Link NYC kiosks causing problems

From CBS 2:

More than 1,700 kiosks across the city offer free Wi-Fi calls and USB ports to charge devices.

But it turns out those ports are causing concern for some New Yorkers, who say the kiosks have become hangouts for the homeless, CBS2’s Reena Roy reported Wednesday.

Elmhurst-Jackson Heights cell phone thief on the loose

From PIX11:

Police are searching for an elusive thief who travels by bike and has stolen 11 cellphones over the past month.

Pols promote app that violates zoning regulations

I'd like to share part of a press release I received yesterday:

"SpotPog – an innovative new app that allows drivers to find free and paid spots – launched in Brooklyn today with the support of elected officials and local organizations. Leaders praised SpotPog as a smart way to address the city’s parking problem, and to help improve the environment and street safety in high-traffic neighborhoods.

“Brooklyn has a serious parking problem,” said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. “We need an innovative approach to help residents find spots in their own neighborhoods, or when running errands and attending local events. SpotPog has the potential to meet this mission, employing our smartphones in a smart way to help reduce traffic congestion, decrease street-level pollution, and allow for more drivers to visit our local business districts.”

“New York drivers are constantly wasting time, money and energy hunting for parking spaces,” said New York City Council Environmental Chair Donovan Richards. “Circling for parking also causes tons of preventable street-level pollution a year, creating health risks in our neighborhoods. SpotPog will help alleviate New York's parking-related problems with a free, innovative app designed to drive our communities into a healthier, safer future.”

Starting today, SpotPog users will be able to swap public street spots for free, enabling those who have downloaded the app to save time by not hunting for spots. Drivers earn credits (“Pogs”) every time they give away a free spot to another user, and those credits can then be used to claim a free space later on.

SpotPog users who own driveways will also be able to post their driveways for rent on the app. Driveway owners can set their own hourly prices and availability, creating a new parking option for the millions of city drivers who have trouble finding a space while running errands, attending events or parking in their own neighborhood. SpotPog’s technology allows driveway owners to complete transactions without even being home."

________________________________________________________

Ok, so what this basically does is

- privatize a public resource. Individual drivers will be benefiting off of something that is supposed to be available to the public. Not to mention the chaos this thing will likely cause when you have people racing to the scene of a parking space that just opened up. Plus, do we really want to encourage people to fiddle with their phones while they are driving?

- create commercial enterprises in residential zones. This app is basically an AirBnB type system for driveways. I doubt anyone wants a commercial parking lot opening up on their residential street. Believe it or not, it is illegal for a homeowner to rent out their garage or driveway to someone else. Were the Department of Finance, the IRS and NYS Department of Taxation and Finance notified of this?

Why are elected officials promoting this garbage put forth by a private company? Don't they have attorneys advising them on what's kosher and what isn't?

I think it's time for an investigation by the AG.

JFK workers busted for stealing from luggage

From CBS 2:

Seven John F. Kennedy International Airport baggage handlers were arrested Wednesday, on allegations that they stole out of travelers’ luggage.

As Dick Brennan reported, CBS2 got an exclusive look at the loot that baggage handlers were allegedly taking for themselves. The items included cellphones, iPads, laptops, jewelry and other items worth a grand total of more than $20,000.

The items were taken from travelers’ checked luggage between March 2012 and June 2014, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said Wednesday.

“The defendants have been caught red handed and will now face the consequences of their alleged illegal acts,” said Brown.

“The defendants — who were hired to handle the baggage of those traveling in and out of Kennedy Airport — are alleged to have stolen computers, cell phones and other items from checked luggage with many of them selling the pilfered items to a pawn shop or to a ‘fence’ who was actually an undercover police officer,” Brown said.

The suspects are identified as Khaleed Maynard, 28, Sheldon Theodore, 22, and Ryan Phillips, 35, who worked for Swissport at Terminal 4; Levi Miller, 47, Romero Hendricks, 30, and Tihafade Esdaile, 29, who were employed by Aircraft Services International Group at Terminal 4; and Keston Austin, 31, who worked for G.S.I. at Terminal 7.

Each of the suspects face grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property charges, Brown said.

