In other news, the Advance reports that mail service is still widely used on Staten Island:

Don’t disregard the extra pennies you find laying around the house or car — you might need them Monday.

That’s when the price of mailing a first-class letter increases 1 cent, to 42 cents, along with a number of other postal rate hikes that take effect.

But there is a way to avoid paying more to mail a letter.

Forever stamps, which can be used after the hike, can still be bought at the old 41-cent price. But the cost of the Forever stamp will also increase Monday, to 42 cents.

Those still having unused 41-cent stamps will be able to purchase a new 1-cent stamp — the Tiffany Lamp — to make up the difference. Several new 42-cent stamps are also available.

The passage of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act in 2006 allows the Postal Service to increase its rates every May in accordance with the rate of inflation as indicated in the Consumer Price Index.

The MTA is installing a fare box at the Tompkinsville stop of the Staten Island Railway*:

The free ride is coming to an end at the Tompkinsville Station of the Staten Island Railway.

The borough’s train line will be adding a new fare collection system at Tompkinsville, where many riders get off and walk to the nearby St. George Ferry Terminal, to save $2 on the fare, which currently is charged only at St. George.

Railway President John Gaul announced yesterday that construction is expected to begin this summer. A small entrance will be built on a platform to be constructed from the pedestrian bridge where Bay Street meets Victory Boulevard. Inside the unstaffed station, low turnstiles will be monitored by closed-circuit television. MetroCard vending machines will flank the turnstiles, he said.

When they’re up and running late next year, the new turnstiles are expected to add $550,000 a year to Railway coffers — money that is now lost when folks make the hike to and from the boat.

The new entrance is part of a $6.4 million pilot project to explore bringing fare collection back to at least some other stations along the 14-mile line.

“There’s a lot of interest in expanding fare collection, but it’s easier said than done, because our stations weren’t designed with that in mind,” Gaul said.

The fare was eliminated — except for St. George — in 1997 as part of the “One City, One Fare” program, when MetroCards replaced conductors checking tickets.

Since then, Railway riders have complained that the clientele onboard has become more unsavory, with criminals using the trains as a convenient getaway, particularly at night.

*Staten Island Railway Pub Crawls imperiled.

But what is perverse is that people who can afford not to spend half their income on rent are probably doing so, too:

Arnold Somrah was spending almost half of his income on the Park Slope apartment he shared with a friend. The 24-year-old finally moved back into his parents’ Ozone Park home.

“You can’t go out. Your Friday and Saturday nights are done,” said Somrah, who was paying $750 a month for his basement room. Samrah is now saving to eventually buy in Florida. “It’s too expensive here.”

Nearly 530,000 renters in the city are spending 50 percent or more of their income on housing, a 14.9 percent jump from 1999, according to data released yesterday by Rep. Anthony Weiner.

“Financial advisors say, ‘You should spend no more than a third of your income on rent’” said Weiner. “That’s sounding more and more like a pipe dream.”

The Bronx is feeling the burden the most, with 32.85 percent of its renters paying half their income on rent in 2006. Manhattan (22.32 percent) had the lowest.

Mrs. Markowitz swag-gers her way around town:

Who knew the first lady of Brooklyn was also its biggest booster?

Jamie Markowitz, the wife of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, scooped up eight pricey fiberglass place mats - works of art by pop artist Takashi Murakami - set aside for guests at a glitzy Brooklyn Museum gala.

The limited-edition Technicolor mats, which have sold for $1,000 on eBay after a similar event, were included in a grab bag of pricey freebies for guests celebrating the opening of the artist’s three-month exhibition last Thursday.

“It’s a little true,” Markowitz laughed Sunday when asked about an item on RadarOnline.com that painted her as a tad greedy.

Radar reported that when several guests who didn’t get a mat asked for one of her eight, she replied, “You guys really should have acted faster. This is Brooklyn!”

To another, she said, “You snooze, you lose, buddy. Forget it.”

It’s obviously all about priorities. As large projects falter all across the city, one that may take decades to build is contingent on extending the 7 train, in effect forcing the MTA’s hand to commit billions for a project that will help exactly no one for years to come:

Transit officials have designated a worldwide developer to transform dismal rail yards on Manhattan’s far West Side into a resplendent commercial center of office towers, dwellings parks, shops and a school. The deal also includes an aspect meant to ensure that the No. 7 subway extension does not falter.

Tishman Speyer, which has interests in many countries and owns Rockefeller Center, won the bidding competition by offering slightly more than $1 billion — $39 million over its closest competitor.

