Why And When Solid; Who, What, And Where Is Another Story

This somehow qualifies as news at the Post? Someone did something horrifically horrible but we won’t say where because it’s just too horrible:

A crude and tasteless Web site that claims 9/11 was “funny” and the victims “deserved what they got” has provoked a storm of criticism.

The site features a series of heartless jokes, cartoons, and vile photos that make light of the disaster.

Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch blasted the site as “crude, vulgar, hurtful and unpatriotic.”

“The police officers who sacrificed their lives that day, and every day, do so to ensure the freedom of speech that this Web site insults,” he said.

“America’s greatness lies in the tolerance of crap like this – where those responsible would be summarily executed for this kind of offense in a terrorist country.”

The Webmaster, who identifies himself only as “Henry” and “Hank Tom,” invites people to send him hate mail via e-mail or a message board — and many have obliged.

“You better hope we never meet in real life,” wrote one distressed Web surfer. “What happened to people on 9/11 isn’t anything compared to what I will do to you.”

There was no information on the identity of the ghoul who set up the site.

(The Daily News fills in the details.)

Shoot First, Take Pains To Seem Fiscally Responsible Later

Better get all your spending in now because things might not look so good down the road:

City budget officials say they are seeing signs that the soaring revenues of the last several years are coming to an end, and they have begun preparing for belt-tightening in the months ahead.

The anticipated falloff is due in large part to lower expected profits on Wall Street and a projected decline in large real estate transactions.

“The economies of our world and our city are cyclical, and it looks like, sadly, we’re going from one of growth to one of hopefully not decline, but certainly nowhere near as much growth, if any,” Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday at a news conference on the Brooklyn waterfront.

Officials in Mr. Bloomberg’s administration have often warned of shortfalls that never materialized. But this time around, said Mark Page, the city’s budget director, continued fallout in the financial services industry from the national mortgage crisis and recent losses at hedge funds are likely to significantly cut into profits on Wall Street this year.

In turn, that means less tax revenue for the city, and lower real estate transaction fees — an unusually rich source of revenue in recent years — as fewer fat bonuses fuel high-end apartment shopping sprees.

In addition, Mr. Page said, city officials had already been projecting lower revenue from real estate transactions in the current fiscal year than in the year that ended in June because they predicted fewer large deals like the $5.4 billion purchase of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.

. . .

Although city officials are not yet predicting an economic downturn, the city is already looking to rein in costs. About 10 days ago, Mr. Bloomberg sent a letter to all agencies seeking to limit new hiring and warning that budget cuts may be necessary in the coming months.

“As a practical matter, if you start trying to squeeze down marginal spending sooner, you don’t have to jam them down as much to save the money you need,” Mr. Page said in explaining the move.

In the letter, the mayor said he had asked Mr. Page to “closely scrutinize all agency hiring.”

“It is easier and more prudent to tightly manage headcount now, rather than face staff reductions in the future,” Mr. Bloomberg wrote.

(Diane Cardwell is relentless . . . who’s feeding her this? Is her husband still advising President Clinton? The Hillary juggernaut rolls over all the opposition!)

(OK, OK, so that’s paranoid — but if you want to investigate the mayor’s record she really is a good place to start.)

“Track Your Every Move” Just Doesn’t Scare Us Like It Once Did

In an era where people are eager to find new ways to compromise their privacy, it’s difficult to see how striking over ostensible civil liberties concerns will appeal to the masses of people who only care about getting across town:

New York cabbies are threatening to go on strike for two days next month — an action that could wreak havoc across the city.

The union representing Yellow Cab drivers said yesterday cabbies should strike for 48 hours to protest Taxi and Limousine Commission orders that they put Global Positioning System devices in their cars.

Cabbies claim the devices rob them of privacy by letting the city track their movements, and cost them money.

“This is an issue that is affecting every single taxi driver on the street,” said Bhairavi Desai, executive director of strike organizers the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. “I have never seen drivers this angry before.”

The union yesterday told drivers to stop work for 48 hours starting at 5 a.m. Sept. 5, unless an agreement is reached before then.

The last time city streets were emptied of yellow was in May 1998, when an estimated 11,500 of the 12,187 licensed cabbies stayed home. That strike, also led by Desai, aimed to take on then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s attempt to introduce more ironfisted rules for licensing cabbies.

The city’s Office of Emergency Management yesterday confirmed it was drawing up a contingency plan to ease chaos the strike could cause.

Remember, even the TWU couched their arguments in terms of “preserving health care for all working Americans” and look what that got them.

But at least one of the taxi driver unions gets that:

In competing Manhattan press conferences yesterday afternoon, rival advocacy groups said that (1) there could be a citywide taxi strike in September, and (2) there would not be a strike.

