IN THE CITY, SEX IS A RICH EXPERIENCE; Borough Of Queens Sits Atop the Lust List

Monday, January 20, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN and PAUL SCHWARTZMAN, Daily News Staff Writers

The rich are different from the rest of us and not just because they have more money. They have more sex, more fantasies about sex and more sex partners. But, then again, so do people living in Queens.

Yes, Queens, that bastion of single-family homes and front lawns, is New York’s most libidinous borough, edging out the reputedly licentious Manhattan and putting Staten Island positively to shame.

So say the findings of the Daily News lifestyle poll on matters sexual.

Overall, the poll found, New Yorkers’ sexual appetites tend more toward the regular than ravenous.

And their thinking is more conventional than kinky on questions like when it’s appropriate to lose your virginity.

“We might like to think of ourselves as being wilder than the rest of the country, but we’re not,” said Julie Weprin, of Blum & Weprin, which conducted the poll.

Still, respondents revealed a wide array of habits and attitudes. Not surprising, perhaps, men and women differ on everything from the frequency of sex to the number of partners.

More surprising, perhaps, the number of New Yorkers not having sex is almost twice the national average.

There also are differences according to age, ethnicity, education, income and residence.

Now, then, everything you wanted to know about New York’s sex life but didn’t know where to ask:

The Don Juan Index

Maybe it’s the potholes, or those long subway rides home, but New Yorkers are not frequent lovers.

Less than half 46% say they have sex at least once a week, and only 20% report three to five sexual encounters weekly.

A tiny minority 4% say they have sex daily, while nearly one in five say they have not had sex in the last year.

The poll also found that New Yorkers, by and large, are not promiscuous.

About half 44% say they have had five or fewer sex partners in their lives, with four being the median number. A minority 15% say they’ve had more than 10 partners, and about the same number report having had only one.

Men vs. Women

Look at how male and female New Yorkers describe their sex lives, and you could fairly conclude that one is from Mars and the other, Venus.

New York men report they have sex far more often than New York women. Nearly 60% of men say they have sex at least once a week, but only 36% of women do. And very few men admit to having had no sex over the past year, compared with a quarter of women.

Men also claim to get around far more than women. Nearly 30% say they’ve had more than 10 partners, but only 4% of women do.

“Men are told from when they’re kids to be with a lot of women,” said Eddie Assad, 45, a Staten Island electrician who claimed he has had 60 sex partners. “It starts in school, how’d you do with this girl, how’d you do with that girl. I don’t think it’s like that for girls.”

Edna Dyepp, 75, of Brooklyn, said she has had only two sex partners in her life her first and second husbands.

“I can only be with one man at a time,” she said. “Men like to prove themselves by being with many women. Women have other ways, cooking or cleaning.”

How the Boroughs Stack Up

While the results were close, Queens residents said they have sex the most, with half the poll respondents reporting they have sex at least once a week. Following by a hair were Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan.

“I’m at a loss to explain it, but I guess it’s a good thing,” chuckled Sherman King, 30, a UPS supervisor who lives in Laurelton, Queens, with his wife and children. “Maybe we got more married people, or more younger people. I know it’s not the air or the water that does it.”

Staten Islanders, on the other hand, may be the borough of the perpetual bedtime migraine. Slightly more than a third of Staten Islanders say they have sex at least once a week. And a quarter have had only one sex partner.

“Maybe it’s the garbage dumps out here, the aroma will kill your desire,” said Edith Jones, 83, a retired nursing attendant who lives on Staten Island. “Who wants to be involved in any pleasure with all that stuff around?”

The Money Factor

No one is more sexually active than those earning more than $ 100,000 a year. Nearly 70% of the big earners say they have sex at least once a week. And almost half have had six or more lovers.

Nearly one in five say they have had more than 20 lovers.

Russ Brink, 28, a Queens businessman, earns more than $ 100,000 and says he has had 20 sex partners.

But he says it has nothing to do with money.

“I had all my partners before I started working, when I was in college,” said Brink, who attended Oneonta College. “College was all about going to bars and meeting women. You were bound to sleep with five or six in a year. All you had to do was keep drinking.”

New York’s wealthiest are more likely to have carnal daydreams, with 14% saying they regularly fantasize about sex. In contrast, only 5% of those earning between $ 10,000 and $ 25,000 say they daydream about sex.

When to Start

The prevailing view is that young people should wait until they are at 17 to 19 years old before they have sex. But that attitude is not shared equally among New Yorkers of all ages. For example, most poll respondents under 30 said they think it appropriate to begin having sex in the late teen years.