Tishman Speyer received a 99-year lease on the Hudson Yards, which at 26 acres is the largest piece of undeveloped space left in Manhattan. The space actually includes two sections of rail yards, one on each side of 11th Avenue between 30th and 33rd streets

The project is to include four, possibly five, office towers; more than 3,000 housing units in seven buildings; 15 acres of parks; and a school. It would also include an unspecified cultural institution.

. . .

Planners have long said the development of the area was heavily dependent on extending the No. 7 line from Times Square to the Javits Convention Center area.

[MTA CFO Gary] Dellaverson said that to that end the deal between the MTA and Tishman included granting the developer the right to withhold lease payments to the transit agency in case of construction delays on the No. 7 extension.

With deals like this, it’s no wonder that some have criticized the congestion pricing plan’s lack of specifics.

Isn’t the point of building a subway to “change the lifestyle”? No, never mind the people who live past First Avenue:

The MTA will re-evaluate a planned entrance to the Second Avenue subway slated for East 72nd Street in the wake of two lawsuits filed by area residents, their lawyer said yesterday.

In suits filed last month, four co-ops are seeking to have the entrance, now set to be built between First and Second avenues, moved to a corner or scaled down.

The residents also want the MTA to redo an environmental review.

“Before we make any final determination to proceed with an entrance . . . we will complete the additional evaluations,” agency lawyer Anthony Semancik told a community meeting last night.

The project would “change the lifestyle of the people who live there,” said Susan Chandler, who lives in one of the buildings affected.

Spitzer’s successor goes after civil rights violations in nightclub lines (with added Barack Obama irony that only the Post would think to dredge up*):

A Manhattan hotspot that hosted a primary-night party for Barack Obama supporters has been sued by the state Attorney General for discriminating against black patrons.

The AG’s office accused the Tonic East nightclub, at Third Avenue and East 29th Street, of barring blacks based on an unwritten dress code against popular hip-hop clothing, but allowing similarly dressed white patrons to enter.

Tonic East settled the lawsuit with a simultaneous agreement that forces the bar to fork over $35,000, implement training and change its dress code to eliminate references to specific brands.

The state launched an undercover probe at Tonic East after black patrons complained that bouncers stopped them at the door, citing policies excluding clothing by Sean John and Rocawear, Nike Air Force One sneakers, Timberland boots and baggy jeans.

The Kips Bay bar was the scene of a major party for Obama supporters on Feb. 5, with overflow crowds packing the multi-level club that is built to hold 450 people and spilling revelers out into other area bars.

*Because Obama is black . . . get it?

. . . take all the crap-ass burnt bits and cobble together a fare:

On its first business day, the MTA’s fare hike yesterday baffled mass-transit travelers — who had conniptions over the higher costs — as discounts dropped from 20 percent to 15 percent on MetroCards.

“I was kind of confused. I didn’t read the question right,” said Alana Chitty, 21, who mistakenly bought a $20 card from a Grand Central Terminal vending machine when she only wanted a $7 card.

“I put $20 and got no change back,” she said. “I’m pissed. I want my money.”

The clerk at the nearby booth would not refund her money.

So Chitty, from Rye, was stuck with a $20 card that will leave her with a $3 bonus credit on the card. If she refills it for another $20, then she will have three “free” rides.

Had she got the $7 card she sought, she would have four rides because it comes with a $1.05 bonus — enough to pay for the fourth ride with a useless 5 cents left over.

She wasn’t the only one ticked off by the new transit tabulations.

“I was very annoyed that I didn’t get an extra round trip with my $10 card. Now I [have] $11.50 and I’m sure bits of money will be left on the card I won’t use,” said David Buckley, 48, an executive recruiter from Maplewood, NJ, at the Rockefeller Center station.

Another rider, Garian Giscombe, 25, felt the same about the $10 cards that used to provide one free ride.

“I don’t know what I’m gonna do with the $1.50 bonus,” he said.

But at least the cost of a single ride hasn’t gone beyond that of a slice of pizza, the usual indicator . . . after all, it’s important to keep up appearances.

One if by Land, Two if by Sea . . . water bill deadbeats:

Mayor Bloomberg is threatening to force foreclosure sales of more than 24,000 city properties to collect nearly $470 million the city is owed in unpaid property taxes and water bills.

The owners of 24,593 properties will receive warning letters from the city notifying them that a lien will be sold on their property if they do not pay off their debts, which range from $1,000 to millions of dollars, within 90 days. If the debts are not paid, a private collector hired by the city can begin foreclosure proceedings.

