Cough It Up, Cheapskate!

Before you stiff the delivery guy again, here are some facts and items to consider:

Well, it turns out that we’re less generous at work than we are at home. Reportedly, while the average tip in the evening is from $3-$4, the average amount for a lunch delivery runs around $1-$2. Yep, that’s right, even on larger meals — or group orders that swell to $40 or more — we still only give two stinking bucks. Yeah, a few dig through pockets and wallets for change and give odd amounts, like $1.35 or $1.62, the delivery guys admitted. But it never reached the larger amounts of dinner.

At night, we tend to round off to a dollar amount. Here’s something to think about the next time you charge a meal: Although it’s illegal, a number of restaurants engage in the practice of deducting the credit card processing fee from a delivery guy’s tip (generally 2 to 3 percent of the sale). So, try to make those tips in cash.

Many of the guys told me that they’re paid just $20 for a six- to seven-hour shift (below the legally mandated minimum wage requirement), and average about $45 a night in tips. (Think about that the next time you fork over your change to those college kids at Starbucks who rack it up for just doing their cashier job — as well as getting paid above the minimum wage.) When I asked if they receive better tips during bad weather, Luis, who works in an Italian restaurant in the Village frowned and said, “Some people do tip more for bad weather, but not everyone. I don’t think they understand it’s hard to deliver food in the cold and when it rains. And even worse on bicycle. Nobody likes to go out in the rain or cold. Especially for many hours and carrying bags.”

. . .

They all agree that men are generally more generous than women, and that people who live in elevator buildings tend to tip more than those who live in walk-ups. One fellow said that he walked 10 blocks in the snow, then up three flights of stairs, and will often only get a dollar. Interestingly, they all claimed that they frequently get better tips from those who live within just a few blocks of the restaurant, over those who are further away.

Perhaps we should consider some kind of fair trade designation for the restaurant industry because it’s not only the hole-in-the-wall restaurants who mistreat delivery guys:

Ji D. You, a delivery man for the popular noodle eatery Republic, works 12-hour days, six days a week, and earns roughly $2.40 an hour without receiving overtime.

Though he’s been working this way for more than two years, You, along with seven other deliverymen, decided to take legal action — just as workers at Saigon Grill, Ollie’s Noodle Shop and Grill and Our Place have done recently.

They filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against Republic, alleging wage violations.

. . .

[Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund legal director Kenneth Kimmerling] also alleged Republic kept false records of workers’ hours, underreporting them so it looked like the men were being paid minimum wage. They should earn $4.85 an hour, plus overtime before tips. “It’s not uncommon for anyone who violates minimum wage violation to keep records that are untrue,” Kimmerling added.

You complained of other substandard working conditions, such as having one restroom for roughly 70 employees, and, You said, if workers are caught in the patrons’ restroom, they’re fired.

“We often have no time to eat,” he said through a translator. “The place where we eat or wait for deliveries is in the basement storage room where the air circulation and ventilation is not good. The manager makes us hurry: Go, go, fast, fast.”

Republic declined to comment.

What Immortal Hand Or Eye Dare Frame Thy Fearful Symmetry?

Time was, Columbia University owned massive amounts of Manhattan real estate, including multiple parcels in Lower Manhattan and the land on which that humble little development known as “Rockefeller Center” now sits. Today, the university club is forced to share facilities with — oh, the indignity! — Princeton:

The Columbia University Club of New York, consisting of roughly 2,000 members and open to all current students, faculty, and alumni, shares a building with the Princeton Club at 15 West 43rd St., while Harvard, Cornell, and Yale own buildings of their own nearby.

“We do not have our own clubhouse and the sense of identity that comes with a clubhouse,” said Young Alumni board member Michael Foss.

Walking past the Princeton-orange, rugged entryway, one walks into the Tiger-covered walls of a bar and grill decorated with Princeton paraphernalia, including napkins, cups, and accordingly attired waiters, leading to questions about what claim Columbia has to the building.

Tracy Chung, CC ’08 and a student council presidential candidate of the REBEL CC party, said: “This is our city, and it’s ridiculous to share a clubhouse with Princeton. We need to establish Columbia’s identity outside of the immediate campus, and this needs to be a main concern.”

“We are anxious to increase the membership,” said Foss. “We believe that our strongest growth will come from recent graduates, but the club pursues and has new members join monthly, of all ages and schools.”