“If you start at 18, it gives you experience,” said Jose Ramos, 22, a plumbing salesman from Sunset Park, Brooklyn. “I started when I was 15, I can’t remember who it was, but I think that was maybe too early. I could have made a mistake, gotten the girl pregnant, then what would have happened?”

Elderly New Yorkers, on the other hand, feel that young people should wait until they are married before having sex.

“I’m from the old school, people shouldn’t do it unless they’re married,” said one Queens respondent who asked to be identified only as Pauline, 75. “That’s the way I was brought up. Morally, it’s the thing to do. It’s proper.”

Getting to Know You

More than half 65% say couples should date for at least a year before getting married. Blacks show the most support for long-term courtship, with 75% saying couples should be involved for at least a year before heading to the altar. Fewer than 60% of whites and 46% of Jews agree.

“You need at least a year to really know someone, so you don’t rush into anything and make mistakes,” said Mary Gonzolez, 26, a children’s store manager from Queens.

At the same time, though, Gonzolez is unlike most New Yorkers 54% who believe couples should live together before marrying.

Respondents earning more than $ 100,000 are the most likely to endorse cohabitation. But less than half of those earning between $ 10,000 and $ 25,000 agree. And men are more likely than women to favor the idea, by 62% to 47%.

“If you live together, there’s less incentive to get married,” Gonzolez said. “Then marriage is just a piece of paper, it’s not something that you grow into.”

Sidebar: ITS OWN WORLD

Staten Island has the fewest people who:

Have sex at least once a week.

Have had more than five sexual partners in their lives.

Say 17 is a good age to start having sex.

Say living together before marriage is a good idea.

Admit having affairs.

It has the most people who:

Have had one sex partner.

Say you should be married before having sex.

Say it’s wrong to have an affair.

Would tell if the spouse of a good friend were having an affair.

Sidebar: NEW YORK CITY vs. AMERICA

Look to your left on the subway, look to your right nearly one out of every five of your fellow straphangers hasn’t had sex in the last year.

According to the Daily News poll, 18% of New Yorkers say they have gone that long without making love.

That statistic is nearly double the national average.

In other respects, though, New Yorkers are typical Americans. They have sex with about the same frequency and have about the same number of partners as everyone else.

“They are neither more or less sexually active than the larger number of folks in the society,” said John Gagnon, a sociologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and co-author of “Sex in America,” a comprehensive 1994 study of sexual behavior.

Why, then, does the city have so many people going without sex for so long?

The answer is likely the city’s demographic composition.

“There are more single people and elderly people in New York, and those are the people who tend to have the least sex,” Gagnon said.

Notes: Graphics by TRINE GIAEVER DAILY NEWS are not available electronically.

Graphics include:

NEW YORKERS WHO SAY THEY HAVE SEX AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK

NUMBER OF SEX PARTNERS

SEX AND MONEY

WHEN TO START

Series: NEW YORKERS THIS IS YOUR LIFE. Second of five parts.

City Shoppers Do the (Tax) Waive

January 19, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN and DEAN CHANG, Daily News Staff Writers

The Great Sales Tax Experiment began yesterday in a deep-freeze frenzy, as cost-conscious shoppers and media-conscious politicians flooded city stores to be among the first to cash in on the one-week tax waiver on clothing.

“That’s why we’re here,” said Darryl Grayson of Manhattan, his arms filled with dress shirts and ties at Macy’s at Herald Square.

“We wanted to try to beat the rush, so we got here when the store opened at 10 a.m., but I guess a lot of people had the same idea,” he said.

Under the moratorium, the 8.25% city and state sales tax is being waived on clothing purchases under $500. The waiver is expected to cost the state $20 million in lost tax revenue, but supporters, including Gov. Pataki and Mayor Giuliani, contend that the loss would be offset by employment and economy gains.

“If you drop this tax, you are going to bring more commercial activity to New York City,” said Giuliani.

But the new math seemed to puzzle some retailers and shoppers, unsure of what was taxable and what wasn’t.

“Everyone keeps asking, ‘Is this taxable? Is that taxable?’ so we’ve got to check the list,” said Karina Gonzalez, a Macy’s sales associate. “The minute we came in yesterday, they gave us the list.”

New Yorkers — always dubious of bargains that seem too good to be true — still had their complaints about the tax waiver. Some found fault with the weather, wondering why the state and city couldn’t spend their generosity in, say, April or May.

Others also found fault with the timing of the waiver.

