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Council Will Keep Curfew off Street

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October 28, 1996

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

It’s lights out for a proposed curfew for city teenagers. The plan, introduced with fanfare during the summer, is all but dead after it gained virtually no City Council support, Council leaders say.

The Council’s 21-member Black and Latino Caucus is opposing a curfew, and a Daily News survey of key Council members found the measure is short of the 26 votes needed for approval.

Councilwoman C. Virginia Fields (D-Manhattan), said, “I don’t think the climate in New York City is right for it.”

The plan’s chief sponsor, Councilman Thomas Ognibene (R-Queens), conceded last week that approval prospects appeared dim. He is drafting amendments to water down the bill in a bid to rally support.

They include allowing kids to stay on the street late if they are outside their homes and starting the curfew at midnight.

If that effort fails, Ognibene said he will try to take the issue “over to the people” by gathering the 45,000 signatures needed to authorize a citywide ballot referendum.

“I’m sorry if my Council members can’t get past emotional issues and start dealing with protecting the lives of children,” said Ognibene.

His original bill would ban unsupervised kids under 18 from city streets after 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and after 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The bill includes exemptions for those traveling to or from work, school, sports contests or religious and community-sponsored events.

Violators would have to perform 25 hours of community service the first time they were caught out after hours and 50 hours for subsequent offenses.

Parents who knowingly allowed their kids to violate the curfew could be slapped with fines of as much as $75 for a first offense, rising to $250 for additional violations.

Ognibene said teen curfews — which this year drew support from President Clinton — have reduced juvenile crime in many cities. A U.S. Justice Department study showed that 146 of the nation’s 200 largest cities have some form of curfew for kids.

However, a News poll in July found New Yorkers almost evenly divided on a curfew. The idea met with overwhelming opposition among teens.

The Black and Latino Caucus refused to support the measure, despite a recent pitch from Ognibene, the Democrat-controlled Council’s Republican leader.

“It’s not going to be easy to enforce, and there is the attitude of cops to our communities and the distrust that has been building,” said caucus Chairman Jose Rivera (D-Bronx).

October 28, 1996
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MEGASTORES OK’D; Fight looms for planners

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Friday, October 25, 1996

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN and PETER GRANT, Daily News Staff Writers

In one of the most sweeping zoning changes in 35 years, the city Planning Commission yesterday approved Mayor Giuliani’s plan to open up the city to massive superstores.

But the unusually close 8-to-5 vote set the stage for what promises to be a bruising City Council battle over the measure, one of the cornerstones of the mayor’s economic strategy.

Opponents vowed yesterday to push for major changes in the plan to protect small businesses and neighborhood shopping areas.

Critics say that small businesses would be devastated by an invasion of as many as 57 superstores like Kmart.

Even Planning Commission Chairman Joe Rose, who has been spearheading the proposal, acknowledged that the administration faces strong opposition. “It’s going to be a tough battle, no question about it,” he said.

In yesterday’s vote, the commissioners selected by Mayor Giuliani and Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari voted in favor of the plan. Appointees of the other borough presidents and the public advocate were opposed.

Giuliani’s plan would allow construction, without review by the public, of superstores of up to 200,000 square feet on the hundreds of acres of underused manufacturing land in the city. Such developments now require a lengthy approval process.

Supporters contend the city loses some $1.5 billion a year in retail sales to the suburbs, where superstores abound.

They predict the rezoning would mean $50 million in additional sales tax and about 13,600 jobs.

But opponents claim that the lengthy approval process should be preserved so that the stores do not destroy neighborhoods.

“Superstores can be bad neighbors,” said Commissioner Amanda Burden, who voted against the plan.

To placate critics, the Planning Commission modified the proposal yesterday. Communities were given greater ability to review superstore plans and make suggestions on how they would be designed and how traffic would be routed. The changes also exclude five streets from the manufacturing zones covered by the proposal and would block megastore development in areas saturated with the so-called big boxes.

But opponents said the changes do not give community groups or elected officials ways to block unpopular plans.

Critics also charged that the excluded streets — such as Metropolitan Ave. in Queens — were picked because those areas voted heavily for Giuliani.

City officials denied the charge and said the areas were excluded because the plan is limited to sites on wide streets and the excluded streets do not meet that definition.

The Council will vote on the proposal before the end of the year. More than 20 of its 51 members have said they will vote against it unless it is changed dramatically.

Original Story Date: 10/25/96

October 25, 1996
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City XXX-pulsion Plan Put on Hold

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October 25, 1996

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN and JAMES RUTENBERG, Daily News Staff Writers

Times Square sex shop owners yesterday said the red-light district would stay lit as a state appeals court temporarily blocked the city’s plan to start restricting X-rated businesses this weekend.

Smut shops advertising “Live Girls” and hawking such videos as “Slut Hunt III” continued to do a brisk business as managers and employees said they have no plans to move or change their inventory.

