Finally, Something Useful

Now where will we be able to buy our copy of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, er, I mean EPL? Oh right, we have Amazon Prime . . . in that case, bring it the fuck on:

A loss for booklovers became a plus for clotheshorses on Wednesday when Century 21 revealed it will take over the space being vacated by Barnes & Noble near Lincoln Center.

Who Killed The Greenpoint Food Market? “A Manhattan Publication” Did . . .

The Red Hook Ballfields treatment comes to Greenpoint:

The organizer of the Greenpoint Food Market has decided to fold her 10-month-old indie eats bazaar in the face of a threat from city health officials to slap summonses on her vendors because they lack commercial food handling permits.

. . .

Health inspectors have not officially visited the market and organizers were not aware of any complaints made about food-borne illness. But Kim believed that inspectors would visit the June market after the gathering received increased attention from the neighborhood media, including the New York Times, a Manhattan publication.

One More New York City Quirk To Be Erased

They just want to get rid of everything that makes the city stupidly unique:

The city Health Department wants to end its age-old milk expiration date requirements, meaning cartons will have a later “sell by” stamp — and just one date.

. . .

New York City remains one of the few places in the country — and the only city in the state — that has its own dating system for milk. Neighboring counties and other states rely on the processor to set the expiration date, which is generally 14-15 days after pasteurization, according to the Health Department.

The city’s reasoning was that milk took a few days to get to city stores or sat on warm stoops after deliveries, officials said. But both factors are rare now, they said.

If the city erases its rule, only the manufacturer’s date would appear on the carton.

This Is Why We Hate You

Fuck you, cab driver:

About 3,000 New York City taxi drivers routinely overcharged riders over two years by surreptitiously fixing their meters to charge rates that would normally apply only to trips outside the five boroughs, according to the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission.

. . .

The Taxi and Limousine Commission directed meter manufacturers to modify the equipment, to warn riders when the rate rises.
The drivers’ scheme, the commission said, involved 1.8 million rides and cost passengers an average of $4 to $5 extra per trip. The drivers, officials said, flipped switches on their meters that kicked in the higher rates, costing New York City riders a total of $8.3 million.

This Is Like The Drug Industry Subsidizing An Anti-Health Care Astroturf Campaign

Don’t let them succeed:

An internal letter sent to liquor stores recently by the London-based liquor wholesaler Diageo reveals it has been quietly subsidizing The Last Store on Main Street, the self-proclaimed “mom and pop” coalition pushing to cork Paterson’s wine-in-groceries plan.

Earlier: Modernize New York!; So Why Can’t We Buy Wine In Grocery Stores, Like Basically Everywhere Else On The Planet?; Wine, Whine; News You Can Booze.