But “Neurolaw” Sounded So Good When They Explained It On Fresh Air!

By the way, that trendy “neurolaw”-based defense turned out to fail in the end:

The jury in State Supreme Court in Manhattan rejected the defense argument that [douchebag] was delusional and so mentally ill that he lacked the intent to commit a crime.

He was convicted of 10 counts of kidnapping, burglary, robbery and sexual abuse — every charge against him except arson. He faces 25 years to life in prison on the most serious charge, kidnapping, at his sentencing, set for next month.

The verdict, which came after the jury had deliberated for barely four hours, was an uncommonly swift finish to a three-week trial. The jury began considering the charges about 12:30 p.m. and sent a note announcing its verdict to Justice Thomas Farber at 4:23 p.m.

Postgame recap: Mychal Judge Was A Hero To Most But He Never Meant Shit To Pete, Sunday Times Magazine Sets Up Peter Braunstein Defense, God Help Me If The Post Ever Notices My Hair, Leaving Brooklyn? Fuhgeddaboudit! They Do That?

Just Call It A Car Tax And Then I’m All Ears*

New Yorkers are figuring out that congestion pricing will actually increase traffic and parking problems in certain neighborhoods:

Under the mayor’s congestion pricing proposal, drivers will have to pay a toll to go south of 86th Street in Manhattan. At a City Council hearing yesterday, Councilwoman Jessica Lappin drew a bleak picture.

“There will be a crush of cars circling around 86th Street looking for parking spots that don’t exist,” said Lappin, who feared the downtown-bound bridge-and-tunnel crowd would use her Upper East Side district as a parking lot before catching a train. “I envision idling, and more congestion, and more pollution in the air, because there aren’t places for these cars to go.” Parking in a garage would be out of the question, she said: “The garages up there are full.”

. . .

New parking garages would be an ironic byproduct of congestion pricing, which is meant to reduce commuters’ reliance on cars. The request for city garages was seconded yesterday by Queens Councilwoman Helen Sears, who noted that her Jackson Heights neighborhood only has one and it’s “the most densely populated district in the entire city.”

“Any thought of building municipal garages?” she asked, before complaining about cutbacks in placards that allow city officials to park with impunity.

(Nice dig at the end there!)

One thing though — if the number of taxis and livery cabs in Manhattan doesn’t change and the number of delivery trucks doesn’t change, how much will congestion pricing help reduce traffic? Even if you reduce traffic by ten percent — a huge effect — that only means that there are nine cars instead of ten. Or it could just be about raising money for public transit**:

Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to charge $8 to drive into a large swath of Manhattan would not affect most city commuters, the new transportation commissioner said yesterday.

Just 4.7% of working Brooklyn and Queens residents, for example, commute by car into Manhattan’s central business district, City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said at a City Council hearing.

And many of those motorists already pay tolls at the Midtown or Brooklyn-Battery Tunnels — so they’re already paying part of the $8 fee the mayor is seeking.

Still more could opt to take a subway because they live within walking distance of a station, Sadik-Khan said. That leaves just 1% of workers in those boroughs paying the full congestion pricing fee or having a longer commute if they live where mass transportation is less convenient, Sadik-Khan said. The benefits will include less traffic for those who do drive into Manhattan, less pollution and the health problems it creates, and hundreds of millions of dollars a year to improve mass transportation, she said.

*Besides — I take the subway to work. So what do I care about reducing congestion***?

**Which is fine (just call it that!)

***Unless you actually believe the cost of congestion is somehow higher (.pdf)****.

****And higher than what businesses would do to pass on a $8 congestion fee to its customers.

And Here You Were Scoffing At The Idea Of Ferry Service From Schaefer Landing

The benefits of several years of work on the L train are still several years away:

Riders on the crowded L subway line, who at peak hours frequently have to wait for two or more trains to pass at some stations before squeezing aboard, will have to keep on squeezing for at least a few more years, according to a report released yesterday.

The report, provided yesterday to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board, said that an additional 64 specially equipped subway cars cannot be fully up and running before January 2010. The additional cars would allow fuller use of a new high-tech signal system intended to increase the line’s capacity.

The crosstown L line, which stretches from Eighth Avenue and 14th Street in Manhattan to Rockaway Parkway in Canarsie, Brooklyn, currently runs with 15 trains an hour during the morning and evening rush, or one every four minutes.

Once more of the computerized trains are added, the authority will be able to run as many as 26 trains an hour on the line during the rush, according to Paul J. Fleuranges, a New York City Transit spokesman. That works out to one every 2 minutes 18 seconds. Mr. Fleuranges said the agency expected to have the new cars up and running by mid-2009. But a consulting engineers’ report to the authority’s board said the system was not likely to be fully operational with the new cars until January 2010. He said that in the interim some conventional trains will be added to the line later this year to increase peak capacity to 17 trains an hour.

Health Department Finds Sex Declined Sharply At Close Of First Quarter

It’s probably not so much that New Yorkers refuse to use them as it is the case that they’re still sitting unused in everybody’s wallets:

The city’s health commissioner warned yesterday he’ll dump the condom-giveaway programs if New Yorkers cool to the subway-themed freebies.

Between March 15 and April 15, the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene gave away 3.7 million of its transit-themed prophylactics. That’s a sharp drop from the 5 million given away in the 30 days after the condoms’ Valentine’s Day debut.

“If we find launching this brand didn’t increase at all safe sex among the groups at highest risk, we may stop it entirely,” Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said.

At This Rate, By 2030 New York City Will Have To Accommodate A Staggering 14,088 More Residents

New federal census figures show that New York has a lot of work to do if it is to fulfill Mayor Bloomberg’s shocking 1 million-more-people figure. City officials are not happy about the disappointing fourth quarter growth:

New federal Census figures assert that New York City’s population grew by a total of 587 people between 2005 and 2006, a number the Bloomberg administration says substantially underestimates the city’s tremendous growth.

Before the numbers were even public — they were slated for release today — the city vowed to contest the figures, claiming that the methods the Census used aren’t the best way to get an accurate count in a city as dynamic as New York.

At stake are tens of millions of dollars in federal and state funding each year, as population in part determines the apportionment of aid for various programs. After the city successfully contested the 2005 figures last October, adding 70,000 to the initial estimate, Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement that an additional $23.1 million for affordable housing would come to the city.

Challenging the Census’s estimates has become something of an annual tradition for the Bloomberg administration, as this will mark the fourth year straight the city has contested the federal numbers as failing to capture thousands of New Yorkers. The Census Bureau put the city’s population in mid-2006 at 8.21 million, up 2.6% from 2000.

Late last year, the city released a report projecting that its population would grow by more than 1 million by 2030, bringing the city’s total population to 9.1 million, with an increase of nearly 400,000 people expected between 2000 and 2010.

Mr. Bloomberg routinely cites the figures as justification for various large projects and infrastructure improvements, as the city needs to make room for an extra million people.