The Volvo-Driving Latte-Sipping Ira Glass-Worshipping Public Radio Old Maid Demographic

Believe me, I like Jonathan Schwartz as much as the next guy, but if you overdo the branding thing, there’s the real and present danger of turning “public radio listener” into shorthand for “cat lady”:

A cadre of New York singles who wake up to National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” and listen to podcasts of the network’s “This American Life” are seeking out dates and mates who enjoy public radio as much as they do.

Noticing the number of self-proclaimed “NPR aficionados” on online dating and social networking Web sites, the staffers at a local affiliate, WNYC, decided to sponsor a series of singles mixers. These events are led by the station’s popular on-air personalities, and some feature news and pop culture quizzes — not unlike those heard on a long-running public radio program, “Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me!”

“Just like certain online dating sites attract a specific type of person, WNYC draws a certain type of listener — someone who’s interested in arts and culture,” a 37-year-old city policy director, Alexandra Warren, said during a station-sponsored under-40 singles event, “This is Your Brain on Love,” held at Williamsburg ‘s Brooklyn Brewery Thursday.

. . .

“WNYC Singles” events cost $35 in advance, or $40 at the door. In an attempt to maintain a gender balance, the station offers a limited number of tickets to women and men. Station officials say women’s tickets generally sell out weeks in advance.

Hey, Bisexuals Exist!

The Post reports that the first openly bisexual person since David Bowie will be representing the Upper East Side in the State Assembly:

An aide to City Comptroller William Thompson became the first openly bisexual member of the state Legislature last night after defeating his Republican opponent in a special election.

Micah Kellner, a Democrat, took 64 percent of the vote to Republican Gregory Camp’s 36.

Kellner, 28, a top aide to Thompson, has also worked for Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan).

“We campaigned on the issues and I really think that’s what voters responded to,” Kellner said.

The special election in the 65th Assembly District — which covers the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island — fills a seat held for 33 years by Democrat Pete Grannis, who now heads the state Department of Environmental Conservation. There are currently four openly gay members serving in the Legislature.

We’re still waiting for a statement from Sean Delonas, assuming he knows the difference between gay and bisexual.

Pass It On — Keg Party At Midnight On The Great Lawn

In case you assumed New York kids were precocious specimens straight out of a Salinger short story or some Wes Anderson feature, rest assured that they’re just as lame as their culturally deprived suburban counterparts:

High school students in New York City have some of the world’s greatest cultural attractions in their back yard. But they often spend their weekend nights acting like stereotypical students at a college surrounded by cornfields, tossing back drink after drink in what those who follow the situation say is a disturbing and dangerous epidemic of binge drinking.

A 2005 city survey found 28% of white students in the city’s public high schools had, within the month before the survey was taken, consumed the four or five drinks in one session necessary to qualify as a “binge.” White students have been shown to binge drink at much higher rates than their nonwhite counterparts. While no comparable statistics exist for the city’s private schools, interviews with students suggest such behavior is frequent.

. . .

A 16-year-old who lives on the Upper East Side, Hilary Shar, said her friends from the suburbs are incredulous when she complains of having nothing to do on weekends. “They say, ‘Oh, you’re so lucky you live in the city,'” Miss Shar, an 11th-grader at the Dwight School on the Upper West Side, said. “I say, ‘No, it’s really not that different.’ The movie theaters may be bigger, and there are more restaurants to choose from, but the activities are pretty much the same.”

Those activities often include attending alcohol-laden parties at their classmates’ homes.

Sound Smart And Start Talking Up Right Now The “Rising Political Influence Of 10065”

10021, the 90210 of Manhattan, is set to be split into three new zip codes, confounding demographers*:

The U.S. Postal Service has plans to announce that the affluent neighborhood now identified by the 10021 zip code — stretching between East 61st and East 80th streets, from Central Park to the East River — will be divided into three zip codes in July, leaving 10021 for roughly a third of its original area.

“Too many people” is a reason for the change, Rep. Carolyn Maloney said, adding that was also why the Upper East Side needs the Second Avenue subway. She met with a postal district manager, Robert Daruk, on Friday. Ms. Maloney said, “Pretty soon the other two numbers will be just as honored and prestigious” as 10021.

Not everyone agrees. “This is a puzzle to me,” said the co-chairwoman of Defenders of the Historic Upper East Side, Teri Slater. Ms. Slater said 10021 was widely considered “the zip code” to live in on the Upper East Side. She joked that like Gaul, it was being divided into three parts. She said the post office would have to demonstrate a real need. “I don’t think this is going to sit favorably with many people,” she said.

An Upper East Side resident and president of a co-op on East 79th Street, Theodore Siouris, said people in his neighborhood have expressed concern over no longer being in the 10021 zip code.

. . .

A spokeswoman for the USPS, Pat McGovern, said the growth in the number of addresses and the volume of mail in the neighborhood are prompting the two additional zip codes.

Without describing exactly where the cutoff will be, she said the middle area would remain 10021; the area to the south would be 10065 and to the north would be 10075. She said the mail for all three zip codes would still operate out of the Lenox Hill Station on East 70th Street.

*E.g., “Post Office Politics: The Political Influence of Zip Code 10021 Residents”

Rarer Than A Swiss Cabbie

A new folksy-sounding quip is born:

New York City taxi drivers hail from more than 130 countries, and America is one of the five most common countries of origin, according to records for 2006 obtained from the Taxi & Limousine Commission.

Just two drivers indicated on their applications that they were originally from Switzerland, making them as rare a breed on the city streets as the new hybrid Lexus taxis. More than 5,200 drivers were originally from Bangladesh, making the South Asian country the most common country of origin among cabbies, followed by Pakistan, India, and Haiti.

America was fifth, with about 2,300 drivers, and New York natives made up more than half of the American-born drivers, according to the Taxi & Limousine Commission documents.

. . .

Many New Yorkers interviewed about their perceptions of cab drivers harbor stereotypes that do not necessarily reflect the diversity of taxi drivers. Tasheem Jones, who lives in Midtown and estimates that she rides in a taxi at least three times a week, describes her typical cab driver as a “rude Arab guy.” Kheeny Khan, a Pakistani who lives in Queens, said he has the impression that most cabbies hail from the same Punjabi districts of Pakistan he still calls home.