. . .

The list of properties that owe the city money are in all five boroughs. They include a historic restaurant on Barrow Street in Manhattan’s West Village, One if by Land, Two if by Sea, and an Upper East Side property worth more than $10 million that is owned by Michael Melnitzky, a pro se litigator who was profiled in yesterday’s New York Times. All properties on the city’s list to receive a warning letter were published in a 92-page advertisement placed by the city in yesterday’s Daily News.

He who plays “The Heat is On” on the saxophone in winter weather deserves all the locked keys he gets:

Yes he could go down into the subway and find a warmer stage, but sax player Mike Mycadi says the open air fuels his music. “I actually like the cold better than the summertime,” he says. “It’s more challenging.” Part of that challenge is playing with the thick gloves he wears to keep his fingers agile, and he sometimes practices at home with the gloves. Of course, if the outdoor temperature drops below 32 degrees, the concert must come to an end. “Below freezing and the saliva actually locks up in the keys,” he says. And his playlist? “During the winter I like to play warm songs, like ‘The Heat Is On,’ and ‘Summertime.’ During the summer I switch it around and end up playing things like ‘Let it Snow’ and ‘Frosty the Snowman.’”

See also: Saxophones.

Show your patriotism, earn some extra cash:

Despite vociferous objections from residents and community board members, telecommunications giant T-Mobile is forging ahead with plans to install a wireless signal tower on top of a Maspeth home.

But with city officials still weighing whether to approve the project, outraged residents and community leaders are doing everything in their power to stop it.

On Tuesday, nearly three dozen opponents crammed into a Board of Standards and Appeals hearing room in Manhattan to protest T-Mobile’s plan, which would place a 27-foot-tall wireless transmitter disguised as a flagpole atop a two-story home.

Rising more than 50 feet above ground level, the American flag-topped tower would “close a gap” in wireless service, according to T-Mobile spokesman Wayne Leuck. The tower would measure 36 inches in diameter — far wider than a typical flagpole, critics noted — and would be illuminated by at least two spotlights installed on the roof.

Critics say the tower will look “absolutely hideous” amid the neighborhood’s low-rise residential landscape. “It’s a matter of aesthetics,” said Assemblywoman Marge Markey, who has repeatedly urged T-Mobile to relocate the planned tower to one of Maspeth’s more remote industrial corners.

. . .

The telecommunication company first presented its idea to Community Board 5 in October, after gaining permission from the building’s owner to install the 27-foot-tall device (part pole, part equipment box) on his property for an undisclosed fee.

After getting annoyed with Giants fans, the pendulum swings back for me:

The arrogant New England team has already applied for trademarks on “19-0″ and “19-0 The Perfect Season.” Three days before they beat the San Diego Chargers, and more than two weeks before Super Bowl XLII, the team egotistically filed paperwork with the US Patent and Trademark Office to cash in on sales of T-shirts, caps, posters and all kinds of Pats paraphernalia.

But the Pats have the wrong number.

The Post, ever confident that Eli Manning and company will squash the Pats on Sunday, spent $375 for its own trademark application yesterday — on “18-1.”

Our application, No. 77385477, is pending.

And Bill Belichick and his bozos better wait a minuteman before counting their royalties.

. . .

The Post had no luck contacting David Johanson, the attorney who applied for the New England trademarks on Jan. 17. The woman who answered his telephone yelled, “We can’t talk about this!” and hung up.

Several hours later, Pats spokesman Stacey James called to say the trademark filing was to protect profits, and is not a pre-emptive writing of history.

“These are defensive tactics taken so people can’t brand with our logo,” he said.

The “19-0″ trademark has not yet been approved.

At least someone here is asking tough questions about the congestion pricing plan that is apparently designed to clear out Midtown streets for New Jersey drivers:

Just 48 hours before a state commission is expected to recommend a proposal that would charge drivers an $8 daily fee to enter the area of Manhattan below 60th Street, the panel’s chairman, Marc V. Shaw, heard Democratic members of the Assembly speak out against it on Tuesday.

. . .

“I would say that the idea of congestion pricing and the commission’s proposals got hammered, and it was in a comprehensive way,” said Rory I. Lancman, a Queens assemblyman who attended the meeting. “Every aspect of the proposals were hashed out, were analyzed and were found to be wanting.”

Mr. Shaw has been making the rounds in Albany as he tries to drum up support for a traffic-busting plan in advance of the commission’s vote.

“Marc stood there for three hours and took his beating like a man,” Mr. Lancman said.

