Ban Passes; Critics Decry Fanny State

The transfat ban passes:

The Board of Health yesterday unanimously passed a new rule banning trans-fat cooking oils and shortenings from all prepared foods in the city’s 24,000 restaurants over the next 18 months — making the Big Apple the first municipality in the nation to kick the trans-fat habit.

The ban was part of Mayor Bloomberg’s sizzling one-two health punch that hit the restaurant industry.

A second measure approved by the city requires fast-food restaurants to prominently list the calorie content of food items on menu boards.

The trans-fat prohibition goes into effect July 1, 2007, for trans-fat oils used in frying chickens and spreads, for example. Fines won’t kick in until Oct. 1.

Eateries that cook deep-fried dough and baked goods — such as donuts, pastries and cakes — will have to discard trans fat from their recipes by July 1, 2008. Fines won’t be issued until Oct. 1.

Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said Gotham will now have the “safest food” in the nation, as well as the best-tasting — although critics worried it could drive the price up for consumers.

“Trans fat is a hazardous artificial chemical that increases bad cholesterol, decreases good cholesterol and increases the risk of heart attacks, stroke and death,” Frieden said after the vote.

“We need to get this artificial substance out of the food supply.”

Bonus money-following angle:

Meanwhile, the trans-fat ban was an early Christmas gift to companies that produce healthier cooking oils.

“We are increasing production capabilities and we are prepared for added business,” said Wilma Taylor, national sales coordinator for Whole Harvest Products, a firm that distributes trans-fat-free soybean oil.

“Have you thought about this? This is one way to improve someone’s health without even having to get up off the couch,” Taylor gushed.

The Canola Council of Canada also is eager to supply its brand of healthier cooking oils.

“We definitely expect that restaurants will be looking more closely at Canola as a solution. We . . . will react to the market as necessary,” said council spokeswoman Diane Wreford.

Hurry Up And Wait

Consumers wonder whether the Taxi & Limousine Commission incentivizing sitting at red lights as a fare hike turns out to be more than expected:

Taxi riders saw red at every stop light yesterday as fare hikes up to 27 percent kicked in — after New Yorkers were promised they’d average only 11 percent.

Most of the increase came from boosts in the amount cabbies charge for time they’re at a dead stop or crawling.

When The Post put the new fare to the test, a ride from Penn Station to the Metropolitan Museum of Art came to $18.50. The 5-mile, 29-minute midday trip would have cost $3 less the day before — an increase of nearly 20 percent.

Passengers were hit even harder on trips closer to rush hour.

It took 66 minutes to make the 8.7-mile journey from Lincoln Center to Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn during the afternoon, including 37 minutes of waiting time. Under new fare rules, the cost spiked $7.30, or 26.8 percent, to $34.50.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission had said the increase would amount to only a buck for an average ride — or 11 percent.

. . .

Cabbies, on the other hand, saw green at every light.

The said the change amounts to about a $50-a-day raise.

“Wednesday I made $160,” Harpal Chalal said yesterday, his third day driving a cab.

“But today, I have already made that much, and I still have four hours left on my shift.”

Drivers have long complained that they lose big dollars in slow traffic and that the fare structure had a built-in incentive to be reckless and run red lights.

“It’s much safer,” driver Eduard Tamarov, 41, said. “They should have done it a long time ago.”

Taxi officials say drivers will now earn about $24 an hour, whether they are moving or sitting in slow traffic.

In A Newsroom Where People Obviously Live Under A Rock, Reporters Are Increasingly Writing Really Idiotic Trend Pieces

I can’t believe the wire services are just now figuring out that this happens:

In a city where you can get just about anything delivered to your door, New Yorkers are increasingly ordering takeout marijuana from drug rings that operate with remarkable corporate-style attention to customer satisfaction.

Among the legions of home-delivery customers is Chris, 37, a salesman in Manhattan. He dials a pager and gets a call from a cheery dispatcher who takes his order.

“These are very nice, discreet people,” said Chris. “It’s better than going to some street corner and getting ripped off or killed.”

The corporate model was demonstrated late last year when the Drug Enforcement Administration busted a ring dubbed the Cartoon Network, which processed 600 orders a day.

The Botox Theory Of Urban Revitalization

Affluent whites set their sights on Fulton Mall:

Fulton Mall is a commercial heavyweight, according to its merchants association. It draws 100,000 shoppers each day, rings up more than $100 million in annual sales and commands rents of up to $250 a square foot, among the highest of any retail district in the city.

But few of its customers are from the nearby brownstone neighborhoods.

“The challenge the Fulton Mall has is a lack of retail diversity,” said Joseph Chan, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the leader in the effort to renovate the mall. “There are certainly a lot of cellphone stores and shoe stores, for example. But in terms of retail that cuts across a broad socioeconomic spectrum, there’s not a lot right now.”

The first order of business for Mr. Chan is a makeover of the streetscape — streamlining sign clutter, installing new bus shelters — to which the city has committed $9.5 million. As for new stores, Mr. Chan said, the choice will largely be driven by the many newcomers.

“Basically,” he said, “you’re adding thousands of people who are going to need a quart of milk at 10 at night.” Local brokers say the new residents will also need a wine store, a specialty supermarket, new restaurants, dry cleaners and perhaps another bookstore.

“There are no good restaurants, there’s no midrange apparel or accessories,” said Faith Hope Consolo, an executive with Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, which handles many of the store rentals in the downtown developments.

“What we’re aiming for is a better neighborhood all around,” Ms. Consolo said. “That doesn’t mean Gucci, but maybe HMV, maybe Zara, maybe Equinox. We’re addressing chain restaurants like Cheesecake Factory and Legal Sea Foods. We’re not asking anybody to leave the street. We just have to bring in new stores in a way that everybody can work together. We’re Botoxing Fulton Street Mall.”

Heat Just Became More Expensive

The mayor’s campaign to stanch the flow of illegal guns has raised prices on the black market and encouraged bad people to engage in more cigarette smuggling:

The price of illegally acquired guns has been rising in the city since the mayor began his campaign against “the scourge of illegal guns” in January, a police source said.

Many handguns are selling for about $200 more than they were, averaging about $700 to $1,000 apiece, the source said. Rifles are selling for about $300 more, averaging between $1,200 and $1,500, the source said.

The black market for guns operates like any other market, experts said yesterday, meaning that when pressures are put on supply or demand, prices tend to rise.

“It’s a commodity like any other commodity,” a former agent and manager at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, William Vizzard, said. Mr. Vizzard, a professor at California State University, Sacramento, said pressure exerted on gun traffickers by the BATFE and the New York Police Department have likely made many criminals turn to less risky ventures, such as cigarette smuggling.