NYC: Now With Fewer Rats

A new study debunks the eternal urban legend that there is one rat for every person living in New York City.

Jonathan Auerbach, a 26-year-old statistician studying for a doctorate at Columbia University, recently won a competition sponsored by the 180-year-old Royal Statistical Society of London. Mr. Auerbach claimed the prize with a paper in which he made the case that there are far fewer rats in the city than almost anyone had assumed. About six million fewer. By Mr. Auerbach’s calculations, the rat population is a mere two million, give or take 150,000. In arriving at that total, he debunked the long-perpetuated idea that there was one rat for every person in the city. New York’s population stood at 8,405,837 as of July 2013, according to the Planning Department.

The rats have never really bothered me. Years ago on an East Village street, I casually kicked away a rat that had darted across my sandaled foot. After my Tracy Turnblad move, a nearby girl shrieked, "Oh my God, do you want me to take you to the hospital?" I said, "Why, for a rabies shot?" She said, "No, for the amputation."

Neil Patrick Harris Opens The 2013 Tonys

This won't last long on YouTube, watch it now. Also: WOW.

NEW YORK CITY: Police Suspect Online Hook-Up In Murder Of Queens Gay Man

Queens middle school teacher David Rangel, 53, was found strangled in his apartment this weekend. Police suspect that Rangel may have met his killer online and are inspecting his computer's history.

Rangel taught Spanish to seventh and eighth graders at the Paul Klapper School (P.S./M.S. 219) in Flushing, where the flag flew at half-mast Monday. “Everyone was walking around, mourning,” student Michael Shahedi, 13, said at the end of the school day. “I’d always see him pull up in his small yellow car and he’d say hi to me as he got out.” “He was fun,” said Denali Rivera, 7, a second grader who had Rangel as a substitute teacher. “He was a very smart teacher. He never got mad.” Investigators removed a computer from Rangel’s apartment Monday. On Friday, the last day he was seen alive, Rangel posted a light-hearted stream of funny photos, cartoons and nature shots on his Facebook page.

Rangel has not yet been identified as gay by local media, but the NYC Anti-Violence Project has done so today via a press release that includes warnings to take caution when meeting new people via websites or smartphone apps.  Read the AVP's tips regarding online safety.

RELATED:  In 2010 openly gay ABC News reporter George Weber was stabbed to death by a 16 year-old prostitute Weber met on Craigslist.  In December 2011 the killer, who was tried as an adult, was sentenced to life in prison.

NEW YORK CITY: Gay Runners To Pub Crawl For Hurricane Sandy Relief

Instead of taking part in the now-canceled Marathon, today some gay runners and their supporters will pub crawl for hurricane relief in Hell's Kitchen, Chelsea, and the West Village. Beneficiaries will be the American Red Cross, the Ali Forney Center, and New York Care. More details are here and on the event's Facebook page.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan was elevated to Cardinal at the Vatican this morning, joining the other 125 Cardinals under the age of 80 who will vote on the next Pope when Emperor Palpatine finally keels over. Dolan's American entourage in Rome includes a reported throng of over 1000 fans, friends, and family, plus news crews from most of New York City's major media outlets.

Meanwhile, back in Dolan's former Milwaukee diocese, the investigation continues into the alleged 8000 incidents of child molestation that were hidden from the authorities. Dolan is suspected by some to have moved over $130M in diocese assets in order to protect them from being seized by court settlements in other molestation cases. The Milwaukee diocese is now claiming bankruptcy. Right.

New York City: Fat Cat Headquarters

New York City is home to more of the "super-wealthy" than any other city.

The city is jam-packed with "ultra-high net worth individuals" - superrich folks worth $30 million or more - according to a new report from Wealth-X, a global wealth intelligence company. There are 7,720 mega-rich people in the city area, the most in the U.S. and a whopping 44% more than distant runnerup Los Angeles, which has 4,350 ultra-high net-worth residents, Wealth-X report said. San Francisco is third with 4,230 and Chicago (2,550) and Washington (2,250) round out the top five. Overall, the U.S. has 57,860 ultra-high net-worth citizens, with 13% of them calling New York home. By comparison, the city only makes up about 6% of the total U.S. population.

The city with the highest average salary is Washington DC.

NEW YORK: Gay Group Plans To Counter Protest NOM/Diaz Hate Rally

The LGBT group Chasing Rainbows will be counter-protesting NOM's hate rally this Sunday. Facebook page here.

