Amazing To Think That All It Took To Set In Motion The Grand Conspiracy Against Guyanese Everywhere Was One Ginned Up Charge Of “Terrorism”

The bad news is that the U.S. Congress missed out on Charles Barron. The good news is that it got Yvette Clarke:

Rep. Yvette Clark, a Democrat of Brooklyn, yesterday commended the law enforcement efforts that thwarted the JFK terror plot, and cautioned against using the incident to stigmatize Caribbean Americans.

“These actions of these four individuals were just that — the actions of individuals,” she said at a press conference, “It is vital that our government agencies and all of us as Americans do not use this event as an excuse to discriminate against or profile people of Guyanese ancestry or Trinidadian ancestry.”

Half The Battle Is Washing Up

Everybody knows that the police have low starting salaries and that that’s a shame. But you may or may not be aware that police officers also get 20 minutes of comp time a day just for “washing up”:

Police recruits today . . . are paid at the rate of $25,100 for the six months they are in the academy, and move up to $32,700 for the six months after they graduate. That comes to about $29,000 for the first year. It compares miserably to the starting wages paid in Nassau County — about $34,000 — or in Suffolk County, at $57,000. The suburban departments also pay much higher wages than the city after five or six years.

No one tries to defend this. After all, the city can’t recruit enough people to replace those who leave. Other employers are willing to pay more for the skills and judgment that make a good police officer.

Police officers have to do society’s dirty work 365 days a year.

But that needs some annotation, too.

Police officers in New York City put in an average of 202 “appearances” a year, meaning they work less than 41 weeks per year, according to the Citizens Budget Commission, a business-backed research organization. That’s nearly three months of time off. How did that happen?

For many years, mayors made deals to pay city workers with time off instead of money. Police officers, for example, are credited with about 20 minutes a day for washing up, and those minutes go into a bank for time off, known as “chart days.” After five years, an officer who works a shift that is 8 hours and 35 minutes long is credited with 18 “chart days” of time off — not counting a month or more of vacation.

The $700 German

For some unknown reason people still prioritize living in Manhattan:

Oh, to be a young bohemian with a Manhattan apartment — these days it seems difficult to pay rent without a trust fund. But Jessica Delfino — comedian, musician, voiceover artist — has found a way.

She and her boyfriend converted their living room into what essentially is a studio apartment, and they rent out the bedroom to travelers.

“We did have a roommate at one point, but the apartment is kind of small,” Delfino said. Tourists help offset the roughly $1,600 monthly rent. “We don’t do it every night. In between we take a night off to wash and clean everything and have some privacy.”

Whenever they post on Craigslist — the current rate is $70 a night for a private room in an elevator building with Wi-Fi, A/C, unlimited local calls and balcony access — Delfino, 30, gets nearly 100 e-mails during the first three days.

. . .

She discourages people from bringing guests or staying more than a week.

“The longest stay was 10 days — an older German couple,” Delfino recounted. “It was kind of a disaster. She broke the bathroom door knob and it was locked for days. I couldn’t get the super to come fix it. She walked around naked. I walked into the kitchen in the middle of the night and there she was naked, peeing in a cup.”

Sure They Can Park Where They Want But Then Again, They Work In A Fire Trap

And they somehow expect something to change in Darfur:

The United Nations is downright rickety. “Commissioner Marjorie Tiven told me that there are 866 fire-code violations within the U.N. building,” Dan Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador, said at last week at Seeds of Peace annual gala. “I suppose if we want to feel safe not only in this world but in this building, we should take care of those first.” The modernist landmark is preparing for a $1.878 billion renovation and recently had its first safety inspection since 1952. “They found many, let’s call them directives, that were not complied with,” confirmed a U.N. spokeswoman. “We get certain privileges and immunities.” Areas of concern include lighting, sprinklers, and smoke alarms, says the U.N.’s facilities director, all set to be addressed prior to the renovation.

Location Scout: United Nations.

If We Sell Some Overpriced Empanadas Maybe They’ll Forget About All The Parkland We Took

Only in Yankee World does selling Goya count as “reaching out to the Latin community”:

In the Bronx, Latin food has always been easy to find. But not in Yankee Stadium. It has been one place in the majority-Hispanic borough where the only thing that came close to qualifying as authentic Latin fare was an order of nachos.

This season, however, the stadium’s menu — hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken fingers, fries, pork fried rice, peanuts and even sushi and baked ziti — has some spicy new additions. They read like the day’s specials at a Washington Heights restaurant: ground beef or cheese empanadas; chicken in salsa with sweet plantains, rice and beans; Cuban sandwiches with plantain chips; and papas rellenas, or fried stuffed potatoes.

Yankee fans at Tuesday night’s game against the Texas Rangers who might have otherwise walked out of the food court behind left field with a slice of pizza or a foot-long hot dog carried empanadas and Cuban sandwiches back to their seats.

. . .

The food is served at a concession stand called Salsa on the Go. It is only the second time in the 84-year history of the stadium that Latin food has been sold there. A concession stand that sold burritos was open for just one season a few years ago.

The new stand illustrates the team’s eagerness to find ways to win Hispanic fans and bring the flavor of its home borough into the stadium. Another stand, now in its third season at the stadium, reflects the borough’s Italian roots: Mike’s Deli, a branch of the popular establishment on Arthur Avenue, serves meatball parmigiana heroes and other Italian sandwiches.

“It’s silly to think that each person out of the 50,000 fans that come to a game want to eat the same food,” said Jason Zillo, a spokesman for the Yankees. “The Latin community is a huge part of our fan base. As we evolve as an organization, we’re looking to cater to the needs of the diverse number of people that come through the turnstiles.”