Quote Of The Day - Michael Bloomberg

"If you want to raise taxes, don't pick one class of people and say, 'I think they have too much money' or 'I don't think they have enough money' or whatever. Raise everybody's taxes one or two percent or whatever. I think the president should literally go out there and say, 'This is what I propose - A, B, C and D.' And I think that should be a combination of revenue enhancements and expense cuts." - Mega-billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who doesn't want his taxes raised unless everybody's are.

BROOKLYN: Lesbian Sues For Sexual Harassment, Boss Says She's Too Ugly

Openly lesbian real estate worker Priscilla Agosto, 23, is suing her former employer for sexual harassment, saying she'd been physically and verbally humiliated by her coworkers. Agosto's boss responded to the suit by claiming that she is "too ugly" for anybody to have bothered her.

Priscilla Agosto ran a gauntlet of sexual humiliation - verbal and physical - in her 14 miserable months at People's Choice Realty, her suit against its three bosses says. No less than seven male employees made lewd advances at her - even after she complained to the bosses, she said in papers filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court. Her male co-workers exposed themselves, rubbed up against her and even asked for oral sex, she alleges. And they even offered $500 to watch her have sex with her girlfriend, she said. "I hope and pray that by sharing my story, anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation will have the courage to speak up," said Agosto. Odelia Berlianshik, the owner of the Williamsburg firm, denied the charges - and launched a shocking attack on Agosto's appearance. "Who would touch her? She's an ugly girl anyway," she said of the former secretary. "She made up a story because she didn't want to work."

Photo Of The Day

The Second Avenue subway continues to sprout giant structures along my block. Whatever this thing is, a huge truck just drove down into it. I'm dragging you poor folks along on this decade-long project!

NEW YORK: Catholic Archdiocese Opposes Sex Education In Public Schools

It may be hard to believe, but sex education is currently not available to all public high school students in New York City. Each school is allowed to decide whether to offer the courses and only about half do. Bloomberg wants to change that, much to the outrage of busybodies from the Catholic Church.

In the first serious challenge to the city’s mandate, which was announced on Tuesday, a spokesman for the archdiocese said the church’s position was that parents, not the schools, should educate children about sex. “Parents have the right and the responsibility to be the first and primary educators of their children,” Joseph Zwilling, director of communications for the archdiocese, wrote in a statement. “This mandate by the city usurps that role, and allows the public school system to substitute its beliefs and values for those of the parents.”

The Catholic League's reliably whacko Bill Donahue weighs in:

There is a sex-education program that could work, and it is one that is similar to the approach being used to discuss smoking. We don't tell kids not to smoke and then instruct them on the proper way to inhale. No, we show them horrifying pictures of a smoker's lungs. We tell them of the physical pain they are likely to endure by smoking. We tell them how it will shorten their life expectancy. We could do the same when discussing sexual experimentation at a young age. We could discuss how abortion affects the psyche of the mother who elects to terminate her baby. We could show pictures of what abortion does to the child being cut up into pieces. We could instruct them on the link between unwed motherhood and poverty. We could inform them of the greater likelihood of acquiring a sexually transmitted disease. In other words, we could teach the negative real-life consequences of sexual experimentation at a young age.

Photo Of The Day

Several blocks of midtown Manhattan were shut down this afternoon after a suicidal man (light blue shirt) somehow clambered over the 12-foot glass wall on the 70th floor viewing deck of 30 Rock. Police were able to coax the man to safety after a "very tense hour."



(Photo via - Buzzfeed)

Conde Elevator

A newly viral Twitter account taken verbatim from the elevator at Conde Naste.

NYC Picks Honeymoon Winners

New York City's official tourism agency has chosen one couple from each of the five boroughs as the winners of a honeymoon package. The winners were selected from the more than 650 couples who tied the knot on the first day of legalized same-sex marriage. And it turns out that one of the winning couples is straight.

Sacha Jessamy and Sharif Allen, a straight couple whose wedding website says they first said ‘I do’ at the Astoria World Manor on October 24, 2009, were among the throngs of couples who took the leap on Sunday, July 24th. Nearly all of the 659 couples who received a marriage license in the five boroughs on that history-making day were gays and lesbians but a handful of straight couples joined them. And one of those couples is walking away with swag. Jessamy and Allen are among five couples — one from each borough — who were selected from a lottery to get a honeymoon package from the city’s tourism agency, NYC & Co.

