So nice to see this article burning a hole in the Times’ pocket. Too bad they decided to publish it just as they called the election for him:

The White House switchboard lit up with calls from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s emissaries several weeks ago with a message that was polite but firm: The mayor is going to win re-election, they said. We think the president should stay out of the race.

Members of Mr. Bloomberg’s inner circle were especially worried because they knew President Obama planned to visit the region to campaign with Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey, and he would face pressure to support the Democratic candidate, William C. Thompson Jr., the city’s first black comptroller.

At the request of the mayor’s aides, Geoffrey Canada, chief executive of the Harlem Children’s Zone, telephoned Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to the president.

“I know she is close to the president and has his ear,” said Mr. Canada, whose nonprofit group has received $600,000 in personal donations from Mr. Bloomberg.

A close adviser to the mayor, who stayed neutral in the presidential race, described the campaign’s pitch to the White House this way: “He didn’t pick sides in your race. Don’t pick sides in his.”

The president’s office agreed, and in early October alerted Bloomberg aides that it would offer only a halfhearted Friday afternoon endorsement for Mr. Thompson, and Mr. Obama did not campaign with him.

In the race for mayor of New York City, there was one campaign on the surface. But there was a more dramatic effort, unfolding behind the scenes, that really mattered: ensuring, through money and muscle, that Mr. Bloomberg faced no serious obstacle to winning a third term.

See also: Bloomberg For Mayor 2009.

God Bless Ronan Tynan? No — God Damn Ronan Tynan:

The famous Irish tenor — who has become a iconic staple of New York Yankees playoff games for much of this decade — admitted to making the slur Thursday to a Jewish woman who was looking to buy an a apartment in his East Side building, a team spokeswoman said.

His gig singing for last night game was then cancelled. It was a move that even Yankees fans who loved the singer agreed with.

. . .

The alleged slur came while Dr. Gabrielle Gold-von Simson, an NYU Medical center pediatrician, was inspecting the building with a real estate agent and they bumped into the golden-throated team singer.

The agent joked to Tynan: “Don’t worry they are not Red Sox fans.”

And for some reason Tynan responded by saying: “I don’t care about that, as long as they are not Jewish.”

The burst of bigotry stunned Gold-von Simson, who said “Why is that?”

According to the team, Tynan said that a lot of “scary” Jewish ladies had been looking at the apartment before.

This comes after the Yankees were forced to settle with a fan for trying to use the bathroom during the song.

U2, the masters of the generous gesture bound to look good on videotape, provide Mayor Bloomberg with another generous gesture that looked good on videotape (or YouTube, as the case may be), but the real question is how much that carbon offset is worth:

CBS 2 caught Bloomberg’s chopper buzzing the Meadowlands as he searched in vain for the right place to land the chopper so the mayor could go to the U2 concert. It was a test run, and the pilot botched it, so when he came back with the mayor, he had to land farther away.

But it left the oh-so-green mayor’s face oh-so-red on Friday. CBS 2’s Political Reporter Marcia Kramer reminded Bloomberg that it takes a lot more energy to fly a chopper than a car, wasting a lot of energy.

“I suppose you could say that, but there’s other ways to get around,” he said. “Some are more energy efficient, I could have walked or swam across the river as well, that would have used less.”

It was a “gotcha” moment for an avowed environmentalist. He regularly takes the subway and appeared Thursday with former Vice President Al Gore to say painting rooftops white saves energy. On Friday, he talked about teaching building supers energy-saving practices.

“I believe government should lead by example,” Bloomberg added.

The mayor was anxious to get to the U2 concert for a meeting with Bono, who later praised the mayor’s philanthropy.

. . .

The mayor is so green that five different environmental groups refused to comment about the story.

A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips*:

As a billionaire in one of the dining capitals of the world, he can eat anything he wants. But he is obsessed with his weight — so much so that the sight of an unflattering photo of himself can trigger weeks of intense dieting and crankiness, according to friends and aides.

