Bloomberg Refuses To Coddle The Disabled

Treats everyone equal . . . good to know:

To all the New Yorkers who have brought on the indignation of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, add one more: Michael A. Harris, a disability-rights advocate and journalist with a tape recorder that went off at the wrong time.

Mr. Harris, who uses a wheelchair, unwittingly found himself the source of a bizarre and uncomfortable 60 seconds with the mayor during a news conference on Thursday at Gov. David A. Paterson’s Midtown office.

As Mr. Bloomberg was delivering remarks on the governor’s introduction of a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in New York, someone bumped into a tape recorder that Mr. Harris was carrying in his pocket. That triggered the recorder’s play button, and noise from an earlier rally Mr. Harris had recorded at City Hall started playing.

The noise, which was not playing loudly enough for most other people in the room to notice, rattled Mr. Bloomberg.

“Can we just stop this, and maybe we’ll start again?” the mayor asked.

At that point the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, leaned over to the mayor, covered the microphone on the lectern and whispered in his ear, “He’s disabled.”

Mr. Harris’s disability, and the fact that he was clearly having difficulty reaching the recorder to shut it off, were apparently of little consequence to the mayor.

“I understand that — he can still turn it off,” Mr. Bloomberg was overheard saying. The mayor then suggested that Mr. Harris leave altogether. “Maybe we just take everything outside.”

. . .

A spokesman for the mayor explained that the Bloomberg administration frequently went out of its way to accommodate Mr. Harris at press events, providing him with transportation in a special van and ensuring wheelchair access is available. The spokesman, Jason Post, also pointed out that Mr. Bloomberg had treated Mr. Harris as he would any other reporter — which, Mr. Post added, should not be overlooked considering that the mayor was delivering remarks on equal rights for gay men and lesbians at the time Mr. Harris’s recorder went off.

“People should be treated the same,” Mr. Post said. “This is no different.”

One More New York Myth Punctured

The women depicted on those useful VIP passes that they helpfully hand out in Midtown are not actually dancing at the club:

A former Miss Oklahoma is suing a strip club in the Flatiron District for plastering her face and figure on “free admission” palm cards without permission.

Laci Kay Scott says in Man hattan federal court papers that she’s “easily recognizable” as the orange-gowned hottie advertising “private table dancing” and “personal rooms” on the handouts from Ten’s Gentlemens Club.

On The Bright Side, We Just Saved The Earth!

And all those empty storefronts mean less strain on the electrical grid:

University-run newspaper NYU Today recently announced that it will discontinue its print edition.

“Going online will allow us to be more current, reduce administrative spending, and expand the resources we offer,” editor Jason Hollander said. “But one of the biggest benefits will be the more than two million pages of tabloid paper that will be saved each year, and the emissions from the production and delivery process that will be eliminated.”

The paper is run and distributed 12 times per academic year by the Office of Public Affairs. Its mission, according to the website, is to cover “dynamic research, scholarly pursuits and community activity of the university’s faculty, staff, students and alumni.”

The paper will offer expanded online content in the fall to make up for the loss of the print edition.

I Did It For The Tollz

Tolling all 13 East River and Harlem River bridges sounds like a great way to make a lot of money, but the loopholes sound problematic:

Gov. Paterson is again on board with a plan that would toll 13 now-free East and Harlem River bridges at the cost of a subway ride for all drivers — but the latest twist would exempt those crossing the spans for business or medical purposes, officials said today.

The new plan meant to bail out the MTA from a budget deficit also calls for a 5 to 10 percent tax increase on all non-city residents who use long-term garage parking spaces in Manhattan and a 50-cent “dropoff” surcharge on every taxi ride, according to former MTA chief Richard Ravitch, the plan’s author.

1) So does using the bridges for “business” mean that delivery trucks will be exempt? If so, will they pass along their savings from less traffic congestion to customers?

2) Wow, you’re going to put a toll on that dopey little University Heights Bridge, too? For $2, I’d want something iconic, like the Brooklyn Bridge or even the Queensboro!

3) Won’t tolling the Washington Bridge increase congestion like crazy on already-really-congested I-95?

4) I’m sure there’s more, but why not just make things easy and call for a vote on legalizing gay marriage instead?

The City That Never Sleeps Will No Longer Be Able To Buy Those Annoying One- And Two-Cent Stamps To Keep Up With The Postal Service’s Frequent Rate Increases

That said, the 24-hour window was beginning to attract the wrong kind of crowd:

The James A. Farley Post Office across from Penn Station will close its 24-hour windows to save money, starting May 9.

“That’s horrible,” said Jeff Garret, 25, a custodian from Manhattan. “When you need to get your mail off, you need to get it off.”

Location Scout: James A. Farley Post Office.