Lesson learned

Turns out that despite the advice received in the comments section of my post about Dunkin Donuts using a street tree and pit for advertising, I didn't have to "take care of the problem myself." There's the easy way to do things and the right way to do things. The Parks Department handled the situation, as they were supposed to. Thank you.

Dunkin Donuts thinks street tree is their property

The Dunkin Donuts on Grand Avenue just east of 69th Street has been using the street tree and tree pit as advertising space for years. I have made several complaints to no avail. This is the biggest sign I have seen there so far. You'd think the Parks Department would do something about it as it should be a fairly easy situation to rectify.

Chu wins $20K in defamation suit

From the Daily News:

The former traffic agent who City Councilman Dan Halloran accused of speeding through stop signs on a Dunkin' Donuts Coffee Coolatta run has won $20,000 in his defamation suit against the city.
Daniel Chu claimed the stress of the public humiliation left him with Bell's palsy disease.

“My guess is the city settled because Halloran now has no credibility,” said Michael Berkley, Chu’s lawyer.

In court papers, Chu alleged Halloran orchestrated a retaliation campaign after he ticketed the Republican’s chief of staff in 2010.

As a public official, Halloran — who has since been indicted on corruption charges — had the platform to do it and blasted the lowly traffic agent in numerous TV and newspaper interviews.
He claimed Chu was on duty speeding and yakking on his cell phone en route to the chain coffee shop.

Chu had initially asked for $6 million.

He originally asked for $6M and settled for $20K? What a joke.

Dunkin Donuts opening becomes a major concern

There are several points to ponder with regard to this attempt at humor I saw over at LIQCity:

Long Island City is a neighborhood full of people who are proud to live here. It’s very different than growing up in Briarwood, a neighborhood of people who are proud to live there until someone offers them an apartment anywhere else. Where, might you ask, is Briarwood? Exactly. Their slogan may as well be “Briarwood – damn, Manhattan is expensive!”

- Making fun of a neighborhood like Briarwood is apparently ok because it's generally a quiet area near public transportation where people of all walks of life coexist and not like LIC, which has just about lost all of its panache.

What’s amazing to me is that this Dunkin’ Donuts is at least partially locally owned, but the decision to string the flags seems to have been made by a bunch of older people in suits who think Long Island City is Long Island.

- Plastic flags outside a new business are somehow considered "Long Island" and not outer borough? And their presence is apparently one of the worst problems LIC has because we never find posts about the ever present Vernon Blvd. garbage, vagrants, etc. on that site, as the commenters there astutely pointed out.

- LIC people see no irony in defending their outrage over these flags by saying they want to protect the character of their community while simultaneously living in towers that already destroyed the character of the community.

The post was written by a comedian, but the reaction to it was what I found to be hilarious. And the flags have been taken down.

Illegal aliens steal credit card info

From the Daily News:

Daniel Gheorghe and Ionel Cristian Popa, both 33, were busted back in March at a Chase bank branch with $17,700, mostly in $20 bills, plus 66 counterfeited coupons.

The deceitful duo coded the blank gift cards - which can be picked up at many Dunkin' Donuts counters - with account information stolen using a skimmer device.

The two Romanian nationals then settled into a Chase branch on Hillside Ave. and started withdrawing in "a rapid pace," said a source.

The bank had flagged the compromised accounts and alerted police once funds were being taken out.

The two defendants, who are facing seven years in prison if convicted, now have to smell the coffee.

They were arraigned last week, pleaded not guilty to grand larceny and fraud and each was ordered held on $150,000 bail.

They don't have a U.S. address and claimed they entered the country in early 2011 on journalist visas.