As The Cost Of Crude Reaches Record Highs . . .

. . . teenagers are hardest hit:

A new biker gang is roaming the streets of Richmond Hill, Queens. This crew of mostly teenagers can be seen riding along 103rd Avenue just west of the Van Wyck Expressway. The bikes roar, but the booming sound has nothing to do with engines — because there are no engines. They are ordinary bicycles, not motorcycles, although these contraptions look and sound more like rolling D.J. booths. They are outfitted with elaborate stereo systems installed by the youths.

“This one puts out 5,000 watts and cost about $4,000,” said Nick Ragbir, 18, tinkering with his two-wheeled sound system, with its powerful amplifier, two 15-inch bass woofers and four midrange speakers. It plays music from his iPod and is powered by car batteries mounted on a sturdy motocross bike.

The riders are of Guyanese and Trinidadian background. In those countries, turning bicycles into rolling outdoor sound systems is a popular hobby.

“It’s really big where I come from in Trinidad,” Mr. Ragbir said. “When I first came to New York, I started with two little speakers. People here thought I was crazy because no one here has really ever seen it, except maybe for some Spanish dudes with a radio strapped to their handlebars.”

He added: “People say, ‘It’s the next best thing to having a system in a car.’ But it’s better because you don’t even have to roll down the windows.”

. . .

Nick Ragbir showed off his new bike, equipped with a sleek 1,500-watt system with the stereo and speakers encased in clear plastic custom boxes. The car battery and the console are mounted on the handlebars, and the four midrange speakers are mounted in the center of the bike frame.

“It’s not as powerful but it’s easier to ride around,” Mr. Ragbir said.

Usually, the stereos crank out heavy Caribbean beats, but Mr. Ragbir cranked up the new system, which was playing a 1980s hit by the Outfield — “I Don’t Want to Lose Your Love Tonight” — and the near-deafening music had his friends bobbing their heads as they worked on their bikes.

The bikers said they have heard no complaints about the noise they make from residents or people they pass. And although there is a city law which says a summons may be issued if a person operates a personal audio device, like a radio, heard from up to 25 feet away, the bikers’ mobile stereos are less likely to attract attention because the noise does not persist in one place very long.

Mohan Samaroo, 19, has a system mounted on his sturdy Mongoose, with four 12-inch speakers that can handle the 5,000 watts. There are extra braces resting on training wheels, which can support the heavy system and also an extra rider standing on the back. When the bike cruises down the street with Mr. Samaroo standing, he said, he looks like a D.J. behind a sound system at a nightclub.

“We measured it at a car show,” he said. “It’s 150 decibels.”

(“I Don’t Want To Lose Your Love Tonight”?! Please, Hizzoner, do something!)

And if you think this is fabulism — like this story*, for example! — click the link to see pictures . . .

(Come on, really now: “Ms. Felicissimo has grand visions for her featured product. ‘Ever hear of a water wedding?’ she asked. ‘Every wedding has alcoholics who aren’t supposed to be around alcohol. Why not have a beautiful bottle of water on every table instead of Champagne, and then toast with that?'”)

Forget Sarasota — With Its Good Weather, Low Taxes And Leisurely Pace, New York City Is The Retirement Community Of The Future!

Lost in the discussion about the mysterious, still-unexplained one million new residents is that the number includes a previously overlooked army of 300,000 new seniors, making New York City the nation’s top retirement destination:

The city’s elderly population is projected to jump 44 percent by 2030, which means there will be roughly 1.35 million senior citizens comprising 20 percent of the city population. That includes roughly one-third of the projected additional 1 million New Yorkers the Bloomberg administration expects here then. That surge motivated the PlaNYC initiative to address issues such as the environment, energy and the city’s aging infrastructure — but not so much its aging population.

The City Council yesterday announced that the New York Academy of Medicine will receive $125,000 to develop a blueprint to prepare the city for its aging population. It’s expected by April.

“Our focus has been on the cost of care and biomedical research,” said academy president Jo Ivey Boufford. “This deals with prevention — how people can be as healthy as they can be, as long as they can. . . . We’re creating a blueprint for investment over a number of years and policy action over a number of years.”

The Advance makes the situation sound that much more dire:

With New York City’s population expected to boom, adding nearly 1 million more residents by 2030, demographers predict that the number of elderly dwellers will increase by 300,000.

. . .

“There’s been much discussion and planning, appropriately so, about what the future of New York City will look like in 2030,” Ms. Quinn said in respect of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s environmental agenda to combat global warming. “But one of the things we’ve not yet looked at is the reality that by 2030, there will be 300,000 additional senior citizens in New York City.”

Resolved, I Have Been Unable To Have Fun With My Kids

City Council member speaks out on the important issues of the day:

Amid growing calls for higher education standards, a City Council member is urging the Department of Education to limit the amount of homework teachers assign students each night.

Peter Vallone Jr., who represents parts of Queens, said his two daughters are routinely swamped with homework and stuck at home, slogging through it.

“As a parent, I have been unable to have fun with my kids. We can’t go for bike rides. We can’t go to the park. We can’t go to the museum, and that’s not fair,” he said.

Mr. Vallone said he understands that the Department of Education is aiming to improve test scores, but he said an emphasis on homework is taking away students’ childhoods and contributing to child obesity by forcing children to stay at home with their books.

He plans to introduce a resolution next month calling for homework in public schools to be limited to 2 1/2 hours a night and said he wants the Department of Education to create a weekly homework-free night.

On The One Hand You’re Harnessing The Power Of The Sun — On The Other Hand, You’re Cutting Down An 84-Foot-Tall Tree

Think of it as a perverse sort of carbon offset:

Adding a new dimension to the traditional Christmas colors of green and red, the tree at Rockefeller Center this year will use the greenest energy available — solar power.

The electricity for the lights will be generated by 363 solar panels recently installed on the roof of 45 Rockefeller Plaza on West 50th Street, just across from the massive tree.

“We have here the largest private solar roof in Manhattan,” said Jerry I. Speyer, chairman of Tishman Speyer, co-owner of Rockefeller Center, in a statement yesterday. “[The solar roof] will help conserve energy, eliminate carbon dioxide, and power the 30,000 LED lights on our iconic Christmas tree.”

By using solar power for the 42 days they are lit, those lights and their five miles of wire will use only 1,297 kilowatt hours per day of electricity, instead of the usual 3,510 kilowatt hours. The savings are enough to power a large home for a full month.

Stoops To Conquer (It’s Literally Beneath You!)

Teams of the Mets’ supposed stature (not to mention payroll — $116 million in 2007!) shouldn’t be selling bricks like they’re raising cash for a church rec room, but then there are the Mets, selling bricks like they’re the Minnesota Twins or something:

Diehard fans of the New York Mets will get the chance to get in on the ground floor of the billion-dollar Citi Field stadium — literally. Last week the baseball club unveiled plans for the Citi Field Fanwalk, a plaza outside the planned Jackie Robinson Rotunda paved entirely with custom-engraved bricks purchased by baseball fans.

Three brick types are available: a $395 8-by-8-inch brick engraved with the Mets’ interlocking “NY” and four lines of text; a $340 8-by-8-inch brick with six lines of text; and a $195 4-by-8-inch brick with three lines of text. Each line of text can hold up to 15 characters, including spaces and punctuation.