Results tagged “consumeraffairs”

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Austin Rd. in Queens, another bank robbery on Church Ave. in Brooklyn, and a police car vs. scaffolding in Manhattan; the scaffolding has been compromised.
• A Queens high school was locked down this afternoon for two hours after a student's 'To Do' list was found listing seven students "To kill today."
• The projected cost of restoring the separate homes that constitute Admiral's Row at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
• Alcides Moreno, who fell more than 40 stories in an accident that killed his brother, has been yawning and moving his arms and legs.
• The owner of Central Park Carriage and Horse Stables and the managers of Wicker Park Cafe and Bistro and Penang on Columbus Circle were arrested for attempting to bribe a Consumer Affairs inspector, hoping he'd overlook multiple violations.
• A $10,000 security system is being installed at the Wollman Rink in Prospect Park after thieves broke into the skating facility's concession stand last week.
• The ad sales execs at NBC are getting tricky by placing AmEx bumper spots featuring cast members of Tina Fey's "30 Rock" that segue directly from the show.

Starting at noon, pedicab owners began a protest down Broadway to voice their opposition to a new city law that started today. Pedicab owners sued the city yesterday in state Supreme Court, claiming the Department of Consumer Affairs distrusted licenses for pedicabs unlawfully. A law passed earlier this year, which pedicab drivers protested, limits the number of pedicab licenses to 325 and preference was supposed to be given to existing pedicab owners before any other operators.

As history tells it, in the early 1900s "the presence of 120,000 horses in New York City was declared 'an economic burden, an affront to cleanliness, and a terrible tax upon human life.'" Today the horses are fewer (there are 221 licensed horses, 293 drivers and 68 licensed carriages), and a bit more popular -- albeit amongst the tourist set.

As we mentioned, City Councilman Charles Barron held his press conference yesterday to announce his candidacy for the 2009 Brooklyn Borough Presidency. He told the crowds that his platform included affordable housing, health care accessibility, more jobs, standing up to developers who use eminent domain, ending mayor control of schools and more would help everyone. "Am I going to be a borough president for all the people? Absolutely. But I'm letting y'all know now, I'm taking care of black folk. Unapologetically."

Sometimes, a middling restaurant can be where everyone wants to dine - if it has outdoor seating. Last week, WNBC's Andrew Siff had a story on the rise of al fresco dining in the city and had some interesting statistics. And we also liked that al fresco diners use their laptops during dinner.

New York Shitty's Miss Heather let us know that this adorable cat named Julie needs a new home. Miss Heather rescued the husky and healthy adult cat from terrible conditions last December and found a temporary home for her. Miss Heather writes:

Well, her temporary home (a local bodega) ended up being just that: temporary. Although the owners of this store (and their landlord) love her dearly, the decision to let her go was not theirs to make: someone saw fit to call the Department of Consumer Affairs and complain about her.

Continue reading "Bodega's Mouser Needs a New Home"

The Manhattan DA's office announced that thirteen people were indicted in a identity theft scam. Credit card information from diners in Chinatown and other areas (Brooklyn, Westchester, Long Island, Florida, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Connecticut) would be stolen by wait staff, using handheld credit card skimmers. A list of restaurants where the scam took place was not released.

When David Clarke of Queens received information from a bank about a $180,000 second mortgage on his Rosedale house - a mortgage he never applied for - he decided to contact the police. And Queens authorities found a Brooklyn couple who had been using Clarke's identity to buy a home in Long Island. Yesterday, the Queens D.A.'s office charged Emerick and Donna Martin with identity theft, second-degree grand larceny, first-degree scheme to defraud and much more for scams that totaled $1 million. Here are the crazy details from the Queens D.A.'s press release:

District Attorney Brown said that, according to the charges, the defendants took out two mortgages, totaling $1,123,000, on a residence located at 266 Pine Acres Boulevard in Dix Hills, Long Island, using the name and social security number of the victim, David Clarke. Thereafter, on December 19, 2006, it is charged, the defendants, posing as David Clarke and Donna Clarke, and a third unapprehended individual, went to a Westbury, Long Island, mortgage broker and requested a second mortgage of $180,000 on the real Mr. Clarke’s Rosedale property. At the mortgage closing on January 11, 2007, the defendants allegedly presented a forged driver’s license in the name of David Clarke and completed the paperwork by supplying the actual loan number, job information, telephone number and addresses of the real Mr. Clarke.

