Expensive, But Worth It

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!

They Work Hard For The Money

The Armory Show is happening this weekend, and struggling artists are hopeful that they will sell something, anything:

Hundreds of electricians and carpenters yesterday were putting the finishing touches on their transformation of Pier 94 into the venue for this weekend’s Armory Show.

While they wrapped up, art handlers began to install works that 150 galleries hailing from 22 countries are looking to sell.

“A lot of people are down on the Armory because everything is packed together like a big supermarket, but I love it,” said Bushwick-based artist Zak Smith, 30, who also performs in porn films under the name Zak Sabbath. “It saves you the trouble of having to go to shows all year long if you’re working all the time like me.”

Smith was helping his Chelsea gallery Fredericks & Freiser tack up a series of intricate ink drawings on small pieces of paper called, “Drawings I did around the time I became a porn star.”

Taxman NYC, The Numbers Are Stunning, Yeah

I’m just saying:

New York City has long had a notorious reputation for high taxes, but an official analysis released yesterday shows just how much the city stands out in this regard: State and local taxes swallow $9.02 out of every $100 in household and business income, putting New York’s tax burden far above those of the eight other American cities with populations over one million.

. . .

The average state and local tax burden for the other eight cities in the analysis was $6.16 of every $100 in gross taxable resources. Philadelphia ($7.16) came in a distant second to New York, and Los Angeles ($6.88) came in third, according to the report.

You Not Only Repeat The Negative, You Spend $83,916 Doing It . . . Smart!

Doesn’t the fact that you have $80,000 to blow on a full-page ad in the New York Times basically prove Frank Bruni’s point that your restaurant is overpriced? I think most people would perceive it that way:

The owner of Kobe Club, Jeffrey Chodorow, may have spent more than $80,000 for a full-page advertisement in the New York Times that he used to defend his new steakhouse against what he called a personal attack by an unqualified food critic in a review in that paper earlier this month.

Mr. Chodorow attacked the Times reviewer, Frank Bruni, in his open letter yesterday, writing that the newspaper has been lacking a “real food critic” since Ruth Reichl left for Gourmet magazine. He wrote that he was the victim of a personal attack.

. . .

Mr. Bruni wrote in his review of Kobe Club that the menu presented “too many insipid or insulting dishes at prices that draw blood from anyone without a trust fund or an expense account.” In his advertisement, Mr. Chodorow claimed that other reviews of Kobe Club have been “overwhelmingly positive.”

Mr. Chodorow, who according to his spokeswoman was on an airplane yesterday and not available for comment, gained small-screen celebrity status a few years ago when he starred in an NBC reality show, “The Restaurant,” which documented the opening of Rocco’s on 22nd Street. That restaurant, financed by Mr. Chodorow, closed in 2004. Mr. Chodorow owns 22 other restaurants across the country.

The cost of a full-page advertisement in the New York Times Dining In/Dining Out section is $83,916, according to the company’s advertising department.

He Lives In His Own Heaven — Collects It To Go From The 7-Eleven

How suburban is Forest Hills? Forest Hills is so suburban that local leaders are less worried about maintaining a Jane Jacobs-friendly 24-hour block watch than they are fearful about teenagers congregating until all hours at a proposed 7-Eleven:

Workers are renovating the former Ash-By Cleaners site at 101-04 Metropolitan Ave. and plan to hand it over to 7-Eleven management in late May or early June, according to Maureen Abdelnour, a consultant for the convenience store chain.

The likely franchisee and his wife have operated another 7-Eleven in Queens for four years and are “very successful and well respected,” Abdelnour said.

Local residents aren’t convinced. When Ash-By closed a year ago and the 7-Eleven rumors began circulating, Forest Hills civic leaders tried to contact the company to find out what would happen. The chain never returned their calls.

. . .

The surprise opening added to initial fears that the 24-hour, seven-days-a-week store would be out of place on a strip where most establishments close by early evening.

Leslie Brown, executive director of the Forest Hills Chamber of Commerce, worried that troublemakers might loiter outside the store, bringing unwanted noise.

“We know that change happens,” Brown said, “but it’d be nice to see a mom-and-pop type of store or restaurant move into that space that would maybe draw a different kind of customer.”

7-Eleven insisted it’s coming in prepared.

Spokeswoman Margaret Chabris said the chain will focus its lights on the parking lot, not nearby residents’ homes, and work with local police to prevent other problems.

The chain also has an especially creative way of deterring loiterers by “piping in music that might not be so popular,” Chabris said.