But the Princeton presence creates potential difficulties for recruiting new members. “The reason for sharing the address is mainly financial,” said John Celock, a member of the Board of Governors, a committee that runs the club.

Chung said that financial reasons shouldn’t force the club into its present situation. “In light of the capital campaign and a $4 billion budget, why is it that we can’t afford our own clubhouse?” Chung asked. “The intellectual environment that Columbia students spend years fostering during their studies deserves a rightful place outside of campus after graduation.” She later added: “Columbia pride! We need to make our clubhouse a priority.”

No doubt, that mighty intellectual environment deserves its own building:

With such speakers as the executive producer of Brokeback Mountain, the Teachers College admissions director, a former contestant on CBS’ Amazing Race, and University President Lee Bollinger, the club is host to many events open to members.

Emphasis added (snark factor: 7).

Make The In-Vest-Ment, Cheapskate!

Auxiliary police officers — the kind killed by douchebag filmmakers — are left unprotected because the NYPD sent all its old bulletproof vests to Haiti:

They asked for Mace. They didn’t get it.

They hoped to receive the NYPD’s old bulletproof vests after the department switched to new body armor last year. They didn’t — the vests were instead shipped to Haiti’s police officers.

Now, after two auxiliary police officers were gunned down and killed in the line of duty, members of the part-time, volunteer force are hoping the city will rethink its position and provide them with better protection.

“Right now, if you’ve got a friend in the precinct who wants to give you an old vest, that’s how it’s done,” said John Hyland, president of the 4,800-member Auxiliary Police Benevolent Association. “The NYPD doesn’t provide the equipment.”

Hyland said his organization objected when the Police Department shipped thousands of old vests to Haiti last year after it issued officers new body armor.

Great, Now You’ve Gotten A Bunch Of Drunk Leprechauns Mad

The MTA decides that the Irish race is a little too fond of the drink:

Anticipating an inebriated crowd commuting into and out of Manhattan to celebrate the holiday along the parade route Saturday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s two commuter railroads, the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad, are banning alcohol from their property that day and into early Sunday, making the Roman Catholic feast day the sole religious holiday when bar cars are closed for business and stations and trains run dry.

“It definitely looks like stereotyping, and that’s what the MTA should be faulted for,” state Senator Martin Golden, a Republican of Brooklyn who is Irish, said. “Some people do get out of control, but to focus on that day, and on certain segments of the population like that, is totally wrongheaded.”

Mr. Golden said the MTA should lift what he dubbed a discriminatory liquor ban that assumes Irish revelers are more out of control than other groups when celebrating their holidays.

“We want to maintain orderly travel,” a spokeswoman for the Long Island Rail Road, Susan McGowan, said. “It’s a day when we have more ridership than usual, and when there can be disruptions related to alcohol.”

. . .

Metro-North railroad typically runs 16 bar cars out of Grand Central Terminal, and on weekdays sells alcohol on bar cars along the New Haven line. The Long Island Rail Road also sells alcohol at many of its station platforms and aboard its Hamptons-bound trains during the summer season. Both railroads allow passengers to bring their own alcohol aboard. This weekend, however, customers caught with open or closed containers of alcohol will be fined about $50.

Meanwhile, Manhattan bar employees have reacted favorably to the plan:

Even some diehard St. Patrick’s Day revelers said they see some logic to the MTA’s alcohol ban. “I’m not offended by it,” a bartender at Ryan’s Pub in the East Village, Steven Goldrick, said. “The train should be a good opportunity to take a rest from all of the drinking.”

Or At Least Make The Prices Match . . . Does Anyone In City Government Read Chinese?

It doesn’t matter if the differential pricing was really just the difference between a take-out and and eat-in, when you have the mayor publicly rebuking you, things have spun out of control:

“If nobody goes to that restaurant, then they won’t make any money and they’ll go out of business,” Bloomberg said when asked about the Daily News’ exclusive Sunday story on the Canal Seafood Restaurant.

“It’s unconscionable to use race on any of these things, in terms of what kind of service, or how you charge, or whatever,” Bloomberg said.

“Go patronize a different [restaurant.] Let capitalism work.”

. . .

The restaurant has denied the allegations, saying it has one menu for takeout and another for customers who eat in the restaurant.