“We’re not going to go anywhere,” vowed a manager at the company that owns Show World and other porn establishments near Times Square. “We’re confident we’re going to get the relief we’re entitled to under the United States Constitution.”

The defiant boast came after the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court yesterday issued a stay blocking the city’s plans to start closing about 150 X-rated video shops, topless bars and other porn businesses under a zoning law that restricts the location of sex shops.

Yesterday’s court action temporarily overruled a Manhattan Supreme Court decision on Wednesday that upheld the zoning law — enacted by the city in a bid to disperse heavy concentrations of sex shops.

The appeals court set a Nov. 15 hearing on the legal stay, followed by December arguments on the zoning law itself.

Lawyers for the sex shops and the New York Civil Liberties Union declared victory after the appeals court issued the stay.

“There will be no closing of any of the adult establishments,” said Herald Price Fahringer, who represents a coalition of more than 100 X-rated businesses that claim the zoning law violates First Amendment rights of free speech.

But Mayor Giuliani and City Council leaders yesterday predicted the city eventually would win court backing to launch the shutdown plan.

“We are quite confident that we’ll prevail,” Giuliani said. “Not only did we prevail in the State Supreme Court already, but essentially throughout the country these kinds of provisions have been upheld by courts.”

October 25, 1996
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Statue Unveiled, Hil Hails Eleanor

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October 6, 1996

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN and DON SINGLETON Daily News Staff Writers

Two American First Ladies came together in Riverside Park yesterday afternoon, one the current occupant of the White House and the other a larger-than-life bronze statue.

With songs and speeches and flags that rippled gently in the sunshine of a perfect early autumn day, Hillary Rodham Clinton led a crowd of thousands in dedicating the statue of her predecessor Eleanor Roosevelt.

The sculpture, portraying the lanky Roosevelt leaning against a rock, her chin resting on her hand as if she is in deep thought, stands on a low rise in the park’s 72d St., bounded by three mature trees and between two park benches. It is the first statue of a woman ever commissioned for a city park.

Clinton was greeted by a crescendo of applause and cheers from the audience as about a dozen placard-carrying people chanted, “Stop the welfare cuts.” The demonstrators were hustled off by police and park security officers. From the window of an apartment on W. 72d St., someone unfurled a banner that proclaimed, “Eleanor would have saved the safety net.”

A chorus of boos greeted Mayor Giuliani, but quickly subsided when he bagan to speak about Eleanor Roosevelt, a mother of five who was born on W. 37th St., married on E. 76th St. and kept a home on E. 65th St.

The mayor called Roosevelt “a great American, a woman committed to public service, the First Lady of the world. . . . one of the greatest figures in our century.”

“I must say that when the statue was unveiled I had just a great overwhelming emotional feeling,” Clinton said.

Then, after a long pause, she made a self-mocking reference to Bob Woodward’s book “The Choice,” in which the author reports that she took part in imaginary conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi.

“And I have to tell you that when I last spoke with Mrs. Roosevelt she wanted me to tell all of you how pleased she is by this great, great new statue.” The crowd applauded wildly.

October 6, 1996
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$304,000 LOTTA GS FOR GIULIANIS

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Saturday, April 13, 1996

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

Rudy and Donna Hanover Giuliani’s combined income jumped to $ 303,889 last year, thanks to the First Lady’s blossoming radio, television and film career, their 1995 tax returns show.

The 21% increase from the couple’s $ 250,343 reported earnings for 1994 marked the second large increase for Hanover Giuliani in as many years.

Their earnings will take another jump this year with the mayor’s $ 35,000 pay raise, which will boost his salary to $ 165,000. He also will collect $ 17,000 in retroactive pay.

Last year, the mayor earned $ 115,256 from his City Hall job after socking away $ 14,744 in a tax-deferred retirement account. His wife earned $ 145,643, up from $ 113,818 in 1994. They paid 35.9% of their combined income in taxes $ 73,927 to Uncle Sam and $ 35,235 to Albany and New York compared with 31% in 1994. They opted to apply $ 8,482 in refunds to their 1996 taxes.

GRAPHIC: SUSAN WATTS DAILY NEWS NO FOOLING, clowns from The Greatest Show on Earth are serious about taxes. Monday’s the deadline.

April 13, 1996
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2 More Fishy Firms Banned

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Saturday, December 30, 1995

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

In an ongoing war against allegedly mobbed-up companies at the Fulton Fish Market, the Giuliani administration yesterday banned two firms from parking and loading for fish retailers.

The city booted Beekman Dock Loaders and C&A Fish Lifters Inc., ordering them to cease operations at the fish market immediately, based on a review of criminal background information the companies supplied as part of a recently imposed licensing system.

Carmine (Baby Carmine) Russo, 50, of Beekman Dock Loaders submitted a 17-page crime and arrest history with his application, and Elio (Chinatown) Albanese, 46, of C&A Fish Lifters Inc., filed five pages.