Jacqueline Baird, a Daily News reader from Manhattan, said her credit cards were still overburdened with purchases she had made before Christmas.

Marilyn Dankins, 25, of Brooklyn, complained that the best of the winter clothes are long gone.

“They do this right after the holidays, when there’s no new clothing in the stores. They’re weeding out all the winter clothes, so all that’s left is leftovers.”

Still, she yielded to temptation and bought a pair of $40 gloves that were 50% off. Without the tax, she paid $19.99.

The tax waiver temporarily puts New York on an even footing with New Jersey and Connecticut, which imposes no tax on clothing. Dankins, like many shoppers yesterday, admitted traveling out of state just to get a better deal on clothes.

So throughout the city, clothing retailers tried to capitalize on the tax hiatus. Department stores put up tax-free signs throughout their buildings and in newspaper ads; smaller off-price stores made do with handmade signs.

“Everybody knows about it already,” said Susie Song, manager of Jumping Jumping Casuals and Sharon, two clothing stores on W. 34th St.

“On Friday, everyone was already asking me to not charge them sales tax. I told them I couldn’t, that they should take it up with the government.”

Yesterday, it wouldn’t have been very hard to find a member of the government.

In Astoria, Queens, City Council Speaker Peter Vallone shopped for a new tuxedo, shirts and ties on Steinway St.

In Manhattan Mall, Giuliani heralded the tax-free week by sounding a gong in the mall’s lower level, then headed to Modell’s, where he dropped $95.48 for Knicks home and away jerseys for his son, Yankees World Championship turtleneck for his daughter, a jogging bra for his wife and a pair of gloves and some socks for himself.

Giuliani then went to The Children’s Place, topping off his tax-free day with a purple shirt and multi-colored leggings for his daughter.

“It’s a Valentine’s Day gift,” said the mayor. “If you can keep it a secret.”

Total tax savings for the mayor: $9.36.

Gov. Pataki brought his wife, Libby, and his 12-year-old daughter, Emily, to Macy’s at Herald Square for some winter clothes.

In 20 minutes, the governor dropped $151.39 on a winter wardrobe — gloves, mittens, a scarf, three turtlenecks, a sweater and a light jacket. Total tax savings: $12.49.

“It’s a great way to shop,” said Pataki.

Better still, Pataki and Giuliani enjoyed more than a tax-free day; they also took advantage of something that mere mortal shoppers can only dream of — shopping without cash-register lines.

In both cases, stores magically opened up lines and registers for the governor and mayor of New York.

Rudy: Shed Half Of Clothes Tax

January 12, 1997

by MIKE CLAFFEY and MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writers

Mayor Giuliani yesterday revived his call for 2-cent cut in the city sales tax on clothing buys — and vowed to press for approval even if the state doesn’t match the reduction.

In an election year bid aimed at city shoppers and stores, Giuliani said he will include plans to halve the city’s 4-cent share of the 8.25% levy in the State of the City address he will deliver on Tuesday.

The reduction, which requires state Legislature approval, would apply to all clothing purchases under $500.

Unlike last year, when the mayor scrapped a similar plan because Albany leaders balked at halving the state’s 4-cent share, Giuliani said he will seek state Legislature approval for a unilateral cut.

“The proposal we’re going to make to them is: I’m willing to cut the New York City sales tax in half, no matter what they do. I can’t see how they can deny us the opportunity to do that,” Giuliani said.

“I believe that there is a very good chance that we will, by Dec. 1, be able to cut our sales tax in half,” added Giuliani, who predicted the plan would stem the flow of shoppers to New Jersey and other localities with no or low sales tax on clothing.

Many shoppers and storeowners cheered Giuliani’s plan — even as it remained unclear whether the projected economic benefit would outweigh the loss of city sales tax income and expand city budget gaps.

“I absolutely think it would help,” said Nancy Ponce, manager of a Conway discount clothing store in Manhattan. “If you buy one item, it’s not really that much. But if you spend a lot of money, it adds up.”

Deborah Morton, a baker from Brooklyn, said “anything is better than nothing.”

The announcement was the latest in escalating calls for tax cuts as the city and state reap higher revenues generated by Wall Street’s bull market. City Council Speaker Peter Vallone (D-Queens) proposed cutting the sales tax on household goods like soap, toothpaste and diapers.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Pataki, who yesterday unveiled his own $3.4 billion proposal to cut property taxes and boost school aid, said the governor would would study Giuliani’s plan carefully. “The governor is always interested in reducing taxes,” said spokeswoman Eileen Long.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) issued similar signals of approval.

