Connecting with the people is about making promises and sticking to them:
Posted: March 5th, 2008 | Filed under: Jerk Move, Please, Make It Stop, Political, QueensNo nationally known political figures graced the ninth annual St. Patrick’s Parade in Sunnyside and Woodside, and even Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave notice he wouldn’t be around this year, though once he had said he’d attend each parade faithfully, even after he had left office.
City kids are smart enough to know that when you see an unattended suitcase, nine times out of ten it contains money of some dubious provenance. But on that tenth time:
Posted: March 5th, 2008 | Filed under: Just Horrible, QueensFour children playing in a Queens park Tuesday stumbled upon a suitcase filled with human bones, a police source said.
A skull, a spine and several other bones packed in a blue rolling suitcase were found about 4:30 p.m. in Forest Park in Woodhaven, cops said.
“They dragged it out . . . and opened it up and took the skull out,” a source said. “They thought maybe there was some money in [the suitcase]. What a surprise.”
. . . meanwhile, this guy collected the crap-ass burnt bits from the bottom of the oven and made a bagel out of it:
Posted: March 3rd, 2008 | Filed under: Feed, Historical, QueensAs is often the case (Post-its, the microwave), the genesis of the everything bagel was a “fluky-type thing,” [David] Gussin said the other day. When Gussin was fifteen, he took a part-time job at a takeout place in Howard Beach run by a guy named Charlie. It was a simpler time for bagels: you had plain, poppy, sesame, onion, salt, garlic, and — on the exotic end — cinnamon raisin. One of Gussin’s duties at closing time was to sweep up the burnt seeds that had fallen off in the oven during the day. Gussin developed a taste for them, and one afternoon — he guesses around 1980 — “instead of throwing them out, like I always did, I swept them into a bin and said, ‘Charlie, let’s make some with these!’ ”
Charlie, who was mildly enthusiastic about the idea, agreed to sell the newfangled bagels for a nickel extra. According to Gussin, the name “everything” came instantaneously. “There was no marketing meeting or anything like that,” he said. “It was a one-second thought process. Boom.” The flavor became popular “the next day,” and pretty soon Gussin’s brainchild — minus the burnt-seed concept — had spread to a bagel place over in Lindenwood. Within a year, Gussin said, “the everything bagel was everywhere.”
Gypsy cab as impromptu safe haven:
Posted: February 29th, 2008 | Filed under: Jerk Move, QueensA man carrying a 6-month-old girl flagged down a black car for hire in Queens on Thursday and left the baby behind after asking the driver to stop, the police said.
The driver immediately took the infant to a firehouse in Corona, the police arrived and the baby was taken to St. John’s Queens Hospital, where she was in good condition.
. . .
About 10 a.m., the driver, whose name the police did not release, was flagged down at Northern Boulevard and 106th Street by a man holding the infant. When the driver and his passengers reached Northern Boulevard and 83rd Street, the man asked the driver to stop so he could make a phone call.
The man then walked across the street to a pay phone and fled, the police said. The driver took the child to Engine Company 289 at 97-28 43rd Avenue.
The driver is an independent contractor affiliated with Tel-a-Car of New York, said the company’s manager, Rocco Sacramone.
“It was a great thing he did,” said Mr. Sacramone, who would not disclose the driver’s name. “He went out, he went to work, he did a great thing, and then he went home and went to sleep.”
Generally, only taxis are allowed to pick up passengers in the street; Mr. Sacramone said he did not know why the driver had picked up the man.
The problem with instituting congestion pricing is that to make it fair, you have to start charging everyone $8 to go anywhere:
Posted: February 1st, 2008 | Filed under: I Don't Get It!, QueensThe New York State Department of Transportation brought its second round of PlaNYC neighborhood parking workshops to Long Island City on Tuesday, where community members had a chance to weigh in on several parking options.
The DOT conducted its first round of meetings in November to assess the needs of several communities in the city and continue discussion about possible parking options to offset the potential effects of congestion pricing.
The second round of meetings explored four options in depth. Consultants from Howard/Stein-Hudson Associates, Inc. — the firm representing the DOT — also provided data from a recent parking study conducted in Long Island City.
Many western Queens residents said parking is already severely limited in their communities. Others fear congestion pricing would cause an influx of even more commuters who park their cars in the neighborhood and take the subway or the bus into Manhattan.
The recent study surveyed 343 residential parking spaces in Long Island City at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. on the same day and at 5:30 a.m. the following morning.
According to the data, 60 percent of the vehicles seen at 6 p.m. were still in the same spots at 5:30 a.m. Out of the vehicles parked overnight, 47 percent were registered in the neighborhood, 55 percent were registered within Queens, 66 percent were registered within New York City and 82 percent were registered within New York State. Eighteen percent of the cars observed were registered out of state.
All four of the plans proposed on Tuesday focused discussion on the possible issuance of residential parking permits. The first would require a permit during designated hours (between 8 and 24). The second would require a permit only during a one- to two-hour period, which would mean non-permit holders would be forced to move their vehicles during that time.
The third option, a variation on the first, would have the same stipulations, but also allow commuters to purchase a permit for $8 a day. The fourth option, similarly a variation on the second, would also allow commuters to purchase a daily permit for $8.
“None of this has been decided,” noted consultant Scott Gierig, who emphasized that the purpose of the workshop was to gauge community response to each of the proposals.
