This Just In: Cocaine Sales Remain Strong Through The First Quarter Of 2006

Last we left cocaine, the New York Press was tagging along with a dealer on New Year’s Eve. New York Magazine reports that there are still dealers dealing cocaine, and people apparently are still buying it.

We’re here today at (insert name of restaurant), where we’ve switched these diners’ regular coffee with Folgers Crystals. Let’s see if they can taste the difference*:

“Thing is,” he says, “every six months I stay in it, I can throw another $25K onto my price. More people talk about me, more people call me, my number becomes more valuable. But then I get there, and I want more. That’s always been my problem. It’s a risk, but obviously there is appeal in that, you know? It’s not like I don’t want to get out. I do. It’s just . . .”

But Lenny doesn’t finish the thought. His phone rings, a customer from earlier looking to replenish his supply. A seven-block walk for an extra $60. Lenny shakes his head. “Fuck it,” he says. “Let’s get on that.” (New York Magazine, April 17, 2006)

Which is to say, does every feature on cocaine dealers require the ubiquitous ringing cell phone to close the piece? Seems so:

We left the [Williamsburg loft] party, which was still running, at about six. Mr. White’s eyes were red and narrow. He’d been working since noon — 19 hours of dealing with people and drugs. He wouldn’t tell me how much he’d made, but I knew he’d sold around 100 grams, maybe more, which meant he’d made that night what he’d usually gross in a good week. I figure it at seven or eight grand. All I know is he worked his ass off and at the end of the night he didn’t look too happy. As we got into his car, his phone rang again. (New York Press, January 4, 2006)

*Remember that?

Growing Body Of Evdience Supports Positive Benefits Of Broken-Windows Drinking

A growing mountain of evidence supports the Broken-Windows Theory of Drinking — the latest piece comes after the owner of Scores (allegedly!) stabs one of his ex-employees:

The owner of the Scores strip-club empire traded boobs for a blade early yesterday — repeatedly slashing a former employee as a brawny accomplice held down the victim, police sources said.

Jiggle-joint poohbah Elliott Osher, 45, was charged with first-degree assault in the bloody knife attack, which took place down the street from a branch of the mammary mecca.

Sources said victim Bakir Balaban, who used to work at Scores, was standing outside the Home nightclub, on West 27th Street near 10th Avenue.

At about 12:30 a.m., he and several Scores employees, who were across the street at the back entrance of Scores Westside, began a loud back-and-forth shouting match.

Osher and two other men allegedly crossed the street and headed for Balaban.

“Osher and two others chased him down the street and he ran up to a yellow cab,” a police source said. A man who was with Osher grabbed the victim’s leg, holding him down as the strip-club bigshot slashed him, the source said.

Cops said Balaban, 39, suffered a stab wound to the back that punctured his lung, and slashes to the shoulder and left forearm.

There are many reputable strip clubs where its owners or management are not accused of such behavior — perhaps it’s time to change one’s allegiances. I’m kidding, Mom, just kidding . . .

Towards A Theory Of Broken-Windows Drinking: The Importance Of Staying Away From Bars That Substitute Svedka For Ketel One, Smirnoff For Grey Goose

Not only do they employ felons and have a history of gruesome sex-related murders at their other establishments but the owners of the bar where John Jay student Imette St. Guillen was last seen alive also play terrible music and engage in unscrupulous bartending practices:

Michael Dorrian huddled at the end of the long wooden bar with a group of male friends who were joking with him and slapping him on the back, as if keeping their chins up could dispel the ignominy of this crime and the mounting demands to shutter the bar.

“I can’t say anything about anything,” Michael responded with an exasperated shrug, his face flushed, when asked about the public crucifixion of his family’s bar dynasty.

State Liquor Authority records, though, have plenty to say. The files for the Falls and other bars and restaurants owned by members of the Dorrian family reveal that since 1996, the SLA has fined the family’s enterprises a total of $29,500, for 19 offenses.

Nine of the incidents took place at Dorrian’s Red Hand, the Upper East Side drinking mill made famous by the so-called “preppy murder” in Central Park. As many have noted, that 1986 killing bears an eerie similarity to the police’s primary theory about St. Guillen’s; it involves yet another beautiful young woman — Jennifer Levin — who was strangled by a man she’d met at a Dorrian-owned bar.

Family patriarch Jack Dorrian courted controversy when he put his family’s East Side townhouse up as collateral on $150,000 bail for Robert Chambers. Chambers was 19 at the time he killed Levin, but was nonetheless considered a regular at the bar.

. . .

SLA records indicate a continued slew of offenses, some standard for a bar, others more likely to halt a raised glass. The Red Hand has been popped numerous times for noise and disorderly premises — no big surprise for a saloon — but in 1998 was also cited for a violation known as “improper brand label.” An SLA spokesperson explained that the bar had substituted one brand for another.

