Bloomie wants to be invited back to the party

Mayor Bloomberg has begun reaching out to city Republican leaders to gauge whether he could run on the GOP line in his re-election bid this year, several sources told The Post.

The maneuvering began in the past two weeks, and sources said the mayor is expected to try to run on a major-party as well as a third-party line, likely one of his own creation.

FORMER GOPER MIKE WANTS TO GET BACK IN

Seville Diner to become catering hall?

From the Times Ledger:

[CB11] also discussed a proposal for the transformation of Douglaston’s former Seville Diner, which closed early last fall, into a catering hall and restaurant. The project would add a second floor to the existing building.

“We’re afraid if the property becomes a two−story building, then every other property that comes along with have two stories,” said Joseph Sollano, chairman of the zoning committee.

CB 11 District Manager Susan Seinfeld said there is currently no application for the project, but that the Flushing−based developer, who also owns Bayside’s Sem Won Gahk Restaurant, has met with the board and Councilman Tony Avella (D−Bayside). The second−floor addition would not increase the building’s footprint, she said.

The developer wants to put a restaurant on the building’s first floor and a catering hall on the second floor, Seinfeld said. She said the project would retain the site’s 115 parking spots and possibly add a few valet spots.

Seinfeld said the developer must first apply to the city Board of Standards and Appeals. She said she expects the project to officially come before CB 11 within a few months.

2008 tax rebate to pay for 2009 tax hike

Borough property owners were pleased that long−awaited $400 rebate checks from the city were on the way, but many said the checks would provide little relief following the City Council’s vote, which approved a plan to raise property tax rates this year.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced in late December that the $400 rebate checks, which were originally scheduled to be mailed in October, were in the mail.

The mayor had originally attempted to halt the checks on the grounds that the action would save the city $256 million amid the economic downturn. But the Council also voted 33−18 last month in favor of the mayor’s plan to raise the city property tax rate by 7 percent in 2009.

Queens residents said that while they were glad the checks were finally en route, they would likely end up using the rebate to pay off 2009’s tax increase.

Queens residents say hike renders tax rebates moot

Ricatto resumes campaign

A city council candidate resumed his campaign Saturday, four days after a boy was struck and killed by his campaign bus in Queens.

Nine-year-old Ibrihim Ahmed was on his way home from school when he was hit at the intersection of Cross Bay Boulevard at Liberty Avenue in Ozone Park Tuesday afternoon.

A spokesman for Ricatto said they were waiting until after the child's funeral to resume campaigning.

Queens Campaign Stalled By Fatal Bus Accident Resumes

Where's Jacob Riis when you need him?

From The Real Deal:

The city Office of Emergency Management vacated several Chinatown buildings during the last six weeks of 2008 because of fire safety violations, often due to landlords who illegally divided floors into single-room occupancy units, blocking exits and sprinklers. The office only notifies the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development about displaced tenants if they are living in legal units, leaving many of the illegal tenants on their own to find temporary housing. Continue on to Downtown Express for the full article, which includes the following:

Li Xue, who did not want her family name to be published because she is undocumented, was paying $400 a month for her unit at 32 Market St. that fit only a bed and TV. H.P.D. said they typically help illegal immigrants like Li Xue, but not when their units have been illegally subdivided.

Five other families lived in equally small units on her floor, and all shared a bathroom and kitchen. When it rained, water leaked through the ceiling and Li Xue had to place buckets to catch it. Still, it was home.

But the Buildings Department found many violations at the building, where the illegally subdivided units blocked off emergency exit routes. The fire escape was dislodged from the building and missing about 15 steps, and the chimney was in imminent danger of collapsing, according to D.O.B.’s Web site.

1) City encourages illegal immigration
2) City turns a blind eye to most illegal conversions and the occupants live in slumlike conditions.
3) In the cases where the City actually cracks down, the person living in the country illegally in the illegal unit gets screwed and nothing happens to the criminal landlord.

Wacky LIC hotel open for business

This thing is now open.

