Extra, Extra

Photo taken in Chinatown by Caterpilla on flickr

From the Gothamist Newsmap: an airport fire in Terminal 4 at JFK, an armed robbery at E 123rd St and Lenox Ave in Manhattan and a pedestrian struck at 19th St and 8th Ave.
Arman Partamian, 19-year-old from Flushing and recent Brooklyn Tech grad, died at a fraternity part over the weekend at SUNY Geneseo, where he was a student. He reportedly drank too much in an initiation ritual for a frat known as "The Pig House."
A Sing Sing prison guard from the Bronx was arrested for dealing coke to inmates.
A little Metrocard math tries to demonstrate that you'd be better off buying a year's worth of cards ASAP if their price does in fact go up to $103—even if you're using a credit card. But our commenters say otherwise (see below).
The mayor's Film & TV office office has launched a Facebook group to help connect New Yorkers to local jobs in the film and TV industry.
State Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith would like to see the MTA get audited before their budget crunch is dealt with.
President Obama may be forced to deal with Bill Clinton's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on gays in the military much earlier than he expected.
A new application for your iPhone called iVibrate lets you “use it on pressure points, lower back, neck, head and any other areas that need a little release.” Maybe you'll need a quiet night alone listening to Brooklyn band MGMT through your smart phone apps.
The boat and one of four missing football players were found today off the coast of Florida, but no sign of his shipmates, who included two NFL players.
And you might catch yourself singing "Draper, Draper Draper" after catching the new chosen one advertising spinoffs, Meshugene Men.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Billy Parker in Miscellaneous on March 2, 2009 6:45 PM

Comments [rss]

Steven

The only tickets you can stockpile in the MTA system are the ten trip peak and off-peak on the LIRR and Metro North. Right before the fare goes up you can get 2-3 of those and they're good for one year.

jaycjay

This is just what happens when you give some random blogger you happened to stumble upon the credibility that a link from a well-trafficked site implies. Her expertise on the topic is clearly... zero. Just because you can blog about something doesn't mean you understand it.

I'm sure she appreciates the traffic, though. She owes you. Something.

kcin122

i just bought 20.

im gonna sue yr ass

Steve

Ben K is right-- you should pull the Metrocard post.

Every time there is a fare increase they only allow a short grace period afterward for which unlimited Metrocards can be used– the date of purchase is encoded on the card, so it’s easy for them to monitor and invalidate cards. They will refund your money at face value, but you won’t be able to make a gain other than perhaps two or three cards (at most) at the cheaper rate.

For per-use cards, they simply start charging you the higher rate when the increase kicks in– per-use cards don’t actually have a number of rides, just a dollar balance.

See http://secondavenuesagas.com/2008/03/10/mta-sets-june-grace-period-on-all-pre-hike-metrocards/ for what happened last time fares went up.

nik13

Auditing those wastrels at MTA within an inch of agency existence might be a good idea. Their retirements forfeited, should it be found insolvent.

Ben K

That MetroCard post you linked to is very misleading. The MTA has set stringent sunset dates on Unlimited ride MetroCards so that straphangers don't stockpile. You can be that they'll do it again this year as well.