Giuliani estimated the plan would cost the city $70 million in lost sales tax revenue during the 1997-98 city fiscal year and $150 million the following year. Despite new projections of a $500 million surplus by July, the city still faces an estimated $2 billion deficit for next fiscal year.

But the mayor predicted the sales tax cut would more than pay for itself.

Original Story Date: 01/12/97

THE ZERO PROBLEM; Computer Glitch May Byte Big Apple

January 3, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN and GEORGE MANNES, Daily News Staff Writers

New York City is facing a mother of all computer glitches that could cause key city services to crash in the next two years. Welfare, pension and payroll checks for thousands of New Yorkers may be mailed or computed incorrectly, or stop flowing from government coffers.

Computers that handle vital information, from birth certificates to tax assessments, also could go on the blink.

The problem is in mainframe computers that use just two digits to store dates and aren’t programed beyond the 20th century. In three years, when the calendar changes to a “00” year, the computers will read 1900, not 2000.

The computers then could assume that a driver’s license set to expire Feb. 1, 2000, had expired 100 years earlier.

Known as the Year 2000, or Y2K, problem, it affects thousands of computers nationwide and has sparked a huge effort in corporate America to solve the problem.

But the city is far behind some private corporations in coming to grips with the glitch.

New York won’t even have a full assessment of what needs to be done until June, the Daily News has learned.

“Every New Yorker that depends upon the city to send a check could be at risk of not receiving that check,” said City Councilman Andrew Eristoff (R-Manhattan), chairman of the Council Task Force on Technology in Government.

Donna Lynne, director of the mayor’s Office of Operations, said the city is set to hire a consultant this month to inventory city computer systems and assess what needs to be fixed, and at what cost.

If city agencies are saying at this late date that they’re still assessing the situation, “they’re probably dead meat,” said Howard Rubin, chairman of the Hunter College computer science department and a nationally recognized expert on the Year 2000 problem.

Computer programs tripped up by the date could grind to a halt or spit out unpredictably inaccurate data.

If agencies don’t tackle the Y2K problem, said Steve Newman, first deputy city controller, “all kinds of financial analysis, budget analysis, would just be wrong.”

Some city agencies, like the Department of Finance, which spent about $30 million on a new system in 1992, are replacing aging computers with modern units that solve the problem.

The mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, city controller’s office and city Financial Information Services Agency plan to replace accounting and bookkeeping programs rather than try to fix the date problem.

Sources close to the project said it should cost about $50 million, although no official estimates were available.

Lynne said systems the city bought in the past 18 months for the Fire, Police and other departments don’t have the problem.

Fixing the glitch throughout city government could require a mind-numbing process of investigating millions of lines of computer program commands. Experts said it could require an army of costly outside consultants and overtime for city employes.

For example, sources at the Human Resources Administration said it has more than 3 million lines of computer code to review. The controller’s office has 500,000 lines of code that covers monthly pension checks for 220,000 retired city employes.

Rudy Rips Probe Of Diplo Fight

January 2, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

Mayor Giuliani yesterday accused the State Department of dragging out its probe of Sunday’s slugfest between city cops and diplomats from Russia and Belarus.

In his latest lashing over the envoys’ invocation of diplomatic immunity, the mayor demanded that federal officials immediately back the two city cops involved in the Manhattan clash.

“If this was an American diplomat, rather than all of this fatuous discussion that is going on I would expect that our government would say that the diplomat acted improperly, he should apologize,” the mayor said.

“We certainly can sit by and pretend as if the police officers acted improperly,” he continued. “They didn’t. They did a good job.”

The mayor said he planned to fire off a letter today asking the Russian and Belarus consuls to remove their two envoys and send them back to their countries.

“We don’t need people here who, behind diplomatic immunity, are abusing police officers,” Giuliani said.

The diplomats, Boris Obnossov, 43, of Russia, and Yuri Nicklaevich Orange, 50, of Belarus, were taken into custody following a fracas with two 20th Precinct cops who tried to ticket their cars for parking too close to a hydrant on the upper West Side.

Cops said Obnossov appeared drunk and refused to present identification when they ordered him out of his car. Orange then got out of the vehicle and punched one of the officers.

Both consulates have disputed police accounts, saying the cops dragged Obnossov from his car and beat him after he showed his identification.

A statement issued in Moscow said police broke his hand, smashed his glasses and tore his clothes before handcuffing him and taking him to the stationhouse, where he was detained for 30 minutes.

