Standpipe Cut
• As Robert Morgenthau’s office starts a criminal investigation of the Deutsche Bank blaze that killed two firefighters, it turns out that the faulty standpipe had been deliberately cut — and recently. [NYP]
in other news
Staten Island Is Marlboro Country; Manhattan Too Soused to NoticeThe city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has a new blockbuster report out, ratting on our fair city’s vices. As expected, smoking is on decline throughout NYC — treating it like Murder One can do that to a habit — with the citywide percentage of smokers at 18. The nationwide average is 21 percent.
The trend holds true for all boroughs except one. That proud, black-lunged holdout is Staten Island — the borough that probably shouldn’t smoke at all, given its proximity to highly flammable toxic waste. Almost one in three Staten Islanders lights up, compared to less than one in five in Manhattan. Fresh Kills, indeed.
in other news
Ask a Newsstand Guy: Even More Cig Taxes?
New York’s pricey smokes might be getting even pricier, with word in today’s Post that the city wants to raise its cigarette tax — currently $1.50 per pack — by another 50 cents. We stopped by Mushtaf Ahmed’s newsstand, at Third Avenue and 49th Street, where — as a stream of customers stopped by for sodas, candy, and cigarettes — we asked him what this will mean for the city’s smokers.
Do you think you’ll be selling fewer cigarettes?
I think definitely the people who generally smoke less, occasional smokers, it affects them, because anybody who smokes occasionally, they will stop. But anyone who is habitual or addicted, he will smoke. The chain smoker won’t stop, but the people who smoke a little will stop.