Previously: Wacky LIC hotel now taking reservations

Cheyenne Diner in trouble again

From Lost City:

After being shoved to the brink last spring in favor of a nine-story building, Queens-based preservationist Michael Perlman hooked Brooklyn developer Mike O'Connell (Greg's son) on the idea of transporting the diner to Red Hook, when it would begin its new life.

O'Connell has now abandoned the project, Perlman tells us in an emergency e-mail. The Cheyenne is again for sale at a "reasonable but negotiable price."

Here We Go Again

The sad state of the Terra-Cotta Building

From Scouting NY:

It was built in 1892 as an office for the New York Architectural Terra-Cotta Works, the company that supplied terra-cotta for Carnegie Hall and the Ansonia Hotel, among others. The company went out of business in the 1920s, and the building became vacant. It was eventually bought in 1970 by Citibank.

Some very intelligent locals managed to get it landmark status in 1982, so of course, Citibank simply boarded it up, fenced it off, and left it to rot.

The Forgotten Building Under The Bridge

Forest Hills house horrors continue

Crapper,

This morning I was trying to enjoy some sleep when a massive crane came driving into the rear. The crane, operated by two stooges with no safety equipment, was placing bricks into our favorite house, 110-15 63rd Drive. In addition to the said danger of the crane, these idiots made it go nearly 360 degrees above four houses with the bricks in tow, the truck is blocking the entrance to a couple of people's houses.

311 has already been called on this twice, according to the house's complaints, and I am accompanying some photos to show you the severity of the problem.

-Matches

Up to 4 Atlas Park stores may close

From Forest Hills 72:

Blue Tulip is closing (entire national chain went out) by Jan. 31st. Then we heard Pasticcio had closed. True! We went by this weekend and the place was closed with no sign on the door explaining the closure. What a shame. My wife and I had dined there a bunch of times and loved the food and the decor. Also heard rumours that J. Jill and Shiro's would be closing.

Atlas Stand?

Just say no to Caroline

Caroline’s nomination is Obama’s payback for Teddy’s support during the presidential election. In order to complete this plan, Teddy and Obama had to move Hillary out the way, accomplished by Teddy publicly scolding Hillary after her attempt to create and chair a Senate Health Subcommittee and the subsequent offer of SoS by Obama. In effect it was a game of good-cop/bad-cop, with Teddy letting Hillary know that she was essentially persona non-grata in the Senate and Barack coming in as the knight in shining armor to offer her a way to regain her dignity. One more glitch though, the vacant Senate seat would then be filled by the fickle accidental Governor Paterson. That’s where the promises of bundles of Kennedy fundraising money and “good relations” with the White House come in. Let’s face it folks, if Paterson picks Kennedy, he’s Blagojevich with the caveat that the money is going to his campaign committee (it ends up having the exact same result as the one Blagojevich was looking for).

New Yorkers, It's Time to Stand Up for Our Representation!!

Assembly freshmen settling in

Den Dekker (D-Jackson Heights), who has had bit parts in several movies and television shows, is replacing Ivan Lafayette, a 32-year veteran of the Assembly.

"It's a great honor to replace an Assembly member who was in office since I was 14 years old," said Den Dekker, who has worked for the city's Office of Emergency Management and Assemblywoman Marge Markey. "I'm looking forward to the gray skies of Albany."

Some of his colleagues are planning to haze the freshman.

"[Fellow Queens Assemblymen] Mike Gianaris and Mark Weprin are teasing me a lot," Den Dekker said. "They tell me I have to pick up Mike's dry cleaning and clean Mark's car."

Well, that's basically what he did for Markey... Let's move on.

Borough President Helen Marshall, who served in Albany in the 1980s, had some words of advice for all the Queens freshmen, including "be nice" and "make friends."

Keep in mind that we're soon going to be blessed with 4 more years of this great political mind.

Freshman pols to hit state stage: Addabbo, Monserrate & Den Dekker off to capital

College Point's Norwood Museum destroyed by fire

A two-alarm fire raced through the home and museum of a College Point artist Tuesday night, probably destroying a collection of his life’s work.

