Yet for Cece, as everyone calls Cecelia, and for many of the girls like her, the odd thing about the whole experience is that it’s not much odder than it is for any 13-year-old.

“I knew that when I came to this age I was going to have to do it, so it was sort of natural,” she said a few days before the ceremony at Congregation Rodeph Sholom, a Reform synagogue on West 83rd Street where she has been a familiar face since her days in the Little Twos program. Besides, she said with a shrug, “Most of my Chinese friends are Jewish.”

The rich intertwined nature of Jewish and Chinese cultures is apparent in a couple ways. Jews have been in China for over a thousand years and they love Chinese food. Pop culture wise, there's the Chinese Woman episode of Seinfeld and Gish Jen had a hilarious take on a Chinese-American living in Jewish classmates in Westchester in Mona in the Promised Land. Another thing to note: Cece's parents are a lesbian couple, and after May 1, the Chinese government will refuse to adopt children to gay couples.

Surprise, surprise. It turns out the number of American taxi drivers in New York City may be larger than you think. In records obtained from the Taxi & Limousine Commission, The Sun finds that the United States is the 5th most common country of origin for cab drivers. The most common country of origin is Bangladesh, followed by Pakistan, India, and Haiti. All told, there are about 2,300 American drivers, more than 1,300 of which reported they were native New Yorkers. That said, you're more than two times as likely to hail a Bangladeshi driver as there are more than 5,200 of them.

The Sun also points out that the reasons for driving a cab may be different for Americans and immigrants. They found the Americans drive cabs for the freedom it provides for other projects, while foreigners find it appealing because it requires minimal language skills and an "entrepreneurial drive". It should be noted that some people with hack licenses renew yearly despite not driving. There are 43,402 people with hack licenses and only 13,000 cabs.

But in the end, isn't getting to your destination in one piece the only thing that matters?

Photo of taxi driver stretching by Rukii on flickr

Santiago, visiting NYC from Pennsylvania, was in a friend's car in East Harlem when the cops pulled them over on December 8. (It seems that the friend was driving while intoxicated.) When the police ran Santiago's Pennsylvania license, they arrested her, because they had "an outstanding bench warrant for an East Harlem resident named Margarita Santelises," according to the AP. So they arrested her - in front of 3-year-old daughter Mikhaila - and put Mikhailia into the Administration for Children's Services' care. And while Santiago was able to clear up the matter on December 9, she didn't her daughter back until December 12!

Santiago's lawyer Eric Rothstein told reporters, "She didn't know where her daughter was for three full days and part of two other days, and of course her daughter had no idea where Mommy was and wanted to know why Mommy had been arrested and when would she see Mommy again."

Santiago said Mikhaila panics if she see police cars, "She thinks that she's going to be taken away from me again. Rothstein said his client will sue if the city doesn't settle.

He says, "We will increase state investment in transportation — both capital and operating sides of the budget — because that is the only way to maintain our transportation," but where that increase is coming from is a mystery. Especially as State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says that the governor's new budget increases state spending too much to be sustainable.

And many people blame the MTA's poor fiscal situation on former governor George Pataki.

Yesterday, a Brooklyn public school teacher was arrested on rape charges. Thirty-year-old Marcia Amsterdam who taught speech skills at George Gershwin Junior High was accused of raping a 13 year old boy who may have been a student. Amsterdam was relieved of her teaching duties and assigned to administrative work.

This follows the Tuesday arraignment of 23-year-old Bronx public school music teacher Emily Streb, who allegedly had sex with a 16-year-old student. Apparently school authorities suspected something was going on, but the student denied the relationship until finally admitting it to his mother. The assistant DA says that the boy, a special ed student, "suffers from psychiatric problems." Streb's lawyer says that the student confessed the affair because he "felt jilted" - but isn't having an affair with a student a no-no? Streb was arraigned on charges of third-degree rape.