He said more than 30 legislators expressed objections, and only one spoke in favor of the plan.

The chorus of opposition from Assembly members, most of them from the city and its suburbs, is significant because the support of the State Legislature is needed to carry out congestion pricing. The Assembly is also far less likely to pass legislation opposed by members whose districts would be directly affected.

. . .

“There was considerable opposition” said Hakeem Jeffries, an assemblyman from Brooklyn who attended part of the meeting. “Not to the notion of doing something, to dealing with congestion or even to congestion pricing. But there’s opposition to the way it has been presented and developed so far.”

Mr. Jeffries said the plan unfairly favored drivers entering Manhattan from New Jersey because it would give them a credit for tolls paid on the tunnels or bridges across the Hudson River. With tolls during rush hours on those crossings set to rise to $8, that would mean that those drivers would not make any additional payments under the congestion plan and would not have an incentive to avoid driving into the city.

. . .

Mr. Shaw said that the issue of how to treat drivers entering from New Jersey needed to be addressed but that a solution to the problem was probably not going to be in the plan that the commission will vote on.

Poor guy just can’t catch a break:

The cost of a MetroCard swipe could rise in January for almost 85% of subway and bus riders, even though Governor Spitzer yesterday ordered the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to hold the base fare at $2 at least until 2009.

Mr. Spitzer’s proposal, which allows for a hike in ticket prices on all discounted MetroCards, is drawing fire from MTA board members and elected officials who say his plan would benefit tourists and force commuting New Yorkers to shoulder the load of the transit authority’s looming financial deficits.

“This is not good enough for me,” an MTA board member who opposes a fare hike, Mitchell Pally, said in an interview. “Why is the $2 fare so sacrosanct? The impact on the seven-day fare and the 30-day fare, those to me are more important.”

Weekly, monthly, and discounted MetroCards account for 84.9% of subway and bus ride swipes. Mr. Spitzer’s plan also allows for a fare hike aboard the commuter railroads.

Mr. Spitzer’s plan “might come at the unfortunate expense to average New York City commuters who depend on unlimited passes for their daily commute,” Council Member Simcha Felder, a Democrat of Brooklyn, said in a statement.

For further research: we need more data on exactly how many low-income riders depend on swipes — and whether there are really more tourists who will benefit . . .

Get rid of one problem and take on another that will surely boost those sagging numbers:

New Yorkers going Christmas shopping online at Amazon.com will find an 8.375% surprise at the virtual cash register, courtesy of Governor Spitzer, who is moving aggressively to collect Internet sales taxes that have gone widely unenforced.

Under a new policy, major electronic retailers, such as Amazon.com, will be required to collect sales tax on all purchases from New York. The policy, based on a novel legal theory, could hasten the end of the Internet’s era as a duty-free marketplace if other states follow New York’s lead. With the policy, New York immediately took the lead among states that are seeking to tax online commerce.

“I’d say this puts us at the front,” one state tax official, who requested anonymity, told The New York Sun.

Having pledged not to raise taxes, Mr. Spitzer is increasingly scrounging for ways to close a projected $4.3 billion deficit next year. State officials estimate that this latest initiative, which goes into effect in December, will bring in about $100 million more each year, split between state and local government tax revenue. Statewide, the sales tax averages about 8%, although in New York City it is 8.375%.

. . .

When it comes to charging sales tax, e-retailers have been held to the same old standard that the U.S. Supreme Court set for mail-order vendors: The seller only needs to collect the tax on purchases in states where the vendor has a physical presence, such as a storefront or salesman. New York is saying that it has found a way around that obstacle to tax collection. Many e-retailers may have unwittingly lost their exemption because of the way they direct traffic to their Web sites, according to a tax memo recently released by the state’s tax department.

At issue is the “affiliate program” used by many e-retailers. Web site operators can provide a link to an e-retailer in return for a commission on any sale resulting from customers using the link. While the affiliate program may consist of little more than a non-descript advertisement on the computer screen, the tax consequences may be huge: New York state says it is the equivalent of having an instate salesperson.

“It’s just treating the affiliate the same way we would treat any other type of sales representative,” Mr. Spitzer’s budget director, Paul Francis, said in an interview.

Some claim that overdevelopment is threatening the cultural heritage of old Queens:

Those transit meatheads caused gushers of trouble.

Such is the sentiment in Archie Bunker’s old neighborhood — known outside of the TV world as Glendale — where residents believe a recent water main break was caused by a bus re-routing that put too much stress on the street.