. . .

“We are ready to have a 48-hour strike on Sept. 5 and Sept. 6,” said Bhairavi Desai, the executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, as she stood near a line of taxis outside Pennsylvania Station. “We are ready, willing and able to walk out.”

The Taxi Workers Alliance said in a press release that it wants to work out a resolution with the Taxi and Limousine Commission to avert a strike.

Two hours later, Fernando Mateo, a spokesman for the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, said no walkout was ahead.

Standing in front of the Taxi and Limousine Commission office on Rector Street in Lower Manhattan, he said: “Read my lips: There will be no strike.”

. . .

Ms. Desai said drivers had also complained that they were required to pay 5 percent of credit card fares to their garages as a service fee, and that meters sometimes malfunction when they are connected to global positioning systems.

Mr. Mateo praised the credit card systems, saying they would encourage more trips and higher tips. He dismissed concerns about the tracking systems.

“We don’t have to be radicals,” he said. “You want privacy, you don’t drive a cab.”

“Ready, Willing and Able” — nice way to co-opt a good cause! That’s Bush-like!

Earlier: Privacy Concerns — Quaint Like A Checker Cab.

Be Thankful — You Will Pay A Quarter Of A Billion Dollars So That They Can Charge You Even More Money In Tolls

So if New York City spends $223 million on a congestion-pricing pilot project, the federal government will provide money for bus lanes and bus depots:

The federal government said on Tuesday that it would provide $354 million for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s broad plan to reduce traffic, but left it to the city to come up with more than $200 million needed for the most controversial part of the plan: a system to charge people who drive into Manhattan.

In addition, under the agreement outlined by the United States secretary of transportation, Mary E. Peters, the release of the funds is contingent upon the City Council’s and the State Legislature’s approving the plan, including the new fee on drivers, by next March.

The announcement was mixed news for Mr. Bloomberg, who is trying to establish the first broad-based congestion pricing program in the country, and to raise his national profile on environmental issues. While the federal support helps to advance his initiative, it is now up to the mayor to find the money — through borrowing, appropriation, or perhaps from a private corporation — for what has been seen as the centerpiece of the plan, the new charge on drivers.

In its federal application, the city estimated that it would cost $223 million to install a computerized system to monitor traffic and impose the fee on cars entering the busiest parts of Manhattan, and asked the United States to cover $179 million of that. But the Department of Transportation said it would contribute only $10 million to that initiative. Most of what the department agreed to provide on Tuesday is designated for the construction of bus depots and other mass transit improvements.

Mr. Bloomberg, at a press conference in the Bronx shortly after the announcement, played down the lack of federal money for congestion pricing.

“I think that rather than look at the money we didn’t get, we should look at the money we did get,” he said. “It’s a unique opportunity for New York, and we should really say, thank you.”

Your Arguments Have Been Deemed Structurally Deficient By The U.S. Department Of Transportation

When tragedy hits, use it:

In the wake of the fatal collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis, news reports about the poor condition of the Brooklyn Bridge have brought fears of that tragedy close to home.

The iconic bridge was one of only three run by the New York City Department of Transportation to be given a poor rating in the city’s latest annual bridge report card, according to a report by the New York Times. Despite this rating, the bridge was still deemed safe by city officials. Another crucial piece of Brooklyn’s infrastructure, the Gowanus Expressway, was not included in the report, but is in serious disrepair.

To those carefully observing the state of the Gowanus Expressway, which runs along Third Avenue in Bay Ridge, it is increasingly clear that the 45-year-old structure was not intended to sustain today’s heavy traffic load.

“[The structure] is totally inadequate to handle the weight and volume of traffic that it’s getting now,” said Buddy Scotto, who co-founded the Gowanus Expressway Community Coalition. Scotto added that every time an 18-wheeler hits the airbrakes, it takes off half the concrete.

And then there’s the one-hand-clapping sort of riddle about cars and trucks that enter Staten Island but never leave it:

In late 1980s, a federal highway bill was passed that included a provision that eliminated the Verrazano Bridge’s inbound toll while doubling the price of the outbound toll.

JoAnne Simon, former chair of the Gowanus Community Stakeholders Group and current state committeewoman from the 52nd Assembly District is concerned about the volume of trucks that ride the Gowanus after a free pass on the Verrazano. “One-way toll on the Verrazano encourages extra traffic,” she said, emphasizing that trucks ride it “to save about $40 a day.”

A two-way toll would “reduce concentration on the Gowanus,” Ben Meskin, who found the Gowanus Coalition with Scotto, said. “There will always be bad traffic, but you have to spread it out,” he added.

Is there a special non-tolled route through Staten Island that the rest of us don’t know about?