The blaze started in the home around 5:38 p.m. at 22-12 119th St., fire officials said. It completely gutted the two-story structure and continued to burn into an extension of the building after 7:50 p.m., bringing out dozens of curious neighbors who watched it burn.

No one was injured in the blaze, which required 106 firefighters and 25 vehicles to combat, the FDNY said.

There was no indication how the fire started.

The home, regarded by the Fire Department as a commercial structure, was dedicated to the work of College Point artist John Norwood, who attended the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1950s and had his first exhibition in 1959, according to his Web site. His most recent exhibition was at the Queens Museum of Art in 2001.

College Point fire guts artist’s studio

Queens is #1 (and it's not a good thing)

Queens showed a notable 84 percent increase in foreclosure filings in the fourth quarter, compared to the fourth quarter of 2007, greatly contrasting with decreases in the other four boroughs. Over the same period, the Bronx showed a 53 percent decline, Brooklyn showed a 23 percent decline and Manhattan showed a 19 percent decline.

Homeowners face more foreclosures

The monster of 22nd Street

Sad collection of overdevelopment stories from IMBY:

Considered the poster child for everything that went wrong with the recent South Brooklyn building boom and the frightening motivation for the record setting, fast tracked, Community Board 7 down zoning of the South Slope, this 9 story monster building was permitted with the understanding that it would be used as a yeshiva faculty dormitory with a child care center on the ground floor. That never materialized. Instead the building's apartments were rented to Methodist Hospital interns. As for the ground floor space designated for the community facility daycare center, that ended up being divided into additional apartments in violation of the original C of O.

266 22nd Street Violation History (Hubris on 20th Street)

Pelosi takes after Bloomberg

Say what you will about the 12 years of Republican rule in the U.S House, but the G.O.P. got at least one thing right: term limits for committee chairmen.

The same can't be said of Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats, who, after surprisingly keeping the limits on the books last Congress, are now set to do away with them. Apparently, a robust majority that should be safe for at least a few cycles has satisfied Democrats that the coast is clear to go back to their old tricks.

Pelosi Strikes a Blow for Mediocrity

So much for "change".

City's map gets it wrong

Boone Playground, eh?
I think not.

Two-Ton Tony wants to paddle vandals

Indicted Queens Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio still favors a good spanking - but only for graffiti vandals.

Seminerio, who faces federal charges that he sold his influence for $1 million in payoffs, introduced a bill this week that would allow "paddling" for juveniles 13 or older who are convicted on graffiti charges.

The measure, which he's pushed before, allows parents to administer the paddling but gives judges the power to order others to do it if they refuse.

Embattled pol Anthony Seminerio wants graffiti vandals paddled

When you introduce bills like this it means you've been in office too long.

Four more years!

AP Photo

New York fiscal picture is even grimmer than previously stated, three new economic reports said Thursday.

City deficits are growing, pension costs rising and more New Yorkers are losing their jobs and homes.

The city must plug an $11.3 billion hole in its budget over the next 2-1/2 years, the Independent Budget Office found, as tax revenues plunge while expenses continue to rise.

The gap is $5 billion bigger than Mayor Bloomberg estimated in November.

City deficit at $11.3B, much worse than what Mayor Bloomberg estimated

We must retain this self-declared financial genius for 4 more years. Only he can pull us out of this financial quagmire. He earns a $1 salary and we got what we paid for.

The benefits of working for Bloomberg

Bolstered in part by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s spending, the average New York City employee cost the city $107,000 a year in wages, health insurance, pension and other benefits in the 2008 fiscal year, an increase of 63 percent since 2000, according to a new report.

City worker compensation grew twice as fast as that of employees in the private sector and elsewhere in the public sector during the same period, the Citizens Budget Commission said in the report, which was released on Thursday. The increase was driven by contractual raises that outpaced the inflation rate, and by the rising cost of health insurance and pension benefits, said the commission, a business-backed research group.

