Well, I Suppose If Staten Islanders Repeatedly Tapped Into That Pipeline To Steal Jet Fuel And It Then Exploded, Killing Hundreds, Then It Might Evoke Something Along The Lines Of The Recent Accident In Lagos . . .

Actually, on second thought it’s not really at all like Nigeria*:

It evoked what-might-have-been comparisons to a 1985 accident on Staten Island.

The explosion of a gasoline pipeline in Nigeria on Monday killed 265 people.

On Sept. 23, 1985, a backhoe operator working on the Buckeye Pipeline accidentally severed a valve, which caused high-octane jet fuel to geyser 60 feet above Victory Boulevard near North Gannon Avenue in Willowbrook.

Miraculously, nobody was killed. And there was only one injury.

The jet fuel, which travels underneath Staten Island from New Jersey to LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports, never ignited.

In the 15 minutes it took firefighters to respond and shut down the pipeline, 75,000 gallons of jet fuel had gushed out of the line.

. . .

The Buckeye pipeline system — comprising two 12-inch lines — carries more than 8 million gallons of fuel to the city every day with few problems, Haase said

“I don’t think people should be concerned,” said Haase, explaining that the 14-mile pipeline is constantly patrolled by vehicle and by foot, and “leak detection and location systems” automatically shut down both pipes when a leak is detected.

. . .

The twin Buckeye pipelines — and another major pipeline, the Transcontinental Pipeline — enter Staten Island from Carteret and Linden, N.J., at points along the West and South Shores and run underground near the Staten Island Expressway before exiting in Rosebank by the Alice Austen House.

Besides transporting jet fuel, the Buckeye pipeline system carries gasoline and home-heating fuel oil to storage yards in Brooklyn.

The Transcontinental Pipeline, meanwhile, carries natural gas from the Gulf Coast, by way of the borough and New York Harbor, to facilities in New York City.

Calls to Tulsa, Okla.-based Williams Companies, owner of the Transcontinental Pipeline, were not returned.

A spider web of pipes carries natural gas and fuel across the borough, including about 15 minor pipelines that touch Staten Island as they carry products from Linden and Carteret to Bayonne. Also, the Colonial Pipeline, which runs to the Northeast from Gulf Coast oil refineries, ends at Kinder Morgan Staten Island, formerly Port Mobil.

*See, for example.

Silver: That’s Oversight For MSG, Not For Kings

Sheldon Silver is eager to show that he doesn’t just block any major project:

A state oversight board voted yesterday to approve the Atlantic Yards project near Downtown Brooklyn, removing the last regulatory hurdle for one of the biggest real estate projects in the city’s history.

The vote by the Public Authorities Control Board capped three years of battles between opponents and supporters of the $4 billion project. The version approved yesterday — eight million square feet over 22 acres along Atlantic Avenue — includes a huge residential housing complex with about 6,400 market-rate and subsidized apartments, a basketball arena for the Nets, and a smattering of office space, with a design punctuated by elaborate towers that dwarf nearby residential neighborhoods.

The approval of Atlantic Yards, which would be built by Forest City Ratner Companies, came after several other ambitious development projects in New York City — like a West Side football stadium and the Moynihan Station, both in Manhattan — were rejected or stalled by community opposition and political rivalry. Atlantic Yards still faces two lawsuits, with more probably on the way, but Forest City officials say they are confident that they will prevail in court.

. . .

A once-sizable chunk of office space was given over to yet more apartments, to woo Brooklynites eager for housing, and to allay potential concerns by Mr. Silver that the project would compete with commercial properties in the speaker’s Lower Manhattan district.

On paper, the project grew to a peak of more than nine million square feet, before shrinking back to the roughly eight million square feet originally planned — a decrease that did little to mollify those residents and officials who said that the project had been far too big and dense from the beginning.

. . .

Opponents of the project strongly criticized yesterday’s decision.

“From the beginning, the project has been a public-private partnership in which the public has not been represented,” said Kent Barwick, president of the Municipal Art Society, part of a coalition of civic groups known as Brooklyn Speaks that had urged Mr. Silver to delay the project. “The vote today reflected a process that simply did not allow New Yorkers to shape the project, and the result is a plan that will not work for Brooklyn.”

