Fight For Your Right To Write

Graffiti writers earn further artistic legitimacy by stalking councilmember:

Anti-graffiti hard-liner Peter Vallone Jr. went to police yesterday after a Web site urged readers to show up at the city councilman’s home to protest the possibility that a notorious tagger faces prison time.

“If anybody wants to do any peaceful renovations demonstrations, we suggest they travel to the belly of the beast,” read a message on the Web site animalnewyork.com.

The site listed the address of Vallone’s new home in Astoria, which Vallone said his office provided after a caller threatened to publish several of his old addresses.

Although the message urged “peaceful demonstrations,” Vallone said he was troubled enough to call the police by the reference to “renovations,” as well as by the fact he’ll be home with his two young daughters.

“This is the latest in a long line of threats against me by these punks,” said Vallone, citing profanity-laced graffiti directed at him personally and late-night calls to his home. “This is a new level, because it’s my home and I’m a dad.”

Not On My Formerly State-Owned Waterfront!*

The city announces a plan to build middle-income housing on the Long Island City-Hunters Point waterfront. Douchebaggery ensues.

*Hey moron, leaving aside for the moment that the whole idea behind a master plan is developing a mix of housing, did you actually think the state would turn over public land just so you could spend a million dollars on a condo?

On It!

Con Ed discovers that it inadvertently carted off human remains from Ground Zero and stored them at one of its work sites in Chelsea:

Additional human remains have been found more than five years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

The remains were discovered yesterday at a Con Edison work location in Chelsea, where authorities believe they were accidentally transferred from the trade center site.

“Con Edison moved some debris from the World Trace Center site to their location at Eleventh Avenue and 29th Street,” a spokesman for the Medical Examiner’s Office, Ellen Borakove, said. “We confirmed they did, in fact, have human remains.”

Ms. Borakove said she did not know how many remains were found, as investigators are still in the preliminary stage of an investigation. It also was unclear when the debris was moved from Lower Manhattan, or who moved it.

A spokesman for Con Edison, Chris Olert, declined to comment on the finding. He said the Chelsea location is used as a work-out station, where employees pick up vehicles and equipment.

Beat The Mets, Beat The Mets, Step Right Up And Punch Beltran Out On Three Straight Pitches

That 0-2 curveball right over the middle of the plate was the equivalent of a gigantic double-barreled middle finger to the Mets offense:

The Mets’ offense, so potent during the regular season, was silenced for much of the series. They mustered only two hits through eight innings against Cardinals starter Jeff Suppan, the N.L.C.S. most valuable player, and reliever Randy Flores, before mounting a brief rally in the ninth.

Leading off, José Valentín and Endy Chávez hit consecutive singles off the rookie closer Adam Wainwright. Trying for a Kirk Gibson moment, the injured pinch-hitter Cliff Floyd struck out looking. José Reyes lined out before Paul Lo Duca walked, loading the bases.

But Wainwright struck out Beltrán on three pitches, the last a wicked curveball, to cap a most improbable postseason run.

On another note, if you get your New Yorker monocle in place, there’s something especially poignant about the butcher and the baker and the people on the streets* who “watched” the game from the 7 subway platform:

At Shea, there are box seats and bleacher seats and nosebleeds in the upper deck. There are even places for fans who are not in the ballpark. These would be the standing-room sections of the Willets Point-Shea Stadium station of the No. 7 train, an elevated line that runs by the stadium. Riders can peer through train windows into Shea, and resourceful fans without the resources to buy tickets can find spots on the platform to peer into the stadium and catch glimpses of the game, albeit incomplete ones.

. . .

To watch the game from right outside the stadium is to miss a lot of the action, but it is also a viewing experience that is free of pitch counts and statistics and commercials.

On the landing of a stairwell leading down from the platform to Roosevelt Avenue, a dozen fans gathered and enjoyed a view of the field that included second and third base and part of the outfield.

One of them, Steven Ramirez, 22, from Jackson Heights, said he was watching the game from here “just to get the thrill of the fans.”

“I only have $30 and I couldn’t touch a ticket for that,” he said. “Us people, we don’t got the means to get in, but it’s O.K. You can tell what’s happening just by the fans and using common sense.”

The Chavez family took two subway trains to Shea from their home in Jamaica, Queens. Elmer and Claudia Chavez brought their son, Jonathan, 10, who brought his Rawlings mitt.

“We wanted to come and be a part of the big party,” Elmer Chavez said. Jonathan pounded his little fist into his mitt and said, “If we really need to know what happened, we’ll call my grandpa, because he’s watching the game at home.”

The game was under way and the leadoff batter took the pitch. The crowd roared. “That’s strike one,” yelled Jonathan.

Anthony Nyquan, 28, from the Castle Hill section of the Bronx, said, “I came with $200 in my pocket and I still couldn’t afford a ticket from a scalper.

“So I figured I’ll save my money and stand here and watch,” he said. “Even though I’m not in the stands, I can feel the game. No way I’m going to miss this game. I could go home and watch it on TV, but I feel if I’m here, the Mets will win.”

From the stairwell landing, fans could not see the pitcher, but as Keith Last, 26, of Manhattan, explained: “You can tell just by watching the third baseman when the pitch is coming. You see what you can see, and the crowd kind of tells you the rest.”

*See, for example.

Yet Another Reminder Why You Should Never, Ever Use The Phrase “You Work For Me” To Someone In The Service Sector

You probably think brokers are best seen and not heard . . . then you induldge your inner douchebag and end up hearing about it in the New York Press:

They had already found a great place, were in the process of taking it, but wanted to make sure it was a good deal. Did I have anything they could see? Losers from the word go. They weren’t even bright enough to keep that kind of information to themselves. In fact, they acted as if needing the assistance of a real estate agent was somehow beneath them. They were invulnerable, but if I had a better place than the one they were into, well, they would be generous enough to allow me the time to show it to them. I wasn’t buying this nonsense (having fell victim to it before), but gave them a quick rundown of the market and some of our inventory, including general price-per-square-foot and so forth. It was one of those days. They were only looking for assurance and I didn’t mind offering some.

I gave them a fair assessment of the market, but they still weren’t convinced, so I asked about the specific apartment, “What’s the address?” If I knew the building, I was willing to give them my honest opinion. He answered, “No, I don’t know.” To which I responded, “You don’t know the address of the apartment that you are interested in?” He continued, “Well, I know it, but I’m not telling you,” with an emphasis on you. I said fine, and sat back down, believing that we were entirely finished speaking. I had tried to help. What else was I expected to do? He grunted his frustration at such an abrupt end to the conversation, so I explained that if he wasn’t willing to share what apartment he liked, why should I tell him which apartments I liked? At this point his wife fired up, “This is ridiculous, you’re the agent. You’re supposed to tell us what apartments are available.”

She was indignant, “You’re the one working!” That got me furious, and I responded, “I work for you? You walk into my office and I owe you something?” At this point they were crumbling some paperwork and walking out. I was stunned.

The problem, real life broker Brian Carter writes, is that even though renters pay the fee, real estate agencies are ultimately working on behalf of landlords — and we know that this vetting process sometimes has a dark side.