It’s that time of year again when New Yorkers debate how much to tip the – deep breath – doorman, super, handyman, locker room attendant, trainer, baby sitter, dog walker, beauty salon, cleaning person, day care center, garbage collector, mail carrier, paperboy and parking attendant(s). Sewell Chan, the Times’s Man on the Web, has tied himself to the tipping post with a 1,780 word monograph on the subject, largely sourced from Doorman, a book by......

The NYPD decided not to appeal a judge's decision that the NYPD should declassify its surveillance documents from the 2004 RNC, so it has set up a special NYPD RNC Documents website with the documents. Of course, you have to scroll down to the very bottom for a zip file of the 600 pages of documents. And what's above the documents is the NYPD's rather thorough explanation/ defense justifying why it did such extensive......

As we appreciate the fact that last week's heat wave was last week, the NY Times' Sewell Chan has an article about that the little-known fact that turned-off appliances that are still plugged-in still draw electricity. We mentioned the "standby mode" issue last week, noting that is why Con Ed asks people to actually unplug TVs, printers, computers, and the like when the power demand is high. (It probably isn't a bad idea to unplug......

Before the City Council approved a $52.9 billion budget yesterday, they got their desert, aka Schedule C. Also known as the Fiscal Year 2007 Adopted Expense Budget Adjustments Summary[PDF], Schedule C is the list of all the Council's pet items that successfully were restored or added to the budget. And what a crazy list of pet items got through! It's going to take a bit of time to find the goodies in the 70-odd......

There's a fun article in the Observer today about NY Times Metro reporter Sewell Chan and his seemingly unending energy to churn out stories. Gabriel Sherman points out that he wrote four pieces yesterday (checking today's paper, Chan only has three pieces, but he contributed to another), making his byline appear an average of 1.15 times a day. There is amazement from colleagues (the Post's David Seifman says Chan is the only reporter to bring......

The MTA will be paying for the additional police presence in the subways, according to Mayor Bloomberg. Police overtime to put one police officer on every train is costing the city $1.9 million a week, and Bloomberg said, "Let me give some credit to the MTA. They're willing to do this. They have some money. The governor has pushed them," even though he hasn't been happy about the MTA's footdragging on spending security funds. During......

Surprise, surprise! The City Council put together a team of investigators to inspect the cleanliness of the subways, and found that they are stinking nasty! And what's more, the worst stations just happen to be in the poorest neighborhoods and/or the Bronx. No one is really that shocked, maybe just slightly surprised. The NY Times' Sewell Chan points out that the City Council's survey and the survey from the NYC Transit Riders Council had generally......

The NYPD had a good news-bad news perspective on the latest subway crime figures: Felonies are pretty much down, but assault and robberies, namely iPod- and cellphone-related ones, are up. iPod robberies were 82 during the January 1 - April 14 period in 2004, and in 2005, there have been 215 in the same period; cellphone robberies are up 29%. In fact, the Transit Authority will be issuing safety announcements about taking care of one's......

Wow, this might be the first cameraphone picture as NY tabloid cover photo in history: The Daily News published a picture of a sleeping token booth clerk today! Reader Denise Davila sent the DN the photograph she took over the weekend at the F train's Prospect Park stop at 15th Street, saying: It p----- me off seeing him snoozing like that. Is this where the fare hike is going? To support guys snoozing on the......

Good subway photo-ban related stuffs in the NY Times' Sewell Chan's article about New York Region > Want Shots Like This? Get a Permit" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/07/nyregion/07subway.html?adxnnl=1&oref;=login&adxnnlx;=1105104808-fF2ckIumap0MNk wZU7IuQ">taking photographs in the subway. MTA spokesman Tom Kelly tells him: "Nobody is looking to violate anybody's civil rights or deny anybody's constitutional rights. But when you check with law enforcement agencies, they have uncovered photographs of subway and rail systems from various terrorist organizations. And I don't believe......