Moral: Don’t Live Anywhere Near A Failing Business

New York’s Bravest seem to spend a lot of time cleaning up insurance scams:

From the time he purchased the American Diner in 2006 to the moment his Norwood-area restaurant went up in smoke six weeks ago, Mohammed Quadir tried everything to keep his business afloat. He changed the name, focused on cleanliness, tweaked the menu and introduced new specials and discounts. He even hosted play readings and a gothic-style wedding.

He often solicited his customers’ advice, looking for any way to bring back the crowds that once packed the East 204th Street diner, a popular neighborhood gathering spot since it was the Chariot Diner under different owners in the 1990s.

Nothing seemed to work.

This winter, according to city fire marshals and the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, in a final attempt to recoup something from his flailing business venture, Quadir hired a man to set fire to the American Diner — a fire that destroyed not only the restaurant but also the sole neighborhood supermarket and a dentist’s office — and then filed a hefty insurance claim.

This Was To Be Our Stimulus!

The make-work plan for the department busy with quota–driven ticketing (and more ticketing) and busting people for candy hits a snag when both Bloomberg and then the White House wimp out:

The White House ordered the Justice Department Thursday night to consider other places to try the 9/11 terror suspects after a wave of opposition to holding the trial in lower Manhattan.

The dramatic turnabout came hours after Mayor Bloomberg said he would “prefer that they did it elsewhere” and then spoke to Attorney General Eric Holder.

“It would be an inconvenience at the least, and probably that’s too mild a word for people that live in the neighborhood and businesses in the neighborhood,” Bloomberg told reporters.

“There are places that would be less expensive for the taxpayers and less disruptive for New York City.”

Will The Wonders That Fill The Internet Ever Cease?

No, never:

A bizarre video hit the Web on Wednesday of a man rolling around the floor of an uptown 6 train playing with a chicken.

On The Unintended Consequences Of Speed Bumps

Unpainted speed bumps in Astoria are keeping up the neighbors, and providing new thrills for drivers:

“My house is rumbling,” said John Warren, 45, a father of three who lives on 49th St. near the speed bumps.

. . .

Before the bumps were installed in 2005, the street used to be a “raceway” for speeding vehicles, residents said.

But the speed bumps haven’t slowed everyone down.

“People [speed] purposefully because they want to see how airborne they can get,” Warren said.

It Can Be One Or The Other But Not Both

I thought we had this big traffic congestion problem, so why the need for speed cameras? Another gadget, I guess:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg will push state legislators to allow the city to install cameras equipped with devices to capture speeding motorists, similar to the ones already installed at dozens of red lights.

The big “I love it! Island roads are too dangerous and we need to do something”/”I hate it! That technology does nothing but take money out of the wallets of unsuspecting drivers” poll in the Advance is running two-to-one against the idea . . .

As far as it being a big money-making mechanism, that tends not to turn out as well as some think it will.