Never Forget . . . Proper Flag Etiquette

When dealing with an important national symbolic gesture like placing the first beam at the Freedom Tower site, remember that stuff like proper flag etiquette is important:

An American flag plastered on the first steel column for the Freedom Tower was removed yesterday after the builders realized the stars and stripes were on the wrong side of the flag.

The Port Authority removed the decal on the 31-foot column after media outlets and readers questioned the display of the flag, with the 50 stars on the right side instead of the left.

Federal flag code requires that, whether displayed horizontally or vertically, the blue field displaying 50 stars is always on the left side to the viewer. When construction workers put the decal onto the column as it lay on its side at Ground Zero, the stars were on the left and in the correct spot, said PA spokesman Steve Coleman.

Once a giant crane raised the column and the flag was displayed vertically, “it was inadvertently put in the wrong position,” Coleman said.

(Let the good folks who snapped up the “ushistory.org” domain explain the rest of it.)

And Just 163,000 Hot Dogs Later (Or 446.6 A Day), The License Will Pay For Itself

The privilege of selling hot dogs in Central Park for one year exceeds the median price of a single-family home in many parts of the country*:

Vendors have agreed to pay up to $326,000 a year to peddle hot dogs in and around Central Park in the latest contracts awarded by the Parks Department, The Post has learned.

And that’s for a single cart!

Topping the list was north side of the steps to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue, one of the most expensive commercial parcels on earth on a square-foot basis.

New York One LLC bid $326,000 for the right to continue selling $2 hot dogs, $1.25 sodas and 50-cent bags of chips from a 10-foot-by-5-foot cart next year. It has been paying $277,000.

In the third year of the deal, the price goes up to $330,000.

But the company balked at a 15 percent price hike — to an astonishing $375,000 — demanded by Parks for a companion cart on the south side of the heavily traveled steps. “We’re paying the city too much,” protested co-owner Thomas Makkos.

. . .

Makkos was tight-lipped about sales, except to say that he was providing a “great service” and bringing in “great revenue” to the city.

In fact, the city hauled in $3.48 million last year from Central Park cart concessions, much of it from Makkos’ company.

*See, for example.

It’s Not So Much A Quota As It Is A Make-Work Plan For Its Enforcement Agents*

A Department of Sanitation representative tries to explain the five cigarette butt rule to a tough crowd:

When it comes to giving tickets, the city’s Department of Sanitation (DOS) does not have quotas.

That was the word from the agency’s citywide community affairs officer, Ignazio Terranova, who was in the hot seat as he responded to claims that the agency is more than eager to give out summonses, during the December meeting of the Friends United Block Association (FUBA).

Speaking to the group gathered at Temple Shaare Emeth, 6012 Farragut Road, Terranova acknowledged that DOS enforcement officers could make mistakes, but insisted that the agency is not writing tickets simply to make up a certain number and fill the city’s coffers.

“We do not have a quota, whether people choose to believe it or not,” Terranova asserted. Nonetheless, he added, “But we did not hire 56 new enforcement agents to go out and sit in a car and drink coffee all day. Their job is to find summonses, whether five or 50 in a day.”

There are perameters that must be exceeded, said Terranova, for a ticket to be written. “You’re not going to get a summons for one item,” Terranova contended. “If there’s a cap on one water bottle, you’re not going to get a summons. What constitutes a summons is five things wrong with the garbage or five things on the floor. On the sidewalk, it could be one plastic cup and four cigarette butts. That constitutes five items.”

Keeping your sidewalk and 18 inches into the gutter clean, Terranova added, is a matter of making sure it is free of debris two hours a day — from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from noon to 1 p.m. That is actually an improvement, he told his listeners; before a relatively recent law was passed, residents could be ticketed at any hour of the day or night, seven days a week.

*At least he didn’t call it “productivity goals”!

So This Way If Terrorists Blow Up The Apollo We’ll Definitely Know What They Looked Like

The ACLU says that there are 90 security cameras on a seven-block stretch of 125th Street alone:

The number of surveillance cameras in downtown Manhattan and Harlem has multiplied considerably, making it difficult to walk the streets without being watched.

The location of the 4,468 cameras were detailed yesterday in a new report by the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Seven years ago, a similar survey found just 769 cameras — one sixth today’s total.

Battery, Battery, Battery, Battery

No word on whether the guys on the subway qualify as such a retailer:

Starting tomorrow, consumers must take their used rechargeable batteries — such as those that power laptop computers, cellphones and digital cameras — to retailers who sell them.

The batteries will go back to manufacturers for recycling.

The goal is to keep toxic metals like cadmium, lead and mercury out of landfills.

“Every one of these rechargeable batteries is a latent poison pill when thrown into a landfill,” said City Council member Michael McMahon (D-S.I.), chairman of the Sanitation Committee.

Conventional, nonrechargeable batteries are not affected by the law because “they are devoid of any of the toxic heavy metals that are still found in rechargeable batteries,” McMahon said.

The law requires people to take their used rechargeable batteries to any retailer who sells that type of battery. Individuals can be fined $50 for the first violation — and $200 for three or more.

The city Sanitation Department “will not go through garbage or recycling containers” to find violators. “You have to be caught in the act,” said department spokeswoman Kathy Dawkins.