“You Remember 1977, Right?”

New York Magazine investigates the outbreak of suspicious fires plaguing valuable development opportunities in Brooklyn:

The fact is we’re in a burning season. Uniformed Firefighters Association stats say the 2006 “fire season” — the winter months when items like electric blankets and space heaters are in operation — saw an increase in “greater” blazes (of two alarms or more) of 50 percent over the record year 2005.

The market blaze was only one of the many, many “suspicious” fires to hit the Brooklyn development zones of late. Within three months, from December 7, 2005, to February 24, 2006, there were eleven such fires along Prospect Heights’ “Pacific Street Corridor,” formerly home to single-story factories and flat-fix establishments but now part of the realty zone sandwiched between the escalating rent sprawl of Williamsburg and Fort Greene and the proposed Atlantic Yards megaproject to the West.

Location, location, location. The proximity of the afflicted Prospect Heights addresses raises eyebrows: 1033 Pacific, 1084 Pacific, 1198 Pacific, 1440 Pacific. Other fires were around the corner, at 530 and 600 St. Marks Avenue. Two more occurred at 461 and 658 Park Place, with another at nearby 683 Dean Street.

In the worst of these, the three-alarm arson fire at 1033 Pacific, a dowdy four-story apartment that had been sold and resold several times prior to the blaze (the deed shifting from 1033 Pacific Partner LLC to the 1033 Pacific Partners LLC), four people died. These included Assita Coulibaly, a 36-year-old immigrant from Burkina Faso, and two of her small children. Also dead was 24-year-old Sherrie Williams, who jumped from the fourth-story window. She landed on the concrete stairwell; another jumping tenant, Kassoum Fofana, fell on top of her, possibly saving his life. Months later, the building remained burned out, Williams’s name handwritten on the still-extant row of buzzers.

This was part of a larger pattern. According to FDNY stats, 2005 was the single busiest year in Fire Department history, with a total of 485,702 calls answered. This beat out the former record of 459,567 calls, set back in 1977.

You remember 1977, right?

Location Scout: Greenpoint Terminal Market Fire; Atlantic Yards.

Follow The Money!

If we learned anything from that broken-windows repair scheme on Staten Island, it’s that we shouldn’t be too quick to rule out the bike stores:

Someone’s been taking out the bikes in Riverside Park. The weapon: carpet tacks, sprinkled on the path with malicious, tire-bursting intent. Most reports of tack trouble come from the section of the greenway between 137th and 145th Streets, behind Riverbank State Park, but cyclists have reported tacks as far north as the George Washington Bridge at 181st. But it’s not clear that the attacks were limited to uptown — one victim told Ravin he didn’t notice his flat until he returned to Christopher Street from a ride up to Inwood.

. . .

In the meantime, bike shops and cyclists alike are facing a quandary. “I hate it!” says Ozzie Perez, owner of Tread Bike Shop in Inwood. “Financially, it’s been great for us — we fixed more than 100 flats — but now people don’t want to go on the greenway uptown.”

Apparently OSHA Isn’t Concerned About Sleet

Rain, sleet, snow — no problem. The ripest, stankiest most overpowering example of human-cat stench is another matter:

The motto says neither rain nor sleet nor snow will get in the way of the United States Postal Service delivering mail, but a tenant in the Pomonok Houses development in Flushing may have found the one deterrent: the pungent smell in the hallway near her first-floor apartment, which is adjacent to the mailboxes for the building.

The mail carrier whose route includes the building at 70-20 Parsons Blvd. has refused to deliver letters there unless something is done about the smell, according to U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Forest Hills), who represents the area and is familiar with the issue.

If there is a health hazard the Postal Service cannot deliver to that location, an aide to Weiner explained. Weiner is on the House committee that tracks the postal service.

The Fresh Meadows Post Office is supposed to deliver mail to the building, but because of the current standoff tenants must instead pick up their mail at the post office. The manager of the Fresh Meadows postal branch could not be reached for comment.

Rose and Thomasina Maggio, who live on the first floor next to the mailboxes, keep about 30 cats in the apartment, according to Weiner’s aide, who said his office has received complaints from numerous tenants in the building.

The Maggios say they have two cats and that the smell is coming from the basement, not their apartment.