The two men, first secretaries at their nations’ missions to the United Nations, went free after invoking diplomatic immunity.

Original Story Date: 01/02/97

City Cites 30 Shops For Shady Practice

December 18, 1996

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

Unscrupulous electronics stores are ripping off consumers by using misleading ads, reselling used goods as new and other shady sales practices, city officials charged yesterday.

Following a three-week probe, the city hit 30 stores with more than 1,100 alleged violations of consumer laws — and announced plans to yank the licenses of several shops.

Ten of the stores, most in the midtown tourist and shopping area, racked up more than 50 violations each on charges that they bilked consumers.

“Although most of the businesses . . . are reputable places that do a good job and offer decent prices, there are some that have a history of violations and a history of fraud and a history of trying to rip people off and trying to take advantage of them during this time of year,” Mayor Giuliani said.

Joined by Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jose Maldonado, the mayor warned shoppers to beware of where and what they buy.

City inspectors who checked electronic stores around the city found some practicing bait-and-switch tactics — advertising products that are not in stock and then offering buyers more expensive merchandise.

Inspectors also found electronics retailers that offered items for sale above the manufacturers’ suggested retail price.

The alleged violators — 30 of the 40 stores checked by investigators — face fines as high as $500 per violation.

It’s easy to get taken, said Serge Naggar of Manhattan.

He said two salesmen at Marquis Galleries Ltd. on Lexington Ave. last June sold his wife a personal information manager different from the one she wanted, insisting it was the correct item.

When she returned to the store, employees at first offered a more expensive product, then refused to provide a refund or credit toward another purchase.

It took intervention by the state and city before the couple finally got their money back.

Marquis Galleries — hit with 102 alleged consumer violations — led the 10-store rogues’ gallery of shops where inspectors found the most problems.

The five worst offenders:

Marquis Galleries Ltd., 519 Lexington Ave., Manhattan. (102 violations)

Sharper Photo & Electronics Corp., 520 Fifth Ave., Manhattan. (89 violations)

Zion’s Electronic Corp., 66 E. Fordham Road, Bronx. (85 violations)

Golden Temple Funding, 885 Sixth Ave., Manhattan. (77 violations)

Rainbow Camera, 875 Sixth Ave. Manhattan. (76 violations)

Source: New York City Department of Consumer Affairs

Queens Activist Is Shot Dead

December 18, 1996

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN and JOHN MARZULLI, Daily News Staff Writers

A Queens community activist who collected teddy bears for homeless kids and helped start a volunteer ambulance service was found slain in his printing shop last night, the victim of a possible robbery.

Richard Trupkin, 64, had been shot several times in the head and body, police said.

A neighbor discovered him about 5 p.m. in the basement of the Lamarr Printing and Offset Co., on Roosevelt Ave., near 57th St. in Woodside.

Trupkin, of Valley Stream, L.I., had owned the business since 1966 and had been a major fixture in the community.

City Councilman Walter McCaffrey (D-Woodside) said he knew Trupkin for more than 20 years and described him as a “really sweet guy.”

“Any time anything had to be done in the neighborhood, Rich was always there, Johnny on the spot,” McCaffrey said.

“This is a tremendous loss,” said Witold Rak, president of the Woodside chapter of the Kiwanis Club. “He gave his time and energy to make Woodside special.”

Rak said Trupkin, a former president of the club, had recently helped organize a raffle to raise money for community projects such as purchasing food for the needy.

Trupkin had sold the winning raffle ticket and had just received $5,000 to hand over to the winner yesterday.

Police were trying to determine if Trupkin was targeted for the winnings, said a source familiar with the investigation. Detectives found the $5,000 in Trupkin’s desk, but a petty cash box on the first-floor apparently had been rifled, sources said.

Trupkin usually kept the front door of his printing shop locked while he worked in the basement. The neighbor became suspicious when she found the door unlocked but Trupkin was not upstairs.

In a 1993 Daily News profile, Trupkin said the best part of his job as an activist was “seeing the fruits of volunteer labor.”

Trupkin, who published a monthly local paper called The Woodsider, was a former member of Community Planning Board 2 in Queens and was founder of a safe haven program for youngsters among merchants in the area.

Ed Fowley, the “unofficial mayor of Woodside” and fellow community activist, said Trupkin had recently collected about two dozen teddy bears for homeless children at Bellevue Hospital.

“Rich will be sorely missed, ” he said.

Original Story Date: 12/18/96

Normal City? Are You Nuts?