Pol wants better cell service for Rockaway

From The Forum:

A state assemblyman from southern Queens called out a handful of cellphone companies before Mother Nature did it first.

Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Rockaway) penned a letter to some of the city’s biggest phone providers, including Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint, urging them to not only rebuild what Superstorm Sandy had obliterated, but to also build back stronger. He reminded the conglomerates of a time not too far in the past, when cell towers toppled to the ground and left southern Queens immobile for weeks.

“Our inability to communicate via cell phone, compounded the many issues brought on by Sandy,” Goldfeder. “Every company has a responsibility to their customers to invest in their infrastructure and towers to ensure that service will remain in place during our next potential disaster.”

The legislator has been taking steps towards better storm preparedness ever since the hurricane left most of his district in devastation and said shoring up the cell phone capabilities of his district were paramount to all other steps of recovery.

His letter invited the major phone companies to meet with his community and outline any upgrades they might have made. Goldfeder also requested that each company announce the changes they have made to prepare for future emergencies.

So far, Verizon and AT&T have returned Goldfeder’s invitation. Both companies said they would be working with Goldfeder to arrange a meet-up with community residents and outline specifically what they were doing to prepare for another storm on Sandy’s level.

Too. Much. Info.

From the NY Post:

The ex-wife of Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa discovered he was a devil of a husband when she listened in to X-rated cell phone voicemails to him from his alleged mistress, Queens Borough President-elect Melinda Katz, her attorney said Wednesday.

Mary, Sliwa’s third ex-wife, was the Guardian Angels’ executive director during her marriage to the law-and-order legend.

She had her husband’s voicemail password so that she could handle calls for the organization, Siegert said in court.

Mary “was also privy to telephone messages from Melinda Katz to Curtis Sliwa that were coming in constantly over long periods of time,” he told Magistrate Margaret Morgan.

“They deny any relationship at all prior to 2011. That’s not true,” Siegert said.

Siegert promised that emails and voice recordings from Katz to Sliwa spanning from December 2009 to July 2010 will come out in a separate action filed by Mary Sliwa in Manhattan Supreme Court last May.

That suit documents 13 instances during Mary and Curtis’ marriage when her husband allegedly abandoned his marital bed and engaged in “sexual intercourse” with Katz, the court papers claim.

Sliwa separated from Mary and moved in with Katz in the spring of 2011.

Siegert gave a sneak-peak into the evidence: “It was sex, it was money. It was her being a mistress. It was him calling at 2 a.m,” he said.

The voicemails allegedly match descriptions of infidelity in the Manhattan Supreme Court suit. The first romp allegedly took place at Katz’s Forest Hills home on Feb. 25, 2010.

The illicit lovers allegedly continued meeting at the Queens home where the politician grew up, with Sliwa fibbing to his wife on March 31, 2010 that “he wasn’t feeling well and was dehydrated” and would sleep at his Empire State Building office.

Then on June 5, 2010, Sliwa allegedly claimed he “would be going to the big fight night at Yankee Stadium” even though he didn’t come home until 3:30am, according to the suit.

Pay attention!

From the Queens Chronicle:

Sparks flew between Queens borough president candidates state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) at a Monday forum in Jackson Heights.

The topic of the night was sustainability but it shifted briefly when Avella accused Vallone of receiving assistance via text messages from volunteer supporters at the forum at Community Methodist Church.

Avella later said he didn’t accuse Vallone of cheating, but thought Vallone and another borough president candidate, Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans), who also had his phone out, should put them away.

“Even if you aren’t getting texted the answer, it’s rude,” Avella said at a later interview. “You are supposed to be listening. We were taking questions from the audience.”

Vallone said that he was tweeting and arranging with his daughter how she would get home.

“I would rather be engaging with the public [via twitter] than listen to Tony,” Vallone said during a later interview.

Wait...was he texting his daughter or engaging with the public on Twitter?

NYC taxpayers are suckers

From the NY Post:

For out-of-towners seeking “four-star" accommodations here, there’s The Waldorf, The Pierre, The Plaza — and the city’s homeless shelters.

“People pay $3,000 for an apartment here, and I get to live here for free!” said Michal Jablonowski, 25, who moved back to the city from his native Poland three years ago and is now staying in a Bowery shelter.