His food issues have become New York City’s. Although he has described his battle against unhealthy foods as common-sense public policy that will shed pounds (and save lives), many of his targets overlap with his own cravings.

“I like a Big Mac like everybody else,” he confessed the other day, explaining the city’s warts-and-all approach to fast food. “I just want to know how many calories are in it.”

Under his watch, the city has declared sodium an enemy, asking restaurants and food manufacturers to voluntarily cut the salt in their dishes by 20 percent or more, and encouraging diners to “shake the habit” by asking waiters for food without added salt.

But Mr. Bloomberg, 67, likes his popcorn so salty that it burns others’ lips. (At Gracie Mansion, the cooks deliver it to him with a salt shaker.) He sprinkles so much salt on his morning bagel “that it’s like a pretzel,” said the manager at Viand, a Greek diner near Mr. Bloomberg’s Upper East Side town house.

Not even pizza is spared a coat of sodium. When the mayor sat down to eat a slice at Denino’s Pizzeria Tavern on Staten Island recently, this reporter spotted him applying six dashes of salt to it.

And then there’s the concept of Asshole-In-Chief:

When he does not like the food, he rarely holds back. After dining at Blue Smoke, Mr. Meyer’s barbecue restaurant on East 27th Street, the mayor told Mr. Meyer, “I just don’t like it.”

Mr. Meyer tried inviting him back, but the mayor would not budge. “It never feels good when somebody tells you they don’t like your restaurant, but it’s nice when a politician does not pander,” he said, adding that the mayor has heaped praise on Union Square Cafe.

*In fact, Thompson should consider making this a slogan of sorts, e.g., you think it’s OK to suspend term limits just this once, but consider the deleterious long-term effects . . .

Pensioners steal the Salvation Army’s red kettle from a Staten Island cafe:

Workers at the Corporate Grind Cafe in Bloomfield kept the Salvation Army’s red kettle campaign going long after the holidays, with staff agreeing to direct any tips from customers into the familiar collection bucket on the counter.

Every few weeks, just as the kettle fills to capacity, store owner Darren Smith delivers its contents to the Christian charity he’s had a relationship with for several years. Smith’s father, Realtor J. Delbert Smith, is on the board of directors for the Staten Island chapter of the Salvation Army.

The bucket was almost full Tuesday when a couple — a man and woman who look more like grandparents than thieves — ordered a salad and a sandwich wrap and ate before walking out the door with the bucket and an estimated $200 in donations.

Amid all the endorsements, the mayor’s real strategy to bring the city back revolves around sneaky-as-shit ticket agents:

Law enforcement sources told the Gazette the traffic agents hide behind the pillars to catch motorists who get trapped at red lights in the busy intersection.

“It’s crazy,” the sources said. “The agents curl up behind the pillars and wait until a car gets jammed up. Then they pounce, scan the registration and toss the summons at the motorist before they skulk back behind the pillars.”

Sources acknowledge that it is illegal to block the intersection, where signs clearly indicate, “Don’t Block The Box”. The signs also warn that motorists who get caught blocking the intersection face a fine and points on their driver’s license.

“It’s the way they’re doing it,” the sources said. “Instead of directing traffic at the intersection or standing as a deterrent, they’re jumping from behind the pillars and scaring everybody.”

. . .

High-ranking police sources said the NYPD is looking into the actions of traffic agents who “jump and scan” vehicles at Hoyt Avenue. “Drivers know they have to be careful when they see traffic agents at a location,” the sources said. “The agents on Hoyt aren’t concerned with traffic control or enforcing the law. It’s clear, by their actions, that they have only one thing in mind — to write as many summonses as possible.”

NB: I think they’ve started using unmarked cars, too . . .

Classy move on the part of our billionaire mayor:

It is supposed to be the Democratic nominee’s big moment.

But on Sept. 15, Primary Day in this overwhelming Democratic city, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s ever restless re-election campaign will try to steal the limelight from his challengers.

