Not To Worry — There’s A Seat For Every Ass

Some fear a shortage of kindergarten openings at the city’s elite schools:

Concerns that too many families are applying for a scarce number of kindergarten spots come every year — and then usually pass by February as most children find places. This time around, the anxiety may be warranted, school leaders said.

With decisions looming for next year’s kindergarten classes, placements that often determine the location of a child’s academic career, several schools are reporting historic rises in applications, as many as double the number they received last year. Overwhelmed, some schools have already shut their admissions processes, turning away families who handed in applications weeks before the ordinary deadline, December 1. The Dwight School on the Upper West Side announced its changed deadline, to October 19, on its Web site with one week’s notice; Calhoun, which accepts only a set number of applications each year, reached the maximum days after applications became available, forcing admissions to close two weeks earlier than last year.

The result, observers said, is a stock of distraught parents who now face a dwindling list of schools where their 4-year-olds might be considered.

. . .

Emily Glickman, the president of a private firm that helps families apply to kindergartens, Abacus Guide Educational Consulting, called the early shutouts, reported to her by parents in frantic phone messages, unprecedented. “I’ve been doing this since 1999. I’ve never gotten messages like this year,” Ms. Glickman said.

. . .

An increase in the number of applications handed in earlier in the year does not necessarily mean increased competition. Panic can breed panic, creating an illusion of heightened competition as nervous families send in more applications per child and rush to send them in earlier, Cynthia Bing of the Parents League, a resource group for parents at independent schools, said.

Indeed, nursery school directors have been recommending that families apply to more schools, closer to 10 versus five or six several years ago, and families are following suit.

. . .

That does not mean a crisis, Ms. Bing said. “We’re not hearing an uproar in the streets yet,” she said. “And the good news is — frankly, as it has been in the past — everyone has a place.”

. . .

Consultants and school leaders said another way to calm parents is to change the admissions process. Admissions directors are reconsidering an old idea of making the kindergarten process more like admission to medical school, with students and schools simply listing their top choices for more efficient sorting, Ms. Lynch at the Buckley School said.

Ms. Glickman said her preference is a lottery that would sort children automatically — eliminating measures such as play observations, applications, and parent interviews, which she called a “farce.” “If you remember that the whole point of this is that they’re ranking and sorting 4-year-olds openly — and secretly judging parents’ wealth connections and likeliness to give — it really becomes apparent what a disgusting process this is,” she said.

Reminded that an end to the traditional application process could hurt her professionally, Ms. Glickman maintained the position. “I also have a conscious,” she said.

New York As Amsterdam For Dogs

The experiment in legalization known as “dog runs,” those canine red-light districts, have in the long run failed. Today, dog owners feel more entitled than ever to appropriate valuable public space for the sole purpose of letting their animals poop:

Seravalli Playground is a half-block of concrete just off Hudson Street between Gansevoort and Horatio Streets, planted with a dozen skinny trees. For the most part, the playground is a model of coexistence. Older children race around the fenced-in yard, toddlers clamber around a brightly painted play set, and homeless people occasionally slumber on the benches. In the mornings and evenings, people walk their dogs.

But now the playground is due for a $2 million redesign, a prospect that has exposed sharp divisions among its users. In particular, dog owners who want a dog run in the playground have sparred with toddlers’ parents who say the dog run will take up needed play space and possibly endanger children. The Parks Department will draft a plan this winter and plans to start work next summer; in the meantime, both camps have been feverishly recruiting supporters.

Both sides showed up in force at a community meeting Monday, where the tone was set by a neon-green hand-lettered poster that read, “Keep Our Park Dog-Free.”

. . .

. . . [A] cluster of people, most of whom appeared to be in their 20s, had formed toward the front. Some wore buttons from an organization called the New York City Council of Dog Owner Groups (motto: “At the Tail of Every Leash is a Voter”).

Dog owners who spoke during the meeting complained that no dog runs were located nearby, and said that many other city parks combined dog runs with play areas.

“The reason we want this is to get out of your space,” said Tod Wohlfarth, a board member of the dog owners’ group. And a woman who said she owned three dogs announced to the assembled parents, “These animals are as important to my life as your children are to your life.”

Parents, in turn, spoke of children who were scared of dogs, children who compulsively embraced dogs, and toddlers who ate whatever they found on the ground, a potential problem if dogs were nearby. A local parent named Kevin McKiernan was greeted by wild applause when he said, “My kids are a higher priority to me than pets and their exercise.”

The Mosquito That Never Sleeps Comes To The Right Place

It may not be the killer bee, but it has the potential to be a lot more annoying:

They’re aggressive, often attack in packs and, unlike most mosquitoes, bite during the day.