Proposed Toll: $15 To Enter Manhattan

This is an old ploy by the Port Authority. Propose an insane toll increase and then "settle" for one that feels entirely reasonable by comparison.

The cost of crossing the bridges and tunnels that span the Hudson River to New York City could rise by 50 percent for many drivers under a steep series of toll increases to be proposed on Friday by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, according to two people familiar with the plans. A $4 toll increase for E-ZPass users could go into effect as soon as September on the three major Hudson River crossings – the George Washington Bridge and the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels – as well as three other bridges between New Jersey and Staten Island, the Bayonne and Goethals Bridges and the Outerbridge Crossing. The biggest increase by far would be felt by drivers who pay in cash: cash tolls on those crossings would be raised by $7, to $15 a trip. (By comparison, a cash toll on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge currently costs $13.) About 25 percent of drivers on the Port Authority crossings currently pay in cash.

The Port Authority also calls for raising the PATH train fare by one dollar.

Big Expansion For Ali Forney Center

The New York City Council has awarded the Ali Forney Center the contract to take over a floundering 20-bed facility for homeless youth. Along with the contract comes a $620K grant. Julie Bolcer reports at the Advocate:

"We are grateful to have the additional shelter beds,” said Carl Siciliano, the executive director of the Ali Forney Center, in a telephone interview this week. “It is a terrible thing to see so many LGBT youth forced to survive out in the streets while they wait for beds. We hope to have the new site opened by October so fewer kids will have to suffer in the cold this winter." The most recent census funded by the City Council in 2007, prior to the current economic crisis, found that almost 4,000 homeless and runaway youths live in New York City. An estimated 40% of them are believed to be LGBT, a segment of homeless youngsters at elevated risk for HIV infection and suicide attempts.

Siciliano said city officials contacted him several weeks ago about taking over the shelter contract, and they agreed to a grant to prevent his organization from having to front any expenses. Located in two adjoining houses in the Sunset Park neighborhood, the fully furnished shelter will bring to 77 the total number of emergency and longer-term transitional beds managed mostly in Brooklyn by the Ali Forney Center, but the organization still has a waiting list of 180 young people.

The Bodega Cats Of New York City

RELATED: If it weren't for Shelley, I'd have likely tried to steal the semi-feral one-eared old tom that rules the bodega on my corner. His name is Harvey Fierstein due to his battle-scarred voice.

The Rent Is Too Damn Low

Gadfly tenant activist Jimmy McMillan, whose campaign for New York governor charmed many, is being evicted from his apartment. You may recall that McMillan ran on the Rent Is Too Damn High ticket. In a switch, McMillan says his landlord is kicking him out because his rent is too damn low.

Jimmy McMillan says he pays $872.96 for a rent-controlled ground-floor apartment on St. Marks Place in the East Village -- which he's had since the late-1970s, when the rent was around $275. But the man who founded the tenants-rights party says his landlords are giving him the boot so they can pull in way more dough. "I've been here since 1977, and they want more money!" McMillan said. "It's about 'My Rent is Too Damn Low.'" So McMillan now has a new crusade -- waging a legal battle to keep the hipster-haven apartment he shares with his adult son -- a mission that meshes well with the credo of his populist political party.

McMillan says he's running for president in 2012.

SOLD: Hotel Chelsea

Manhattan's Hotel Chelsea, arguably the most famed home of New York City's arts legends, has been sold and is closed.

Saturday night was, by all indications, the last night that the Chelsea Hotel on West 23rd Street would be open to guests, though the duration of the closing, the first in its history, was unknown. The building is to be sold for over $80 million to the developer Joseph Chetrit, though the deal had not closed as of Sunday, according to someone close to the matter, who asked not to be named because the negotiations were confidential. Extensive renovations are expected to take at least a year. The hotel's 100 permanent residents will be allowed to stay, but they have been told nothing beyond what the startled hotel workers learned late last week: that all reservations after Saturday were canceled.