The campaign is organizing a giant political rally for that evening on Manhattan’s West Side, according to people told of the plans. It is expected to draw a crowd of about 2,500.

Starting time? Eight o’clock sharp, an hour before the primary polls close.

Mayor Bloomberg is running unopposed on the Republican and Independence Party lines and will not participate in the primary.

Wow, a placard that lets you park anywhere, so cool:

A car sporting an official NYPD placard issued to cops blatantly blocked a fire hydrant yesterday in The Bronx — as a blaze broke out in the apartment building directly in front of it.

Instead of being able to hook up their hoses to the hydrant, frustrated firefighters had to rely on handheld fire extinguishers to put out the kitchen blaze that broke out on the top floor of a six-story building at 206 East 198th Street in Fordham.

. . .

The vehicle displayed parking credentials for Queens’ narcotics bureau.

A Post photographer trying to take a picture of the placard was forced to move away by cops.

Of course people are going to want to take pictures:

The dirty and creepy character demanded money from people and, when he didn’t get it, swore and jostled them.

“No picture. No picture. You have to tip Elmo. You have to tip Elmo or Elmo gets angry,” the imposter shouted as he stuck a filthy red paw over a Texas tourist’s camera lens.

“What the hell, Elmo? Keep your hands to yourself,” shouted Victoria Vought, 47, pulling away.

Wide-eyed at the loud to-do, Vought’s son, Dylan, 4, asked, “What’s wrong with Elmo, Mommy?”

“That’s not the real Elmo. That’s a bad Elmo,” she quickly explained.

Because the liquor lobby is a bunch of thugs:

If it wasn’t too surprising that the liquor store lobby had used pros in what it was calling a “grassroots” effort, and had even persuaded some law enforcement groups to go along, what did seem astounding was that some wineries had also been persuaded to join the effort.

If there was any group that would benefit from opening grocery stores to wine, it was the wine makers themselves.

[Liquor lobby grassroots group] The Last Store on Main Street boasted that some 80 wineries in the state opposed the sale of wine in supermarkets. Notably, they claimed, most of Long Island’s wineries opposed the idea.

Last Store spokeswoman Leggitt pointed out that New York’s grocery stores wouldn’t be stocking local wine anyway: “Coming from the small independent-business side, wineries want to keep us out of it for the sake of their fellow members in the wine industry,” she says.

Some wineries did back the bill, however, and say they paid a price for it — in the form of intimidation from the liquor store lobby. (Leggitt says the Last Store group had no involvement in, and did not condone, such intimidation.)

On February 4, Scott Osborn, president of Fox Run Vineyards in Penn Yan, wrote to Governor Paterson and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, complaining that because he testified in favor of the wine bill, he had been targeted by “a coordinated campaign of intimidation and retaliation” by the liquor lobby.

Osborn says he had been uneasy about testifying because “the liquor store lobby had made it explicitly clear that my support of this change would result in my being added to the liquor stores’ ‘enemies’ list, and that my product would be removed from the shelves.”

Osborn claims he received three phone calls the day after he testified from liquor store owners vowing to pull his wines off their shelves. He says he got about 30 e-mails, most of which threatened to pull his wines from their shelves.

Osborn demanded an investigation into his complaint. “There should be no doubt that this is a coordinated effort on behalf of the liquor lobby to damage a well-respected New York State business and put a damper on free speech,” Osborn wrote.

Earlier: Wine, Whine; News You Can Booze.

The Observer publishes a photo of the Times’ new restaurant critic.

What was once a perfectly good closed circuit feed of boring city council meetings somehow turned into a flashy taxpayer-supported media empire and now it’s all coming down . . . more Bloomberg legacy:

In fact, city investigators only tumbled to Scotland’s thefts after they launched an inquiry last year into complaints by employees at NYC-TV. The wide-ranging gripes included charges that Wierson and other top officials were often absent and appeared to be using city staff and resources for their own private projects.

