Psycho Hose Beast

I still don’t understand what the “R” stands for but at least the Post is generous enough to share their picture of the victim with us:

Samir Sara, 23, allegedly had a one-night stand with 21-year-old Kristina Caban two years ago. When she called him afterward, he supposedly never phoned her back — becoming only one in a long line of men who had wooed and then mistreated the hot-blooded art student, a friend told The Post yesterday.

Caban is now charged with hatching the sick plan that led to Sara’s being branded on his torso last week with a four-inch “R” as revenge for the slight.

“She flocked to a- – – – – – guys,” said the classmate of Caban at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. “She’s a talented person. She’s also a genuine person. For her to do this, she must have been deeply hurt.”

Caban’s lawyer yesterday tried to minimize his client’s role in the searing Oct. 22 attack, which also resulted in the arrest of the suspect’s current boyfriend, Robert Testagrossa, 25. Testagrossa has been suspended from his $60,000-a-year civilian investigator job in the MTA’s Inspector General’s Office in the wake of the assault.

“Let’s get off the branding thing,” said Caban’s lawyer, James Friedman, shortly after his client was indicted by a Manhattan Supreme Court grand jury. “There’s a tremendous amount of speculation, innuendo and rumor. . . .”

Friedman called Caban “a good kid from a good home” and urged the public to “sit back and wait for the facts.”

Then again, you’ve got to like how the boyfriend somehow finds a way to misuse his position with the MTA to help his girlfriend (allegedly!) assault the man:

Sources have told The Post that Caban reconnected with Sara and made a date to have drinks with him in a Chelsea bar Oct. 22.

She then allegedly lured him to a room at the Chelsea Inn, where Testagrossa and the unnamed man were waiting with a gun and Taser.

There, sources allege, the men stole Sara’s cellphone and cash. Testagrossa shouted that he was “a Long Island police officer” while displaying a badge and ordering Sara to get on the floor. The men then allegedly bound Sara and branded him.

Although Testagrossa is no cop, the former high-school varsity wrestler carries a badge as part of his work for the inspector general of the Metropolitan Transportation Agency.

Bring On The Gigantic Tattooed Elephants!

I can’t believe they found a way to make Coney Island classier than it already is but somehow they have:

Architectural renderings obtained by The Post show a grand vision of the famed summer amusement area’s rundown streets being transformed into a glitzy year-round playground and public attraction.

In one image, Stillwell Avenue becomes a fantasy-filled boulevard marked by larger-than-life street furniture, such as a mermaid swimming in a martini glass and a gigantic tattooed elephant.

So I Guess Those Property Tax Rebates Were His Way Of Being Flashy Beyond His Means

Hey Magic 8 Ball, are the mayor and his staff preparing for an economic slowdown? Outlook not so good:

In a surprising pullback, Mayor Bloomberg has asked agency heads to draw up plans to scale back spending on announced construction projects, The Post has learned.

One source said the cut could amount to as much as 25 percent of the four-year, $36.5 billion capital budget adopted in June. But Stu Loeser, the mayor’s spokesman, said that no such figure has been discussed and that, in any case, “no decisions have been made.”

He said agency heads received letters on Oct. 12 asking: “If what you had to do in the next four years was spread over five years, what would your priorities be?”

Just five months ago, Bloomberg and the City Council approved record expense and capital budgets and an ambitious list of projects throughout the five boroughs.

Over $10 billion was set aside for school construction and expansion and $2.6 billion allocated for rehabbing the four East River bridges and 68 other bridge structures.

The city was so flush that the mayor even found $2 billion for a new Retiree Health Benefits Trust Fund to help defray the future cost of city workers’ health benefits.

He also spent $200 million a year for each of the next four years to pay down debt service on bonds sold to fund the capital budget. Debt service is expected to cost taxpayers $4.8 billion this year and $6.1 billion in 2010.

We Are All Orange Now

MTV’s “True Life: I’m A Staten Island Girl” continues to have repercussions on the island:

MTV’s recent “True Life” documentary, “I’m a Staten Island Girl,” hit a nerve when it portrayed the borough’s youth as catty, road-raging, privileged and Gottiesque. Then the show cut deeper and compounded that unflattering list of stereotypes by portraying Islanders as — cringe — tanning-salon-orange.

. . .

After the episode first aired on national television on Oct. 18, viewers posted more than 230 comments to the entertainment forum on the local Web site silive.com.

Bloggers ranted.

Some recorded the episode to watch again. Others couldn’t bear to watch.

Islanders wrote in to the Advance calling the episode “embarrassing,” “horrible,” “hilarious” and “emotionally disturbing.”

“We are not orange,” was their cry.

. . .

Said Ms. [Danielle] DiPietro [one of the show’s three subjects]: “I know a lot of people are really p.o.’d about the show and they have a right to be. But they should have been at the auditions for the show.”

Both aspiring actresses and publicists, these two “Staten Island girls” have no regrets. They also thought the show was pretty accurate.

“Not everybody has spiky hair. Not everybody has an orange tint to them. Not everyone does, but the majority of Staten Island does,” said Ms. [Lauren] Laner [another of the show’s subjects].

Not Clear Whether This Includes The Duane Reade In Forest Hills But We Can Only Hope

This is precisely why they hate our freedom:

New York’s most ubiquitous drugstore quietly got sexy two weeks ago by stocking erotic toys and passion oils, according to Crain’s New York Business magazine.

Among the items for sale from the upscale Kama Sutra line of sex aids are feather ticklers, edible honey dust, vibrators and flavored condoms.

A Kama Sutra executive said selling through Duane Reade was an easy choice, and predicted New Yorkers won’t blink at seeing “pleasure” products next to the pharmacy. “We figured the Manhattan customer was sophisticated enough for our products,” said Beverly Pollington Sirjani, senior VP of California-based Kama Sutra.