“I have food. I have health care. It’s great," Jablonowski said. “Here, the city supports you. The city helps you with everything.’’

City shelters boasting generous resources have increasingly become havens for out-of-towners, statistics show.

Nearly one in four of the city’s single homeless people who entered the system in December 2012 listed their last address as outside the city.

“We get breakfast, lunch and dinner. We have a microwave and TV. They do the laundry for free,” noted Jablonowski, who lived in New York for years before going back to his homeland, only to return here to a freebie life.

Jablonowski said he even gets a prepaid cellphone — allowing 1,000 texts and 300 minutes a month — through Medicaid and boasted, “I’m going to get my teeth fixed.”

“I love New York because you cannot starve in New York, you can always find food and clothes,” he said.

“The shelters are really nice. You have clean sheets. You get to watch TV and stay in the warm. Homeless people have it so good, they don’t want to look for a job."

“Some people in here have it better than people working 9 to 5, because they’re not paying rent. I’ve stayed in hostels worse. I call this four stars,” said William Sullivan, who came to the city from LA for a job that fell through.

“Everyone in this place has a silver spoon in their mouth. You get fed three to four meals a day, and the food here is great.”

A Michigan woman who arrived in December said she was drawn to New York for the “adventure.”

“New York is New York! That’s why people come here,” said Amy Kaufman, 41, who is staying in a city-funded Chelsea shelter.

“I go to the library, and I go sightseeing a lot in Times Square and Chelsea. I like it here.

“I’m staying here for a while because the housing options are better. Michigan is in a recession right now.”

Even reverse snowbirds from Florida would rather suffer through a brutal New York winter than be homeless in their own state. Florida is the second-most popular last address for out-of-town homeless.

“Survival in Florida was a lot harder than here. There are a lot more resources here for homeless, especially in terms of housing and finding transitional housing,” said Steve Rios, 49, who came up from the Sunshine State.

The end to cell phone theft?

From the Daily News:

Prodded by Sen. Charles Schumer and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, the feds and phone carriers are cracking down on cell phone theft, the fastest-growing crime in New York City.

Schumer and Kelly joined other officials Tuesday to announce the creation of a landmark industry database of every cell phone’s unique ID number — making it easy to deactivate and render useless any purloined phone.

Schumer will also introduce legislation making it a federal crime to tamper with or alter a cell phone’s International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number in order to activate a stolen phone.

The new procedures, agreed to by the FCC and the industry, will make it virtually impossible for stolen phones to be resold on the black market, a huge criminal industry in urban areas.

Cell phone thief busted

From Bayside Patch:

The suspected crook recognized by his copper colored sneakers was allegedly caught red handed last week.

The alleged mugger with a fondness for Blackberries and iPhones was observed by watchful cops robbing teens of their phones on a handball court at the corner of 190th Street and Underhill Ave. in Fresh Meadows.

Over the past several months, Eric Colvin allegedly jacked phones from 14 victims from Brooklyn and Queens.

His story was always the same. He would allegedly tell victims that his sister’s phone was missing before making away with the phone by threatening to pull out a gun, which he never brandished.

According to a police source, Colvin was recognized by the tattoos on his neck depicted in a police sketch and his trademark Nike foam sneakers in copper.

Cell phone robber sought

From NBC:

Police have released a sketch of an alleged serial cell phone robber targeting teenagers throughout the northern section of Queens, in some cases threatening them with a gun.

The suspect typically approaches his victims and requests to see their cell phones, according to investigators. If the victim does not comply with his demand, he shows a gun and takes the phone by force.

The 11 victims so far range in age from 14 to 16, according to police. The robberies, spanning from mid-June to as recently as Aug. 31, have occurred in northern sections of Queens including Richmond Hill, Hollis, Flushing and Fresh Meadows neighborhoods.

No one has been hurt in the robberies, police said.

Not sure how Richmond Hill or Hollis could be considered "northern Queens" but this is the mainstream media for you.