The results of that inquiry were assembled in a memo that was presented to City Hall shortly before Scotland’s arrest. Since then, in addition to Wierson, at least four other high-ranking aides at the network have also quietly resigned. Asked last week if they’d been fired, a City Hall spokesperson declined comment.

The Post reports that top NYPD brass want to see clunkers in the tow pound:

NYPD tow-truck operators are hauling away cars at an alarming pace because of ramped-up pressure to meet a shocking four-car quota per shift — and those who fail face stiff penalties, sources told The Post.

“You have to get your number. That’s it. If you don’t get that number, you know that when you roll into the pound, the bosses will be all over you,” said a veteran driver.

Punishment can range from a loss of overtime to relegation to the graveyard shift to delayed approval of time-off requests.

That fear is leading drivers to tow cars they might otherwise let off, just to make sure they hit the mark.

“If it’s a judgment call, we’ll frequently go against the driver for that reason,” a source familiar with the mandate said. “It’s screw them or screw me. Either way, someone’s getting screwed.”

The source told of drivers’ being called in for “interviews” with managers and subsequently being moved off the desirable 5 a.m.-to-1 p.m. shift and placed instead on overnight hours because “they’re not bringing in enough cars.”

Seems like bad luck to release doves on your wedding day that end up stranded in the park, clinging to life:

More than two dozen helpless albino ringneck doves — presumably released into the wilds of Queens as part of a wedding celebration — were clinging to life yesterday in a stand of trees after surviving a weekend of storms, heat and predators.

“People are looking to celebrate something joyful, and here they have birds that have never flown released into the air. They have no knowledge of how to find food, and they will literally starve to death,” said Rita McMahon of the Wild Bird Fund.

The birds were found Saturday in a tree near the park and next to the New York Hall of Science, numbering as many as 45 at the start of the weekend.

Location Scout: Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

You’ve heard it reported anecdotally but now there is firm evidence that you should always buy the cheapest well drinks, because it’s the same stuff:

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.

On track for another record-setting year:

“Agents are acting in order to maximize revenue to fill the city coffers, rather than doing their job correctly, which is to ensure turnover to help small businesses,” the letter read. “We, along with the business owners, want traffic agents to perform their job of enforcing the traffic laws to ensure turnover so that parking spots are made available. Unfortunately, the only way to describe the situation on New Dorp Lane — where tickets are handed out within seconds of a meter expiring — is harassment, pure and simple, the letter read.

Questions . . . 1) What is the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City if not a slush fund for city employees to work on city officials’ under-the-radar pet projects? 1a) Followup: Why is this somehow OK? 1b) Followup: How many of these initiatives would be mistaken by the average person, applying contemporary community standards, as a stealth form of campaigning? 2) Why does New York City need another tour company operator? 2a) Followup: And why is this entity undercutting the private sector by using its massive organization and brand to edge out its competition? 3) Do we really need the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting making podcasts? 3a) Followup: Don’t they have enough to do by issuing all those permits? 4) Is New York City in danger of losing its tourism or something? 4a) Followup: Why is the City so desperate to promote itself like it’s some dusty Route 66 relic between Albuquerque and Vegas? I don’t know that there are answers to all these questions, but here’s a place to start:

If Cathy Epstein had been drinking a beverage when she saw a report about City Hall’s latest tourism promotion, the double-take she did probably would have been a spit-take.

Ms. Epstein is the director of marketing for On Location Tours, a company that has been selling tours of movie and television show locations in and around New York City for 10 years. On Monday, the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting started giving away audio tours of some of the same locations on its Web site.

The agency’s initiative upset some tour operators, who complained that it could cut into their already shrinking business. Rather than offer an alternative to their services, they said, city officials should be supporting them, especially during a severe recession.

. . .

She said nobody from the city government had contacted her company, which is a dues-paying member of the city’s tourism marketing agency, NYC & Company, about the podcasts. She said she and her colleagues wondered how much farther the film office planned to go with the audio tours, especially because On Location offers a walking tour of locations in Central Park.

