I got into a discussion on Scott’s site a while back about the fairness of the commuter tax, given the resources used by commuters, and the fact that all of those suburban New Jersey houses would be basically worthless without NYC as a functioning city. A recent study reminds us of the economic fairness of taxing commuters versus funding all city services on the backs of the residents:

The statistics, analyzed by Andrew A. Beveridge, a sociologist at Queens College, show that people who commute from the New York suburbs to the city make far more money, are more educated and more likely to have jobs in fields like finance, management and the professions.

The average suburban commuter earned $75,439, according to the data from the 2000 census released last month. The average for city residents who work in the city was $41,889, and for suburbanites working in the suburbs, $41,031.

The census also shows that the commuters are more likely than others to be white, male and married. Nearly one in four had an advanced degree, and nearly 55 percent had completed college at a minimum.

Comparable 2000 figures for commuters from New Jersey and Connecticut are not yet available. But the 1990 census shows a similar pattern: people from New Jersey and Connecticut who commuted to New York City made much more than those who did not.

Now, why would anyone expect something sexy to happen in an opera about Don Juan? From MSNBC, the story of a production of Don Giovanni that had to be “edited”. It’s not enough for people to home-school their kids — they have to arrange for censorship of any arts productions they might see too.

Opera Colorado directors have scrapped a racy scene from a production of “Don Giovanni” that prompted complaints from parents of home-schooled students who watched a dress rehearsal. The scene featuring a woman in a one-piece bustier, fishnet stockings, garter belt and high heels cavorting with a sometimes shirtless Don Juan Giovanni will be replaced with a food fight in some performances.

…

“It was kind of hard to miss what they were doing. It was pretty blatant,” said Candice Cirbo, who attended the rehearsal with the group and her sixth-grade daughter.

Opera spokesman Rex Fuller said earlier this week that the graphic action in the opera had been ordered toned down several days beforehand by the opera president and general director, Peter Russell.

My iBook has been in the shop since last Thursday, so I’m not posting too often. I’m relying on my Dell desktop running, yes, Windows 98 until it comes back. What follows is a random assortment of my adventures and observations over the last few days.

On Sunday afternoon we went to Greenpoint to see Meredith Allen’s show of Williamsburg art world people at im in iL. Since the G is not a train to be used lightly, we took the L to Bedford and walked the mile or so to the gallery in Greenpoint. I hadn’t spent much time in Greenpoint, and was pleasantly surprised by the number of 19th century buildings, plus stores and streets that still have some integrity. We even saw a Greek Revival house just off Manhattan Avenue! There are several independent Polish language bookstores in the neighborhood, when Chelsea doesn’t even have one independent “new books” bookstore. Another cool discovery was “Java and Wood”, a furniture / coffee shop at 1011 Manhattan Ave. Check it out when you’re in the area.

When we were waiting in the subway, I saw a young man with sunglasses, Capri pants, and an Aunt Jemima-style kerchief on his head. Fabulous! It was a welcome antidote to seeing a Chelsea boy at the gym earlier in the weekend wearing a du rag with his Abercrombie & Fitch cargo pants. Ugh.

Recently seen art of note:

• Stas Orlovski at Mixed Greens
• “Undesire”, curated by Vasif Kortun, at Apex Art — great, great show. There is a video of two young boys singing and dancing in an ATM room, by an artist named Fikret Atay. He lives close to the Iraqi border in Turkey, in a depressed village called Batman. I had trouble tearing myself away from the video to look at anything else in the show. The video by the Irish artist Phil Collins (not the singer), titled Baghdad Screen Tests, consists of several citizens of Baghdad sitting silently, looking at the camera — filmed before the war started. It is accompanied by recordings of various pop songs, ranging from Elvis to The Smiths. Finally, the drawings of Dan Perjovschi, which you have probably seen on the invitation, are sweet and scathing at the same time.
• Carl Scholz’s flawlessly “smoothed out” Jaguar at Momenta

One last art item is Emily Noelle Lambert at the Mini minimarket at 218 Bedford (near Earwax, etc.). We walked into the shop for the first time, and noticed Emily’s work on exhibit in the store. After a few minutes we decided we had to purchase one of the (very affordable) works. I don’t see something too close to what we bought on the web site, but check out a few interesting things I found on her site: Castle, Bird, and Charles and Smokey.