“This has been going on for two years, now. Housing came by and painted the apartment, cleaned the apartment and basement, and put in a new floor. The hallway smells because the basement floods and people pee in the doorway and the elevator,” said Rose Maggio, a 51-year veteran of the building.

Red Flag Number One: Whenever A Business Lobby Calls A Regulatory Board’s Move “Judicious And Measured”

How a four-month moratorium on issuing liquor licenses needing a 500-foot exemption answers the issue of bouncer murders and underage drinking I don’t know — but I think there’s more to this ostensibly civic-minded decision than meets the eye:

The state liquor board yesterday imposed an immediate four-month freeze on approving liquor licenses for areas of New York City that already have three or more license holders within 500 feet of each other.

The unanimous action by the New York State Liquor Authority, which was immediately denounced by a trade group of city nightclubs, follows the deaths this year of two young women. They were killed after drinking heavily at nightspots in SoHo and Chelsea.

Robert Bookman, a lawyer for the New York Nightlife Association, a trade group of 125 bars and nightclubs, mainly in Manhattan, said the action was unfair. It has “thrown the industry into chaos within the last few hours,” he said.

Mr. Bookman added, “If I have my lifetime savings wrapped up in a place that I’m prepared to open Oct. 1 and now I can’t get a license until January, how am I going to pay $30,000 in monthly rent and not be able to open?”

By contrast, Scott Wexler, executive director of the Empire State Restaurant and Tavern Association, with 5,000 members statewide, called the state action “judicious and measured.”

Enlightened self interest: doing the right thing for the public — traffic! loitering! murder! — all while keeping competition at bay. Genius!

Bonus angle: is all or some of this connected to this announcement?

And who is this organization with 5,000 members statewide? Aren’t there like 20,000 restaurants in the five boroughs alone?

De Facto Termination!

This will interest only about five people who go to Target on the weekends, but G apologists are openly speculating that the MTA is quietly implementing a “de facto termination” of G service into Queens:

The G train has been called the “stepchild” of the MTA.

It is the only line that doesn’t pass through Manhattan. It runs with just four often-crowded cars per train between Brooklyn and Queens. The trains lack a conductor. Portions stink from sewage that leaks from pipes onto the tracks. It runs its full route only after sunset and on weekends — when it’s not shut for track work.

Sometimes, it even runs in two segments, forcing a transfer.

Still, thousands of people, especially in booming Williamsburg and Greenpoint, depend on it. But the MTA is calling for unspecified subway service cuts in 2007, and G-train riders fear the 13-station Queens Boulevard segment will get axed.

“At this time, we do not know which lines will be affected by cuts,” said MTA New York City Transit spokesman James Anyansi. Specific cuts, if any, will be announced by the end of the year.

Advocates say that the MTA should consider adding train service, given the population boom in the neighborhoods the G serves.

“It really shows a lack of foresight on the part of the MTA,” said Assemb. Joe Lentol (D-Brooklyn). “Greenpoint is becoming a major site of redevelopment on the waterfront.”

Some MTA board members suggested that might be possible, but that’s not reassuring enough for Teresa Toro of rider advocacy group Save The G.

“They’ve already done a de facto termination,” she said.

She was referring to ongoing work to replace Queens tunnel road beds on the G, which runs from Red Hook to Forest Hills. That work has meant no weekend G service between Long Island City and Forest Hills since January. Disruptions will continue until at least Aug. 14, MTA officials say.

On weekdays, the G travels from the Smith-9th streets stop in Red Hook, to Court Square in Long Island City. On weekends and weeknights, it is supposed to continue to the last stop at 71st-Continental in Forest Hills.

There is, however, apparently movement towards extending the G deeper into Brooklyn:

Even though there’s a chance of a partial line closure, there’s actually talk of expanding the G by five stops in Brooklyn, some MTA board members said.

The southernmost G stop is Smith-9th streets in Red Hook. But after the last passenger departs the train, it has to pass five stations, down the F line tunnel to Church Avenue, where there’s enough room to turn the train around. Some MTA board members and rider advocates have suggested that the G simply keep picking up and dropping off passengers since it is going to Church Avenue anyway.

Backstory: G Love (And That Special Sprint); The Little Train That Couldn’t Get Any Respect; Ironic, Because Everyone Knows The G Never Comes.