When I Said “There’s No Room At The Inn” What I Meant To Say Was “There Is That Little-Used Guest Suite Which We Could Let You For The Right Price”

After earlier sounding an alarm about how they would handle all the additional commuters MTA president admits that it actually wouldn’t be that big of a deal after all:

Amid all the bad news, the president of NYC Transit feared an underlying message had been lost about the benefits of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed congestion pricing plan.

During rush hours, the busiest train lines — including the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and E — are running at or over capacity. Yet Roberts insisted the system could still “fully support” the increased ridership projected from congestion pricing. “In fact the current strain on parts of the system is a big argument in favor of congestion pricing, not against it,” he said.

Roberts believes the business-day toll could pay for subway improvements and for such big-ticket projects as the first leg of the Second Avenue Subway, which is already $1 billion short.

On Monday, Roberts proposed quick “fixes,” including adding more cars to trains and extending station platforms. But these remedies would take “four or five” years. More importantly, they all require money the MTA doesn’t have.

“Congestion pricing is critical to putting these fixes into place,” Roberts said yesterday.

The city’s Department of Transportation estimates congestion pricing would dissuade 94,000 current drivers over an entire day, but believes only 7,000 of them will shift to subways and buses at the peak morning rush between 8 and 9 a.m. “Other drivers presumably come from areas where it is more convenient to use commuter rail,” said DOT spokesperson Molly Gordy.

If half of that 7,000 end up in the subway, they would add just 1 percent to the current morning peak-hour load of 345,000 riders. Roberts noted they would also be spread across the subway’s 22 lines.

“This is a minimal bump that the system can unequivocally absorb,” he said.

But doesn’t that also actually kind of undercut one of the main reasons to support congestion pricing — that so many more people will use public transportation?

And what’s more, has everyone simply taken at face value the notion that there will be an increase of one million new people in New York City in just over twenty years? (Questions to ask include but are not limited to: Really? Who are these people? Where will they come from? Will New York somehow magically get more affordable? Will Manhattan turn from a neighborhood of pied-a-terres to a solid middle-class enclave of families exceeding replacement levels? Will there be some massive new industry that will move here?) Or I guess it’s to everyone’s benefit to just assume there will be that many people here:

NYC Transit President Howard Roberts has expressed concern about how the system will handle expected population growth of 1 million people by 2030. Some lines, including the Nos. 2, 3 and 4, already are grossly overcrowded and operating at or above capacity.

“We’ve got to begin to look at how we get to comfortable rides, comfortable capacities, for people in that time period . . . given how long it takes for capital projects to get done, we don’t have a lot of time to do it,” Roberts said yesterday.

The strain on the system is a “big argument” for congestion pricing, Roberts said. The city’s pricing plan would generate billions of dollars to fund mass transit projects by charging drivers to enter Manhattan below 86th St.

Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign agreed.

“The choice is clear: We either act now to handle the coming million . . . . or drown in the crush,” Russianoff said. “Congestion pricing is the answer.”

“They Finalized The $1 Trillion Deal Over A Modest Breakfast At Le Pain Quotidien On The Upper East Side” Just Doesn’t Have The Same Ring To It

If you ever wondered how low-rent businesses like diners survive in high-rent Madison Avenue locations, the answer is they don’t*:

Powerbrokers who make big deals at a little diner on the upper East Side may soon have to go elsewhere — if rising rents strike down the Three Guys Restaurant.

The modest-looking, three-decade-old Madison Ave. eatery — where Gov. Spitzer is a regular and $1 trillion business deals have been hashed out over eggs — is facing an upcoming lease renewal that could send the high-end clientele packing.

“Everything must come to an end,” co-owner Spiros Argiros said yesterday. “Nobody hopes for that. We’re on good terms with our [building’s] ownership. We hope that when the time comes, we’ll have a good understanding.”

Argiros wouldn’t say when the lease expires or how much it could rise. But with rents skyrocketing along his posh stretch of Madison Ave. between 75th and 76th Sts., the next hike could be a death blow.

“They’re hurting the little guys,” Argiros said. “It’s unfortunate not only for the owners but for the public. Not everything can be high-end.”

Calls to the owners, Friedland Properties, were not returned.

The restaurant — which has two other locations on the upper East Side — was the site of a trillion-dollar merger between Merrill Lynch’s asset-management business and one-time rival BlackRock. The list of regulars reads like a who’s who of New York.

*Unless you leak the story to the Daily News in advance of negotiations and let public opinion take over.

More Like Stuffed With Bullshit

Is it a case of “jaw arthritis” or is it because he’s scared? Yeah, right — jaw arthritis is for old people:

Could the reign of hot-dog eating dominance be near an end for Takeru “The Tsunami” Kobayashi?

The Japanese competitive eating phenom — and six-time winner of the annual Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest on Coney Island — is listed as “day-to-day” due to jaw pain just a week before the July 4 competition, officials said yesterday.

But Kobayashi, who narrowly defeated American Joey Chestnut last year to win the Mustard Belt for the sixth consecutive year, still plans to compete at Coney Island and in the Pizza Hut P’Zone Challenge July 10 in Manhattan.

According to Kobayashi’s blog, jaw arthritis has hampered the perennial eating champion so badly that he can only open his mouth wide enough to fit one finger without pain. Nevertheless, Kobayashi said he intends to defend his title and “be the pride” of his mother, who passed away in March.

Earlier this month, Chestnut, 22, of San Jose, Calif., broke Kobayashi’s world record by eating 59.5 hot dogs in 12 minutes at the Southwest Regional Hot Dog Eating Championship in Arizona. He won a year’s supply of hot dogs, a trip to New York and a $250 gift card. Kobayashi’s previous best was 53.75 hot dogs during the 2006 Coney Island contest.

But Beware The Vampire Load

Were it not for all this talk of his possible run for president, he might just be another impotent lame duck mayor no one paid attention to — one whose only power lay in encouraging people to save electricity:

He has a degree in electrical engineering, but even Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday he was surprised to learn that portable chargers draw electricity when they’re plugged in and not in use.

“I always assumed that chargers for my BlackBerry, which I had plugged in at one end and there’s no BlackBerry [attached], wasn’t using any electricity,” the mayor said. “I was wrong.”

So the mayor recommended that New Yorkers unplug appliances and charging devices whenever practical, one of 10 suggestions that will be part of a multimillion-dollar multimedia campaign to create more environmental awareness in the city through small steps.

Sir, Ma’am, Please Allow Me My 20-Inch Bubble . . .

The MTA reveals* what you already knew — rush hour subway trains are packed beyond capacity. But you may not have known what constitutes “capacity”:

Crowding is so bad that on the 4, 5, 6 and L lines, trains during the morning rush exceed the transit agency’s loading guidelines, which posit that every rider should have at least a three-square-foot space to stand in (that translates to a square patch of car floor 20 inches on each side).

*Revealing it why? Maybe as a favor to their allies in Albany who seem to be against the city’s end-run congestion-pricing fundraising ideas? It’s not that far fetched:

[New York City Transit president Howard H.] Roberts said the data had particular significance in light of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s proposal for a congestion pricing system that would charge most drivers who enter Manhattan below 86th Street — with the intent of moving people out of their cars and onto mass transit.

Mr. Roberts said that on many subway lines, especially the heavily used numbered lines, there is little or no room to accommodate more riders.

“It’s bad news,” Mr. Roberts said. “There’s no room at the inn.”