And in the trial of the former Montessori principal accused of starting a relationship with a 13-year-old student 11 years ago, the accuser had difficulty remembering details while being cross-examined. Lina Sinha's lawyer Gerald Shargel managed to get the accuser, who is now a police officer, to say he couldn't remember "at least 53 times," according to the NY Times (the Times story, linked at the beginning of the paragraph, has some crazy details). Sinha's defense is that she had the relationship when the accuser turned 17, which is the age of consent.

Last night, a horrific fire raged through a four-story home in the Highbridge section of the Bronx and claimed the lives of nine people. Children were thrown out of the windows and one woman jumped to escape the three-alarm fire. Fire officials say the fire started in the basement and fire floor, quickly spreading throughout the building. A witness told the NY Times, "It was an inferno. Smoke everywhere."

Neighbors caught children that were thrown from the building; one man, King Heath, told the Post, "The lady held one kid out the window. I caught one and the other guy caught the other one. She tossed him from the second floor. She jumped afterwards." The children's mother who jumped hit the sidewalk hard and broke her leg. She was taken to the hospital, where she later died.

A witness told the Daily News that "his relatives, immigrants from Mali, were trapped in the fire"; the witness also said his cousin owned the house and that one big family lived there. The neighborhood is home to many African immigrants, and it was unclear how many people or families lived in the building. The Times has an MP3 from reporter Jennifer 8. Lee on the scene.

Update: The Mayor had a press conference today, and here are some notable facts: The fire may have started from a space heater or power strip. There were two smoke detectors, but no batteries (with daylight savings time around the corner, change the batteries). The fire started in the basement, in a room which had the door open. The fire spread through the stairwell, trapping people upstairs.

Nine people died, and at least 22 people were living there. Mayor Bloomberg was asked if having so many people living in one space contributed to the fire, and he said, "It probably did." He also called it the worst loss of life from a fire (not counting September 11) since the 1990 Happyland social club fire, which was also in the Bronx.

Of the eight children who died, 7 were boys and 1 was a girl; two were twin infants, they were all under the age of 8. And 17-19 people were injured. The residents attempted to put the fire out on their own. The FDNY responded in just over 3 minutes of the emergency call, which is apparently pretty good. When asked about the fire, Bloomberg said it was, "one small building, but one very large tragedy for our city."

Photograph of the Bronx home ravaged by a 3-alarm fire by Jason DeCrow/AP

The incident: Prebeza had lit a cigarette in the club, but was told he couldn't smoke inside. The Daily News says Prebeza stubbed out his cigarette, but then lit another, prompting a shoving match. Prebeza's brother jumped on a bouncer, and then Cesar Paz, who is described as a bouncer in the Post but as a barman in the Daily News, smashed Prebeza's head with a pool cue from behind.

Prebeza's family's lawyer said, "Regardless of what may have occurred inside, the kid did not have a weapon. The excessive amount of force used, especially since he was trying to flee and was already outside the club, was horrific." The family plans on suing Goldfingers for hiring Paz, who has a criminal history.

And in 2003, two patrons killed a bouncer at East Village club Guernica after the bouncer told them they couldn't smoke.

The properties in question are at 762-766 Pacific Street and 535 Carlton Avenue, an office building and a parking lot, owned by Henry Weinstein. Weinstein leased them for 48-years to Shaya Boymelgreen, a Brooklyn developer, and the contracts clearly stated that leases could not be sold and the properties could not be demolished. When FCR took over the properties, Weinstein joined the lawsuit against the Atlantic Projects.

Boymelgreen's lawyer tried to argue that Weinstein would eventually sell the properties to FCR was just holding out for more money from FCR. Develop - Don't Destroy Brooklyn, the anti-Atlantic Yards community group, find a silver lining by writing, "With full control restored to Mr. Weinstein, however, the cost of acquisition has likely increased ten-fold." In other words, anything to make FCR pay.