There's an app for construction sites now

From the DOB:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor for Operations Stephen Goldsmith and Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri today announced the use of Quick Response (QR) codes on all Department of Buildings permits, providing New Yorkers with instant access to information related to buildings and construction sites throughout New York City. Similar to how a barcode provides information through a scanner, QR codes provide smartphone users with immediate access to data by scanning the displayed code with their device. By downloading a free application on a smartphone, New Yorkers will be able to scan the QR code of any construction permit and instantly learn details about the ongoing project – including the approved scope of work, identities of the property owner and job applicant, other approved projects associated with the permit, the complaints and violations related to the location and user will have the ability to click a link that will initiate a phone call to 311 to make a complaint. The Mayor announced the start of the program on Broad Street in Lower Manhattan, where he demonstrated the technology at an active construction site.

After scanning a QR code on a Department of Buildings’ permit, users will be brought to mobile version of the Department’s Buildings Information System, which provides permit and violation history for every building in the City. Users will be taken directly to the full project information screen for the individual project they want to review. Construction permits will have QR codes added to them as they are replaced at the 975,000 building and construction sites in New York City and all permits are expected to have QR codes by roughly 2013. Smartphone users can download a free QR reader by going to the app store on their device and searching for “QR” – a variety of free applications are available.

QR codes also will appear on after-hours variances and Place of Assembly certificates of operation. In 2010, the Department of Buildings issued more than 179,000 construction permits and 33,000 after-hours variances, which display basic information about projects and are required to be posted at job sites during construction operations. The Department issues permits for work involving boilers, concrete, demolition, cranes, electrical, excavations, general construction, plumbing, scaffolding and sidewalk sheds. Last year, 4,520 Place of Assembly certificates of operation were issued and/or renewed, and these documents provide basic details about how a particular space can be used.

By scanning the QR code on these documents, New Yorkers will learn more information about who is performing this work, including the addresses and telephone numbers of property owners and job applicants, which is typically a licensed architect or engineer or general contractor on the project.

St. John's students target of bus stop robberies

From Eyewitness News:

Police are alerting Queens residents and St. John's University students about a band of bus stop bandits who appear to be getting bolder.

Officers from the 107th Precinct have stepped up their patrols with a new sense of urgency.

Detectives have released surveillance images of the three suspects.

Police say the victims were attacked moments after they stepped off the bus near Union Turnpike in Fresh Meadows.

The suspects approached the victims from behind and, in some cases, punched and kicked them before stealing cell phones, iPods, Blackberries and cash.

The bus stop bandits struck first on October 20 at 9.40 p.m. and again the next day. They then struck two weeks later, and just this week have struck four more times. Police say there were three muggings Wednesday night.

Subway cell phone thief

From the Village Voice:

Are you a twentysomething woman who rides the #7 train? A guy may be after your cell phone. Have you seen him? The suspect struck on August 25 at 45th Road and Jackson Avenue, and on August 30 and September 7 at 52nd Street and Roosevelt Avenue. His M.O.: The train stops, he waits for the doors to open, grabs the cell phone, and flees.

He's described as a black male in his 20s, approximately 5'7" -- in two of the robberies he was wearing a white tank top, black shorts, and a white do-rag. If you have any info, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). And keep an eye on your phones.

We're being taxed into oblivion

From the NY Post:

A typical New Yorker pays more than $85 each month in taxes tacked onto bills for living expenses like gas, electricity, phone, cable TV and transportation, The Post found.

Taxing big businesses and utilities -- which pass the cost on to millions of customers -- is a stealthy way for the feds, state, city and the increasingly desperate MTA to fill their coffers, experts say.

"They've turned these private businesses into collection agencies for the state," said Louis Manuta, senior attorney for the Public Utility Law Project, an Albany-based group that advocates for low-income consumers.

Taxes add as much as 37 percent to a telephone bill, Manuta calculates.

Taxes and surcharges make up 27 percent of every Con Edison electric bill, and 27.9 percent of cooking-gas tabs, the company said.

National Grid, which supplies gas to Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island, said taxes take 19 percent of residential bills in the city and 15 percent in Long Island.

The MTA bailout plan that hiked subway, bus and cab fares last May also imposed a new tax of 34 cents for every $100 of payroll on all employers in NYC and seven surrounding counties.

But giant utilities like Con Ed and some municipalities have added surcharges on bills to recoup the cost from its customers or residents. The MTA added about 1 percent in taxes to a Con Ed bill, a spokesman said.