. . .

Rebar and Suite 16, two former Chelsea nightclubs that Michael and brother John Dorrian operated at 127 Eighth Avenue under the corporate name Mac Daddy Inc., were together cited 10 times for violations that included “refilling/contaminated bottles” and selling to a minor. Rebar was cited for four assaults or altercations there between January 1998 and November 1999.

. . .

“It’s like they see themselves as above the law,” says Soho resident Sean Brady, who lives behind the Falls. Brady says he spent months complaining about the Falls’ loud and “egregiously bad” music, which he hears all night long because his loft shares a side wall with the bar.

And Now, After Months Of Bureaucratic Wrangling, That Sweet, Sweet California Hooch Is Here!

Eric Asimov discovers that, after months of ironing out bureaucratic details, direct shipment of out-of-state wine is underway in New York:

For years I had been thwarted by Navarro Vineyards’ policy of bypassing retail stores. Instead, Navarro’s fine gewürztraminers and late-harvest rieslings from Mendocino County were sold only through restaurants or by direct sale to customers. As a New York resident, I was out of luck. That is, until last May, when a Supreme Court ruling struck down bans on out-of-state wine shipments in New York and Michigan. Then in July, New York passed a new law allowing residents over the age of 21 to do the civilized thing.

Many more frustrating months passed as the state ironed out the mechanics of its new law. Out-of-state wineries needed to obtain licenses and the bureaucracy required a blizzard of paperwork. The state had to approve agreements with carriers like Federal Express and United Parcel Service before they could legally ship wine. And then, since I’m the type who still holds on to a collection of phonograph records, it took me a couple of months to recognize that I was no longer bound by the old rules.

But when the realization came, it came fast. Within minutes of sitting down at the computer one morning, a half-case of Navarro wines was coming my way. Not bad, I thought, as I began to consider my wish list of hard-to-find wines.

I had visited Peay Vineyards on the Sonoma coast last November and was impressed with their syrahs, pinot noirs and Rhone-style wines, but had never seen them in stores. Bingo! Six assorted bottles of Peay wines were coming my way, too. I was beginning to like this.

Asimov reports that small producers are unable to keep up with the paperwork:

While consumers may be pleased with their new access, the benefits are a little less clear for wineries. Sure, they can expand their market, and, in dealing directly with consumers they are cutting out the middle men, the distributors and retail shops that occupy the two other rungs of the three-tier system that has long stood between consumers and their desired bottles. But smaller producers in particular say they are being overwhelmed by paperwork and that new licensing fees may cut off previously open markets.

“Every state has different laws,” said Dave Harr, the shipping manager at Navarro. “One wants us to collect excise tax, or sales tax, or no tax, leaving it to consumers. Florida wants the tax form shipped to the consumer. New Hampshire has a specific form we have to fill out. Every state has different quantity laws, reporting procedures and fees.”

Navigating through the New York system, for example, requires three different reports, Mr. Gross said: semi-annual, quarterly and monthly, showing tax payments, volume shipped, where it was shipped, and so on. For some winery owners, simply thinking about it causes a headache.

Rocking Horse Winery in Napa, Calif., makes some fine zinfandels, but when I inquired about ordering directly, Jeff Doran, the owner with his wife, Nancy, said he hoped to get around to it, but not until it was less difficult.

“It’s created a quagmire for the small producer,” he said. “So at the moment, we’re focused on the three-tier market because that’s the path of least resistance.”

If software firms can figure out Sarbanes-Oxley reporting requirements, then there has to be some kind of system they can develop for wine shipping. I mean, this is fucking America! Get on it!

Backstory: Functional Repeal Of The 21st Amendment, That Sweet, Sweet California Hooch Is On Its Way, Sweet California Hooch Must Wait.

Pay Your Rates!

The Post reports that Con Ed is raising electricity rates by 36 percent:

Con Edison is hiking the price of electricity for residential customers 36 percent this month — a $13 increase for a typical city two-bedroom home using 300 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month.

Steeper increases are in the offing for larger suburban-style homes. They use between 500 and 1,000 kilowatt-hours each month, and their owners could face increases of as much as $43 monthly. Blame Mother Nature and the markets, the utility says.

Hurricane Katrina made the natural-gas market unstable, and the cold weather is pushing electricity demand up, adding pressure for rate increases. Con Ed sets rates every three months but makes adjustments each month.

. . .

The high gas market prompted Con Ed to hike the price of energy for residential properties to almost 20 cents per kilowatt-hour in January, up from about 15 cents in both November and December, and 11 cents last April.

Olert said rates “probably will” continue to rise in 2006. “Most of the electricity that we buy is produced by natural gas. So it’s all linked to that.”