Katherine Oliver, the commissioner of the film office, which helps arrange filming at city locations, declined to be interviewed about the podcasts. A spokeswoman said the office spent $23,000 on the podcasts, all of which came through private donations to the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City.

The other day it was “a battle”. Today, it’s “mopping up”:

Bloomberg noted that planning for redeveloping Willets Point had begun with the advent of the 1964 World’s Fair and is now becoming reality some 45 years later. With more than 65 percent of the land area now owned by the city, “Willets Point is a mopping up operation that’s up to the private sector now,” Bloomberg added.

Interesting metaphor. More mopping:

The city will formally kick off plans to seize control of the remaining privately owned land at Willets Point this month, an announcement that left shocked property owners scrambling for legal help and prompted questions as well as criticism from borough elected officials.

The city Economic Development Corp. said a public hearing on eminent domain would be held at Flushing Town Hall June 22, a procedural first step in the legal process through which the city plans to take the remaining 22 acres of land at Willets Point.

Property owners at Willets Point said representatives from Cornerstone Realty Group, a firm hired by the city to assist in business relocation in the area, canvassed the Iron Triangle last week informing people that the city intended to begin eminent domain proceedings and a letter would arrive Thursday detailing the process.

Jerry Antonacci, co-owner of Crown Container Co. and president of Willets Point United Against Eminent Domain, said he was miffed that city officials did not show up to tell property owners themselves.

“I said to the guy, ‘Why are you here? Why are you telling me this? The city should be the ones telling me this,’” he said. “They’re pretty quick to pull the trigger on eminent domain. But I guess they’re gonna do what they’re gonna do and we’re gonna do what we have to do to stop them.”

He said the property owners group expects to hire a legal firm to fight the city plan within the next week. Private property owners will have 90 days to file a lawsuit after the city files a formal report on its plans, which the EDC expects to occur by early next year.

Location Scout: Iron Triangle.

Disgraceful reporter Azi Paybarah breaks the fourth wall to ask where the mayor’s message has gone and explains how Mayor Iceberg apologizes:

Toward the end of the day, a Bloomberg spokesman called to inform me that I had been apologized to, then called and emailed other political reporters to notify them that the apology had been conveyed.

And Bloomberg, old media pro, seems to have developed a neat new way of answering critical concerns — say something is over, even if the other party doesn’t necessarily think so (maybe you’ve tried this on your spouse or loved one, e.g., “this conversation is over!” . . . perhaps with varying results):

The first press conference Mr. Bloomberg held after “disgrace” was on June 1, in his midtown campaign office. He was there to announce the Ackerman endorsement, but he also used the occasion to unveil an unusual new questions policy: He would “generally” take questions he thinks are related to his campaign at officially sanctioned campaign events, but at events at which he’s acting in his official capacity as mayor, he would not.

A reporter asked the mayor if he regretted “disgrace.”

“We’re beyond that,” the mayor replied.

But apparently, he still wasn’t.

The next day, at a press conference in Lower Manhattan on June 2 about cutting health care benefits to stave off layoffs for at least 90 days, Mr. Bloomberg asked if there were any off-topic questions.

A correspondent for Thomson Reuters promptly asked the following one: “Do you think it’s disgraceful for reporters in an open society to ask questions of people in power about their actions and motives?”

“I think we’re beyond that,” Mr. Bloomberg said again, this time with less conviction. “Let’s get on to the next thing.”

Compare “we’re beyond that” to the way he now seems to be explaining the status of the Willets Point/Iron Triangle redevelopment in Queens:

In terms of economic development projects, Bloomberg said that he wasn’t sure how quickly people were going to rush in and build at Willets Point, but he was confident about the project’s future.

“Willets Point — the battle is over; nobody’s going to stop that,” Bloomberg said.

You know who else was fond of shutting down dissent before something was a done deal? Or plowing forward with a plan before everyone was on board only to say that it was too late to stop? Robert Moses, who may have more in common with Bloomberg than once thought.