The NY Times notes some hilarity with Boymelgreen's attempts to tell Weinstein he wanted to sell the leases to FCR: "...Mr. Boymelgreen’s companies sent a letter to Mr. Weinstein asking permission to sell the leases to Forest City, but sent it to a wrong address. Ten days later, without having heard back from Mr. Weinstein, Mr. Boymelgreen’s companies transferred the leases to Forest City." Wow, we guess when you're a big developer, following up is not a big deal.

And Boymelgreen is so infamous in the community that there's a website devoted to how he's a horrible developer, Shaya is Coming. [Via Curbed]

In Congressional testimony in Washington D.C. yesterday, deputy NYPD commish Richard Falkenrath told lawmakers that he wakes up every morning braced for another terrorist attack. The method of attack? Simultaneous detonation of satchel bombs. Falkenrath, who was testifying in front of the Homeland Security Committee on a mass transit bill, also told House members that there have been 22 bomb threats and 31 leads related to subway attack plots this year. The proposed bill would set aside $4 billion for subway and rail security, including $100 million for tunnels in Penn Station.

While Falkenrath approved of the $100 million for Penn Station, there were plenty of things he didn't like in the bill:

"Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the field of homeland security has been gripped by a mania for plans, strategies and other mandatory reports. They are of almost no value to operating agencies in the field; and they seem to be ignored by virtually everyone except the government contractors paid to verify that the reporting requirements have been met."

In other transit news, running the Staten Island Ferry has gotten a lot more expensive recently. The city's Independent Budget Office released a report showing that ferry costs this year are $83.8 million, up from $69.4 million last year. Just 5 years ago, the operating cost was just $40.2 million. Most of the reasons for the huge increase are for safety and security. In addition to post-9/11 security upgrades, there are also increased costs for new rules established after the ferry crash in 2003.

Photo of the police during the no pants ride by icopythat on flickr

There may be hope for those that can't use the key-cards, as a Tishman Speyer spokesman told The Post that residents of both complexes would be given regular keys during the Sabbath. Tishman Speyer claims that they were unaware of the problem before. Since the new system went into effect at Peter Cooper, the Orthodox Jews are waiting for someone to let them in, walking to the security booths for assistance, not leaving their apartments, or staying with their relatives.

Residents have previously complained about management using the electronic keys to flush out illegal residents and they have to watch out for the Stuy Town spy.

Last week, the NY Sun mentioned Cully Long in an article about websites documenting people's thoughts about the subway. Long uses his commute between 125th Street and 59th Street along the A in Manhattan to sketch commuters he sees and posts the ballpoint pen sketches on his site, a child of atom.

Drawing and taking pictures on the subway is so common that it makes the attempted (and laughable) ban on subway photography seem almost quaint. But did you realize that the PATH system not only forbids photograph and videotaping but drawing also? The NYCLU told NY1, "People have been [taking pictures and videos] for a very long time. There is nothing wrong with it... We have never heard before of a prohibition on drawing in a public place. But it would be in the same category as a prohibition on photography, and we think that both of those prohibitions would be improper and perhaps illegal." And NY1 notes that the Port Authority wouldn't say if anyone had been "cited for drawing."

And Long, who works as a set designer, has compiled his sketches into a book called A Line: Sketch Portraits From The New York City Subway. It's $20 and available on Lulu.com.

Drawing by Cully Long

In anticipation of the state mathematics test that is being given this week and next, the NY Times has published the kinds of questions eighth-graders will face next week. The test is used to see "whether students have sufficiently mastered the material to move on to more advanced work in high school." In other words, it's a big deal.

The Times has all eight questions and answers and the questions seem manageable - but we say that having graduated high school. According to the Times, 53.9% of NY State students score at or above grade level; only 38.9% of NYC students score at or above grade level, while 82% of wealthier schools students' score at or above grade level.

If you're really ambitious, here's the whole test. And last fall, some parents started a website to complain about the inane fourth grade English test.