The group said those benefits have remained “exceptionally generous” under Mr. Bloomberg.

And with the city staring at a projected $7 billion deficit by 2011, fiscal watchdogs are intensifying their calls for the Bloomberg administration to act more aggressively to control employee costs.

City Employee Pay Is Outpacing Private Sector, Report Says

Demolition of Manhattanville to commence

Text and photos by Nathan Kensinger:

Columbia University plans to demolish 17 acres of this busy neighborhood. They will replace them with a huge new $7 billion extension campus. As part of this plan, Manhattanville was declared blighted in 2008 by the Empire State Development Corporation, opening the door for government use of eminent domain to seize the property of any businesses that did not wish to relocate.

Work has already begun on on Phase 1 of Columbia's plan, which will remove a city block between 129th and 130th Street west of Broadway. Several businesses in this block, including a service station and parking lot, have already closed their doors. Popular restaurants like Dinosaur BBQ and Floridita will be displaced.

Manhattanville: Phase 1

Vallone goes fishing at BOE

Because different offices have different contribution and spending limits, the board [of elections] decided to allow people to freeze their accounts and start new ones if their election plans had changed due to term limits.

In this case, Vallone had been a candidate for Queens borough president, until it became clear the current occupant, Helen Marshall, would seek a third term. Vallone decided to run for re-election to his Astoria council seat, but, according to the opinion, he wondered if — hypothetically — Marshall decided to drop out, whether he could access his old account and run for higher office.

The board didn’t bite.

“The request involves an event that, at this point, is highly speculative and involves numerous unknown variables,” the opinion states. “The Board does not believe it is appropriate to provide detailed guidance on this hypothetical event at this time.”

Campaign Board Won't Speculate

Sabini vs. Sears in November?

Get ready, Jackson Heights. The already packed stable of candidates for the 25th Council District seat may soon get another distinguished contender.

Former state Sen. John Sabini, now chairman of the state Racing and Wagering Commission, is considering running for the Council seat he first occupied in 1989.

Sabini weighing run for City Council seat

If Sabini runs for the Council seat, he will face competition from sitting Councilwoman Helen Sears (D−Jackson Heights), who likely will run for a third term after Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s revision to the City Charter was approved by the Council in October.

Sears declined to comment on facing her predecessor in the Council.

Let's legalize everyone so they can join a union

The following was written by a Local 608 Carpenter. It's lengthy, but this excerpt jumped out:

Our industry is bearing the brunt of the worst economic crisis in our lifetimes – the question is, what the hell can we as construction workers do about it?

...we have to reach out to our immigrant brothers and sisters, who make up a majority of the construction workforce in this city, and almost a third of the trades across the country.

This means joining hands with them to demand full unconditional amnesty for undocumented immigrants, and immediate green card status to all immigrants presently in the country.

They are virtual slaves to their bosses, and can be deported at a contractor’s whim. They are often brutally superexploited and horribly underpaid, it’s about time they got some justice, and we need to help them.

WINTER IN AMERICA...how construction workers should respond to the meltdown

Flushing Free Synagogue still holding on

Rabbi Weisser is the uncommon leader of an uncommon place, a soft-spoken man from Nebraska who has tangled with the Ku Klux Klan and is now trying to revitalize a small synagogue in the bustling heart of Queens.

The Free Synagogue, the oldest Reform Judaism synagogue in the borough, is a symbol of Flushing’s nearly forgotten past, when the area around Main Street was lined not with Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean restaurants and supermarkets, but with Jewish grocers, tailors and butcher shops.

Signs of that old neighborhood have all but disappeared. In the 1980s, Flushing’s Jewish population began steadily falling, making way for waves of immigrants who transformed the neighborhood into one of the most ethnically diverse in the country. Its last kosher delicatessen, Flushing Delight, on Union Street, shut its doors in 1995.

The Free Synagogue, which decades ago had several hundred members, now has only about 100. Its religious school closed a few years ago.