As promised, the end of term limits has brought more choices, more debate and definitely more democracy:

“He was coming to protest and disrupt the event,” said Marc La Vorgna, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg. “Anytime there is intelligence that an individual wants to disrupt an event, that information is circulated and appropriate measures are taken.”

What was this intelligence?

Several days earlier, Mr. Esposito had sent an e-mail message to the other 58 community board managers in the city, the last bastion of local government. The boards have yearly budgets of $189,000 each, but they face the same cuts of 5 percent as most city agencies.

All community board managers had been invited to the mayor’s presentation in the Fort Washington Armory, but Mr. Esposito said he suspected that more than a few would skip making the trip to Upper Manhattan.

“Perhaps we should attend to let our voices be heard about the cuts!” he wrote in his e-mail message. “What do people think?”

That is the entire text of the message that the mayor’s office took to be a signal of his plans to disrupt the event.

And there’s nothing you can do to stop them:

“Don’t worry, they won’t put another tree there,” a very nice city official assured her.

With that pledge, Smith had the pit paved over at her own expense. She was understandably surprised to see a small bulldozer with a pavement-busting attachment take up position there Friday morning.

“What are you doing?” Smith inquired from her front door.

“We’re putting in a tree,” the man in charge said.

“I didn’t ask for a tree,” Smith said. “I told them I didn’t want a tree there. Put it somewhere else.”

“This is going here,” the man said.

“I don’t want a tree there!” Smith exclaimed. “Who’s going to rake the leaves?”

A particularly good-hearted neighbor, Nancy Cardozo, approached and attempted to intervene.

“She doesn’t want a tree,” Cardozo noted.

“Sorry, I have the contract and I have a big payroll,” the man replied. “I have to put the tree there.”

The man’s tone remained remarkably amiable, even though Cardozo positioned herself in a way that might impede the work.

“You can have the tree moved later,” he offered.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense just to put it where we want it?” Cardozo inquired.

“No, this is what I have to do,” he said.

Cardozo dialed 311 from her cell phone. An operator informed her the city owns the sidewalk and has the right to put a tree there.

“Who’s responsible if somebody slips on the leaves?” Cardozo inquired.

“The homeowner,” the operator replied.

The operator then connected Cardozo to somebody in the Parks Department who did not answer. Cardozo left a message that would not get a reply.

Meanwhile, the man in charge was on his own cell phone to the Parks Department forestry office. He handed his phone to Cardozo.

“The tree’s going in,” an instantly nasty forestry guy told Cardozo. “There’s nothing she can do about it.”

Cardozo inquired if perhaps the work could be suspended until Smith spoke to the city.

“Do you want me to send the police and have you arrested?” the forestry guy responded.

“No, thank you, but I would like you to give me your name,” Cardozo said.

“I need you to move,” the forestry guy said.

“I need you to tell me your name,” Cardozo insisted.

“You’ll find out my name soon enough,” the forestry guy said.

And gouge people with parking tickets in order to balance the budget:

Documents released last week as part of Mayor Bloomberg’s new $59.4 billion budget show that the Finance Department is projecting a $93 million increase in parking-summons revenue over the $593 million expected to come in this fiscal year.

That would be the biggest jump since 2004, when collections soared a staggering $144 million over 2003. It also would be the most money ever taken in. The previous high was $623 million in 2008.

And in a time when there is much confusion about what’s real and what’s not you can’t be too sure what you’re seeing:

A movie chase scene got too realistic early today when a car jumped a curb during a film shoot and smashed into the entrance of a Times Square restaurant, injuring two people, police and witnesses said.

The action scene gone awry unfolded at the Sbarro at 47th Street and Seventh Avenue shortly before 1 a.m.

Street closing notices posted by the police indicated the shoot was for the Nicholas Cage film, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.”

. . .

Mark Watkins, a tourist from Birmingham, England, watched the live action chase from the top of the new TKTS booth.

“A black Ferrari and a silver Mercedes were chasing each other,” he said.

