Blame Robert Moses For This One, Too

Lame — everyone knows that smart criminals take the Queensboro instead:

Three Long Island men were caught with as much as $4,000 worth of drugs on the Triborough Bridge on Sunday — all because they couldn’t come up with the $4.50 toll, cops said.

The trio was busted by MTA Bridges and Tunnels cops while trying to get from the Bronx to Manhattan Sunday afternoon, police said.

When Officer Joshua Landon asked to see the driver’s license so the agency could mail him a bill for the toll, Jesus Cancal, 31, of Syosset, only had an expired learner’s permit — with eight prior suspensions, police said.

While Landon was arresting Cancal, cops Willie Gamble, Greg Vanicky and Ernesto Reyes approached the 1996 Chrysler to search it. That’s when, they said, they spotted passenger George Perez, 29, of Patchogue, frantically fumbling around in the backseat.

When they ordered him out of the car, bags of cocaine allegedly fell from his lap. Stuffed in his pockets were more bags of cocaine, as well as a container of liquid angel dust worth about $300 on the street, police said.

On their way to Rikers — which by the way doesn’t have a toll — they can think about the fact that the MTA raised $281 million from Triborough tolls in 2005 (.pdf).

Location Scout: Triborough Bridge.

Every Good Development Deserves A Holdout

In the same way as the great cities have pie-shaped buildings, every development worth its salt has at least one quirky holdout that serves to humble ego-driven architects and pointy-headed planners. So will Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project get its very own version of Hurley’s? The courts are paving the way for that possibility:

A property owner threatened by the Atlantic Yards project enjoyed a victory after a judge ruled that two of his leases were improperly acquired by the developer, Forest City Ratner.

Property owner Henry Weinstein can keep his six-story building and a parking lot on Carlton Ave., Supreme Court judge Ira Harkavy ruled Tuesday.

But it was unclear how the ruling would affect the project, which broke ground last month.

“The leases in question clearly and unambiguously required tenants to first obtain the written consent of the landlords before any assignment of the leases,” Harkavy ruled in an 18-page decision invalidating both leases.

Weinstein leased his property to Brooklyn developer Shaya Boymelgreen in 1999, but he didn’t expect Boymelgreen to sell the leases to Forest City Ratner, Weinstein said.

Weinstein, a critic of the Atlantic Yards project, never gave consent to the deal between Boymelgreen and Ratner, which would have allowed the latter to hold onto the leases until 2048.

“We believed from the beginning that Ratner and Boymelgreen had no right to do what they did, so this decision is no surprise,” said Candace Carponter, a member of the opposition group Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn. “As far as I’m concerned, this decision is unassailable upon appeal.”

Location Scout: Atlantic Yards.

See also: Architectural Holdouts.

One Day Later . . .

The good thing, if you’re a graffiti writer looking for attention, is to get a newspaper article written about your craft. The bad thing is that you attract too much attention:

The graffiti artist with the notable tag “Backfat” was nabbed Tuesday evening — the same day the Daily News highlighted his prolific scrawlings.

Charles Abarno, 21, was arrested in front of the 72nd Precinct stationhouse and accused of spraying his tag all over buildings, storefronts and awnings in Windsor Terrace and Kensington, just blocks from his home.

He was charged with two counts each of criminal mischief and scrawling graffiti on a public library and a commercial establishment, police said. If convicted, he faces up to four years in jail.

Local residents were delighted, as was City Councilman Bill de Blasio, who represents the area.

“I am extremely pleased he has been caught,” de Blasio said. “Now we need to make sure the appropriate punishment is given.”

Well, It’s A Start . . .

New United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is driven eight blocks even as he encourages U.N. diplomats to use mass transit:

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who made his public debut at a breakfast with business leaders yesterday, won applause when he urged diplomats to do “as Mayor Bloomberg does” and take the subway.

But Ban himself was driven the mere eight blocks from his East Side hotel to the breakfast at the Grand Hyatt in midtown — and his driver parked the Mercedes illegally in a clearly flagged “No Standing” zone outside.

“You say ‘illegally parked,’ but I’d say ‘illegally stopped,'” Ban’s spokeswoman, Choi Soung-ah, told the Daily News.

“He did take the car to work,” Choi said. “But he has a driver in it at all times, so it’s not abandoned on the street. When it needs to be moved, they move it.”

Well, Lookie There, It’s Charles Barron!

Andrew Berman just made life that much more difficult for Donald Trump:

A powerful preservation group is asking Mayor Bloomberg to investigate whether the site of the Trump SoHo condo hotel was a stopover on the Underground Railroad. Currently, excavation is stalled on the site at Spring and Varick streets where developer Donald Trump and his partners want to build a 45-story tower. Last week, the Department of Buildings issued a stop-work order after human remains more than 100 years old were uncovered. Historical accounts indicate the remains are related to a graveyard of Spring Street Presbyterian Church, an activist abolitionist church that stood from 1811 to 1968, according to the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society of Historic Preservation, Andrew Berman. The church was nearly burned down in 1834 because of its antislavery work, Mr. Berman said. His letter to the mayor was copied to several African American leaders, including City Council Member Charles Barron, a Democrat of Brooklyn, and Lieutenant Governorelect David Patterson. Messrs. Barron and Patterson were active in the effort to preserve the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan.