How Shaky Is The Back Part Of The Yankees Rotation?

So shaky that they’re actually considering picking up newly minted Mets cast-off Ollie Perez:

According to WFAN and SI’s Jon Heyman, the Yankees have discussed signing Perez as a cheap option, although Brian Cashman appears “not that enthused” about the erratic lefty.

Happy Birthday, Map!

The Times pays tribute to the 200th anniversary of the street grid that made Manhattan boring — er, a real estate boon:

Two hundred years ago on Tuesday, the city’s street commissioners certified the no-frills street matrix that heralded New York’s transformation into the City of Angles — the rigid 90-degree grid that spurred unprecedented development, gave birth to vehicular gridlock and defiant jaywalking, and spawned a new breed of entrepreneurs who would exponentially raise the value of Manhattan’s real estate.

The paper floods the zone with coverage, including this:

John Randel Jr., the secretary, surveyor and chief engineer for New York City’s street commissioners, was hardly the most popular public servant of his day.

Beginning in 1808, Randel and his colleagues were pelted with artichokes and cabbages; arrested by the sheriff for trespassing (and often bailed out by Richard Varick, a former mayor); sued for damages after pruning trees; and attacked by dogs sicced on them by property owners irate at the prospect of streets’ being plowed through their properties (“many of whose descendants have been made rich thereby,” Randel noted later).

Holi Moly

Cops shut down the yearly Holi festival in Richmond Hill on the grounds that “you can’t have powder”:

For some 25 years, Hindus in Richmond Hill have held a parade to celebrate the ancient religious holiday Holi — the Festival of Colors. Participants traditionally throw colored powder at one another, but Sunday cops seized loads of the powder from paradegoers. “They walked around and started grabbing from anyone they saw,” said parade organizer Vishnu Mahadeo, 50, president of the Richmond Hill Economic Development Council. “They said the law said you can’t have powder.”

More detail: “Phagwah parade,” Queens Courier, March 22, 2011.

See also: “The Problem With Community Boards”.

Location Scout: Phagwah Parade.

“[Term Limits Automatically Remove] Public Servants Of Proven Ability Who Are At A Productive Point In Their Careers”*

The Daily News reports that several City Council Members have abused — sorry, used — their position for personal gain:

More than a dozen City Council members have skirted laws, bent rules or used their positions to benefit themselves, a Daily News probe has found.

A three-month investigation found Council members who dodged taxes, violated the city’s housing and building code, circumvented regulations to get cheap housing and, in one case, even ignored criminal bench warrants.

. . .

And while the Council’s 51 members — one of whom is under indictment — routinely make laws on everything from smoking in public to recycling trash, The News found many have a history of ignoring the letter of the law.

The best thing? Five of the council members that the Daily News identified in its piece voted “yes” on the term limit extension in 2008.

*“The Limits of Term Limits” Unsigned Op-Ed, New York Times, September 30, 2008.

Must Be Why Everyone On Staten Island Is So Mellow

“Staten Island again tops New York City in painkiller prescriptions per capita”:

Enough prescriptions for the drug were written last year for nearly one in three of the borough’s roughly half-million population, according to data released by city officials this week.

“We are equating this now to the epidemic we saw when crack cocaine was first introduced to New York City,” said District Attorney Daniel Donovan.