NYC & Company Secures Whimsical European Tourist Market

When you lie down with hordes of European tourists, you wake up with locks on your bridges:

A pop cultural phenomenon that has turned an Italian bridge into a locksmith’s paradise has jumped across the Atlantic and is threatening to cover the Brooklyn Bridge in lovers’ padlocks.

The tradition of securing a symbol of amore to a bridge — and tossing the keys into the river below — dates back to a 1992 book by sugary Italian novelist Federico Moccia, but the tradition didn’t take off until the movie version of “Tre Metri Sopra il Cielo” came out in 2004.

That’s when Roman authorities suddenly had to deal with thousands of lovers clipping all manner of Master, Kryptonite and Medco locks to the Ponte Milvio — and throwing the keys into the muddy Tiber. Well, guess what, Brooklynites: the tradition is here.

Location Scout: Brooklyn Bridge.

First They Came For Our Mink Stoles, But We Didn’t Care Because Who Has The Dough For A Mink Stole?

Then they came for our live octopus, but we didn’t speak up because, well, eating live* octopus — as adventuresome as that sounds! — also looks pretty icky:

A clash of cultures arrived outside two Flushing restaurants last Thursday evening as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals members protested the Korean culinary tradition of eating live octopus and the techniques sometimes employed when doing so.

The practice caught the attention of PETA members in recent weeks after the animal rights organization received numerous complaints about YouTube videos depicting diners eating squirming octopus, known as “sannakji,” at East Seafood Restaurant on Northern Boulevard and Sik Gaek on Crocheron Avenue.

*5/4: See nerve-tingling update, then make reservations at Sik Gaek.

I’d Rather Have Professionals Cart Off This Unwieldy Sofa Bed . . . And Besides, That Ice Cream Is Too Sweet

The Daily News sets the record straight and stokes resentment in one succinct caption:

AriZona Iced Tea is brewed in Brooklyn, New York, not Arizona. But if you’re looking for a company to boycott, U-Haul and Cold Stone Creamery are both based in Arizona.

What Can $46 Million Get You These Days?

An interest payment on the forward-thinking 7 train extension, for one:

The city will spend $46 million next year on a subway to nowhere — the first time taxpayers have put cash toward Mayor Bloomberg’s dream of extending the 7 train to the far West Side.

Bloomberg budgeted $300 million for the subway project over the past five years but never spent any of it. Developer fees and investment income had paid the interest on bonds financing the $2.1 billion extension.

Next year, however, Hudson Yards Infrastructure Corp. President Alan Anders expects the city will cover half the $97.5 million interest cost.

. . .

Bloomberg committed the city to pay for the 7 train extension because he believes it will spur new growth. The MTA does not consider it a priority and is not funding the project.

Savor This, Because It Will Probably Never Ever Happen Again In Your Lifetime

A subway project will be completed years before it is actually necessary:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Related Companies, the real estate concern, appear to be weeks away from a final agreement on the long-delayed $15 billion redevelopment of the railyards on the Far West Side of Manhattan.

Under a deal unveiled Monday, Related would commit to the project with a $21.7 million down payment. But the company would not have to close on the project — and therefore start paying the 99-year lease — until after the city’s real estate market improves.

Here are some more details about what benchmarks constitute an “improving” real estate market (“Assuming Related signs its contract with the M.T.A., it will not have to close on the deal and thus be on the hook to start paying rent worth about $1 billion until the three triggers are hit. That kicks the can down the road some on the question of whether or not Related will indeed go ahead with the deal, which seems quite risky right now.”).

Remember, Bloomberg put everyone in debt for the $2 billion subway extension — something to think about if (when?) services are cut in the coming FY2011 budget. The argument for the bonds went that by developing the railyards, the City would recoup the costs of the extension through higher property taxes. Revenue-raising tax base-based developments may have worked in the 19th century (think Central Park), but today’s regional economy seems more like a zero-sum game (unless you really think New York City will have 1 million new residents by 2030 — perhaps the 2010 census will shed some light about where they are in that bold prediction).

Back to the 7 extension though — would it have been so bad to try out Bus Rapid Transit in a part of the city that doesn’t even have the infrastructure to support an expensive subway project? Or is the dirty secret about BRT that everyone knows in their heart of hearts that it’s kind of lame? Think about what a $2 billion bond could have done for other transportation projects — even current transportation projects — even current transportation projects in Manhattan (East Harlem seems like a good candidate for some wealth creation — and people actually live there already!).