Then Where Will We Go When We Want To Brown Bag 40s?

Gone to the races:

The board of directors of the New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation is set to vote today to shut down the gambling franchise, which could result in about 1,500 layoffs and the closure of more than 70 outlets across the five boroughs as early as June.

Sources say the OTB board of directors is poised to adopt a closing plan proposed by the president of the Off-Track Betting Corporation, Raymond Casey. Accounts differ as to the financial condition of the corporation, which has been famously described as the only bookie in the world that loses money. Mayor Bloomberg, who controls the OTB board through appointees, is set to shut down the corporation because he says the city has no interest in subsidizing its losses.

If the closure goes ahead, it could mark the end of the often seedy storefronts that dot the streets of the five boroughs, and it could deepen the financial troubles of New York State’s horse racing industry, which depends in part on funds from New York’s government-operated betting parlors.

See also: Off-Track Betting Parlors.

What Do You Mean “What”? I Have A Gub!

Potential thieves, take note — clubs are out on account of being just too loud:

Nicholas Williams, 31, who told cops he was from North Carolina, pulled out a gun inside the club and tried to hold up two men, but he had trouble getting their attention because the music was so loud, a law enforcement source said.

Williams yanked some gold chains and medallions off one victim, but as he was trying to stuff the gun and jewelry into his jacket pocket, accidentally squeezed the trigger and shot himself, the source said.

Then “panic ensued in the club,” the source said.

No Neighborhood Is An Island, Though Greenwich Village Tries

After being strong-armed out of Greenwich Village, NYU begins to look for other places to colonize:

New York University wants to build a 1-million-square-foot campus on Governors Island, school officials said yesterday.

The NYU plan would call for a mix of student and faculty housing and space for academic programs, officials said. It’s part of a 25-year, 6-million-square-foot expansion plan that also targets other parts of the Big Apple, including Downtown Brooklyn.

“NYU sees the potential of Governors Island as a place where we can grow,” said NYU spokesman John Beckman.

The state-city Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation says the university is a good fit, but the agency has yet to determine when it will seek proposals from prospective tenants.

Manhattan: Drunk And Tweedy, With Elbow Patches And Beer Pitcher Specials

When the only people who can afford to live in Manhattan are those in the financial sector* and students, you’re of course going to get more dorms:

Columbia’s brand-new 17-acre campus in Harlem. Six million square feet of additional space for NYU dorms and classrooms, stretching from Washington Square to the outer boroughs. A Fordham “fortress” springing up on the Upper West Side.

Colleges and universities are forecasting unprecedented growth in the coming years, adding as much as 17 million square feet of space — or more than either the World Trade Center or the controversial Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn — and may begin to exert an even greater influence on the ebb and flow of life in the city.

“Our fear is that the neighborhood could be overwhelmed by these institutions that they have played host to for 150 years,” said Andrew Berman of the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation.

Berman and other neighborhood advocates fear that the low-rise character of the neighborhood could become overrun by packs of college students and tall dorms to house them.

“It becomes a stage set instead of a real urban neighborhood, or company town where everything around you is run by a single entity,” Berman said.

*Whoops — sorry about that recession, guys . . .

But If That Were Really True, Then The LMDC Wouldn’t Need That Parcel For . . .

Oh wait . . . I get it now:

A top executive with the construction firm managing the problem-plagued demolition of the former Deutsche Bank building said yesterday that the so-called “toxic tower” may not be as contaminated as the public has been led to believe.

“It is our belief there are not nearly [that] level of contaminants and the fear that is out there may or may not be justified,” said Mark Melson, vice president of Bovis Lend Lease, which is in charge of dismantling the eyesore overlooking Ground Zero.