Central Park Servers Get Revenge

The wait staff is striking at Central Park's famed Boathouse, whose owners are accused of union busting after paying the city many millions for the restaurant's concession. This week striking workers revealed that the Boathouse's trademark bottled water, at $8 a glass, is nothing more than Manhattan tap water. Whoopsie. According to the servers, they've been forced to lie to their customers for years.

Irene Update

According to the latest forecast for Hurricane Irene, the storm is predicted to arrive in the general NYC/northeast area some time late on Saturday, early on Sunday. Air travel is expected to be heavily affected unless the storm veers out past Long Island as sometimes happens. Plan accordingly, I guess.

Bear Joins Survivor Cast

An openly gay man who maintains a profile (NSFW) on the Bear411 hook-up site has been cast for the next season of Survivor. Mark Anthony Caruso is identified by the show as a 48 year-old former NYPD detective living in Queens, New York.

R&B Legend Nick Ashford Dies At 69

It's been a terrible day for the giants of songwriting. Nick Ashford, who with his wife Valerie Simpson wrote some of the most beloved pop songs in history, has died at the age of 69.

His longtime friend and former publicist Liz Rosenberg told The Associated Press that Ashford — who along with wife Valerie Simpson wrote some of Motown’s biggest hits — died Monday in a New York City hospital. He had been suffering from throat cancer and had undergone radiation treatment. Among the songs Ashford & Simpson penned are “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” "You’re All I Need To Get By” and “Reach Out And Touch Somebody’s Hand.” He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Weirdly enough, just this weekend Father Tony and I had a long chat about Ashford & Simpson with the rest of the guys at Bear Hill in Central Park. We all agreed that we needed to visit their restaurant on the Upper West Side.

Improv Everywhere - Say Something Nice

Red Turns Green For NYC

Last year New York City's 150 red-light cameras generated an astounding $52M in fines, a new record since the cameras were first installed four years ago.

The cameras generated 1,053,268 summonses, pumping $52.7 million into the city's coffers. That's up about $15.5 million - 29% - from 2009, when there were just 100 cameras citywide, according to Department of Transportation stats. This year's numbers aren't yet available, a DOT spokesman said. Each $50 red-light summons is mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle, along with a crystal-clear photo of the license plate - and the car as it breezed through the intersection.

DOT officials said that in most cities the number of violations at each camera location tend to go down once drivers learn where they are. Not so in NYC, where (unsurprisingly) city leaders want another 50 cameras.

A Nice Mention From CBS

JMG reader Frank just tipped me to the above. Vote JMG if you want, but definitely check out the other blogs. My personal favorite is at the top, there's a few more at the link.

Ruben Diaz Denounces Sex Education

New York state Sen. Ruben Diaz, who calls himself "Senator Reverend" in his press releases, has come out against NYC's proposed sex education curriculum.

In matters involving intimacy and human sexuality, parents have the right and the responsibility to be the primary educators. Many parents teach their children that these are private topics not to be discussed casually or in group settings. Now there is no formal arena for formal parental input. There is no opportunity for public hearings. There are no requirements that these regulations be open to public review and comment. No accountability to the public, to the parents, and certainly not the children. How sad for us all.

Diaz's home district of the Bronx has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the nation. But that's apparently OK with the Senator Reverend.

Shakespeare On The Subway

I hate to say it, but these things usually just piss me off. When I'm on the train, I just want every single person to shut the fuck up. And try not to touch me.

Record Rainfall For Gotham

Yesterday's torrential rainfall in New York City broke all existing records.

New York broke an all-time record for a one-day rainfall Sunday as up to 8 inches of water soaked the city, snarling trains and flooding roadways. By 9 p.m., 7.7 inches of rain had fallen at Kennedy Airport. It was the most recorded there in a single day since the National Weather Service began keeping records 116 years ago. The heavy tropical rain is expected to continue Monday, and a flash flood warning is in effect until 9 p.m. The normal rainfall for all of August in New York is 4 inches - which means the city was socked with two months worth of rain in a single day. "This is what you would expect in a major hurricane," said Steve Wistar, senior meteorologist at Accuweather.

It's still raining right now. Supposed to continue all day.

Photo Of The Day

Married at last after almost 40 years. Read the full story.

Quote Of The Day - Michael Bloomberg

"If you want to raise taxes, don't pick one class of people and say, 'I think they have too much money' or 'I don't think they have enough money' or whatever. Raise everybody's taxes one or two percent or whatever. I think the president should literally go out there and say, 'This is what I propose - A, B, C and D.' And I think that should be a combination of revenue enhancements and expense cuts." - Mega-billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who doesn't want his taxes raised unless everybody's are.

BROOKLYN: Lesbian Sues For Sexual Harassment, Boss Says She's Too Ugly

Openly lesbian real estate worker Priscilla Agosto, 23, is suing her former employer for sexual harassment, saying she'd been physically and verbally humiliated by her coworkers. Agosto's boss responded to the suit by claiming that she is "too ugly" for anybody to have bothered her.