“It’s absolutely the bus routes — it can’t be anything else,” said Dorie Figliola, a member of Community Board 5. “It just can’t withstand [the pressure]. Our old pipes are just going.”

The Q54 bus was re-routed in July so it could stop at the Shops at Atlas Park, a retail complex that opened last year at 80th St. and Cooper Ave.

Atlas Park management hoped the move would attract more customers, and it wants the Q23 and Q45 re-routed so that they also pass by the mall.

But the new route raised concerns about noise, pollution and traffic in a residential area that includes the Cooper Ave. home featured in the opening credits of the hit 1970s sitcom “All in the Family.”

Location Scout: Archie Bunker’s House.

So not only do they clog the streets with their motorcades, get out of parking tickets and beat DWI raps but their security detail radios are also messing with your television reception:

Residents in the area near the United Nations may be noticing fuzzy reception — even on cable — while all the foreign dignitaries are in town attending the General Assembly.

The problem is caused by high-powered radios used by security details protecting the diplomats, said Time Warner Cable spokeswoman Suzanne Giuliani.

“It happens every year,” Giuliani said of what amounts to “intermittent signal problems” on some channels.

The affected area generally stretches from 42nd Street to 86th Street on the East Side, Giuliani said, adding that the cable company has posted a recording on its phone systems to let callers know there’s a temporary problem.

The two-way radio signals can interfere with TV reception when the cable isn’t secured tightly, Giuliani said.

Seriously, you shouldn’t worry about stiffing the Met now that you know how much they get paid:

Museum leadership has become a kind of star system, in which a small group of directors can pull in seven-figure bonuses from boards eager to hang onto the talent.

Last year, the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philippe de Montebello, received a $3.25 million one-time payment as a reward for having stayed at the museum through his 70th birthday. His total compensation for the year was $4,557,342, making him the top earner in the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual survey of nonprofit executive compensation, beating out presidents of major hospitals and universities.

Other museum directors in Mr. de Montebello’s earning class include the director of the Museum of Modern Art, Glenn Lowry, who in addition to a compensation package that in 2004 was $1.28 million, between 1995 and 2003 received a total of $5.35 million from a trust set up by museum trustees. The former chairman, Robert Menschel, and president of MoMA, Marie-Josée Kravis, said in a letter to the New York Times that the trust helped to secure the recruitment of Mr. Lowry to the museum in 1995. In 2006, Mr. Lowry received $901,766 in compensation.

The new “New York story” has nothing to do with pizza, Broadway dreams or jazz but rather something more current:

Soho resident Jon Doran was going out for his morning cup of joe Wednesday and walking up Thompson St. with his yellow lab, Socha. They were forced to take a slight detour since the film crew of the Biography Channel had commandeered the sidewalks adjacent to the handball courts at Spring and Thompson Sts. while shooting promos.

Crossing back to the west side of Thompson, midblock, Socha (pronounced Sasha) stepped into a puddle in the street near the curb in front of 105 Thompson St. and began yelping and squealing like Doran had never heard before. The dog stiffened and fell into the water. Doran pulled her out — all 80 pounds, of what felt like dead weight. Socha appeared O.K. and her owner was mystified. A passerby, who witnessed these events, told him, “Your dog has been electrocuted.”

(While Socha clearly had received a severe electric shock, she wasn’t electrocuted, since “electrocuted” means to be killed by an electric charge.)

In the middle of the puddle, there was a manhole.

Immediately — the time was 10:48 a.m. — Doran called 911. While waiting for first-responders, he policed the puddle so no one else would wander into it. At 12:15 p.m. he called 911 again, pleading for someone to respond. At 12:38, almost two hours from the first call, police finally arrived, followed shortly after by firefighters. The area was cordoned off.

When the story of who killed the Red Hook Ballfields is written it will turn out that we are all guilty:

Honduras Maya, a restaurant owned by one of the vendors that serves Latin American food on weekends at the Red Hook Ball Fields, was closed down by the Health Department this week after an inspection stemming from the city’s crackdown on the vendors.

The shutdown could merely be a taste of what’s to come if the 13 food vendors at the ball fields fail to meet strict health code requirements by this weekend. And the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation may not extend the vendors’ temporary permit — which officially expires after Labor Day — until the soccer season ends in late October, as earlier promised.

. . .

Cesar Fuentes, executive director of the Food Vendors Committee of Red Hook Park, said health inspectors are expected to start issuing fines — or shutting down vendors — this weekend for not meeting requirements like providing hot and cold running water, refrigeration, and preparing food in commercial kitchens rather than at home.

