coasts . . . not places with a vested interest in making those salty, trans-fatty foods.
• Yeah, I’m not always against half steps, but I don’t think tweaking the ingredients in processed foods is going to do all that much good for public health. Processed foods represent a host of problems for people who overconsume them. Cutting transfat isn’t cutting the actual fat in the diets of people chugging Oreos, and cutting salt in canned soup isn’t going to do much for hypertension either.
• The food industry muzzles the truth, which is that there just aren’t many processed products that come with a shelf life that are actually healthy for you. It might be worse for the average American to get the idea (we call it a “health halo” around here) that now that x, y, and z REALLY BAD ingredients are out, now that box of fatty o’s is totally fine to eat at will.

For years, it has been settled law that artists — merchants of everything from hackneyed images of Manhattan to names on grains of rice — have been constitutionally protected to sell their wares in city parks. That apparently is not the case for the High Line:

In 2001, both state and federal courts ruled that New York City could not require permits for artists in parks under the First Amendment under a case brought by Mr. [Robert A.] Lederman. In addition, Mr. Lederman was also a plaintiff in an earlier case which established artists’ rights to sell on the streets in 1997, under the argument that the artists deserved the same protections as booksellers and others selling printed materials, who had long been exempt from licensing.

On Saturday, Mr. Lederman said, representatives of Friends of the High Line, including security and supervisors, had approached him all day, threatening him. Finally they brought a parks enforcement officer. “I showed them a New York Times article and a New York Post article about the artist permit being overturned and that artists don’t need a permit,” said Mr. Lederman, who said it appeared that the enforcement officer believed him. However, Mr. Lederman said that the officer was pressured to issue summonses and arrest him.

When asked about the situation, Katie Lorah, a spokeswoman for Friends of the High Line, said, “We’re actually not commenting right now” and referred all questions to the Department of Parks and Recreation.

The DPR spokesperson claimed the High Line was somehow different. The artist in question fleshes out that argument for them:

“The parks department and the High Line people have their own agenda for commercializing this park, and they’re hoping to nip street artists in the bud by arresting me,” he said. “Frankly I think they made a tremendous mistake. I’m not looking to make a big commotion on the High Line. I would prefer not to have to do that. I certainly don’t need to go back there to make the point. They made the point already. They gave me five different summonses. I’m not going to have to prove anything to the judge about what they’re intentions were and continue to be. I plan to go back there to sell my art if not to protest, and I have a right to. I intend to exercise that right.”

Location Scout: High Line.

Just when we start to root for street fighting Newark mayor Cory Booker, he disappoints us with this:

On April 17, Mr. Booker, a Democrat, crossed party and state lines by endorsing Mr. Bloomberg, an independent running as a Republican, in Harlem. About a month later, Mr. Bloomberg’s longtime accountant contributed $26,000 — the maximum allowed — to Mr. Booker’s re-election committee, according to campaign finance records.

Technically, the contribution to Mr. Booker’s 10-member slate, which includes 9 Municipal Council candidates, was made by Martin J. Geller, Mr. Bloomberg’s accountant. But Mr. Geller has long had a habit of contributing money to candidates or committees that the mayor supports, with a total of $100,000 in 2007 to Senate Republicans in Albany being one notable example.

The Booker contribution is only the second one that Mr. Geller has made to anyone in New Jersey politics. In 2005, he gave $2,000 to the campaign efforts of the Assembly Republicans in Trenton. At that time, Mr. Bloomberg was still registered as a Republican.

. . .

Never was Mr. Booker more effusive than on Sunday when he traveled with Mr. Bloomberg to black churches in Queens.

“My big brother mayor,” Mr. Booker said in describing Mr. Bloomberg, during a rousing address at the Rev. Floyd H. Flake’s Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral in Jamaica, Queens.

See also: Bloomberg For Mayor 2009.

For a public figure, the prospect of earning a third opportunity to perform the second-toughest job in America brings with it a spine-stiffening sense of honor and the narcotic-like thrill of self-sacrifice. But this is not to say that spending more money than Ross Perot to accomplish that feat in any way betrays signs of weakness:

Michael R. Bloomberg, the Wall Street mogul whose fortune catapulted him into New York’s City Hall, has set another staggering financial record: He has now spent more of his own money than any other individual in United States history in the pursuit of public office.

