Exterminators, Not E-Z Passes

So if higher-than-normal asthma rates in the Bronx are the result of cockroaches and not car pollution (as the mayor repeated over and over with scientific certainty*), I suppose that means that congestion pricing and trees are really unnecessary then:

Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood, one that strikes the poor disproportionately. Up to one-third of children living in inner-city public housing have allergic asthma, in which a specific allergen sets off a cascade of events that cause characteristic inflammation, airway constriction and wheezing.

Now, using an experimental model that required leaving the pristine conditions of the lab for the messier ones of life, a team of scientists from the Boston University School of Medicine have discovered what that allergen is.

“For inner-city children,” said the lead researcher, Dr. Daniel G. Remick, a professor of pathology, “the major cause of asthma is not dust mites, not dog dander, not outdoor air pollen. It’s allergies to cockroaches.”

*He’s been doing that a lot lately.

It’s Not A Fancy New Geegaw, But It Will Probably Work Just As Well, If Not Better

You can’t get on the Today Show or photographed with Governor Schwarzenegger for it, but you know sometimes governing isn’t all bells and whistles — finally, something that actually might reduce traffic congestion:

Big Apple motorists who “block the box” at major intersections will be targeted by a massive new enforcement effort — and higher fines — under a bill given final approval yesterday by the Legislature.

The measure, backed by Mayor Bloomberg, changes blocking the box from a more serious moving violation, which can be ticketed only by cops and a small number of traffic-enforcement agents, to a category akin to illegal parking, which can be enforced by all 2,800 enforcement agents.

It also raises the fine for violating the new law to $115, compared to the previous $90.

Solution: Ban The Reverse Beep; Let The Stupid Dogs And Baby Strollers Fend For Themselves

It wouldn’t be a frustrated spring-fall night of sleep without the beepbeepbeep of the carting trucks:

Veronika Conant considered abandoning her midtown co-op after years of being awakened by privately owned garbage trucks, crunching refuse at all hours of the night and early morning.

“The day after I moved in I wanted to move away,” said Conant, who instead of packing her bags invested in double-paned windows. “It was just unbearable. I couldn’t even hear the 11 o’clock news on the television I was trying to watch –that’s how bad it was.”

Privately-owned garbage trucks that bang, grind and beep while they pick up commercial waste and construction debris have become an unwelcome alarm clock for a growing number of New Yorkers, according to city Department of Environmental Protection data. These noise complaints have shot up 40 percent in the past year.

The department said the spike in noise complaints is due partly to the growing number of residential units sprouting up in formerly commercial areas, including parts of lower Manhattan and midtown.

. . .

While the Department of Sanitation picks up residential garbage during the day, the private carting industry picks up commercial garbage and construction debris after hours, when city streets are less congested.

The private-carting problem is largely found in Manhattan, where a number of community boards said the noise is chronic, and a few boards are investigating a recent uptick in complaints.

The boards, at least one City Council member and environmental department investigators have successfully convinced businesses that use these carters to schedule pickups earlier or to use the same company to limit the number of pickups.

One East Side community board drafted a resolution last month, asking the City Council to prohibit private carters from picking up garbage and construction debris between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

The noise code now restricts the level of carting noise to 85 decibels within 50 feet of a residential building between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. That’s about the amount of heavy traffic generates. That number will decrease to 80 in 2012.

Right Idea . . .

. . . now let’s work on that icky acronym:

Regina Massaro is an animal-rescue worker without borders.

From junkyards in Jamaica to gritty industrial lots in St. Albans, Massaro seeks out some of Queens’ roughest addresses with one goal in mind — fighting animal overpopulation.

Earlier this month, Massaro, founder of the nonprofit group Spay Neuter Intervention Project, or SNIP, journeyed to a Springfield Gardens used-car lot, where Bobo, a 9-month-old mastiff with a tan coat and a black muzzle, patrolled the yard.

Though a giant in the making, Bobo acted every bit the attention-loving puppy when Massaro approached the gate. “He came right up to the fence, wagging his tail and licking my hand,” said Massaro, 58, of Maspeth. “He’s like a big baby.”

Working dogs like Bobo are often treated by their owners as property, not as pets, and play a large role in overcrowding at the city’s teeming shelters.

“I believe the junkyard dog is the root cause of dog overpopulation,” Massaro said before taking Bobo to be neutered at a mobile veterinary clinic operated by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Massaro, who founded SNIP (www.snipnyc.org) in 1996, travels to industrial areas in Queens and Brooklyn looking for dogs like Bobo. She does the same with feral cats, trapping them in vacant lots and seedy areas behind shopping centers.

For Massaro, who runs SNIP with three volunteers on a shoestring budget, arranging for 50 dogs and cats a month to be spayed or neutered demands sacrifice.

When Thousands Of New Jerseyites Start Flooding Into Queens On Weekend Evenings We Can Talk . . .

. . . but until then, please just give these people a stupid beer/wine license already:

Long Island City activists are opposing a popular restaurant’s application for a beer and wine license, fearing alcohol will only add to the troubles they say the eatery has brought to the neighborhood.

Residents said Blend LIC has been a bad neighbor, and accused its management of repeatedly lying to the community about its intentions.

Blend’s management “don’t want a restaurant that co-exists peacefully with the neighborhood,” said resident Tim Lee, a 48-year-old photographer.

“There’s a big difference between a restaurant that serves liquor and a place that’s positioning itself as a bar stop.”

Blend, which bills itself as a Latin fusion restaurant, had its initial application for a liquor license rejected by the State Liquor Authority in November 2006.

Now the restaurant’s owner, Cullen Partners, is preparing to ask Queens Community Board 2 for a beer and wine license.

“The opening of their rear garden would surround our building with noise,” said Tim Doocey, 38, another concerned neighbor.

. . .

“There’s a saturation of bars and restaurants” in Long Island City, said Community Board 2 Chairman Joe Conley. “People are saying enough is enough.”

In a 2006 letter to Cullen Partners, Conley wrote: “Please be advised we have already spoken in a loud and unambiguous voice on this issue and are unlikely to reconsider the decision” in regard to a new license.

Charles Linn, attorney for Cullen Partners, declined to comment and added that no one at Blend would be available for further comment.

The original disapproval states the “application information was misrepresented by the applicant” and that the applicant “submitted an application with misleading information.”

Doocey, a communications consultant, added, “We’re not anti-business. We’re not even anti-bar. But the next thing you know, Vernon Blvd. will become a mess like the lower East Side.”