Suany Carcamo, the owner of Honduras Maya, has been operating a Honduran food stand specializing in baleadas at the ball fields for more than a decade. Fuentes said her restaurant was investigated by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as a follow-up to a letter she submitted to prove that she was preparing her food for the stand in a city-certified commercial kitchen — her own restaurant.

The Park Slope restaurant received 122 violation points, compared to the citywide average of 14 points, according to the inspection report. Among the 20 violations listed were: missing Choking First Aid, Alcohol and Pregnancy, and Wash Hands signs; evidence of flying insects and mice; toilet facility not maintained and provided with toilet paper; and wiping cloths dirty or not stored in proper sanitizing equipment.

The owners were not available for comment by press time. An employee, when reached by phone, confirmed that the restaurant had been shut down.

But Carcamo could be viewed as one of the lucky vendors. She is one of only two that also owns a restaurant, while many of the others are struggling to find a commercial or community kitchen certified by the Health Department where they can prepare their food.

“The report from my vendors is that it is basically very, very difficult to do,” said Fuentes. After word traveled that Honduras Maya was shut down, “a lot of people were denying vendors the use [of their facilities] out of fear that the Department of Health would enforce harshly.

“Anyone who doesn’t have that letter wouldn’t be allowed to sell,” he said.

(The vendors do nothing to conceal it, we visit there because we want to eat it, we blame the Health Department for being there, but we are all there . . .)

I guess it’s back to those old reliable subway churros for us . . .

In case you were wondering why the State Department concerns itself with the ins and outs of a domestic transportation bill, now you know:

Mayor Bloomberg promised that diplomats would pay up, just like everyone else, under his congestion-pricing plan — but it looks like he won’t be able to keep that promise.

According to the fine print inside the deal that gives $354 million in federal transportation funds to support the anti-traffic scheme in the city, the State Department will be able to waive fees on foreign bigwigs whenever it wants.

The State Department has already taken a stand against congestion pricing. U.S. officials are arguing in London, which now has congestion pricing in place, that assessing such fees against foreign governments violates international law.

Aides to Bloomberg told The Post in April that the mayor will only waive fees for emergency vehicles, taxis, livery cabs and handicapped drivers.

. . .

The Committee to Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free, which opposes Mayor Bloomberg’s plan, said the last-minute clause was “infuriating.”

“It is galling that an Iranian diplomat could pay nothing while a senior citizen from Bayside would be charged to go for cancer treatment at a Manhattan hospital,” said spokesman Josh Bienstock.

The DOT said the potential loophole for foreign government workers was added at the request of the State Department.

The clause says the State Department can force the city to waive fees for “vehicles owned or operated by any foreign government or international organization.”

The State Department — currently locked in a bitter battle with the city of London over $3 million in unpaid congestion fees and fines American diplomats have racked up there — has argued that congestion pricing amounts to a tax. And under the Geneva Conventions, the agency maintains, foreign governments don’t pay taxes.

Backstory: Hizzoner The Cab Crusher.

Things you don’t want to read after Wednesday’s commute include MTA employees had to be reminded not to surf the ‘net so much while everyone else was trying to get service updates on the mta.info website:

Of course, the scale of New York’s subways, which deliver 4.9 million rides each weekday, dwarfs any other system in the country, making it much harder — and more expensive — for the authority to maintain and improve its communications system. On Wednesday, the authority’s Web site, one of the busiest in the country, was updated frequently and received a record 44 million hits. (A hit is a request for a single file on a Web server.)

However, untold numbers of people had trouble getting through to the site. The firewall software that screens users on the network could not handle the surge in traffic, so technicians tried to free up capacity by asking employees to limit their online activities and by disabling bandwidth-consuming functions, like videos of old board meetings, on its Web site.

“To say the Web site was down is not correct,” said Christopher P. Boylan, a deputy executive director of the authority. “It was just at its maximum capacity.”

And just so you understand, this is part of why the people in the little boxes never seem to know anything when you ask them:

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the PATH system, has since January been sending e-mail alerts to nearly 9,000 riders. They are notified of any delays of more than 15 minutes, and they can customize the alerts so they receive information only about the lines they use.

It will be a while before the Metropolitan Transportation Authority can do that for subway riders. “Usually when stuff happens, it happens quickly and we’d have to send out 100,000 e-mails very quickly,” said Wael Hibri, the authority’s chief information officer. “We’re still thinking it through.”

Here, then, is how word of major disruptions goes out for many riders: Employees stationed near train dispatchers make a telephone recording of the disruptions. The recording goes out to station agents, who are supposed to write down the information on white dry-erase boards in each booth using ink markers.