Newly released campaign records show the mayor, as of Friday, had spent $85 million on his latest re-election campaign, and is on pace to spend between $110 million and $140 million before the election on Nov. 3.

That means Mr. Bloomberg, in his three bids for mayor, will have easily burned through more than $250 million — the equivalent of what Warner Brothers spent on the latest Harry Potter movie.

The sum easily surpasses what other titans of business have spent to seek state or federal office. New Jersey’s Jon S. Corzine has plunked down a total of $130 million in two races for governor and one for United States Senate. Steve Forbes poured $114 million into his two bids for president. And Ross Perot spent $65 million in his quest for the White House in 1992 and $10 million four years later.

. . .

He has spent at least 14 times what his Democratic rival in the race, William C. Thompson Jr., has: $6 million.

The heady display of overwhelming force also provokes adulation from supporters and admirers:

The Sanitation Department reported yesterday that Thompson’s campaign is facing a hefty $125,775 bill for plastering city property with 1,677 illegal campaign posters.

. . .

In contrast to Thompson, Bloomberg’s campaign has been cited for 70 violations.

See also: Bloomberg For Mayor 2009.

“If Mike Bloomberg is going to stick around until 2014, he wants to have all possible power at his disposal. How he uses that power can’t completely efface the fact of how he gained it.”:

Even if the cause was unseemly, the execution of the political strategy to rewrite the law was staggeringly impressive, enlisting Bloomberg’s moneyed friends and the friends he’s made with his money and displaying an impressive eye for detail. An ethnically diverse cast of average citizens appeared in the front row at the council hearings, clutching preprinted signs reading democrats for choices. Bloomberg campaign aides like Patrick Brennan were suddenly “volunteering” their time to round up supporters to pass the needed City Council bill extending term limits. When Linda Gibbs, the mayor’s head of Health and Human Services, lobbied an official at a social-services group to make calls to council members, there didn’t seem to be much choice. The mayor’s operatives coaxed a wide range of recipients of his charitable donations to testify, but most were smart enough that they didn’t need an invitation. The Public Art Fund has received at least $500,000 from Bloomberg; its head, Susan Freedman, spoke enthusiastically on the mayor’s behalf — and, she says, with a clear conscience because of Bloomberg’s belief in the importance of the arts. “Do you think you would need to twist my arm to have me want this kind of leadership continue?” she said afterward.

The parade of witnesses included Mario Cuomo, the former governor, who is now of counsel to Willkie Farr & Gallagher, the firm that is defending Bloomberg L.P. against sexual-discrimination lawsuits and that has as one of its top partners Richard DeScherer, Bloomberg’s lawyer. Geoffrey Canada, who runs the Harlem Children’s Zone, spoke of his worry for New York’s most vulnerable during the downturn. He didn’t mention that his organization has city contracts worth millions of dollars and has received more than $500,000 in private money from Bloomberg.

“It’s a legitimate question, to ask about people being compromised,” Canada says. “But everybody knows we get money from the city! We have since the seventies. I wouldn’t turn down money from anyone who wants to support our programs. But is my vote for sale? Absolutely not. I’m very comfortable with the real reasons I’m supporting Bloomberg — his attention to education, the reduction in crime without the rancor of the Giuliani years, and his fairness in spreading the budget pain.”

See also: Bloomberg For Mayor 2009.

You’d think that garaging your Porsche in Manhattan was a fairly inelastic expenditure. Not these days:

Garage managers in the swanky 10021 ZIP code say the recession has driven away customers, and it’s little wonder with monthly fees hitting $800 or more. An extra $100 is often tacked on for exotic cars.

Rolls-Royce owner Jonathan Martin said he’s fed up with paying about $500 a month for the privilege of parking and recently started searching for free spaces with the masses.

“The garage rates keep going up around here,” he said.