Location Scout: Atlantic Yards.

There’s No Zoning For Good Taste

Unless Mayor Mike suddenly moves to crack down on architectural transfat, no one will be able to legislate what many are thinking*:

Manhattan Beach residents are reacting to a new housing study currently underway this week which could impact the way new homes in the community are constructed and existing ones enlarged.

Councilmember Mike Nelson dropped the bombshell at the November meeting of the Manhattan Beach Community Group, held at P.S. 195 on Irwin Street.

For months, Manhattan Beach has been held in the grips of a bitter stalemate between homeowners seeking relief from the housing code violations preventing them from moving into their new homes, and neighbors who insist that they follow the rules and comply with existing zoning regulations.

“Obviously there’s been a problem,” said Nelson, who approached Borough President Marty Markowitz’s office for help in conducting the study, due to be released in January. “Some people want change, and others do not.”

The councilman’s office, however, stressed that the study will not contain any recommendations.

“There’s passion on both sides,” Nelson said. “Hopefully, we can clarify the situation.”

Which means what exactly?

“There are lies, damned lies and statistics,” said Nelson’s deputy chief of staff, Robert Varley. “This will probably be the greatest tool for the facts in the debate. Until the numbers are looked at, it’s tough to come in with an educated opinion.’

Neighbors are skeptical:

Some, however, are not at all happy about the existence of the study and fear it could be a prelude to more relaxed zoning regulations.

“This flies in the face of the Manhattan Beach Community Group,” member and past president Dr. Oliver Klapper said. “The Manhattan Beach Community Group is a group with 75 years of success whose 58 members met and voted unanimously not to change zoning in our neighborhood.”

*For a representative example, don’t miss the article’s photo.

See also: “Bloated On Beaumont St.”

Anna Wintour Eagerly Anticipates Opportunity To Out-Preserve Woody Allen*

Is the Landmarks Preservation Commission really swayed by a letter from Anna Wintour or Jeff Koons? God, I hope not:

Developer Aby Rosen is beseeching his rich and famous pals to write to a key city panel in support of his controversial bid to build a 30-story tower on the Upper East Side.

Vogue editor Anna Wintour was among the glitterati to respond to Rosen’s call to arms, a form letter that asked some of the wealthiest New Yorkers to show their stripes for the redevelopment of 980 Madison Ave. at 76th Street.

Rosen and architect Lord Norman Foster have pitted themselves against many of the area’s well-heeled residents, who don’t want the 355-foot elliptical glass tower to be added to the Parke-Bernet Galleries.

The residential tower would forever alter the area’s skyline by matching the height of the nearby Carlyle Hotel.

The Landmarks Preservation Council, which has the final say, received hundreds of submissions before today’s 5 p.m. deadline.

The proposal has caused so much controversy that after 150 people turned up a public meeting to testify, the deadline for submissions was extended twice.

While the majority of submissions have called for the council to ax the tower, which is much taller than most buildings in the neighborhood, Rosen has banded together a gaggle of famous supporters.

Wintour, artist Jeff Koons, Betsy Bloomingdale, businessman Ron Perelman and celebrity doctor Patricia Wexler, along with several millionaires, artists and collectors, are among those who have declared themselves in the Rosen camp.

*See, for example.

First It Was Smokers, Then It Was Fried Chicken Lovers, Now Comes Commuters From Outside The City Who Drive (Who Does That Anyway?)

Is Bloomberg being provocative or signaling that he could be amenable to reinstituting the commuter tax? Probably the former:

Mayor Bloomberg said for the first time yesterday he’s open to charging a fee for driving in Manhattan below 60th Street — but only if city residents are exempt.

Congestion pricing — in which drivers pay in advance for the right to drive into the central business district — has been instituted in several major cities, most notably London, where the daily fee is $16.

But despite repeated calls by transportation groups, Bloomberg had dismissed the idea until now.

His new position is a bit of a cop out, advocates say, because state officials are unlikely to support what would inevitably be viewed as a tax on suburban residents. The mayor doesn’t disagree.

“It only works when you give a break to people in the city as opposed to those outside the city,” Bloomberg said.

“That means it’s a commuter tax and the politics of a commuter tax in Albany are probably such that we would never get it passed.”