“The Ferrari took a route down the center of the road, swerving between cars. The Mercedes took the outside lanes.

“The Ferrari took a sharp right to the left and lost it, swerving across the lanes, taking out a lamppost and a news stand.

“One lady was knocked to the ground and a lamppost landed directly on top of a chap.”

Horrifying video at link.

Maybe he meant Mike Huckabee*:

At a press conference in the Bronx to announce the opening of a new Home Depot store, Michael Bloomberg was [p]resented with the company’s trademark orange apron, but declined to put on a pair of safety goggles, saying, “The last guy to put on a pair was Dukakis.” (Close enough?)

Bloomberg was offered the goggles by a Home Depot manager as the mayor and other officials used a small electric saw to cut a piece of wood (the Home Depot version of a ribbon-cutting ceremony).

*As in. Because he certainly didn’t mean President Obama, who looks cool in his safety goggles. (Then again, candidates refusing to compromise their coolness by taking proper safety precautions seems to have a long history.)

Gentlemen, yet another example of how not to apologize:

After bristling at a disabled reporter whose jostled tape recorder briefly interrupted a news conference on Thursday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg privately approached the reporter on Friday morning to deliver an oblique apology.

“The mayor spoke to Michael Harris,” said Jason Post, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, referring to the reporter. “He said he was sorry that Michael was offended.”

Mr. Bloomberg’s words did not exactly satisfy Mr. Harris, who held his own news conference outside City Hall on Friday to both praise and rebuke the mayor, nor did it satisfy advocates for the disabled, who criticized Mr. Bloomberg for appearing insensitive.

In an interview, Mr. Harris said Mr. Bloomberg spoke to him for less than three minutes and told him that he apologized if Mr. Harris was offended.

“Which is not totally sincere,” Mr. Harris said. “The mayor’s apology was a conditional apology. But I believe it was sufficient to allow us both to move on.”

Moral of the story: Take great pains not to offend press corps, lest you find yourself in the middle of a multi-news cycle “story.”

Earlier: Bloomberg Refuses To Coddle The Disabled.

Treats everyone equal . . . good to know:

To all the New Yorkers who have brought on the indignation of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, add one more: Michael A. Harris, a disability-rights advocate and journalist with a tape recorder that went off at the wrong time.

Mr. Harris, who uses a wheelchair, unwittingly found himself the source of a bizarre and uncomfortable 60 seconds with the mayor during a news conference on Thursday at Gov. David A. Paterson’s Midtown office.

As Mr. Bloomberg was delivering remarks on the governor’s introduction of a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in New York, someone bumped into a tape recorder that Mr. Harris was carrying in his pocket. That triggered the recorder’s play button, and noise from an earlier rally Mr. Harris had recorded at City Hall started playing.

The noise, which was not playing loudly enough for most other people in the room to notice, rattled Mr. Bloomberg.

“Can we just stop this, and maybe we’ll start again?” the mayor asked.

At that point the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, leaned over to the mayor, covered the microphone on the lectern and whispered in his ear, “He’s disabled.”

Mr. Harris’s disability, and the fact that he was clearly having difficulty reaching the recorder to shut it off, were apparently of little consequence to the mayor.

“I understand that — he can still turn it off,” Mr. Bloomberg was overheard saying. The mayor then suggested that Mr. Harris leave altogether. “Maybe we just take everything outside.”

. . .

A spokesman for the mayor explained that the Bloomberg administration frequently went out of its way to accommodate Mr. Harris at press events, providing him with transportation in a special van and ensuring wheelchair access is available. The spokesman, Jason Post, also pointed out that Mr. Bloomberg had treated Mr. Harris as he would any other reporter — which, Mr. Post added, should not be overlooked considering that the mayor was delivering remarks on equal rights for gay men and lesbians at the time Mr. Harris’s recorder went off.

“People should be treated the same,” Mr. Post said. “This is no different.”