I have never understood why so many homos seems to think Hillary Clinton is somehow on our side. She takes our money and shows up and gay fundraisers, but that’s the extent of her “support”. While running for the Senate, she said she would have voted for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

It has now been one week since Senator Santorum’s remarks, and as this article in the Gay City News reminds us, she hasn’t managed to make any statement whatsoever. As of today, there’s no statement on Mr. Santorum on her web site, but she has found the time to announce legislation to establish “National Purple Heart Recognition Day” and praise Schweizer Aircraft Corporation and its support of our troops.

Chuck Schumer took a week to come up with a statement, but there’s nothing on his web site. He lives in Park Slope, so he has plenty of queer neighbors!

You can contact our illustrious senators here: Clinton and Schumer. Hillary doesn’t have “Gay and Lesbian issues” in the topic choices, but Schumer does.

WebCollage is a program that creates collages out of random images found on the Web.
[via Giornale Nuovo]

Recommended opening tonight, May 1, 6-9pm with a performance at 7pm: Clarina Bezzola at Cynthia Broan.

I’m sorry I missed this show by Eric Hollender at the fascinating little gallery around the corner from Plus Ultra, Dam Stuhltrager. Fired clay tablets!

I updated that post to add a link to Jeremiah Teipen’s home page.

Our Constitution and the Fourth Amendment don’t really mean anything if Congress can pass laws abrogating it and the courts don’t care.

I can’t even go out to dinner without worrying whether the restaurant will be raided?

Alternet has a story by an American who was held for an hour and a half in a Times Square area restaurant when it was raided by the NYPD, INS, and Department of Homeland Security. I will quote some of it, but you should go read the whole thing.

That night, March 20th, my roommate Asher and I were on our way to see the Broadway show “Rent.” We had an hour to spare before curtain time so we stopped into an Indian restaurant just off of Times Square in the heart of midtown. I have omitted the name of the restaurant so as not to subject the owners to any further harassment or humiliation.

We helped ourselves to the buffet and then sat down to begin eating our dinner. I was just about to tell Asher how I’d eaten there before and how delicious the vegetable curry was, but I never got a chance. All of a sudden, there was a terrible commotion and five NYPD in bulletproof vests stormed down the stairs. They had their guns drawn and were pointing them indiscriminately at the restaurant staff and at us.

…

The police placed their fingers on the triggers of their guns and kicked open the kitchen doors. Shouts emanated from the kitchen and a few seconds later five Hispanic men were made to crawl out on their hands and knees, guns pointed at them.

After patting us all down, the five officers seated us at two tables. As they continued to kick open doors to closets and bathrooms with their fingers glued to their triggers, no less than ten officers in suits emerged from the stairwell. Most of them sat in the back of the restaurant typing on their laptop computers. Two of them walked over to our table and identified themselves as officers of the INS and Homeland Security Department.

I explained that we were just eating dinner and asked why we were being held. We were told by the INS agent that we would be released once they had confirmation that we had no outstanding warrants and our immigration status was OK’d.

…

“You have no right to hold us,” Asher insisted.

“Yes, we have every right,” responded one of the agents. “You are being held under the Patriot Act following suspicion under an internal Homeland Security investigation.”

When I asked to speak to a lawyer, the INS official informed me that I do have the right to a lawyer but I would have to be brought down to the station and await security clearance before being granted one. When I asked how long that would take, he replied with a coy smile: “Maybe a day, maybe a week, maybe a month.”

We insisted that we had every right to leave and were going to do so. One of the policemen walked over with his hand on his gun and taunted: “Go ahead and leave, just go ahead.”

…

As I continued to press for legal counsel, a female officer who had been busy typing on her laptop in the front of the restaurant, walked over and put her finger in my face. “We are at war, we are at war and this is for your safety,” she exclaimed. As she walked away from the table, she continued to repeat it to herself? “We are at war, we are at war. How can they not understand this.”

…

After an hour and a half the INS agent walked back over and handed Asher and me our licenses. A policeman took us by the arm and escorted us out of the building. Before stepping out to the street, the INS agent apologized. He explained, in a low voice, that they did not think the two of us were in the restaurant. Several of the other patrons, though of South Asian descent, were in fact U.S. citizens. There were four taxi drivers, two students, one newspaper salesman – unwitting customers, just like Asher and me. I doubt, though, they received any apologies from the INS or the Department of Homeland Security.

Meanwhile, President Bush will tell Americans on Thursday evening that the major fighting in Iraq is over and the threat to the United States has ended, a Bush administration spokesman said.

From one of my favorite comic strips, Non Sequitur: Behold! My Anti-Criticism Shield