This is plain crazy. The NY Post reports that a quartet of foreigners who now live in the United States were forced to pay an 18% tip by SoHo restaurant Aquagrill. The group, who did order in "accented English," questioned the gratuity and was told by the waiter, "We do that because you're foreign, and foreigners don't tip."

According to the woman at the Attorney General's office, no, you are not entitled to that information. It is logical that you would want that before a potential tenant moved into your apartment, in order to check their credit history and financial status. However, if they are already in the apartment, then you have to just settle with a cell phone number AND an alternate phone number. (Cell phone numbers have this funny way of getting cut off). This alternate number can just be their home number.

In 1926, New York City sought to "limit interaction among the races and control public lewdness”...and in came the Cabaret Laws. This limited dancing to specially licensed public spaces serving food or drink where three or more persons congregated.

As the city examines how to regulate bouncers, the NYPD revealed that it found 41 "unlicensed security guards" working at 42 bars last weekend. And some of the bouncers had "previous arrest records for everything from rape to illegal gun possession and drug charges," according to the Post. The City Council has been holding hearings about tougher regulation, and bar owners are cooperative, but want regulations to apply to security personnel only (so a server or bartender could have a criminal record?). The legislation would give the police and Department of Consumer Affairs the power to shut down an establishment with unlicensed bouncers or bouncers with records; the NYPD is also looking to define a guard as "anyone who might be called upon to break up a fight, such as a host or hostess, and making bar owners keep detailed records of who is on duty at any given time."

The head of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation has resigned, after months of controversy over the memorial's ballooning costs and lower-than-expected fundraising. To be fair, many of these factors seem to be out of Dykstra's control, considering how many players (we're tempted to say a cast of hundreds) bickered over the situation. The NY Times printed this excerpt from her resignation letter:

There is general agreement that the multiplicity of authorities and the unclear roles has made it difficult for anyone to move expeditiously...Perhaps it would help if there was one less player. Therefore, it is with sadness and regret that I hereby tender my resignation, effective immediately.

Another signal that the World Trade Center memorial is mired in a big mess: The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, which has been raising money for the memorial, is stopping their fundraising efforts as they try to under the cost of the project. Last week's revelation that construction firm Bovis estimated the cost to be near $1 billion, and everyone was all sorts of upset. The foundation said, "It's only fair to donors to be able to expressly say how their money will be used and how much the project will cost," and said the foundation would continue once "the foundation, the city, the state, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey were all 'on the same page,'" per the NY Times. Well, the city, NY state and NJ state want the foundation to continue their job, with Governor Pataki's office saying, "The mayor and the governors are already on the same page. The memorial foundation should focus on their most important task - fundraising."

Ooh, the Department of Consumer Affairs is going to allow "unenclosed cafes" to place nonpropane heaters - think sidewalk cafes! The Post gets confirmation from the DCA that they're looking to make the heaters legal, and this is good news, especially after reading the Steve Cuozzo's suggestions for sidewalk dining the other week and how restaurants jump at installing them, because they are the "cheapest real estate in Manhattan." Gothamist loves sidewalk dining - great people watching, the din of the street is sometimes preferable to too-loud restaurants, and sometimes dogs will eat our scraps! One of our favorite stretches of sidewalk dining is West Broadway in Tribeca, where you can try your luck at getting seats at Odeon, Petite Abeille (we live for their rich macaroni and cheese with ham as it's the ultimate in comfort food), and Edwards. What about you?

