The Unconstitutional Constitutional

Manhattan’s Community Board 6 conveniently overlooks that whole “Freedom of Assembly” portion of the First Amendment:

Officials at Community Board 6 want to outlaw organized pub crawls, claiming the booze-filled jaunts lead to late-night noise and bad behavior on their streets.

“It creates havoc,” said Toni Carlina, the district manager of the community, which covers 14th St. to 59th St. east of Madison Ave.

“Nobody wants to ruin anybody’s good time but people have to be considerate of their neighbors — and so do these bar owners.”

The board aims to pass a resolution banning the liquor trips at a March 31 meeting. They hope the advisory ruling, which would have no legal standing, will prompt state or city politicians to draft a law.

I’d Rather Have Professionals Cart Off This Unwieldy Sofa Bed . . . And Besides, That Ice Cream Is Too Sweet

The Daily News sets the record straight and stokes resentment in one succinct caption:

AriZona Iced Tea is brewed in Brooklyn, New York, not Arizona. But if you’re looking for a company to boycott, U-Haul and Cold Stone Creamery are both based in Arizona.

Andrew Berman Has Blood On His Hands

It’s funny — it wasn’t so long ago that when St. Vincent’s Hospital was talking about expanding, people in Greenwich Village seemed to question the appropriateness of having a hospital like that in the neighborhood. Now that the hospital may close, people can’t think of what life would be like without it:

So far, the hospital, which is $700 million in debt and in danger of bankruptcy, has not found a partner. Continuum Health Partners, a consortium of hospitals in Brooklyn and Manhattan, had offered to take over its outpatient facilities, but then withdrew that offer, in part because of community opposition to Continuum’s plan to shut down most emergency room functions and to send 911 ambulance calls to other hospitals.

Where to get more money was a major topic of Friday’s meeting, which was attended by the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn; Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried; and representatives of the hospital workers’ union, Local 1199 of the S.E.I.U.; the city comptroller’s office; the nurses’ association; and others, according to attendees.

Mr. Gottfried said that representatives of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development talked about providing mortgage insurance to refinance loans. One person at the table reportedly wondered whether the Department of Homeland Security might extend money to St. Vincent’s, which played a major role in treating survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

“There is no getting around it — the situation for St. Vincent’s Hospital is critical, and we are all extremely concerned,” Mr. Nadler said in a statement afterward. “At the moment, we are actively engaging federal agencies to provide resources.”

Location Scout: St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan.

The Great Bike Lane War Of 2009

Hasids vs. Hipsters:

Groups of bicycle-riding vigilantes have been repainting 14 blocks of Williamsburg roadways ever since the city sandblasted their bike lanes away last week at the request of the Hasidic community.

The Hasids, who have long had a huge enclave in the now-artist-haven neighborhood, had complained that the Bedford Avenue bike paths posed both a safety and religious hazard.

Scantily clad hipster cyclists attracted to the Brooklyn neighborhood made it difficult, the Hasids said, to obey religious laws forbidding them from staring at members of the opposite sex in various states of undress. These riders also were disobeying the traffic laws, they complained.

. . .

A source close to Mayor Bloomberg said removing the lanes was an effort to appease the Hasidic community just before last month’s election.

Location Scout: Bedford Avenue in Southside Williamsburg.

Leading Economic Indicators: Ice Cream Truck Thuggery

Or is the horrible truth about the ice cream truck business that it resembles Amway? Too many trucks, too little territory:

Few sounds evoke the languorous innocence of childhood summers like the jingle of a roving ice cream truck, its melody drawing streams of children clutching crumpled dollar bills.

In this part of Queens, however, ice cream trucks have become a symbol of sharp elbows, more reminiscent of “Goodfellas” than Good Humor. Martin Price has taken his white and aquamarine Kool Man truck through Maspeth, Glendale and Middle Village for 25 years, but he has complained to the police that a franchisee for Mr. Softee has warned him a dozen times over the past two seasons to stay out Maspeth and Middle Village.

The most recent threats came on July 22, Mr. Price said, when three Mr. Softee trucks and a green Ford Econovan carrying the franchisee converged on his Kool Man truck at 56th Road and 60th Street in Maspeth. The franchisee, who Mr. Price said did not identify himself, was carrying a baseball bat and, according to Mr. Price, warned him: “I bought the area.”

“You don’t own the street,” Mr. Price responded.

But he has been so scared by the possibility of violence that he has been staying away from Maspeth and parts of Middle Village at a cost of 40 percent of his business, he said.

Earlier: This Is No Softee.