Yet the synagogue has held on, surviving for 91 years with a loyal core of longtime supporters. Many are elderly men and women, who come from around Queens to sing and pray beneath the stained-glass windows of the domed sanctuary.

Lessons on Love, From a Rabbi Who Knows Hate and Forgiveness

Fight for the Katz litterbox underway

For Queens political junkies, the race to replace City Councilwoman Melinda Katz has quickly unfolded as one of the borough's most intriguing contests.

Ex-Assemblyman Michael Cohen vs. Deputy Borough President Karen Koslo-witz. A trio of activists duke it out. Former high school classmates go head to head.

In all, seven Democrats and a Republican are in the mix.

Even Katz herself, who has declared her candidacy for city controller, may run again for the Forest Hills seat if Controller Bill Thompson, a fellow Democrat, cancels his mayoral bid and eyes reelection.

Amid so much uncertainty, political spectators expect many twists and turns - including some candidates dropping out and new ones entering the fray - as the campaign winds toward November.

Council campaign battle royal brewing

Urban planning at its finest, part 8

41st Road, just off College Point Blvd.


Before


After

I wish I could tell you how many units were in this, but the addresses that correspond with these lots come up with plans that were withdrawn.

PACK 'EM IN!!!

State GOP gets busted

AN EXPLOSIVE secret memo shows that Senate Republicans are plotting to use state-funded staff for political purposes in hopes of recapturing the Senate in two years.

The document provides a rare glimpse of the long-suspected co-mingling of official, publicly financed Senate duties and the Senate Republicans' privately financed political activities.

GOP PLOT TO TAP STATE STAFF FOR RE-ELEX BIDS

And then: GOP NOTE SPURS CRY FOR PROBE

And finally: ALBANY POLS STILL SUCK

More Shea deconstruction photos

More Shea demo shots:

You can't even tell it was a stadium from some of the photos.

I can't imagine the icebox this spot must be in January.

Affordable housing even more of a joke phrase

From Curbed:

We are so shocked that our fingers are moving so slowly across the keyboard that this is going take us a long time to type. Today's Times reports, a little after the fact, that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s affordable housing plan--which some affordable housing advocates have said all long was bullshit--is being tweaked. What they say is that his "plan to create or preserve 165,000 units of housing for low- and moderate-income families by 2013 has been pushed back one year because the economic recession has stifled the financing of low-cost housing." It's supposed to be a one-year extension, but that assumes that city finances improve really fast.

City paying even more (& getting more?) for stadiums

The city has released a cost/benefit analysis of the new Yankees and Mets stadiums, as the city plans to issue a fresh set of tax-free bonds for the projects.

For the Yankees project, costs directly to the city are up substantially since the last analysis in 2006 (from $34.3 million to $209.5 million, excluding new parkland that has also risen in cost); though, somewhat curiously, so too are benefits (from $173.1 million to $438.3 million). The Mets figures showed less of a disparity, as costs were up from $91.4 million to $128.8 million, while benefits went up from $139.3 million to $199 million.

The new numbers are in 2009 dollars, while the prior figures were in 2006 dollars.

The increase in benefits, the city said in its analysis of the new Yankee Stadium, comes as the city is now counting “several project elements that were not known about in sufficient detail to be included in the 2006 analysis,” including parking garages and a new Metro North station. Increased spending on construction would also boost city tax revenues.

City: Costs (and Benefits) of Yankees, Mets Stadiums Increase

The Yankees' $95 million in extras includes $14.2 million for a scoreboard, $10.7million for a giant video board and $10.4 million in luxury suite upgrades.

The team wants more money to make room for two restaurants, a New York Yankees Steakhouse and a Hard Rock Cafe.

Yankees swing for bling in new plan

Salaries for all city employees available online

The compensation of all city workers is public information, but until Tuesday it wasn't necessarily accessible.

Now, it is, thanks to the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a project of the nonprofit Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

The Empire Center's Web site - www.SeeThroughNY.net - Tuesday posted the entire city payroll of full- and part-time employes by name, title and salary, as of June 30.