The New York Times reminisces:

A palpable heaviness lingers, especially in the first-floor room where Nancy Spungen was staying with her boyfriend, Sid Vicious, when she was stabbed to death in 1978. Artists, photographers, composers and producers still live there, making the place part art colony, part living museum. Residents say the hotel’s character shifted irrevocably after its lionized former manager and part-owner, Stanley Bard, was ousted by the hotel’s board of directors four years ago. Mr. Bard had acted as curator, deciding who got to stay and how much would be paid, and overseeing the hotel during the days when the likes of Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen and Robert Crumb roamed its halls. Residents said the hotel’s occupancy and room rates had suffered since Mr. Bard’s departure, with celebrities and artists replaced by budget tourists.

I've actually been in the very room where Sid stabbed Nancy. Definitely spooky.

BRONX: Elderly Catholic Priest Busted For Molesting Teenage Girl

Father Jaime Duenas was busted inside his own rectory yesterday and charged with molesting a teenage girl.

“She didn’t protest to getting a massage,” Duenas said in his cell before his arraignment last night, according to prosecutors. “She was wearing short skirts.” Duenas was arraigned last night on charges of sexual abuse, forcible touching and endangering the welfare of a child. He was released without bond. The judge ordered the priest to stay away from the victim.

Duenas is 87.

Hard Hats & Microphones

Second Avenue subway construction worker Gary Russo spends his break time entertaining passersby with his Frank Sinatra impression. This clip was shot less than a block from my apartment, but I've not yet heard Gary in person.

(Tipped by JMG reader Alan)

Photo Of The Day - Queens Hail

Baseball-sized hail pelted parts of Queens yesterday, smashing cars and home windows.

Kelsey Grammer Mulls NYC Mayoral Bid

Actor Kelsey Grammer is reportedly considering running for mayor of New York City. The very conservative Grammer would run as a Republican and is said to have a $100M personal fortune from which he could draw. The 56 year-old was most recently in the news when he married his fourth wife, age 29, after a very public and bitter falling out with wife number three.

Al Jazeera: Now On The Air In NYC

Beginning today, Al Jazeera will broadcast (in English) on NYC's Time-Warner Cable channel 92. Gothamist reports that this is the network's "first distribution on any major cable or satellite system in the United States." (The NYT points out that the network is also currently subleasing space on a DC cable system.)

Gay Weddings In Central Park!

On a gorgeous cloudless day, today dozens of gay couples married in the shade of two "pop-up chapels" in Central Park, with our own Father Tony officiating at two of the ceremonies. Above are newlyweds Jen and Rose, moments after Father Tony made it legal. Below, John and Rob exchange rings. Also on hand were hair and make-up artists who donated their time and materials. The day was emceed by openly gay television personality Dave Holmes. (Lots and lots of photos from today are here.)
RELATED: As informal a day as this was, I was especially struck by how respectful passersby became once they grokked what was going down. Throngs of tourists lined the barricades at all times, quieting down when the chapels were active, then erupting in cheers when they could see that each ceremony was complete. It was a beautiful thing to witness.

Height Comparison

(Source)

NEW YORK CITY: Lesbian Sues Queens Sizzler Claiming Anti-Gay Harassment

Lambda Legal is suing a Sizzler restaurant after a lesbian customer reported that she was assaulted by the manager who also used anti-gay slurs.

Lambda Legal charges in the suit that the frightening encounter ensued after the manager accused Liza Friedlander of not paying for the buffet during brunch with friends at the Forest Hills Sizzler last September. The suit, filed in Queens Supreme Court, says the manager shoved Friedlander in the chest and kicked her in the legs while calling her a "fucking dyke" and other epithets. The suit contends the attack set off a frenzy of hateful chants from other patrons, spurring Friedlander's friends to frantically dial 911 out of fear she would be killed. One male diner called Friedlander a "he-she freak" and demanded she leave. Friedlander said it left her shaken. "Just because I don't appear to be the Sizzler manager's idea of what a woman should look like doesn't mean that gives him permission to attack me and allow other customers to join in," Friedlander said.

The restaurant manager denies everything and says Friedlander "freaked out" after being told the brunch buffet period had ended.