July 26, 2005
Considering that more travelers will be searched on commuter railroads and on the subway going to work, the New York Times' Clyde Haberman has a great suggestion: take off those bloody oversized backpacks! It really annoys riders no end when clueless people swing those massive packs in every direction on a jam-packed subway train. And hey, no worries about your civil liberties being violated if you don't have a bag or luggage or pack to be searched. Maybe this is the modern version of Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal: to prevent the poor children of Ireland from being a burden to their parents, he suggested they be cooked. Therefore, to prevent yourself from being a burden to the NYPD and your fellow passengers, don't carry anything with you on the subway except your newspaper, your half-spilled coffee, and your ACLU card.
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aclu, backpacks, nypd, poor, security, subway, swift, train
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Posted on 7/26/2005
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July 25, 2005
A man jumped off the end of a pier yesterday evening at Coney Island and never came back up, according to Newsday, thus "sparking an extensive but ultimately fruitless search," police said. Suicide? Drunk? Deranged? Depressed? It's the classic summer story, sad to say.
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Posted on 7/25/2005
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July 03, 2005
Canal Park in TriBeCa is reopening — 84 years after it was "temporarily" closed to make way for the Holland Tunnel.
The triangular oasis between West Street, Canal Street North and Canal Street South will open its gates to the public in a few weeks after eight decades of sitting forgotten and entombed in concrete.
"It was an eyesore," said Carole DeSaram, vice chairwoman of the Canal Park Conservancy, which fought for the park's revival. "We have no green space here, so this is really exciting."
The $2.5 million renovation by the state Department of Transportation restored the space to look as it did in 1888, when it opened as a city park after 200 years as a market.
It has 60 new trees, 22 new benches, vintage street lamps, granite sidewalks and curbs, ornamental fences and a cobblestone tree-planting strip.
The park was buried in 1921, when the city seized it and made it a staging area for tunnel construction.
In 2000, when the state DOT proposed changing traffic patterns in the area, local residents researched the area and discovered the buried park.
Determined to save it, the group spent hours searching city archives and unearthed a long-forgotten 1870 city law requiring all parks altered or destroyed to be rebuilt.
The group went to court, the antiquated law stood up, and the state agreed to rebuild the park.
"We literally fought City Hall and won," DeSaram said.
"The city called us crazy. Well, who's crazy now?"(NYP)
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Posted on 7/3/2005
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July 03, 2005
Bleah! Who would eat at this disgusting place anyhow?? B&T crowd, that's who.
There's something fishy at trendy Village eatery Sushi Samba, and it's not the spicy tuna rolls.
The city has taken the Seventh Avenue hot spot to court and is threatening $7 million in fines over the restaurant's rooftop dining deck that the city says breaks landmark and occupancy rules.
A white, bubble-like tent was installed on the roof of the restaurant four years ago without approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which must OK all construction in the Greenwich Village Historic District.
The commission originally approved a wooden open-air trellis to provide shade for customers in the outdoor eating area, and last September approved the construction of an actual second story to the restaurant's building.
But Sushi Samba has yet to take down the tent and replace it, missing a March 14 deadline. Although a new deadline of Oct. 15 has been put into place, the city Law Department filed a motion June 1 in state Supreme Court requesting the immediate removal of the tent.
Court papers state the tent is too close to a neighboring residential building, violating the fire code. And city building inspectors found Sushi Samba is sometimes seating three times more than the 50 people allowed on the roof per the Certificate of Occupancy.
The commission is requesting that the restaurant be fined the maximum penalty — $5,000 a day for every day the tent's been up, which would be more than $7 million at this point.(NYP)
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July 03, 2005
I'M GONNA GNOCCHI YOUR BLOCK OFF!
A long-simmering food fight between two Greenwich Village Italian restaurant owners has boiled over, spilling into nasty lawsuits charging corporate back-stabbing, overcooked egos, stolen cheese and a pilfered meatball recipe.
Silvano Marchetto — whose Da Silvano seats regulars like Yoko Ono, Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter and music mogul Tommy Mottola — is suing his one-time waiter to end their partnership in the eatery next door, Bar Pitti.
In a suit filed in late June, Marchetto accuses his partner and fellow Tuscan, Giovanni Tognozzi, of "acting belligerently" and barring him from Bar Pitti, which they have owned 50/50 since it opened on Sixth Avenue in 1992.
The former waiter has stopped sharing the profits from Bar Pitti and is "looting, wasting, diverting and misappropriating" their partnership's assets, Mar- chetto claims.
Tognozzi previously swung a meat cleaver of a lawsuit at the colorful Marchetto — known as a gracious host who flitters among diners such as Billy Joel, Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro and flirts with guests like Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna and Heidi Klum.
In his 2002 lawsuit, Tognozzi claimed Bar Pitti, a less expensive alternative to Da Silvano, outstripped its storied sibling for a period in the mid-'90s.
Tognozzi's suit, which is still pending but has not been active, accused Marchetto of then sabotaging Bar Pitti to force Tognozzi to sell his half or to put it out of business.
Tognozzi claimed Mar- chetto disturbed Bar Pitti diners with "erratic and volatile rantings" and "yelled, cursed and berated staff members."
His suit also contained unproven charges that Marchetto engaged in sexual harassment, including allegations that he pinched a bartender's "bottom" and told another Bar Pitti employee named Carolina, "Nuthin' would be fina' than to be in Carolina."
Tognozzi also charged culinary sacrilege: He said Marchetto copied Bar Pitti's décor and dishes, grilling its kitchen staff while Tognozzi was away in an attempt to filch his recipes, "handed down over several generations,"for veal meatballs, eggplant parmigiana and panna cotta.
He also accused Mar- chetto of walking off with Bar Pitti's napkins and prized "pecorino Tuscano cheese."
In an accent as thick as his Bolognese sauce, Marchetto responded: "He invented lies. Lies. Lies. Lies. Lies. Bastard!"
He said that when Tognozzi first worked for him 20 years ago, "he didn't know how to cook pasta."
"He's jealous. It's his ego," Marchetto said. "He pretends he invented things. There is something wrong with that person."
Marchetto's lawyer, John Morris, said his client's lawsuit seeks "a divorce with justice" by either forcing Tognozzi to buy him out or else seeking a court-ordered dissolution of the shared corporation that owns Bar Pitti.
Tognozzi's lawyer, Norris Wolf, said Bar Pitti could end up on the auction block.
"We're acting like two babies," Tognozzi said. "He should come in at 9 a.m. — clean — and we can have a cappuccino and resolve this."(NYP)
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Posted on 7/3/2005
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