New online database puts salaries of all city, state workers just a click away

Meanwhile, ChangeNYC.org points out the fact that there is no website detailing state lawmakers' salaries or sources of income.

Crowley squats in Como's office

Crappy,

I drove by Elizabeth Crowley's City Council Office today. You probably already know but she took over the office of Como/Gallagher on Metropolitan!!!! Why would anyone want to take over that office?
Not only that, but she has campaign signs in the windows! You may know better than I, but isnt that a conflict of interest to have a campaign sign in a city office? If anyone can dig into this and get it noticed, its your blog.

Keep up the good work, have a good 2009!

Concerned member of 79th Street.

Well, considering there is a "for rent" sign in the window, I can only hope that this is a temporary arrangement. But the campaign signs are a no-no.

Parks kisses Wi-Fi goodbye

Logging onto the Internet for free at many New York City parks has become another casualty of the financial crisis.

The vendor, WiFi Salon, which won the contract from the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation in 2004 to wire 10 parks in four boroughs, including Central Park, quietly shutdown in October due to lack of financing and is in the process of removing equipment. The contract expired Sept. 30, and it wasn’t financially feasible for WiFi Salon to continue on its own.

For now, free Wi-Fi has ceased at seven formerly wired locations inside Central Park, two locations inside Prospect Park, and at Washington Square Park, Battery Park, Riverside Park, Van Cortlandt, Orchard Beach, Pelham Bay Park and Corona-Flushing Meadows.

Wi-Fi unplugged in city parks

This probably wasn't too much of a loss for Queens considering the coverage map for Flushing Meadows.

Fix that flag!

The property that Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood sits on has some nice old shade trees.
It's flag, in this condition for several weeks now, could use some mending, however.

Just dropping in

Because it's depressing outside why not enjoy this post from Scouting NY about a blood drop and his buddy walking around Hunters Point yesterday?

Political correctness in overdrive

As a rule, I try to keep the focus of the blog local, but this is just too good:

After yesterday's scene outside the Senate building — in which a kindly, old, and, as Bobby Rush unsubtly pointed out, African-American man was barred from the Senate building in the rain — Senate Democrats have given in. The AP is reporting that Burris will soon be allowed to take office as the junior Senator from Illinois. Even if it doesn't end up helping his legal case, Blagojevich must be proud today that even as the least popular pol in America, with no political capital whatsoever, he has made the Senate blink.

Somewhere, Rod Blagojevich Is Laughing Maniacally

Why Queens is the way it is

State Senator-elect Hiram Monserrate was greeted like a king Tuesday in Corona.

Children lined the block to collect a toy from his annual Three Kings Day giveaway and by constituents who said their allegiance to him isn't wavering in the face of assault charges.

"The community here is more than 100 percent behind him and we will support him. We will not allow to lose Hiram Monserrate to this community," said one supporter.

Support for Monserrate Remains Strong Despite Allegations

Give away free shit and folks will support you, no matter how heinous an act you commit - even if it's on video!

Kent Avenue crap

This series of crap photos were taken off Kent Avenue in Brooklyn and is featured on the latest Forgotten-NY page.

Term limits approval from Feds not filed for by City

Mayor Bloomberg's 'odd' delay on term bid
BY ERIN EINHORN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

More than two months after signing the controversial law allowing him to seek a third term, Mayor Bloomberg still hasn't sought the required federal approval for it.

"It's odd and suspicious. It smacks of having some other agenda," said election law expert Richard Emery, a foe of the term extension, who backs Bloomberg's third run anyway.

Law Department spokeswoman Kate Ahlers said there's nothing sinister going on. Critics say they're surprised the application wasn't filed within days of Bloomberg signing the bill Nov. 3.

Meanwhile a Brooklyn federal judge Charles Sifton yesterday heard arguments on from city lawyers and foes of the term extension and said he will rule soon.

Needs federal approvel, eh? This could get interesting. Is Anthony Weiner paying attention?