Bloomberg To Officiate Gay Wedding

Near Collision At JFK

Dubya Snubs Ground Zero Ceremony

According to the New York Daily News, Dubya declined to join President Obama at Ground Zero today because he feels he didn't get enough credit for taking down Osama Bin Laden.

Bush's visit to the rubble after the 9/11 attacks was the emotional high point of his presidency, but associates say the invitation to return with his successor was a non-starter. "He doesn't feel personally snubbed and appreciates the invitation, but Obama's claiming all the credit and a lot of other people deserve some of it," the source added. "Obama gave no credit whatsoever to the intelligence infrastructure the Bush administration set up that is being hailed from the left and right as setting in motion the operation that got Bin Laden. It rubbed Bush the wrong way." Bush spokesman David Sherzer said Bush "appreciated the invite, but has chosen in his post-presidency to remain largely out of the spotlight." Associates familiar with his thinking say Bush does not believe Obama or his handlers wanted to exploit his presence. But the tag-team idea "was for the benefit of Obama, and Obama withheld credit from people Bush believes deserved it," a source said.

Since leaving office, Bush has maintained the presidential tradition of declining to criticize his successor.

NYC's "Taxi Of Tomorrow" Chosen

After a year-long contest to pick a replacement for the discontinued Ford Crown Victoria, New York City has selected a boring-ass Nissan minivan as its new "taxi of tomorrow." Passed over was the much cooler futuristic entry from Turkey's Karsan, which had pledged to manufacture its taxis in Brooklyn. Nissan now gets a ten-year exclusive contract to provide taxis to the city. Advocates for the disabled are quite unhappy because unlike the Turkish entry, the winning vehicle isn't wheelchair-accessible.

NEW YORK: Sen. Ruben Diaz To Stage Massive Anti-Gay Marriage Rally

Arch homophobe Sen. Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) will once again work with anti-gay Hispanic evangelicals to stage a massive anti-marriage rally in New York City on May 15th. JMG reader Sabirjan provides us with a translation of this news story.

Radio Vision Cristiana, a New Jersey-based Spanish-language AM radio station that broadcasts religious programming, is planning a huge anti-gay march in New York City on May 15, 2011. It will be held in the Bronx (starting at noon the participants will march from 149th Street and Third avenue to 181st street in the Bronx). The radio station, as well as the main organizer of the event, State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. are urging all Hispanics and especially evangelicals to oppose the possible legalization of same-sex marriages in New York State. Ruben Diaz is urging the participants "to paralyze all traffic in the Bronx" on that day. Organizers of the event expect up to 30,000 people to show up. A similar rally was held in 2009, it attracted about 20,000 people and took many city officials by surprise.

I attended the 2009 rally staged by Diaz and Radio Cristiana. The vast majority of the protesters arrived via church buses from outside New York City. In my video below, watch the crowd erupt in ecstatic song as their hero Diaz arrives.

NYC To Get Space Shuttle

The four retired space shuttles have been doled out, but New York City is getting the Enterprise, which never actually went into orbit.

NEW YORK: Jets Collide At JFK

Yikes:

Two planes collided Monday while taxiing at Kennedy Airport around 8:15 p.m., according to Port Authority officials One of the planes was a Paris-bound Air France A380 -- one of the largest in the world -- which was carrying 500 passengers. While on its way to the runway for takeoff, it somehow ran into a taxiing Comair plane that had landed and was heading to the gate. The left wing of the Air France flight reportedly hit the tail of the Comair plane.

No injuries. JFK already has one of the highest "near-miss" records of all major airports.

Parking Wars

This winter's record 59 inches of snow has generated an issue seen more frequently in other cities than in New York - parking spot wars over dug out spaces. Some folks say that if they go through the back-breaking work of clearing a spot in front of their building, they are perfectly free to block that space with garbage cans until their return. Others say, bullshit, a space is a space and that there's no such things as "dibs" on a public street. Folks who move the "dibs" markers often return to find that the contents of that garbage can are now on the roof of their car. According to news reports, there have been quite a few fistfights in the last few days.

Quote Of The Day - James Molinaro

"Believe what our new governor, Andrew Cuomo, has been saying: that we have too many governments around the state and that we need to consolidate them and their services. No way is he going to create another county government in New York state. He is never, never, never, never, never going to sign a Staten Island secession bill into law." - Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro, responding to GOP state Sen. Andrew Lanza's renewed campaign for Staten Island to leave New York City.