Law enforcement officials also said Russo and Albanese are reputed soldiers in the Genovese crime family and members of the crew of Alphonse (Allie Shades) Malangone, a reputed Genovese captain and market boss.

City Business Services Commissioner Rudy Washington said the arrest records and allegations were enough to disqualify both companies.

Gerald McMahon, an attorney for the Fulton Fish Market Loaders Association, could not be reached for comment on the decision.

December 30, 1995
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’96 MISS AMERICA HAILS FROM OKLA.

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Sunday, September 17, 1995

by LARRY SUTTON and MICHAEL O. ALLEN, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Miss Oklahoma took the famous walk down the runway in Atlantic City last night as she won the 1996 Miss America Pageant.

“I don’t believe this,” gasped Shawntel Smith who turned 24 yesterday as her name was announced.

Smith won the 75th anniversary pageant shortly after the conclusion of the traditional swimsuit parade by the competition’s 10 finalists which proceeded as usual after Americans, via telephone poll, voted overwhelmingly not to discard it.

Nearly 900,000 persons called in to vote yea or nay on the swimsuit question and 79% of them said yea.

Pageant sponsors hoped the gimmick would increase interest in the show and answer charges that the tradition is outdated.

Most of the contestants themselves 42 out of 50 said they favored continuing the swimsuit contest. They said the attire shows off their physically fit figures an important ingredient of America’s health-conscious society.

Contestants wore identical one-piece red swimsuits, each carrying a white jacket slung over a shoulder.

Among those opposed to suits on stage are the current Miss America, Heather Whitestone, and Miss America 1971, Phyllis George. George suggested the contestants wear tennis outfits if they want to show off their physical fitness.

Leonard Horn, the pageant’s director, had predicted viewers would vote to keep the swimsuits. He said the show’s producers had prepared alternate entertainment in case viewers nix the suits, although he refused to say what that entertainment was.

Regis Philbin, co-host of the pageant with Kathie Lee Gifford, volunteered to fill the time with a song. Pageant officials seemed less than enthusiastic about that suggestion.

Other controversies surrounded this year’s pageant. One state winner, Virginia’s Andrea Ballengee, was stripped of her title for allegedly embellishing her academic credentials. A state runnerup, Maryland’s Linda Yueh, is suing the pageant because she believes judges were told to ignore her despite high competitions scores.

Yueh, a Harvard undergraduate, plans to study law at Georgetown next year.

Pageant officials billed last night’s show, held in Atlantic City’s Convention Hall and televised on NBC, as their 75th anniversary. The first contest took place in September 1921, however, when 16-year-old marbles champion Margaret Gorman of Washington, D.C., took the prize.

The pageant had its ups and downs during its initial years, relying on the support of local businesses to keep it going.

It took off in 1954, when television brought the pageant into the homes of millions of Americans. Ratings have dropped in recent years, but the show is still considered a network powerhouse.

The winner of last night’s competition receives a $ 40,000 scholarship; other finalists receive scholarships ranging from $ 8,000 to $ 30,000.

The first runnerup was Miss Oregon, Emily John Orton. The other eight finalists were Miss Alabama, Leigh Sherer; Miss Mississippi, Monica Louwerens; Miss Illinois, Tracy Hayes; Miss New York, Helen Goldsby; Miss California, Tiffany Stoker; Miss Kansas, Amy Beth Keller; Miss Massachusetts, Marcia Turner; and Miss Arkansas, Paula Gaye Montgomery.

September 17, 1995
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NEW YORK NEWSDAY, RIP

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Saturday, July 15, 1995

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, KAREN AVENOSO and LAURIE C. MERRILL, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Columnist Murray Kempton, a New York newspaperman for as long as anyone can remember, was writing at his computer.

All around him in the offices of New York Newsday, there was overwhelming sadness.

He tried to lighten the funereal atmosphere. “All I lost was a hobby,” Kempton said.

“Look, this is not Bosnia, but all real tragedy is personal and to me this is personal. It’s only the disintegration of my family. This is a death in the family. That is the sadness.”

His colleagues were trying to digest the shutdown.

Some drank vodka and rum. Many hugged. Others cleaned out their desks. Still others stoically tapped out their stories for today’s paper. “It feels like we are in a bad dream,” said reporter Elaine Rivera.

The death knell sounded at 5 p.m., when staffers were called into a conference room.

Silence fell as they filed in. Rumors had been flying, but few expected anything this soon or this drastic.

“You were and are terrific,” Forst said. “Thank you. I love you all.”

Many burst into tears. Others appeared dazed.

“I am sad and angry and unhappy,” said reporter Russ Buettner. “As the shock wears off, those are feelings I’m left with.”

“This is hard news. This is heartbreaking,” said publisher Steven Isenberg. “Everyone played it to the bitter end. And this is a lousy ending.”

Photographer Jon Naso was on assignment when he got a message on pager that said, “Come Back. Newsday is gone.”

He rushed back to the newsroom. “I came back because I wanted to be with some of my colleagues.”

July 15, 1995
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