One By One, They’re Taking Away Everything

And soon there will be nothing left:

The way Vincent Sapone sees it, the Staten Island postmark is bit like the “Made in the U.S.A.” label.

“It’s a point of pride,” said Sapone, a 28-year employee of the U.S. Postal Service.

So when Sapone — chief steward for mail handlers at the Manor Road Post Office in Castleton Corners — heard talk that bigwigs are weighing whether to shut down the facility’s outgoing mail processing service as a cost-cutting measure, the first thing he thought of was the postmark.

And the fact that it might not be around much longer. That’s because the Postal Service is in the midst of a five-month study to see whether consolidating the processing of outgoing Staten Island mail with that of Brooklyn and Queens would make sense from an economic standpoint.

Which would mean mailing a letter on Staten Island, having it taken by mail truck over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to have it processed and postmarked, and then having Staten Island-addressed mail brought back over the bridge to be distributed here.

“No offense,” said Sapone, who resides in Westerleigh, “but we don’t live in Queens or Brooklyn, and that’s what the postmark would say.”

Recession-Era Pelt Bagging

But it’s not so much that the executive of the nonprofit gets such a generous car allowance as it is the culture in which being driven around in a fancy car somehow encourages people to donate more money:

Three weeks after the Staten Island Zoo reported it had cut overtime for staffers, a move that could affect the quality of care for animals, and planned to hike admission prices by $1 to mitigate budget cuts, executive director John Caltabiano leased a brand new 2009 Lincoln MXZ sedan, paid for by the Staten Island Zoological Society.

A 39-month lease on such a car goes for about $359 a month with $3,000 down.

“This is not a frivolous expenditure,” Caltabiano said during an interview in his West Brighton office, explaining that his choice of the Lincoln actually reflects a cost savings to the society; his first choice, a Cadillac CTS, would have cost $175 more a month.

The cost of the car lease is covered as part of Caltabiano’s fixed annual expense account, which he is contractually entitled to along with his salary, which was $100,397 in 2007. The society also pays to insure the car, and covers gas and tolls.

Zoo board president William Frew said the expense money is Caltabiano’s to spend as he sees fit.

“That’s in his discretion,” Frew said. “If he chooses to lease a car, it’s up to him. That means he has less money to spend on other things.”

Frew pointed out that Caltabiano’s job, like most executives, entails being on call around the clock, and requires entertaining wealthy potential donors and driving them to and from meetings and events, which is why a luxury car would be an asset in that line of work.

“More than one third of my time is used for fund-raising,” Caltabiano said. “The vehicle is one means by which I do that.”

Maybe a recession wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen to us . . .

Be Careful, His Bowtie Is Really A Camera . . . Actually, A Really Powerful 39 Megapixel DSLR

And “Monopole” is not the B-side of some obscure grunge 7″ circa 1989:

It looks like a grand patriotic gesture on the part of one of Staten Island’s best-known Realtors: Flying a huge American flag, albeit atop a bulky-looking 90-foot pole, behind the Neuhaus Realty office in Richmond.

But it’s not your typical flagpole: It houses sensitive and essential communications technology recently put in place by the federal government in direct response to 9/11.

The “monopole” was erected under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security by private aerospace and defense technology contractor Northrup Grumman with the OK of the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DOITT), confirmed the city and Northrup Grumman.

Its underlying purpose: To enhance the city’s wireless communication network and aid first-responders in case of an emergency, as part of a $500 million five-year effort by city government.

What’s more, the fake flagpole in Richmond is one of four monopoles that have been constructed in the borough — with more on the way.

Because of security considerations, the city won’t divulge where the others are.

A similar-looking one, on Capodanno Boulevard in Midland Beach, erected in 2005, “isn’t ours,” a source in city government said. At the time, the Advance reported it was a cell phone tower.

We Are All Charles G. Hogg Now

He’s biting what we’re thinking . . . free Staten Island Chuck:

Is there redemption after public disgrace? Say you didn’t pay your taxes. Or you were too tight with the lobbyists. Or maybe you bit the mayor.

Redemption? Not for Charles G. Hogg, a k a Chuck, the mayor-biting groundhog at the Staten Island Zoo.

First — on Groundhog Day, no less — Chuck botched the biggest photo opportunity of his not-quite-3-year-old life. He chomped on Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s index finger.

That raised a question for follow-up: Would Tuesday’s Chuck be any kinder or gentler?

So the zookeepers trotted him out for another photo op. Only one camera and two reporters showed up this time.

That word “trotted” is a problem. It suggests politeness. It suggests civility. It suggests everything that Chuck was not as he went rampaging across the stage in the zoo’s auditorium, knocking over a prop-size statue of a giraffe.

Then one of the photographers put a photograph of Mr. Bloomberg where Chuck could not miss it. Chuck rubbed his lips on the corner of the picture frame. He was not making nice — it looked as if he had bared his teeth. But the mayor should not take this personally. Chuck did the same to everything he rubbed up against before he jumped off the stage and waddled around the auditorium for a victory lap, Chuck style.

. . .

By Tuesday [. . .] John J. Caltabiano, the executive director of the zoo, had the one-liners ready. One, inevitably, was about biting the hand that feeds you. The city provides as much as half of the zoo’s budget, Mr. Caltabiano said, and the city is cutting its share by 17 percent in the coming fiscal year.

Mr. Caltabiano is well aware that the mayor has survived past Groundhog Days without injury. In his office is a framed photograph of the mayor holding a groundhog in February 2006.

But the groundhog in the picture was Chuck’s father. Eight groundhogs have played the role of Chuck in the last 27 years. Monday was the first time that Mr. Bloomberg had handled the current Chuck, who is apparently feistier than his father was.

It might have been the last time, too. Mr. Caltabiano said that he was working on breeding Chuck VIII and would retire him if there was a Chuck IX by next Groundhog Day.

Prognostication: Karma!

Moral: no third term, no pandering (er, “campaigning”); no campaigning, no getting your hand bitten off by a rodent:

If Mayor Bloomberg’s pride was wounded — along with his hand — in his encounter with Staten Island Chuck, hizzoner wasn’t letting on this afternoon.

Hours after the borough’s prognosticating groundhog snapped at Bloomberg’s hand during today’s Groundhog Day festivities at the Staten Island Zoo, West Brighton, the mayor laughed off the run-in.

Bloomberg joked at another event later that city residents should rest assured that their mayor is “willing to put himself and his physical well-being in harm’s way to protect them” against what might have been “a terrorist rodent.”

In other news: It will be an early spring.