Before Mom And Dad Book Their New York Hotel . . .

Somehow the Hotel Carter avoided the list this year. No worries, there’s another NYC-area contender:

The Times Square inn — voted the nation’s sixth-filthiest hotel and worst in the Big Apple last week by travelers on Tripadvisor.com — is a throwback to the dirty old days of the 1970s, when hotels like this one rented rooms by the hour, not the week.

. . .

In Room 307, The Post found orange mold in the shower, a chipped toilet seat, ill-fitting ceiling tiles stained with water and piles of dust behind the headboard.

. . .

The front-desk clerk told The Post the that Tripadvisor is always asking the New York Inn for money for better placement on its site — which the hotel has refused to pay.

Now You Tell Us?

31 years later the thing is there, and folks are puzzling over exactly what to sue for, though that is a nice way to close a huge budget deficit:

[Lower Manhattan’s Verizon] building is actually one-third larger than allowed, a city agency claims — but no one noticed for 31 years.

The city’s Educational Construction Fund filed a suit alleging it sold Verizon construction rights for a 771,003-square-foot building in 1972.

. . .

The fund is suing Verizon and the developers for fraud, breach of contract and unjust enrichment, seeking $53 million plus interest and a court declaration that the proposed renovation would be illegal.

175 Square Feet, Adjustable Pantry/Armoire, Pets OK

First there was the 250-square-foot studio and baby nest. Then we had the 175-square-foot apartment, which was a bizarre enough story when it first appeared, but got even stranger now that it is occupied by two human beings and two cats:

Zaarath and Christopher Prokop — and their two cats — live in the smallest apartment in the city, a 175-square-foot “microstudio” in Morningside Heights the couple bought three months ago for $150,000.

At 14.9 feet long and 10 feet wide, it’s about as narrow as a subway car and as claustrophobic as a jail cell. But to the Prokops, it’s a castle.

. . .

The couple wakes up every morning in their queen-size bed, which takes up one-third of the living space.

They then walk five feet toward the tiny kitchen, where they pull out their workout clothes, which are folded neatly in two cabinets above the sink. A third cabinet holds several containers of espresso for their only kitchen appliance, a cappuccino maker.

They turn off their hotplate, and use the space on the counter as a feeding area for their cats, Esmeralda and Beauregard.

“We don’t cook,” Zaarath said, adding that their fridge never has any food in it. “So when you don’t cook, you don’t need plates or pots or pans. So we use that space for our clothes.”

Once in their running attire, the two change the cat litter box (stored under the sink) and start their small Rumba vacuum — which operates automatically while they’re out, picking up cat hair.

They then jog to their jobs in Midtown, picking up along the way their work clothes, which are “strategically stashed at various dry cleaners.”

Highbrow/Despicable Versus Lowbrow/Despicable!

For years, it has been settled law that artists — merchants of everything from hackneyed images of Manhattan to names on grains of rice — have been constitutionally protected to sell their wares in city parks. That apparently is not the case for the High Line:

In 2001, both state and federal courts ruled that New York City could not require permits for artists in parks under the First Amendment under a case brought by Mr. [Robert A.] Lederman. In addition, Mr. Lederman was also a plaintiff in an earlier case which established artists’ rights to sell on the streets in 1997, under the argument that the artists deserved the same protections as booksellers and others selling printed materials, who had long been exempt from licensing.

On Saturday, Mr. Lederman said, representatives of Friends of the High Line, including security and supervisors, had approached him all day, threatening him. Finally they brought a parks enforcement officer. “I showed them a New York Times article and a New York Post article about the artist permit being overturned and that artists don’t need a permit,” said Mr. Lederman, who said it appeared that the enforcement officer believed him. However, Mr. Lederman said that the officer was pressured to issue summonses and arrest him.

When asked about the situation, Katie Lorah, a spokeswoman for Friends of the High Line, said, “We’re actually not commenting right now” and referred all questions to the Department of Parks and Recreation.

The DPR spokesperson claimed the High Line was somehow different. The artist in question fleshes out that argument for them:

“The parks department and the High Line people have their own agenda for commercializing this park, and they’re hoping to nip street artists in the bud by arresting me,” he said. “Frankly I think they made a tremendous mistake. I’m not looking to make a big commotion on the High Line. I would prefer not to have to do that. I certainly don’t need to go back there to make the point. They made the point already. They gave me five different summonses. I’m not going to have to prove anything to the judge about what they’re intentions were and continue to be. I plan to go back there to sell my art if not to protest, and I have a right to. I intend to exercise that right.”

Location Scout: High Line.

Leading Economic Indicators: Rolls-Royces Lurking Around On Alternate-Side Parking Days

You’d think that garaging your Porsche in Manhattan was a fairly inelastic expenditure. Not these days:

Garage managers in the swanky 10021 ZIP code say the recession has driven away customers, and it’s little wonder with monthly fees hitting $800 or more. An extra $100 is often tacked on for exotic cars.

Rolls-Royce owner Jonathan Martin said he’s fed up with paying about $500 a month for the privilege of parking and recently started searching for free spaces with the masses.

“The garage rates keep going up around here,” he said.