“We keep an ample supply on hand,” Termain Garden, a transit official, said of the markers.

Besides the boards, there are still other time-tested methods: the phone line, which plays recorded messages, and the public-address systems. (However, 92 of the 468 stations lack such systems.)

Even with “productivity goals” and a kibosh on the old fake license plate scam, traffic enforcement agents still find a way to slack off:

Four NYPD traffic agents were caught on the wrong side of the law yesterday — after they were busted writing dozens of phony tickets, police said.

Investigators with the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau caught the agents — Davey Griffin, 30, Raheem King, 26, Julian Fisher, 24, and Gregory Baird, 56 - allegedly writing tickets for parked vehicles hours after spotting an infraction, to cover up for the fact they were eating lunch or sitting in their cars rather than actually working.

Some tickets were issued to cars that were not illegally parked.

The agents “were on extended meal periods. They were in uniform. They were on foot. They stayed in one place. They didn’t do their jobs,” said IAB Chief Charles Campisi.

He said the men acted out of pure laziness.

“They have to show they’re going out and working. They would go and hide and fool their supervisors that they were working all day,” Campisi said.

. . .

Typically, agents create tickets by scanning the bar code on a car’s registration with a handheld computer, leaving a printout on the windshield. The data is later uploaded into a central computer. But tickets for out-of-state vehicles, which don’t have New York bar codes, must be handwritten.

Investigators followed the four agents around on June 21, and spotted them jotting down license-plate numbers — usually at the beginning of their shift — but not actually writing the tickets until much later, when they were lazing about in their cars or in restaurants eating, the probers said. But the time code on the filed paperwork would make it appear as if they were working through their entire shifts.

Underground this, underground that . . . sometimes you wish they never got rid of the Sixth Avenue El:

Powerful thunderstorms swept through the New York metropolitan area this morning, tearing up trees and damaging cars and creating mayhem during the morning commute.

Subway stations were flooded, forcing commuters out onto the streets and into taxis and buses, bringing traffic in many areas to a standstill. The region’s three major airports — La Guardia, Kennedy and Newark — all reported flight cancellations and delays.

No subway line was unaffected by the heavy rains and winds, according to the M.T.A. For the time being, the M.T.A. was advising commuters to stay at home.

. . .

In Brooklyn, the F train was delayed, and as trains started up again later in the morning, subway cars were heavily overcrowded.

John Han, 50, a financial adviser, said he arrived at the Fort Hamilton stop at around 7:45 a.m., but about an hour later had given up and was going home.

“The cars are running, but real slow,” he said, accompanied by his wife. “It looked like a sardine can. We are going home and taking a shower and going to try again, because we are very sweaty.”

Around Brooklyn, motorists drove in search of an open subway line, so that they could park and take the train.

In Manhattan, the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 lines on the West Side, and the Nos. 4, 5 and 6 lines on the East Side had ceased operations as of 8 a.m.

The 42nd Street shuttle was also suspended. The E and L lines were not in service, as were significant portions of the F and J lines.

Furthermore: Commuters Try To Board A Manhattan-Bound 7 Train YouTube Video, Commuters Try To Board A Manhattan-Bound N Train YouTube Video.

If he’s done nothing else in office, Bloomberg has mastered the New York City Mayor-ism “Come on, it’s not so bad!” (Giuliani was good at it, too; done properly, the brushoff’s cadence drops down at “on” and crescendoes on the upside again with an annoyed, almost whiny “bad”). This after we find out that he goes to work around 7 a.m., long before anyone else is on the train:

Two days after transit officials announced that some subway lines are operating beyond 100 percent of capacity at peak hours, Mayor Bloomberg questioned the figures and said his own commute isn’t “that crowded.”

“I take the Lex line most days and it’s not that crowded,” the MetroCard-carrying mayor told several hundred people at a Crain’s New York Business breakfast forum in Midtown.

“So you stand next to people. Get real. This is New York. What’s wrong with that?” added Bloomberg.

Two of the lines that the mayor uses to get from his townhouse on East 79th Street to City Hall, the Nos. 4 and 6, were listed at 103 percent of capacity. The third line, the No. 5, came in at 102 percent.

That makes them the most packed in the system, along with the L line.

. . .

Aides said the mayor usually hops on the subway between 7 and 7:30 a.m. That might explain why he doesn’t experience the most intense crowding conditions. Transit surveys show that the passenger load is at its heaviest between 8 and 9 a.m.

