China Could Extend The N Train To LaGuardia!

So bascially Thomas Friedman is holding Peter Vallone, Sr. responsible for the United States’ alarming lack of transportation infrastructure:

As I sat in my seat at the Bird’s Nest, watching thousands of Chinese dancers, drummers, singers and acrobats on stilts perform their magic at the closing ceremony, I couldn’t help but reflect on how China and America have spent the last seven years: China has been preparing for the Olympics; we’ve been preparing for Al Qaeda. They’ve been building better stadiums, subways, airports, roads and parks. And we’ve been building better metal detectors, armored Humvees and pilotless drones.

The difference is starting to show. Just compare arriving at La Guardia’s dumpy terminal in New York City and driving through the crumbling infrastructure into Manhattan with arriving at Shanghai’s sleek airport and taking the 220-mile-per-hour magnetic levitation train, which uses electromagnetic propulsion instead of steel wheels and tracks, to get to town in a blink.

Then ask yourself: Who is living in the third world country?

Buried Lede: Authoritarian regimes can do a lot of cool shit, can’t they?

Who The Hell Is Domenic Recchia?

Oh, he’s that guy:

Popcorn, pistachios, Tic Tacs, and Skittles are the latest threat to local children that the City Council is moving to neutralize.

Council Member Domenic Recchia, who represents parts of Brooklyn, has introduced a bill that would require store owners across the city to put up signs or labels warning that certain bite-size foods could endanger the lives of children under the age of 5.

While the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene would determine the list of foods requiring labels, Mr. Recchia said the bill would likely include grapes, peanuts, chewing gum, small hard candies, and candy necklaces, among other products. The American Academy of Pediatrics also lists hot dogs, apple chunks, raw vegetables, and cheese as choking hazards for children under 4.

If the bill passes, vendors who fail to alert customers to food that has been designated as a choking hazard will be fined up to $250 a violation.

. . .

Mr. Recchia said yesterday that he was moved to take up choking prevention after a 2-year-old boy in his district, Brandon Martinez, died in 2007 from suffocating on a grape, a fruit that health experts consider dangerous for children under 4 years old if it is not skinned and cut in pieces.

According to Mr. Recchia, the bill could help prevent similar tragedies by raising awareness of dangerous foods among parents.

When You Want To Also Put A “Moratorium” On, Say, Daniel* Or Bouley**, We Can Talk

Until then, you’re basically an idiot:

Support for a fast food ban in New York is growing among city lawmakers after the Los Angeles City Council passed an unprecedented bill Tuesday that would make the addition of new fast food restaurants in certain areas of the city illegal for at least one year.

“People are literally being poisoned by their diets — LA’s idea deserves serious consideration as we look for holistic solutions to a serious problem. A moratorium may help stem the problem,” Council Member Eric Gioia, who represents Queens, said in a statement yesterday.

*I’m guessing the Pistachio Crusted Duck Foie Gras Terrine (menu) is just as “bad” for you as a Big Mac.

**Three words for you: Foie Gras Napoleon.

Mats Hot; Lack Of Shoes Hurts Most Vulnerable Park Users

And once that happens, we’ll finally be able to realize white asphalt:

Black rubber mats designed to break a child’s fall turn blistering hot in the summer, soaring to higher than 165 degrees, a Daily News investigation found.

Doctors at two city hospital burn units reported seeing 16 to 18 young children with playground burns a year, mostly from the mats under junglegyms and sliding boards.

“I have nightmares,” said Anne Casson, whose toddler son, Will, ditched his shoes at Carl Schurz Park on the upper East Side one day last May.

“He stepped onto the black mats and was screaming hysterically,” Casson said. “When I picked him up, the skin was just hanging off his feet.”

The baby spent four days in New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell, where doctors administered morphine for intense pain.

The News, accompanied by NYC Park Advocates, took the temperature of mats under junglegyms at playgrounds in all five boroughs last Friday.

“It is unconscionable that the city continues to install products in playgrounds that hurt the most vulnerable park users — small children,” said Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates, who took a 166.9-degree reading on the mats at Carl Schurz. “How many more have to get hurt until someone is held accountable?”

. . .

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said signs were posted in playgrounds warning against going barefoot.

“We’re not going to remove [the mats],” Benepe told The News. “Our playgrounds are the safest in the world.”

Reyhan Mehran, a marine scientist from Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, said her son Kian Mehran-Lodge was 14 months old in July 2004 when he was burned at Van Voorhees Park.

“We cannot understand why the city wouldn’t immediately remove material that is known to severely burn children,” she said.

Gioia, Bemoaning Internet’s Effect On Brick-And-Mortar/Mom-And-Pop Enterprises, Vows To Call For An Investigation

Fearful of the loss of business opportunities at Queens Plaza, Councilmember Eric Gioia turns the attention of his bully pulpit towards Craigslist:

New York City law enforcement officials need to crack down on the new “Wild West” of prostitution, the Internet — and specifically the popular Web site Craigslist, City Council Member Eric Gioia said yesterday.

“What used to happen on seedy street corners and brothels has now moved to the Internet,” Mr. Gioia, who is a likely candidate for public advocate in 2009, said at a news conference.

He drew particular attention to Craigslist, where he said the majority of ads for “erotic services” in New York are thinly disguised solicitations for sex.