It’s All Trailer Park Until Someone Blows Their Mind Out

Even if it was just a matter of time before methamphetamines showed up in urban areas no one probably expected this:

The trailer-park drug known as “hillbilly crack” has been putting on the Ritz lately — as federal drug agents uncovered a crystal-meth lab inside the $6,000-a-month Manhattan penthouse of a bank executive, authorities said yesterday.

Michael Knibb, an information-technology vice president at Citigroup, ran the sophisticated drug operation from the living room of his luxury apartment overlooking the United Nations, said Drug Enforcement Administration officials.

The 37-year-old Knibb — who makes an estimated $250,000 a year — allegedly told authorities that he had decided to make his own methamphetamines because he could not find a reliable drug dealer after moving to New York from Seattle two years ago.

Knibb was one of 10 alleged do-it-yourself drug makers busted this week as part of a federal anti-meth sweep dubbed Operation Red Fusion.

. . .

“To find a meth lab . . . in a penthouse in New York City is shocking, as well a frightening,” said John Gilbride, special agent in charge of the Manhattan DEA office.

His Idea Of “Something Spectacular” Is Exactly What We Fear

Be sure to take a last thrilling ride in the Astrotower before it’s too late:

It’s the last ride for Astroland as New Yorkers know it.

A big-bucks developer bought up the gritty Brooklyn amusement park yesterday in its bid to turn Coney Island into a sparkling new $1.5 billion year-round resort.

The 2007 summer season will be Astroland’s last under the plan, which would leave the historic landmark Cyclone roller coaster intact.

Astroland owner Carol Hill Albert sold the 3-acre Astroland site to developer Joseph Sitt’s Thor Equities for an unspecified amount.

. . .

Albert said she hopes to relocate some of the rides like the Tilt-A-Whirl and Tea Cups elsewhere along the Boardwalk.

Even if Albert is able to relocate rides like the Pirate Ship, Top Spin and the Scrambler, one of the most popular, the Astrotower, will have to leave Coney Island for good.

“That I can’t move,” said Albert, who noted it would cost as much as $400,000 to move the 200-foot, World’s Fair era attraction. “You can put it on eBay for me.”

Thor spokesman Lee Silberstein said the famed Cyclone roller coaster, which sits on city land, would not change hands and would continue to be operated by Albert.

The rest of Astroland would be cleared for new rides and an indoor entertainment complex, but Silberstein declined to reveal specific plans.

Thor also envisions luxury condos, and turning Stillwell Ave. into a tree-lined pedestrian mall filled with cafes and shops.

“We’re thinking totally outside of the box,” said Silberstein. “We’re thinking something spectacular that would be really great for New York City.”

Location Scout: Coney Island.

What, “Gairville” Doesn’t Just Trip Off The Tongue?

The problem with calling a historical district “DUMBO” is that it’s, uh, ahistorical:

City officials are moving ahead with plans to create a historic district in DUMBO — whose acronymic name was created by developer David Walentas when he started buying up buildings in the 1980s to evoke an earlier uber-hip neighborhood, Soho.

“What to name the district is an ironic question,” said Rob Parris, district manager of Community Board 2.

“We know it as ‘DUMBO,’ but certainly in history there have been names more associated with [it].”

The area between Fulton Ferry Landing (the old name for where the River Cafe now is) and Wallabout Bay (the Navy Yard) has changed names pretty much every 50 years since it first appeared on European maps in the 16th century.

The first name was Rapailie, after the family who owned most of the land. But in the centuries to follow, the area would be called “Olympia,” “Fulton Landing” and finally “Gairville,” after the early-20th century industrialist Robert Gair, who manufactured paper bags and corrugated cardboard boxes at 45 Washington St.

Gairville has the best claim, historians say, but the name is unlikely to even be suggested. Why? Because Landmarks designation is about marketability, just as much as history.

“Can you imagine saying ‘let’s go out for dinner in ‘Gairville’?” said Simeon Bankoff of the Historic District Council.

Location Scout: DUMBO.

I Guess 1980s Excess Is Coming Back After All

Donald infiltration: complete. Form of: Soho condo-hotel. Just rolls off the tongue, that:

The city will approve construction permits for a condo hotel skyscraper that megadeveloper Donald Trump wants to build in western SoHo, the Daily News has learned.

Community groups who oppose his plans for the 45-story Trump SoHo Hotel Condominium got the word late Wednesday from elected officials, said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

Trump said yesterday that he hadn’t got the official okay from the Department of Buildings, which issues the construction permits. But he was upbeat anyway.

“It will be like all my other buildings,” he told The News. “Once they get built, everybody loves them.”

Trump is already doing excavation and site prep — for which he does have city permits — at his property at 246 Spring St., which had been a parking lot.

He’s planning a luxurious glass tower with 411 units designed by high-profile architect David Rockwell. Most floors will have superb views because it will be the tallest building between 23rd St. and lower Manhattan. There will also be a rooftop pool with cabanas.

The Botox Theory Of Urban Revitalization

Affluent whites set their sights on Fulton Mall:

Fulton Mall is a commercial heavyweight, according to its merchants association. It draws 100,000 shoppers each day, rings up more than $100 million in annual sales and commands rents of up to $250 a square foot, among the highest of any retail district in the city.

But few of its customers are from the nearby brownstone neighborhoods.

“The challenge the Fulton Mall has is a lack of retail diversity,” said Joseph Chan, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the leader in the effort to renovate the mall. “There are certainly a lot of cellphone stores and shoe stores, for example. But in terms of retail that cuts across a broad socioeconomic spectrum, there’s not a lot right now.”

The first order of business for Mr. Chan is a makeover of the streetscape — streamlining sign clutter, installing new bus shelters — to which the city has committed $9.5 million. As for new stores, Mr. Chan said, the choice will largely be driven by the many newcomers.

“Basically,” he said, “you’re adding thousands of people who are going to need a quart of milk at 10 at night.” Local brokers say the new residents will also need a wine store, a specialty supermarket, new restaurants, dry cleaners and perhaps another bookstore.

“There are no good restaurants, there’s no midrange apparel or accessories,” said Faith Hope Consolo, an executive with Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, which handles many of the store rentals in the downtown developments.

“What we’re aiming for is a better neighborhood all around,” Ms. Consolo said. “That doesn’t mean Gucci, but maybe HMV, maybe Zara, maybe Equinox. We’re addressing chain restaurants like Cheesecake Factory and Legal Sea Foods. We’re not asking anybody to leave the street. We just have to bring in new stores in a way that everybody can work together. We’re Botoxing Fulton Street Mall.”