A study from 2002 provided by the Straphangers Campaign found 19,348 passengers were carried from 86th Street and Lexington Avenue, one of the stops the mayor sometimes uses, between 7 and 8 a.m. The number swelled to 28,479 between 8 and 9 a.m.

(Actually they’re missing the best part of the Crain’s breakfast, which came when Hizzoner suggested — and didn’t sound like he was joking either — that Robert Caro should write his next great tome about Daniel Doctoroff . . . what masterbuilders these guys are!)

Some people are not so much upset about the due process issues of red light cameras as they are annoyed by the flash itself:

Since September, the number of such cameras in the city has doubled, to 100, and one of the more controversial new arrivals is attached to a pole on Ninth Avenue near 57th Street. The picture is taken by equipment in a glossy beige box the size of a hotel minibar. Above the box sits the flash, a 300-watt strobe light.

Fixed 20-odd feet above the street, the flash points not down but straight out to the southeast, making it resemble a sort of semaphore, beaming messages into the ether.

Across the street and one block south, the flashes invade the antiques-filled eighth-floor living room of the Cahnmann family. They live in the Parc Vendome, an imposing complex of condominiums that fills the square block bounded by Eighth and Ninth Avenues and 56th and 57th Streets.

“When the lights are out, it’s like someone outside our house is taking a photograph,” said Emily Cahnmann, an event planner who works from home. “But even in the daytime, people go, ‘What’s that?’ And I say, ‘Oh, that’s the paparazzi, taking photos of us.’”

The traffic camera was installed only in December. But Ms. Cahnmann has already developed a weary familiarity with its ways, as have other residents of north-facing apartments in the Parc Vendome. “On Saturday nights, between midnight and 3 in the morning, it goes off much more,” Ms. Cahnmann said. “I guess people think, ‘It doesn’t see me here.’”

After studies show that New York City is the highest-taxed large city in the country, Sewell Chan asks what New Yorkers get for all that. Snow plows:

Six of the nine largest cities are in the Sunbelt, where the warmer weather means less money is needed for removing snow and repairing streets damaged by the freeze-thaw cycle.

Precious metals scavengers have delayed the computerized time-until-the-next-train thingamabobbers on the L train. How convenient:

Scavengers have ripped off copper cable from subway stations on the L line, hampering the high-tech system that broadcasts arrival and departure times, the Daily News has learned.

The contractor installing the electronic message boards reported the wiring was filched in “repeated acts of vandalism,” according to a Transit Authority report.

“A thief is a thief is a thief, no matter what the item is,” a TA official said. “If someone can make a buck, they will steal it and try to resell it.

“We’re working with our contractor to make sure they take all necessary precautions to prevent the theft and the resulting delays. We’re also making sure we take steps on our property to secure all of our assets.”

Transit officials say the thefts are partly to blame for delays in completing its ballyhooed Public Address/Customer Information Screen project.

7 train disruptions to reach L-like proportions:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to knock out weekend service on the no. 7 line this weekend for the third straight time, as well as the next four weekends, three more in November, and seven more in early 2008. The reason: to complete switch and signal upgrades on one of the oldest lines in the system.

After these track improvements are completed, the MTA is planning to bring computer-operated trains to the no. 7 line, which will require the agency to cut service again for at least 50 weekends over the next five years, according to transit sources. The award date for that project has been set for January 2008.

The computerized signal system, currently used to control only the L line, allows trains to run faster and closer together, thereby increasing service, the MTA says. Some transportation planners are raising eyebrows about bringing the expensive system to the no. 7 line when it is still in a test phase on the L line. The final estimated cost for the L line system is $278 million, which is $68 million over budget.

About 250,000 straphangers are estimated to ride the no. 7 line on an average weekend. Many are complaining that even with shuttle buses replacing subway service, travel times have quadrupled.

Upon being questioned about the city’s higher-than-average tax rates, Hizzoner maintained that we get what we pay for:

New Yorkers pay more taxes because they get more services, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday as he defended the city’s sky-high tax rates.

“I would love to reduce taxes more,” he said. “But, unfortunately, given the level of services that the public wants, we just have to have money to pay for things. And I don’t know anybody that’s urging us to reduce the services.”

. . .

Bloomberg explained that it costs a lot of money to make a city of 8.1 million people work.

“My first priority is to make sure that we have the money to pay our 300,000 employees and to help those that are less fortunate than the rest of us, to help educate and protect and expand and enhance cultural institutions, [to] build for the future so we get tourists here,” he said.

More services . . . like millions of free condoms every month!