The mayor’s half-billion-dollar Million Trees initiative may be revenue-neutral after all:

A newly installed ‘no parking’ sign in front of the Tosca Marquis catering hall, located at 4034 E. Tremont Avenue, is difficult to see because a tree obscures it.

Many unwitting motorists are getting tickets because of the obscured sign in front of the hall designated as a no parking zone from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday. There is no clear indication as to where this parking regulation ends on the street. The sign has only one arrow pointing north to the curb in front of the dining hall. The entire area is now designated for loading and unloading in what had formerly been two metered spots.

“The sign is obstructed by the tree, so I didn’t even notice it,” said a motorist named Milton, who was parking in front of the catering hall on Friday, October 9.

Robert Sietsema* asks:

NY1 reports this morning that 18-20 sanitation, anti-graffiti, and steam-cleaning trucks recently descended on Inwood in preparation for a campagin appearance by Mayor Bloomberg scheduled for that afternoon.

. . .

Don’t such over-the-top cleaning efforts, in neighborhoods normally neglected and left filthy by the Sanitation Department, for the sole purpose of creating a pristine stage for the mayor’s campaign appearances, constitute an expropriation of city resources for the mayor’s own uses?

*Didn’t realize he was blogging this kind of stuff in addition to food-related items.

Die-hard Yankees fans turn down opportunity to purchase $380 ALDS tickets:

Some diehard Yankee fans were on line for 14 hours early Wednesday, waiting and hoping there’d be tickets available for game one of the playoffs when the doors opened.

. . .

Paul was on the line since 7 p.m. Wednesday night to be there for his beloved team, and he’s on a budget.

But when the doors finally opened, there was disappointment bordering on outrage when dozens of fans found out the cheapest tickets sold cost $380.

“I live right here in the neighborhood. I attended 34 games in the stadium this season, and I am not exactly rich,” said Paul. “I can’t go on line and pay an extra $25 surcharge.”

“Absolutely, something should be done for people in the neighborhood who were giving whole new life to the Yankees, but this is capitalism,” said Sam Soghar.

Fred Negron was the only one of the group who chose to buy the $380 ticket, but that’s because he just sold his house and had the cash.

For comparison’s sake, Phillies NLDS tickets are between $35 and $75.

Location Scout: New Yankee Stadium.

Note that they wouldn’t need to sit down with merchants and “retrain” their agents if City Hall wasn’t trying to balance the budget on dubious double-parking tickets:

“New instructions have been given to our traffic agents. The way we issue summonses will be different and we ask our agents to be patient,” said Frank Sepulveda, the NYPD’s director of traffic enforcement for the city. “By the end of this month all our agents should have the new training. We will look at how we can handle difficult summons situations differently.”

. . .

On problems, businessman Dan Texeira led the complaint barrage. “I stopped my car to let off my son. Just then a traffic agent cut off in front of my car and gave me a ticket.

“That wasn’t right,” said Sepulveda.

Go, Wayne, go:

Rod Blagojevich, who was selling his just-published book in New York last week, has a lot to say about Bradley Tusk, the former Deputy Governor of Illinois now running Mike Bloomberg’s campaign.

Lest you think stealing copper from buildings is strictly for tramps, vagabonds and drifters:

They came to clear overgrown brush from the yard in what they might have thought was an abandoned building in Tompkinsville.

But the building’s owner says workers from the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene were filching copper pipes, tools and whatever else they could grab from the former American Legion post at 43 Van Duzer St.

One Health Department worker, Edwin R. Torres, 54, of Queens, was arrested this morning, according to a law enforcement source, after building owner John Galarza called police when he said an employee saw the men begin hauling their alleged booty into a private van as well as a city Department of Health vehicle.

Three other Health Department workers were questioned as well.

“All the copper pipes are gone,” said Galarza as he walked through the building, which smelled of urine, where the toilet and boiler had pipes removed. He pushed his toe against a buckled wood floor, showing how it had sustained water damage after the pipes were removed. “I’m going to talk to the legal department of the Health Department.”

Start fining stressed-out Mets fans puffing in front of Citi Field:

The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, announced on Monday that the Bloomberg administration would seek to ban smoking in city parks and beaches.