New York Is The New Toronto

New York is more Boston than Boston (and that’s a good thing?):

Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award-winning film, “The Departed,” was shot mainly in New York, even though it is set in Boston.

And while no scene of “The Good Shepherd,” Robert De Niro’s critically acclaimed movie about the spying game, was set in New York, 80 percent of it was shot here.

Thanks to a 2-year-old tax-credit program, the Big Apple is enjoying a movie production boom.

In 2006, the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting reports, there were 34,178 film-shooting days for 276 films.

That’s a 10 percent increase over 2005, the year the program began, and nearly 50 percent over 2004.

The Apple still runs behind Los Angeles in terms of shooting days. Tinseltown had 55,399 last year.

The Putsch To Gentrify The East Village

Zum Schneider is a nice place and all but I get just a little bit uneasy when I read about Germans “kicking ass” and race-baiting people of color:

A recent settlement reached between Sylvester Schneider, owner of the East Village bar and restaurant Zum Schneider, and his landlord has left Schneider with mixed feelings about the case and the plaintiffs who were trying to force him out of his space.

The case concluded in State Supreme Court on Thurs., March 15.

Under the terms of the agreement, Schneider’s lease will be extended until 2021, he will not have to reduce his sidewalk cafe by half — which would have been a significant loss of business for him — and he will get free rent for the next three months.

Schneider, however, will have to pay all legal fees, which will amount to more than $100,000, and starting in July, pay an additional $500 per month, raising his rent to $5,000.

Despite the hefty attorneys’ fees, the German native described his reaction as “complete delight.”

“We stuck it out, we did it! We kicked their ass!” he said from the basement of the Bavarian-style beer garden, as customers above feasted on platters of bratwurst and quaffed pints of Bitburger pilsner.

“They tried to kick our ass, but we turned it around 100 percent,” he said.

Adam Leitman Bailey, an attorney representing Schneider, called Judge Rolanda Acosta’s decision a “victory for America’s core values.”

. . .

Schneider came to the United States 19 years ago and opened the restaurant in 2000, when this neck of the East Village was still what he describes as “notorious.” He contends that co-op board members — many of them Puerto Ricans — were displeased by having more whites right under their noses.

“You should know that this whole thing was not just a money thing; it was also a racial thing. We are white; they are Puerto Ricans,” Schneider charged.

“They didn’t like us from the beginning,” he continued. “They claimed that the only white person living in the building was a friend of a mine when the first lease was signed, which is complete nonsense.”

Schneider conceded than no one from the co-op board had ever uttered a racial slur at him. Yet, he said, he believes old-timers are uncomfortable with the changing demographics and the prospect of more pale faces on every corner.

“In the past seven to 10 years, the neighborhood has changed significantly,” Schneider said. “When I got in here it was still a very rough neighborhood and I am not saying that all Puerto Ricans are rough and bad, but it was a rough neighborhood.”

He credits his bar as being influential in changing the neighborhood, but doubts whether the Puerto Rican members of the co-op board appreciate the change as much as him.

“We helped to turn the neighborhood around, to which the people who live in the building, I think, don’t really like the change,” he said.

“I think they would like it to be back where it was, which was a drug and weapons heaven.”

Thank You America For Helping Us Catch Pickpockets . . . And For Finally Being Able To Correctly Identify Suicide Bombers Long After The Fact

Apparently for those in charge, distinctions between “everyday crime” and terrorism have all but disappeared:

Thirty-six high-tech cameras will be installed at three subway stops in Astoria as part as of an anti-terror security plan.

“What began as an anti-terror initiative in response to both 9/11 and the bombings in London has now proven to be a very successful tool to combat everyday crime,” State Assemb. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) said Tuesday.

The cameras, paid for with $1.7 million in state and federal funds, will be installed at the Broadway, 30th Avenue and Astoria Boulevard stops along the N/W line. Each station will be outfitted with 12 cameras, most of them positioned at the entrances and exits.

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens/Brooklyn), who worked with Gianaris to secure funding for the cameras, said a 2003 al-Qaida plot to release poisonous gas in the subways shows how vulnerable the system is.

But Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign, said he isn’t convinced adding a few dozen cameras will improve safety. But, he added, “It’s like chicken soup, it can’t hurt.”

(Am I just becoming ridiculously stupidly civil rights- minded now that the threat of terrorism is gone?)

Vanderbilt Baron Or Porn Publisher, This Is How We Roll — Smooth, Like Ice Cubes In White Zin, A Character Written By Edith Wharton

If you believe that New York was founded on naked commerce and smut and crudely fashioned by the tasteless nouveau riche then there’s something gently reassuring about the fact that the largest private residence in Manhattan was once owned by Bob Guccione and is now being pimped by Corcoran in the newspaper:

. . . [T]he $59 million upper East Side mansion once owned by fallen porn king Robert Guccione was advertised with a full-color, four-page insert in The New York Times yesterday.

The Penthouse magazine founder lost the home a year ago to creditors picking over the remains of his business empire. But after a year on the market, the sprawling townhouse remains unsold.

So the broker, the Corcoran Group, is reaching out to potential buyers — “from royalty to hedge funds,” said the company’s Lisa Simonsen — with a brochure that looks as high-toned and classy as Penthouse wasn’t.

“Instead of diamonds this year . . .” reads the cover line under a photo of the mansion’s 9-foot-deep swimming pool, which sits in a room decorated with European friezes and statues.

Other photos show the Carrara marble staircase, terraced gardens and an ornately carved fireplace mantel from the 20,000-square-foot home, reputed to be Manhattan’s largest private residence.

The property, on E. 67th St. near Madison Ave., traces its history to a six-story mansion built in 1879. That was combined with a neighboring building in the 1920s to make a rare double-wide townhouse with 25 rooms. Guccione renovated it extensively, if gaudily — think gold-plated bathroom fixtures.

The original asking price was $99,999,999, but Corcoran has knocked it down to $59 million. That’s still higher than the $53 million record set last fall for an E. 75th St. townhouse — but Corcoran says the price is negotiable.

“We’re open to dialogue,” Simonsen said.

Property taxes run an eye-popping $283,672 a year, and the upkeep is astronomical.

And Just Imagine How Great It Would Be If Plácido Domingo Was Still Telling You To Wear A Seat Belt Everytime You Got In

Isn’t it strange that a cab driver will drive someone from Queens to Arizona but not from Manhattan to Queens? Yes, yes it is:

Betty and Bob Matas are set to move next week from their current home in Queens to a new one in Sedona, Ariz.

They arranged to send their belongings, but they were in a quandary about how to transport themselves. The native New Yorkers don’t drive, and they were concerned that their two cats might not make it on a plane.

A solution presented itself in the form of taxi driver Douglas Guldeniz, whom the Matases met when they hailed his cab after a Manhattan shopping trip several weeks ago.

They got to talking about their upcoming move, and “we said, ‘Do you want to come?”‘ said Bob Matas, 72, a former audio and video engineer for advertising agencies. “And he said, ‘Sure.’

It was initially “a gag,” Matas said, but it became a real plan over the ensuing weeks. Guldeniz plans to drive 10 hours a day and charge a flat fee of $3,000 for the trip. The Matases also are to pay for Guldeniz’ gas, meals and lodging.

The standard, metered fare would come to about $5,000 — each way, according to David Pollack, executive director of the Committee for Taxi Safety, a drivers’ group. But city Taxi and Limousine Commission rules direct drivers and passengers to negotiate a flat fare for trips outside the city and a few suburban areas.