Developer screws Brooklyn homeowners

City officials vowed to make developer Alex Arker make drastically needed repairs to the 36 Blake Avenue Homes project.

But residents say Arker's repair work on the city-funded homes is as shoddy as his original construction: Roofs and boilers are fixed but break down again soon after.

The 36 two-family homes were built by Arker, a Long Island-based developer, for first-time homebuyers earning between $32,000 and $75,000 a year.

The houses cost nearly $240,000 each - money residents now say was a waste.

In 2005, when the problems first emerged, a spokeswoman for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development spokeswoman told the Daily News that Arker "has an obligation to the homebuyers," and the city would make sure the developer made repairs.

Homeowners said those promises were all wet.

"Nothing has changed," said Nigel Laurent, 44, who said his roof is "constantly leaking" despite repeated repairs.

Laurent, a train dispatcher who saved for years to afford his home, now feels cheated. "It was our life savings," he said.

Homeowners get soaked by shoddy homes

A million more people by 2030 ain't gonna happen

In better times, city officials banked on a population boom, but the recession has some urban planners saying the Bloomberg administration may need to reconsider its rosy estimate of a city of 9.1 million people in 2030.

Expectations of a population spike were buoyed by massive construction projects such as the troubled Hudson and Atlantic yards.

“The downturn in the real estate market signals that the city’s population is not likely to increase in the near-term future,” said Tom Angotti of Hunter College’s Center for Community Planning and Development.

The city released its estimate two years ago in the belief that immigration and more people choosing to stay in the city would aid growth. The administration cited its projection when discussing long-term plans for growth in infrastructure, energy, and housing.

Plans for population growth may be off

See previously: Is PlaNYC's growth prediction full of crap?

The amazing expanding city payroll

Even as New Yorkers are facing the possibility of a smaller police force and reduced fire services, the mayor’s office is boasting some of the highest salaries of any city agency, with nearly one in five of its staffers pulling in at least $100,000 a year.

At $71,626, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office pays one of the highest average salary of any major department, according to a government watchdog, the Empire Center for New York State Policy, which yesterday posted online a database of city workers’ pay.

Mayor's office paying big bucks to staffers

During the flush years, the city payroll has ballooned. The number of full-time city workers as of June 2008 was just over 311,000, up from about 250,000 in 1999, the Wall Street Journal has reported. In total, the Empire Center said there were 427,759 full- and part-time employees — equal to about 5 percent of the city’s total population and larger than the populations of Miami or Minneapolis.

Among the other big spenders in the city are the public advocate’s office, where six out of 41 workers make more than $100,000 a year and the City Council, where 118 out of 909 – or 14 percent – clear that much.

The salary figures, provided by the city to Empire Center, represent the payroll as of June 30, 2008 and do not include overtime earnings.

But hey, to make up for it, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration will forgo luxury boxes at the new Yankees and Mets ballparks, the city said Tuesday after months of criticism about its handling of the stadium projects.

The administration has worked out a new deal with the Yankees to get extra money, instead of a luxury box. A separate and similar agreement is being worked out with the Mets for their new park, a Bloomberg spokesman said.

Queens Man Accused of Stealing from Immigrants

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York City prosecutors say a man promising work permits and green cards made off with about $40,000 from a dozen immigrants.

Marc Payen was awaiting arraignment Tuesday in Queens Criminal Court on charges of grand larceny and possession of a forced instrument. He is facing seven years in prison if convicted. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney and there was no phone listing for him.

Prosecutors say the 27-year-old Payen met with victims at his business where he would promise work permits and green cards for various fees, claiming the money would be paid to the Department of Homeland Security for fingerprint checks and other costs.

Some of the victims gave Payen money orders, leaving the "pay to" section blank, prosecutors say. He is accused of stealing money from at least eight families ranging between November 2007 and August 2008.

Ricatto campaign vehicle kills 9-year old

Child dies under wheels of RV
BY TONIA N. CIMINO and PETE DAVIS

An eight-year-old was struck and killed by an RV emblazoned with "Mike Ricatto Special Election 32nd City Council District" as he crossed the street.

