We Are All Triboro Now*

It’s not just Staten Island — everyone seems to dislike the “Triboro” label:

For decades, stamps on letters mailed in New York City have generally been canceled with squiggly lines of ink and the name of the sender’s home borough. But this tradition may itself soon be canceled, at least in Brooklyn and Queens and on Staten Island.

Under the Postal Service’s plan, most mail from the three boroughs would be sent to a central processing center in East New York, Brooklyn, where it would be branded with a new emblem:

“TRIBORO, NY

BKLYN-QNS-STATEN ISL.”

The plan was spawned because of a 29 percent decline in the volume of first-class mail over the past decade. Officials say the change would save $6.7 million annually.

This is where a bureaucratic transaction gets personal.

“There are certain things you don’t mess with,” said Audrey Hecht-Stewart, 54, a teacher from Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, who was standing in line last week at the Cadman Plaza Post Office in Downtown Brooklyn. “The postmark on your letter should represent where you live, like caller ID on your phone.

“You can’t throw Brooklyn in the same pot with Queens and Staten Island,” Ms. Hecht-Stewart added. “When you go and lump us in with those other two boroughs, you take away our individuality.”

A host of elected officials, from the relevant borough presidents to New York’s two United States senators, has decried the proposal, along with postal union officials who translate a consolidated postmark into lost jobs. And dismay is rippling across this proposed new land called “Triboro,” where many who know about the plan resent the prospect of being stripped of their envelope identifier.

*Think about it — it could look cool on a T-shirt!

Don’t Say This Kid’s Not Ambitious

If you can’t figure out the impasse in Albany, tackle something truly baffling — like why the F train continues to suck:

The “performance and infrastructure” review, which goes beyond the agency’s normal oversight of the Coney Island to Queens line, came after state Sen. Daniel Squadron cornered the MTA’s Albany-based lobbyist and demanded action.

“I have been getting increasing complaints about the F line from my constituents and, no less important, my fiancee,” Squadron told The Brooklyn Paper. “So I asked the MTA to do a full review, and they agreed.

“There was definitely a sense in March and April, judging from the e-mails to our office, that something was wrong — the delays were longer, the trains more overcrowded,” Squadron added. “When I brought it up to the MTA, they did a quick search that suggested, at first glance, that something was wrong.

“That’s why they agreed to a full review,” he added. “I’m happy that they’re being responsive.”

(That said, Senator, you might want to carefully consider how campaigns like this craft your public image especially while things are so topsy-turvy.)

Sitt And Spin

But truth be told, he’s got a point:

A coney Island developer Wednesday panned the city’s bid to revive the faded seaside resort and all but shut down negotiations to sell property vital to the project.

Speaking publicly for the first time in more than two years, developer Joe Sitt bashed the city’s plan for Coney Island, saying construction on it won’t even start for more than a decade.

“According to their own mouths, they won’t start development on this site for 10 to 15 years,” said Sitt, president of Thor Equities. “So assuming the mayor doesn’t overturn term limits six more times, we’ll be dealing with three mayors from now that will inherit this property.”

The feisty comments came at a Daily News Editorial Board meeting and nearly a year after Sitt first began negotiating to sell 10.5 acres of property that stand in the way of the city’s vision for Coney Island.

With both parties at an impasse, Sitt yesterday suggested that all deals were off unless the city decides to pony up at least $165 million for the vaunted property.

“It’s certainly not for sale at a price where we’re going to lose a substantial amount of money,” said Sitt. “For the city to think that, we’ve never understood it, and we have no interest in selling.”

City officials yesterday said a longstanding offer of $105 million for the property remains final. City sources also insisted that construction on the site — once it is acquired — would begin as early as 2011, but could take a decade to complete.

Starchitects Die For Our Sins

Robert Scarano, Brooklyn’s “bad boy” architect should really get a Spitzer-like position with one of the local papers (Brooklyn Paper — where this interview was published — or the Observer or whatever) . . . with no new commissions, he’s chastened, and is now calling it like he sees it:

Gehry’s designs, as magnificent as they are, are not for the faint of heart. They’re only for those with an unlimited budget. When they’re wildly overpriced to begin with, the real drama comes later when there are 80 percent cost escalations. [Forest City Ratner] brought him in to be the main star guy and he had a shelf life, as did Daniel Liebeskind at the World Trade Center. When that shelf life was up, they let him go.

Smart Strategy!

Wow people with Frank Gehry designs, thus building support — either explicit or tacit (i.e., “looks nice . . . maybe that eminent domain battle is worth it”) — then pull out the rug from under everyone only after you start tearing stuff down, thus making Nicolai Ouroussoff cry:

The recent news that the developer Forest City Ratner had scrapped Frank Gehry’s design for a Nets arena in central Brooklyn is not just a blow to the art of architecture. It is a shameful betrayal of the public trust, one that should enrage all those who care about this city.

Location Scout: Atlantic Yards.