Now If The TLC Just Allowed Livery Drivers To Pick Up People On The Street . . .

. . . then many more cars would have refused to stop as well:

A 20-year-old Harlem man was shot inside a housing project this morning and then stumbled bleeding out onto the street and ran two blocks trying to hail a taxi to the hospital — but cabbies refused to take him, a witness said.

You Drive Around With A Giant Hustler Club Ad On The Top Of Your Crown Victoria And See How It Feels

I don’t blame them at all for feeling this way:

Racy strip-club ads plastered on top of yellow cabs are leaving modest drivers pink with embarrassment, saying they’re ashamed to face their kids and friends during their off time.

. . .

“My children ask me, ‘What is this? I want to go to a gentlemen’s club?’ ” [one driver] moaned at the monthly TLC meeting yesterday. “What should I answer?”

And Yet There’s Something Even More Surprising . . .

What’s surprising isn’t so much that MTA Chairman Jay Walder is leaving after only two years but rather that there exists a privately run railway company that is actually profitable:

The MTA released a statement saying Walder has been hired to be chief executive officer of the MTR Corp. in Hong Kong, which owns and operates rail lines in Asia and Europe. It also is involved in property development and consulting.

The publicly traded company, which doesn’t receive or rely on public subsidies, reported $3.8 billion in revenue last year with a $1.1 billion profit.

Doesn’t every opinion person always say that rail systems are never profitable and that’s why we all have to suck up huge losses?

And I agree with NY Mag’s Daily Intel that the automated countdown clocks he put in are cool — they’re far more useful, even on the few lines that have them (none of which include a train I live on), than, say, that dopey 7 train extension . . .

New Economic Reality: Younger Bingo

Disturbing quote of the day:

Bingo is catching on big time uptown — where younger, often unemployed players are filling halls around the clock.

The stakes are big: With $1,000 to $3,000 jackpots and frequent payouts, two uptown bingo parlors have commercialized the game, cashing in on gamble-happy crowds desperate to make an extra buck.

“I pay my bills with bingo” . . .

Poster On Online Forum Finds Reason To Dispute Website’s Title

And always, always distrust men on bicycles:

Another victim, Kate S., 28, of Astoria took to the website, WhyLeaveAstoria.com, after she was groped twice in one year. She said the most recent incident occurred last week on 31st St., when the man grabbed her breast.

“He rode right up to me and grabbed me,” she said.