The women depicted on those useful VIP passes that they helpfully hand out in Midtown are not actually dancing at the club:

A former Miss Oklahoma is suing a strip club in the Flatiron District for plastering her face and figure on “free admission” palm cards without permission.

Laci Kay Scott says in Man hattan federal court papers that she’s “easily recognizable” as the orange-gowned hottie advertising “private table dancing” and “personal rooms” on the handouts from Ten’s Gentlemens Club.

Like a push-poll:

He is comfortably ahead in the polls. He has the vast powers of incumbency at his disposal. He has the backing of the city’s most powerful business interests.

But that does not seem to be enough for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

As his campaign sought to overpower any candidate considering challenging him, Mr. Bloomberg commissioned a telephone poll last month that spread derogatory information about Representative Anthony D. Weiner, one of the mayor’s possible rivals in the race.

The calls came around mid-March, even as Mr. Weiner announced he was not certain he would run for mayor.

In interviews, several people who received the telephone calls said that they were told when they picked up the phone that a survey was being conducted, but were soon asked a series of questions featuring negative information about Mr. Weiner.

. . .

Asked if the Bloomberg campaign had commissioned the telephone messages, Howard Wolfson, a Bloomberg spokesman, declined to respond directly. But Mr. Wolfson denied that the campaign had engaged in any push-polling.

“Unfortunately for Congressman Weiner, the fact that he takes money from lobbyists and special interests, misses votes and has not passed any significant legislation isn’t a push poll — it’s his record,” Mr. Wolfson said.

A person familiar with the Bloomberg campaign confirmed that the poll was Mr. Bloomberg’s.

Because who knows what they might do if worse comes to worst:

Staten Islanders will have to swallow a $13 cash toll on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, while drivers in the rest of the city will keep their free ride on the East and Harlem River crossings, if legislative inertia continues to propel the MTA to enact its “Doomsday” budget.

The MTA board approved a 25 to 30 percent fare and toll hike this week, with the Verrazano and other MTA bridges set to go up in July, unless the state Legislature can devise alternate revenue streams to plug a $1.2 billion budget gap. Talks involving a bailout that would entail a payroll tax and tolling the currently free bridges have stalled in the state Senate.

. . .

Meanwhile, toll booths at all four Staten Island bridges already collect more than 6 percent of the nation’s tolls, according to Dr. Jonathan Peters, a finance professor and transportation expert at the College of Staten Island, who has done extensive research on the subject. Toll collection from passenger cars alone coming from only Staten Island ZIP codes accounts for about $65 million in revenue per year at the Verrazano, Peters said.

And without movement from Albany to balance that inequity, Islanders will continue to bear a growing toll burden, despite extremely limited transit options to travel off the Island without a car.

(Then again, Shelly says not to worry . . .)

So not only will we have pulled-pork on brioche and $19 cheap seats but fewer little leaguers as well, an obvious plot to gentrify baseball by slowly de-yobbing it. We snobs like that:

For the past four years, Little Leagues throughout the borough have participated in a special day at Shea Stadium where they purchased 1,200 discounted tickets from the Mets and got to lead a parade on the warning track of the field prior to the game.

This year, however, the Mets have told league officials including Bayside Little League President Bob Reid, that the teams may only be able purchase 500 (or less) tickets at full price, and they can’t guarantee they will be able to have the parade on the field prior to the game.

“The Mets organization is telling me that unfortunately we have 15,000 fewer seats, and we can’t do what we have done in the past,” said Reid, who is a longtime Mets fan that recently had the opportunity to tour Citi Field and thinks it’s great. “I think they are just forgetting the little guy.”

This is the first year the Mets will play in Citi Field, which will have a capacity of approximately 42,000 compared to Shea Stadium’s roughly 57,000, so it is more challenging to accommodate large groups for different games. In addition, the club is still working on logistics of the new stadium including field access points, which would factor into the parade that the Little League has each year.

Soon — soon! — Major League Baseball will resemble the opera! Bwahahaha!

Location Scout: Citi Field.