The accident happened at Woodhaven Boulevard and Liberty Avenue, between Rockaway Boulevard and Liberty, at about 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 6.

A police source said that the child, reportedly a young boy, had his skull crushed. The source also told The Courier that the boy, who attended P.S. 63, was with another child when the fatal accident occurred.

"I saw a limp body covered with a white sheet," said a worker who answered the phone at P.C. Richard - located across the street from where the incident took place. "There were a whole bunch of police and ambulances," said the employee, who did not give a name.

The vehicle remained on the scene, and the driver, said the source, who had a suspended license, has been arrested.

Visit www.queenscourier.com for updates on this story.

May God bless this poor child's family. (For those of you who don't know, Mike Ricatto is a developer who doesn't live in the district but is who Serf Maltese put up to run for the seat because the other Republican in the race, Eric Ulrich, helped Tom Ognibene instead of Anthony Como in last June's special election.) Allowing an unlicensed driver to take the wheel of an oversized campaign vehicle is exactly the type of poor judgment we've come to expect from the Maltese crowd.

Adaptive reuse: Manhattan vs. Queens

Manhattan

Queens

Would you rather live in a building that's been totally restored down to the shutters and paint detailing or one that had its iconic smokestacks removed and then had a bunch of glass and off-color metal dumped on top of it?

Hiram claims he's the real victim

"The information the police and the DA are leaking to the press are absolute lies," Monserrate said. "I never hit Karla, yanked her hair or abused her in any way. Any videotapes the police obtained from my building will back me up."

The NYPD and District Attorney Richard Brown are pursuing a "political lynching," Monserrate claimed, because he has challenged both agencies.

Two sources close to Monserrate gave this account:

Giraldo was slightly drunk when she showed up at his apartment that night after a Christmas party. He found a cop's PBA card in her pocketbook. They argued, but then made up, went to bed and even had sex.

Around 2:30 a.m., Monserrate went to the kitchen to get Giraldo a glass of water.

When he returned to the bedroom, he tripped as he was getting into the high platform bed and fell on top of Giraldo. The glass shattered in his right hand. As his hand came down, the jagged glass gashed her above her left eye.

No one familiar with domestic abuse cases would believe that scenario. A doctor at Long Island Jewish Medical Center didn't - and called police. Even some of Monserrate's close friends were ready to abandon him.

Hiram Monserrate: NYPD, DA pursuing a "political lynching"

Took him awhile to come up with this stuff. This might make sense except that the tapes supposedly show Karla and Hiram arriving at his place together. And why did Hiram look in her pocketbook? Would he be ok with her fishing through his wallet?

And that part about Hiram having sex? Thanks for the tidbit, but that was definitely T.M.I. Here's something interesting from Newsday:

Police seized drinking glasses yesterday from the Queens apartment of state Sen. Hiram Monserrate so investigators could conduct tests and compare the results to the cuts suffered by his girlfriend during an argument over another man, law enforcement sources said yesterday.

Sources said tests will be conducted on seven drinking glass seized yesterday as evidence. If Monserrate tripped and fell, the angle and pressure of the wounds would be different from if he stuck her with the broken glass, sources said.

Maloney wants Hillary's seat

Rep. Carolyn Maloney launched her own upstate tour Saturday - with a few more public stops than her more talked about rival for Sen. Hillary Clinton's seat.

Maloney, a Manhattan Democrat, arrived in Buffalo Saturday morning for the start of a three-day tour that will also include Syracuse and Rochester.

These are the same cities Senate contender Caroline Kennedy visited last month. Unlike Kennedy, who was criticized for meeting only with city mayors and a handful of other officials, Maloney's schedule included public forums.

Kennedy has captured the most attention of the contenders for Clinton's seat.

Maloney, however, is also known to be aggressively seeking the seat and has hired Bill Lynch Associates, a political consulting group, to help promote her cause.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney makes upstate bid for Hillary's Senate seat