Public access to City Hall Park is about to get better. The Parks Department has agreed to reopen a part of the park that has been closed since the Giuliani Administration. The section of park in question includes the grassy areas to the east and west of Tweed Courthouse. The area directly around City Hall will still remain closed for security purposes.

The Sun reports that the gates on Broadway and Centre Street could be open as early as July and that additional gates will be opened on Chambers Street. The Chambers Street entrances would be closed when students at a charter school in the Tweed Courthouse arrive and are dismissed. Additional greenery and seating will be added near the subway station in the northeast corner of the park. One supporter of the move said that lower Manhattan "is so starved for park space. We fight for every square inch." Welcome to New York, buddy.

If you do go to the park, be sure not to reenact a movie scene while making gay porn. That could result in a lawsuit.

Photo of fountain in City Hall Park by Tien Mao

There's Joey Ramone Place and Peter Jennings Way. But getting a street named after the city's arguably most famous TV detective who was also a Broadway legend is no easy task. The NY Times has the full story about the quest for Jerry Orbach's name to grace a street corner. Specifically the corner of West 53rd and 8th Avenue, where he and his wife Elaine Orbach lived.

It turns out that Community Board 5, which controls the western edge of the intersection, doesn't like streets to be named after celebrities. Orbach's widow Elaine will be appealing to the board tomorrow, along with Orbach's 96-year-old mother (!) and one of their sons. From the Times:

[Elaine Orbach] said that after seeing how quickly a block of West 66th Street was named for Peter Jennings, the ABC News anchor who died seven months after Mr. Orbach, she assumed that getting a corner renamed was mostly a matter of asking. That notion was reinforced, she said, when a stretch of West 103rd Street was named last summer for Humphrey Bogart.

Indeed, the City Council, which can override a community board’s advisory opinion, renames blocks and street corners in bunches. In October, it passed a bill to honor 64 people that way, many of them victims and heroes of 9/11 whose names would adorn signs in boroughs other than Manhattan. (These renamings, which the Council calls co-namings, are symbolic and do not affect the actual names of city streets.)

But doesn't being named a Living Landmark count for anything? If CB5 rejects Elaine Orbach's and Jerry's old mother plea, all is not lost: Community Board 4 controls the other side of the street. But, really, the civic thing to do would be to name the street after Jerry.

Here are some Lennie Briscoe quote pages: Lennie Briscoe One Liners, the Quotable Lennie Briscoe and The Quotes. All of 'em are great: "All this evidence kind of takes the fun out of it.", ""He confessed so fast, I thought I'd have him do the paperwork.", and "My grandmother had an apartment like this, only it was on Delancy, not Madison." And here's a clip of Jerry Orbach singing "Try to Remember" from The Fantasticks.

Photograph of Jerry Orbach filming one of his last scenes as Detective Lennie Briscoe taken in 2004

One of the main things to look at when getting a new apartment is how close it is to the subway. Sometimes even taking one subway to work can become a time-eating endevour, but take a look at AMNY's piece on extreme commuters and you'll realize what some people go through to work in this city.

In the first of what they promise to be an ongoing series, we meet Julia Hecker who commutes 100 blocks each way to work. Not that unusual, however she does it by bike. Working at Mt. Sinai Hospital for 12 1/2 hour shifts, biking there and back each day in often freezing temperatures. With hardly ever hitting the breaks, the 100 blocks between her Lower East Side apartment and 101st Street is only around a 20 minute ride.

According to the U.S. Census, less than one percent of New Yorkers bike to work, a very low number in relation to other more bike-friendly cities in the world (Amsterdam is 30%). For Julia, her commute would be much easier and safer if the city followed through on plans for an East River bike path, the existing East Side bike path stops abruptly at 34th Street.

So how do you get to work?

Photo via the NY Sun, who in 2004 reported bike commuting into Manhattan reached a 20-year high.