In 1993 Staten Island residents approved a secession referendum, but the state legislature blocked it.

NEW YORK CITY: Portuguese Gay Activist Found Slain, Male Model In Custody

Noted Portuguese gay activist and fashion journalist Carlos Castro, 65, has been found dead and gruesomely mutilated in a midtown New York City hotel. Castro's traveling companion, a young model, is in police custody.

The naked body of Carlos Castro, 65, was found lying face-up in a pool of blood inside his 34th-floor room at the InterContinental New York Times Square on W. 44th St. about 7p.m., the sources said. The prominent gay activist had been bludgeoned in the head and his scrotum cut off, sources said. Several hours prior to the grisly find, Castro had a heated argument with his companion - Renato Seabra, a twentysomething Portuguese male model - sources and witnesses said. The two checked in together on Dec. 29. A female friend of the writer and producer grew concerned after she heard of the dispute and went to the swanky hotel to check on Castro, sources said. Not knowing what room her pal was in, the New Jersey woman went to the front desk. Suddenly, the tall, chiseled Seabra came through the lobby, recognized the worried woman and told her Castro "was not coming out of his room," a source said.

Guests at the hotel report having heard the pair arguing loudly earlier in the day. Police found Seabra at Bellevue Hospital, where he'd checked himself in for undisclosed reasons. Below is a Portuguese news report on the murder, followed by a clip of the suspect appearing on a Portuguese modeling competition show.

Instant Subway Hero

This subway flasher totally picked the wrong woman to mess with. From one account, it appears that the flasher had a condom on and was flashing his junk from behind his messenger bag. This guy is so busted, he doesn't even defend himself.

NEW YORK CITY: Guilty Verdict In Murder Of Gay College Student Kevin Pravia

Jeromie Cancel (above right) has been found guilty in the murder of Manhattan college student Kevin Pravia, who was strangled in his apartment by Cancel after the part allegedly met to conduct a drug deal in Union Square. The defense had implied "gay panic" as a reason for the murder. Duncan Osborne reports at Gay City News:

The trial opened on November 4 and the jury began deliberating late on November 17, broke for the day, and found the 24-year-old Cancel guilty of second-degree murder, the one charge he faced, before 11 a.m. on November 18. The defense said that Cancel was under the influence of an extreme emotional disturbance when he strangled the 19-year-old to death, but the jury clearly rejected that argument. Michael Alperstein, Cancel’s attorney, implied that his client’s emotional state was caused by a gay sex act between Cancel and Pravia. Alperstein called a psychiatrist and a psychologist who testified to Cancel’s troubled history, but neither witness said he was compelled by an extreme emotional disturbance during the crime.

Cancel faces 25 years to life in prison at his sentencing next month.

Fifty Reasons To Love New York City

Today the Village Voice published a list titled "50 Reasons To Be Pretty Damn Euphoric You Live In New York City." Here's a few of my favorites.

50. Sending your laundry out for someone else to wash and dry it is not only convenient, it's just good business. Especially since you will probably never own a washer and dryer. Which means you never have to feel guilty about not doing your own laundry.
47. There is always someone crazier than you. ALWAYS.
44. The epic feeling you get running to catch a train and succeeding...just before the doors close.
36. Whatever you need, whenever you need it, there is someone who will bring it to you for a price, which may or may not be negotiable. (Or legal.)
30. The fact that one-bedroom apartments cost an average minimum of a half-million dollars means we think nothing of spending $12 on lunch.
29. Restaurants are as common as single men and women. And equally diverse. And you never have to see either of them again after the initial awkward encounter.
7. Subway "prewalking," in which you walk to the exact right spot on the platform to board the train car that will save you the most time upon exit, exists and has a name. Gotta respect.
5. We are, as a group, anti-fanny-pack as much as we are pro-gay-marriage. Hetero marriage, on the other hand, we can pretty much take or leave.
2. There is absolutely no reason to ever drink and drive. Added bonus: Spontaneous, fascinating conversations with cab drivers.

I'll have lived in Manhattan for ten years this spring (longer than SF or Fort Lauderdale) and I've probably seen less than 10% of the city. I still sometimes need a subway map if I venture below Houston or above 86th (and always on my rare trips off the island.) I haven't owned a car (much less driven one) in a decade and the last time I did my own laundry was in a previous century. But I also live in an apartment with a rent that would cover the mortgage on a lovely Wilton Manors pool home and that is so small that I can reach into my fridge without getting up from my desk. It's totally worth it.