Holi Moly

Cops shut down the yearly Holi festival in Richmond Hill on the grounds that “you can’t have powder”:

For some 25 years, Hindus in Richmond Hill have held a parade to celebrate the ancient religious holiday Holi — the Festival of Colors. Participants traditionally throw colored powder at one another, but Sunday cops seized loads of the powder from paradegoers. “They walked around and started grabbing from anyone they saw,” said parade organizer Vishnu Mahadeo, 50, president of the Richmond Hill Economic Development Council. “They said the law said you can’t have powder.”

More detail: “Phagwah parade,” Queens Courier, March 22, 2011.

See also: “The Problem With Community Boards”.

Location Scout: Phagwah Parade.

“[Term Limits Automatically Remove] Public Servants Of Proven Ability Who Are At A Productive Point In Their Careers”*

The Daily News reports that several City Council Members have abused — sorry, used — their position for personal gain:

More than a dozen City Council members have skirted laws, bent rules or used their positions to benefit themselves, a Daily News probe has found.

A three-month investigation found Council members who dodged taxes, violated the city’s housing and building code, circumvented regulations to get cheap housing and, in one case, even ignored criminal bench warrants.

. . .

And while the Council’s 51 members — one of whom is under indictment — routinely make laws on everything from smoking in public to recycling trash, The News found many have a history of ignoring the letter of the law.

The best thing? Five of the council members that the Daily News identified in its piece voted “yes” on the term limit extension in 2008.

*“The Limits of Term Limits” Unsigned Op-Ed, New York Times, September 30, 2008.

Must Be Why Everyone On Staten Island Is So Mellow

“Staten Island again tops New York City in painkiller prescriptions per capita”:

Enough prescriptions for the drug were written last year for nearly one in three of the borough’s roughly half-million population, according to data released by city officials this week.

“We are equating this now to the epidemic we saw when crack cocaine was first introduced to New York City,” said District Attorney Daniel Donovan.

As For All Those Union Jobs . . .

. . . they were (pre-)fabricated:

And this week, Forest City Ratner confirmed that it was considering erecting a 34-story prefabricated, or modular, tower, as a way of cutting its construction costs and fulfilling its obligation to start building housing.

The construction unions that Mr. Ratner had lauded last year for sticking with him were stunned by the suggestion that much of the work might take place in a factory, where wages are much lower than on-site. Forest City has put off the start date for the tower, the first of 16, until the end of the year.

Location Scout: Atlantic Yards.

When In Doubt, Blame The Speechwriter

Sure, it’s always the speechwriter:

“Frank,” he called out to his speechwriter, Frank Barry. “I hope this speech goes better than the one you wrote for me at the Irish Historical Society. I mean really, what were you thinking?”

The throng of Irish leaders who had gathered to start off the St. Patrick’s Day celebration laughed. The mayor appeared to have tamed the mini-tempest that threatened to hang over the day: the bad joke he made last month about seeing “totally inebriated” Irish people hanging out a window at past parades.

But even on an unusually lovely afternoon, lingering touchiness over the gibe followed Mr. Bloomberg along the Fifth Avenue parade route like a stubborn storm cloud, showing itself in occasional comments from the stands, lusty boos shouted from windows and a handmade sign held up a block from St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

“Bloomberg … You’re a Drunk!” it read.