And they’re carriers for such debilitating tropical diseases as chikungunya, yellow and dengue fever. They can carry dog heartworm and different types of encephalitis.

The Asian Tiger mosquito has landed on Staten Island. And although the 2007 season is winding down (the first frost will kill most remaining bugs), its presence could be felt even stronger after eggs from this year’s mosquitoes hatch come spring, experts say.

First spotted here in 1997, the white-striped insect scientifically known as Aedes albopictus, has become increasingly prevalent in the borough, causing experts to fear consequences more severe than from West Nile virus.

. . .

Typically, mosquitoes belonging to the Culex family are found in the New York area. The Culex salinarius and Culex restuans, which carry the feared West Nile virus, generally bite around dusk and after dark.

But the Asian Tiger mosquito bites in the middle of the day and, often, several will bite humans at the same time, leaving welts the size of dimes. Besides having disease-carrying potential, the pests can affect quality of life for people who like to be outdoors, Gaugler said. The Asian Tiger mosquito is ranked among the 100 most invasive species on the planet.

The “But I Have Black Friends” Defense Works . . .

Hate crime charges dropped in Staten Island case:

Hate-crime charges were dropped yesterday against two white men accused of attacking a black man in Mariners Harbor earlier this week, as several black teenagers appeared in Stapleton Criminal Court to vouch for the suspects.

Police arrested Daniel Avissato, 24, of Westerleigh and Mark Vincent Maleto, 21, of Elm Park on a slew of charges, including assault as a hate crime, but the men were arraigned only on second-degree gang assault charges yesterday.

. . .

Attorney John Murphy, in his defense of Avissato, called on several black teens in the courtroom to vouch for Avissato’s character.

“The accused young man I represent is not a racist,” Murphy said in a prepared statement he distributed outside the courthouse. “The anecdotal evidence of his living and working in harmony with diversity is overwhelming.”

Murphy called upon a 14-year-old boy, who declined to give his name, to recount a time when Avissato offered the teen a ride during bad weather.

Maybe You Like The Idea Of Your Children Attending A School In The Flightpath Of LaGuardia Airport*

Opposition is organizing in and around Queens’ Iron Triangle in the next great eminent domain battle:

. . . 10 businesses have taken a stand and formed the Willets Point Industry and Realty Association, intent on fighting tooth and nail for their rights.

The City plans to relocate all the businesses from the area adjacent to Shea Stadium and start fresh with 5,500 residential units, 1.7 million square feet of retail and entertainment space, nearly 1 million square feet of office and convention center space, a 650-pupil school, a hotel, a park and eight acres of green space.

This is the last thing Dan Feinstein, of Feinstein Steel Works, wants to see happen.

“We’ll use every means under the law to protect ourselves,” he said. “We’ll do whatever we have to, to make sure the city doesn’t screw us.”

This City has said on record that it is looking out for the Willets Point businesses and is in negotiations to relocate them. However, Daniel Sambucci Jr., of Sambucci Bros. Salvage Yards, said this is misleading.

“We’ve had meetings and they’ve shown me properties for $40 million,” he said. “But the city doesn’t own the property and they don’t know how they’re going to get it.”

Sambucci said he is worried there is not enough property in the city zoned for heavy industrial to accommodate all the businesses.

“They don’t have a final development plan, a developer — they don’t know how much it’s going to cost and they don’t know where they can move us,” he said.

. . .

In 1991, a study conducted by the City’s Economic Development Corporation found Willets Point would flourish once sewers and basic services were provided, however, this has yet to happen.

“This place would look completely different by now if they had done what the study suggested,” Dan Scully, of Tully Environmental, said. “But [former Borough President] Claire Shulman ignored it.”

Anthony J. Fodera, president Fodera Foods, said the problems of Willets Point is a story of purposeful neglect.

“We call the police or 311 and once we tell them were we are they say ‘oh you’re in that area,’ and never come,” he said.

Feinstein said the business owners are not so stubborn that they would impede the public good but the redevelopment plans do not serve the public good more than his company does.

“If they were planning on building an airport or needed a state highway here, we’re not happy but we understand,” he said. “But don’t say you don’t like my house and your friend’s going to build another one.”

*But most parents don’t — and that’s saying nothing of the idea of staying at a hotel in the flightpath, or attending a concert in the flightpath (is any soundproofing that good?), much less actually living in the flightpath.

Backstory: “Trendy” Willets Point?; Willets Point Junkyards Threatened!; If By “Vibrant And Attractive New Urban Community” You Mean A Superfund Site In A Flood Plain In The Flight Path To LaGuardia, Then I’m Right There With Ya!; First You Tap That Ass, Then You Tax It; Don’t Worry — That’s Just 20 Minutes Of War In Iraq.

Location Scout: Iron Triangle.