Priscilla Agosto ran a gauntlet of sexual humiliation - verbal and physical - in her 14 miserable months at People's Choice Realty, her suit against its three bosses says. No less than seven male employees made lewd advances at her - even after she complained to the bosses, she said in papers filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court. Her male co-workers exposed themselves, rubbed up against her and even asked for oral sex, she alleges. And they even offered $500 to watch her have sex with her girlfriend, she said. "I hope and pray that by sharing my story, anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation will have the courage to speak up," said Agosto. Odelia Berlianshik, the owner of the Williamsburg firm, denied the charges - and launched a shocking attack on Agosto's appearance. "Who would touch her? She's an ugly girl anyway," she said of the former secretary. "She made up a story because she didn't want to work."

Photo Of The Day

The Second Avenue subway continues to sprout giant structures along my block. Whatever this thing is, a huge truck just drove down into it. I'm dragging you poor folks along on this decade-long project!

NEW YORK: Catholic Archdiocese Opposes Sex Education In Public Schools

It may be hard to believe, but sex education is currently not available to all public high school students in New York City. Each school is allowed to decide whether to offer the courses and only about half do. Bloomberg wants to change that, much to the outrage of busybodies from the Catholic Church.

In the first serious challenge to the city’s mandate, which was announced on Tuesday, a spokesman for the archdiocese said the church’s position was that parents, not the schools, should educate children about sex. “Parents have the right and the responsibility to be the first and primary educators of their children,” Joseph Zwilling, director of communications for the archdiocese, wrote in a statement. “This mandate by the city usurps that role, and allows the public school system to substitute its beliefs and values for those of the parents.”

The Catholic League's reliably whacko Bill Donahue weighs in:

There is a sex-education program that could work, and it is one that is similar to the approach being used to discuss smoking. We don't tell kids not to smoke and then instruct them on the proper way to inhale. No, we show them horrifying pictures of a smoker's lungs. We tell them of the physical pain they are likely to endure by smoking. We tell them how it will shorten their life expectancy. We could do the same when discussing sexual experimentation at a young age. We could discuss how abortion affects the psyche of the mother who elects to terminate her baby. We could show pictures of what abortion does to the child being cut up into pieces. We could instruct them on the link between unwed motherhood and poverty. We could inform them of the greater likelihood of acquiring a sexually transmitted disease. In other words, we could teach the negative real-life consequences of sexual experimentation at a young age.

Photo Of The Day

Several blocks of midtown Manhattan were shut down this afternoon after a suicidal man (light blue shirt) somehow clambered over the 12-foot glass wall on the 70th floor viewing deck of 30 Rock. Police were able to coax the man to safety after a "very tense hour."



(Photo via - Buzzfeed)

Conde Elevator

A newly viral Twitter account taken verbatim from the elevator at Conde Naste.

NYC Picks Honeymoon Winners

New York City's official tourism agency has chosen one couple from each of the five boroughs as the winners of a honeymoon package. The winners were selected from the more than 650 couples who tied the knot on the first day of legalized same-sex marriage. And it turns out that one of the winning couples is straight.

Sacha Jessamy and Sharif Allen, a straight couple whose wedding website says they first said ‘I do’ at the Astoria World Manor on October 24, 2009, were among the throngs of couples who took the leap on Sunday, July 24th. Nearly all of the 659 couples who received a marriage license in the five boroughs on that history-making day were gays and lesbians but a handful of straight couples joined them. And one of those couples is walking away with swag. Jessamy and Allen are among five couples — one from each borough — who were selected from a lottery to get a honeymoon package from the city’s tourism agency, NYC & Co.

Proposed Toll: $15 To Enter Manhattan

This is an old ploy by the Port Authority. Propose an insane toll increase and then "settle" for one that feels entirely reasonable by comparison.

The cost of crossing the bridges and tunnels that span the Hudson River to New York City could rise by 50 percent for many drivers under a steep series of toll increases to be proposed on Friday by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, according to two people familiar with the plans. A $4 toll increase for E-ZPass users could go into effect as soon as September on the three major Hudson River crossings – the George Washington Bridge and the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels – as well as three other bridges between New Jersey and Staten Island, the Bayonne and Goethals Bridges and the Outerbridge Crossing. The biggest increase by far would be felt by drivers who pay in cash: cash tolls on those crossings would be raised by $7, to $15 a trip. (By comparison, a cash toll on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge currently costs $13.) About 25 percent of drivers on the Port Authority crossings currently pay in cash.

The Port Authority also calls for raising the PATH train fare by one dollar.

Big Expansion For Ali Forney Center

The New York City Council has awarded the Ali Forney Center the contract to take over a floundering 20-bed facility for homeless youth. Along with the contract comes a $620K grant. Julie Bolcer reports at the Advocate:

"We are grateful to have the additional shelter beds,” said Carl Siciliano, the executive director of the Ali Forney Center, in a telephone interview this week. “It is a terrible thing to see so many LGBT youth forced to survive out in the streets while they wait for beds. We hope to have the new site opened by October so fewer kids will have to suffer in the cold this winter." The most recent census funded by the City Council in 2007, prior to the current economic crisis, found that almost 4,000 homeless and runaway youths live in New York City. An estimated 40% of them are believed to be LGBT, a segment of homeless youngsters at elevated risk for HIV infection and suicide attempts.

Siciliano said city officials contacted him several weeks ago about taking over the shelter contract, and they agreed to a grant to prevent his organization from having to front any expenses. Located in two adjoining houses in the Sunset Park neighborhood, the fully furnished shelter will bring to 77 the total number of emergency and longer-term transitional beds managed mostly in Brooklyn by the Ali Forney Center, but the organization still has a waiting list of 180 young people.