A judge ruled that dating service Great Expectations should refund the thousands of dollars two women paid to find the right guy because Great Expectations wasn't all that great. The service has its members create video and profiles, and claims to introduce members to each other, but for two NYC women, it came up way short. Judge Diane Lebedeff from the Civil Court said that Great Expectations was "massively overcharging" clients and that the agency "violated every mandate of the Dating Services Law!" Quick, someone who has a grasp of the law, let us know what that is exactly! GE claims that since they are an Internet dating firm, they are outside the Dating Services Law. Anyway, we went to a Consumer Affairs website and found Debra's complaint:

I paid $3,800 for the promise of 12 'dates', referred to as personal shoppers by Great Expectations ("GE"). I have been a member of this organization for 2 years and have not had one date. In my opinion GE is an unprofessional, completely disorganized service organization that provided no services. My phone calls were rarely returned. Over the past two years, when selections were made by me or one of my five personal shoppers, there was no follow-up.

Continue reading "Internet Dating Site Under Fire for Not Setting Up Clients"

Double-decker tour buses have in the past decade become a standard part of the average tourist's trip to the Big Apple. You see them everywhere in Manhattan and in the past few years they've even made it out to the wilds of Brooklyn. Sometimes when you're standing on a corner you can catch a snippet of the what a tour guide is telling their innocent charges, but other than that the average New Yorker has little to no idea what is actually getting said about our fair city to our thousands of visitors. So it was interesting for us to see in the today's Daily News an exposé on the validity of the average double-decker bus tour.

Updated street vending rules are, according to the Daily News, causing many vendors to worry for their livelihoods. Last month the city changed the fine schedule for street vendors, upping the maximum fine from $250 to $1,000. A Department of Consumer Affairs spokeswoman explained that "the old fine schedule had not been changed in more than 20 years and ceased to be an effective deterrent."

movie start times are - sans previews and commercials and warnings about being noisy in the theater that people never heed - is considered, apparently some people think the bill is silly. Shockingly, some of this contigent is made up of theater owners, who would get less pre-movie advertising if less people will be in the seats. But the Assident Consumer Affairs Commissioner Pauline Toole said that an informal survey of New Yorkers says the ads are only a "petty annoyance," plus "think that previews are a treat." Hmm, well, as far as we can tell, Loews is still moving forward with testing real movie start times in the next few months. And Gothamist would like to propose an addenda to any bill about movie start times: Patrons cannot bring in pungent food. It's not Smell-O-Vision.

This weekend brings Passover to New York City, and the City is ready: Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced a few initiatives to make sure Pesach is peaceful. First, security will be increased with more police foot patrols and security at synagogues; plus the police will patrol "sensitive" areas in certain neighborhoods. The City's Bureau of Consumer Affairs also wants to crack down on price gouging of Passover related items, so they're asking for residents to fill out this form. Finally, the Department of Sanitation will have more trucks available to pick up food in the pre-Passover/Chometz ritual - aka, ridding the house of bread products. Just think, these are pre-Atkins traditions! Perhaps this is an opportunity to do a little spring cleaning yourselves.

To be on the safe side, you should consider your designs art. It's probably a good idea to apply for a permit to sell anything on the streets, just in case. of Ask Gothamist have applied for permits in the past; the process takes a few weeks, but is generally painless. It's worth it to avoid getting shut down or being forced to pay fines.

-Tina, Inwood

Gawker has a report of the celebrity filled Downtown Seder that included a depressing Lou Reed. Lloyd Grove says that there was a Perry Farrell video of him performing "Dayenu," which someone needs to put online.

Commissioner of Consumer Affairs Gretchen Dykstra says, "This proposal promotes a lively nightlife without requiring a license to dance, and most importantly, it will improve the quality-of-life in neighborhoods and strengthen enforcement to effectively deal with poorly managed places." The bars and nightclubs will also have to make sure the streets outsides their establishments are "clean and free of unruly and noisy crowds.

The Mayor, Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications Commissioner Gino Menchini, and Department of Consumer Affairs Commissioner Gretchen Dykstra want to know about your cell phone service, specifically where your cell phone's dead zones are. This initiative to improve New Yorkers' cell phone service comes as users will be able to switch providers while keeping their numbers. Some of the Mayor's remarks from the press conference:

The city wants to increase rents for restaurants with sidewalk seating by 400%. Jesus, I say we start a petitrion now. Or we email Department of Consumer Affairs.