Nearly Swallowed Whole By A Brooklyn Street

The first few words of this story almost make it one of the best ledes ever:

A terrified Florida woman was nearly swallowed whole by a Brooklyn street yesterday when the cracked pavement collapsed under her SUV after a water main break, authorities said.

Then again, the story is strange enough as it is:

Nancy Batista, 46, would have been trapped in the 20-foot-deep hole in Bay Ridge if not for a pair of anonymous good Samaritans who pulled her from the mangled Ford Explorer, relatives said.

“The guy ripped the door open and said, ‘I got you!'” said Maggie Nieves, 45, after talking to her shaken sister, who was treated at Lutheran Medical Center. “She said it felt like Niagara Falls.”

As water gushed atop the Explorer at 3:35 a.m., a mystery military sergeant and a passerby rescued Batista, who, at first, was too scared to get out of the 15-foot-by-20-foot-wide hole.

“She was scared she might misjudge the step and that she would go down and nobody would be able to get her back up,” Nieves said.

Batista, who traded Flatbush for Kissimmee, Fla., a few years ago, was at a stoplight on Fourth Ave. at 73rd St. when the ground suddenly caved in.

“All she remembers is making a turn and the street opened up and swallowed her,” said Nieves, who first saw the wreck on TV when their mom in Florida called her Harlem home.

Gallons of water and a 2-foot-thick section of mud and debris collapsed along 300 feet of subway tracks below, shutting down the local R line between 36th St. and 95th St.

Battle Lines Drawn, Landlords Flexing Collective Muscle; Tenants Seen As The Enemy

New York Magazine reports on how city landlords are quietly coming together to educate themselves on how to better evict tenants:

A recent seminar, sponsored by a landlord group cutely called Community Housing Improvement Program, brought together Manhattan moguls and mom-and-pops who may own a building or two in the outer-outer-boroughs to get a primer on putting their problem tenants out on the street. After paying $50 and making small talk over muffins and coffee one morning in the chandeliered conference room of the New York County Lawyers’ Association on Vesey Street, the sold-out crowd of 225 settled in to listen to the lawyers.

. . .

Attorney William Neville recommended getting friendly with the postman to see whose name is on the mail and subpoenaing ATM records to see where the tenant banks. His biggest thrill? “Showing that [tenants] are lying.” Lawyer Lauren Popper said that it’s sometimes worth hiring a P.I.: Her favorite gumshoe once posed as a patient to catch a psychiatrist using his rent-stabilized apartment as an office while living elsewhere. Ultimately, they were steeled by the possibility of a jackpot—the flip side of the no-account-tenant horror stories. Belkin bragged that he might be able to get $10,000 a month for an apartment he recently wrestled out of rent control. The previous rent? Three hundred dollars. A ripple of excitement went through the audience.

“It Comes From California”

Trader Joe’s opening as reported by the Villager:

Three days after its grand opening on St. Patrick’s Day, the specialty grocery store at 142 E. 14th St. attracted more shoppers than it could handle. So 30 people had to wait outside before a Trader Joe’s employee allowed them to enter. “Are you serious — this line’s for a grocery store?” one woman hissed before joining the queue.

Inside, Trader Joe’s aisles were packed with shoppers. Employees dodged carts and baskets as they tried to restock the rapidly emptying shelves. The line for the cash registers looped around the entire store, all the way to the bread section. There, a cheerful employee dressed in a Trader Joe’s signature Hawaiian-print shirt held up a sign indicating “End of Line.”

. . .

As Monday’s crowd indicated, Trader Joe’s has its share of fans. Waiting on line for the register, a couple asked the stranger in front of them to snap a photo of them in front of their overflowing shopping cart. The man obliged as the couple grinned from ear to ear.

Vida Mulec, 25, an international affairs graduate student at New School University, exited the store, pleased with her purchases. It’s cheaper than the nearby Whole Foods Market, she said. “I got a dozen eggs for 99 cents,” she gushed.

Other first-time Trader Joe’s shoppers were less impressed with the store. “It’s not that cheap, but if it’s organic, you pay a special price for that,” Alex Brunavs said. Brunavs, a 64-year-old retiree, read about the opening of Trader Joe’s in the newspaper. “I heard it comes from California,” he said.

Vivi Liberation!

The Times picks up the Vivi scent, the show dog who is still missing:

There had been several sightings of Vivi, a white and brown female whippet, in the past few weeks, both in the tabloids and around the area of Flushing Cemetery and Kissena Park. Ms. Booth, a breeder of whippets and a friend of Vivi’s owners, who live in Claremont, Calif., had already scoured Queens a half-dozen times looking for the dog, but there was no giving up now.

“As you can see, it’s an extremely daunting search,” said Ms. Booth, who was wearing a brown ski jacket and hiking boots as she ticked off a long list of Vivi’s possible hiding spots. Having searched Queens from the marshes around Kennedy Airport to the streets of Bayside, she has become intimately familiar with the terrain. “I’m learning more about Queens than I ever wanted to know,” she said.

By late Friday, the show dog’s whereabouts remained a mystery. The search for Vivi has galvanized this part of Flushing, where several cars could be seen cruising slowly around the cemetery and park, their drivers peering out their windows. Fliers posted on several telephone poles depicted Vivi in happier days, sprinting through a field and standing at attention. “If Seen, Do Not Chase Her,” the fliers warned sternly. They also offered a $5,000 reward. [Emph. added in order to underscore the idea that the owner may deserve to have her prize dog liberated in Queens]

If You Still Believed Abercrombie & Fitch Was Somehow Classy . . .

I suppose it was inevitable we’d eventually have to apply Broken Windows to shopping:

A gunshot fired on one of the most exclusive blocks of Fifth Avenue sent well-heeled passersby scrambling for cover last night after a fight between workers at Abercrombie & Fitch’s flagship store got out of control, witnesses and cops said.

One of the workers, a man who was not identified, was hospitalized last night after a female employee with whom he had been arguing sent two friends to get revenge on him.

The thugs pistol whipped the worker outside the store at Fifth Avenue and 56th Street.

The gun accidentally went off during the brutal beating, shattering the window of the exclusive Beverly Feldman women’s clothing store about 8:45 p.m.