December 12, 1996

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN and JANE FURSE, Daily News Staff Writers

New York ain’t normal, according to a new book — whereas Orange County, Calif., is.

That’s Orange County as in Disneyland and the biggest municipal bankruptcy in history.

Whaddaya mean New York is the “most abnormal” of American cities?

Merely a statistical term, Places Rated Almanac co-author David Savageau hastened to explain yesterday.

“New York is top-notch in the arts, in higher education and in transportation, but bottom-of-the deck in crime, cost of living and jobs,” he said. “So you see, it’s either hot or cold — nothing in the middle.”

Take yer book and toss it, suggested Mayor Giuliani after he heard about this volume.

“They’re screwy,” said Giuliani, who disputed the MacMillan-published almanac’s charge that Atlanta, Detroit, Newark, St. Louis, New Orleans and Los Angeles are all safer than New York.

FBI numbers say otherwise, the mayor noted. “Big experts on crime, right, MacMillan,” Giuliani scoffed. “I will take this report and say it comes from amateurs. They don’t know what they are talking about.”

Giuliani’s opinions notwithstanding, said Savageau, Orange County really is the best of the 351 metropolitan areas surveyed by the almanac.

“The climate is good, it has a very rosy outlook for jobs and, because of the drop in housing prices, it’s more affordable,” he said. “It’s an amazing place.”

Joining Orange County on the book’s list of top 10 metropolitan areas are Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Wash.; Houston; Washington, D.C.; Phoenix-Mesa, Ariz.; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Atlanta; Tampa-St.-Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla.; San Diego, and Philadelphia.

As for life here in abnormal New York City, Long Islander Pamela Barrow was feeling just fine as she got off the train at madhouse Penn Station yesterday.

“Personally, I come here to feel normal again,” she said.

Original Story Date: 12/12/96

Rudy Going on ‘Cos’

December 12, 1996
by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer
Mayor Giuliani will dust off his acting skills today when he tapes an episode of “Cosby,” guest-starring as himself on the CBS sitcom.

Is Shakespeare in the Park next?

Giuliani laughed when asked if his latest acting foray was a sign of things to come when he leaves office.

“The old adage about being mayor was there’s no place to go from there. It ruins your career,” he quipped.

Using the TV appearance to poke fun at predecessors David Dinkins and Ed Koch, Giuliani said, “it seems to me the only future career you have as a former mayor of New York City is as radio talk-show host, giving a very hard time to whoever the incumbent mayor is.”

Giuliani is no acting novice. He appeared in Whoopi Goldberg’s movie “Eddie,” and he twice appeared onstage at Metropolitan Opera New Year’s Eve productions of “Die Fledermaus” to belt out “O Sole Mio.”

He also has been a repeat guest on “Late Show with David Letterman.”

Bill Cosby, a friend of Dinkins’, wasn’t particularly complimentary of Giuliani at a 1993 Dinkins fund-raiser. Giuliani said he agreed to appear on Cosby’s popular show because it’s good for the city.

The TV episode focuses on a visit by Giuliani to the Astoria, Queens, home of Cosby’s character, Hilton Lucas. Lucas, a laid-off airline employe, expects a high-profile dinner guest — President Clinton.

When Giuliani arrives and samples appetizers, Lucas has him take care of filling neighborhood potholes.

Original Story Date: 121296

Warning: Lead Paint Disclosure required

December 7, 1996

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

New Yorkers will now have to be told whether the home they are about to buy or rent contains lead paint, according to a federal rule that went into effect yesterday.

Advocates for children and low and moderate-income families hailed the new disclosure law.

“We are talking about million of units in the city that potentially would be affected by this,” said Kenny Schaeffer, vice chairman of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, a tenants rights union.

The new Environmental Protection Agency regulation requires that potential buyers and renters be given a pamphlet outlining the health dangers of lead-based paint and be informed whether the dwelling has such paint.

Sellers and real estate agents could face fines up to $10,000 and as much as a year in jail if the presence of known lead-based paint is not disclosed.

“The reason this is important,” Schaeffer said, “is that it’s been proven that if a baby eats even one chip of paint that has lead content, it’s enough to cause permanent and irreversible brain damage.

“We have worked with families who have had children hospitalized to have all their blood removed and cleansed of this poison.”

New York has a high incidence of lead contamination because its housing stock is very old. As much as 75% of New York State’s housing was built before 1978, when lead paint was banned, according to the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal.

“This will greatly contribute to our efforts to prevent and eliminate the incidence of childhood lead poisoning nationwide,” EPA Administrator Carol Browner said.