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	<title>The City Desk &#187; Craig Gaines</title>
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	<link>http://thecitydesk.net</link>
	<description>Fictional urbanism.</description>
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		<title>Food Truck Congestion Pricing</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/06/22/food-truck-congestion-pricing/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/06/22/food-truck-congestion-pricing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:48:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Craig Gaines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[laws]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[transportation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=592</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hundreds of food trucks slowed traffic during afternoon rush hour last Thursday in a mass protest of the city’s new congestion-pricing scheme. The act of civil disobedience, coordinated by the Mobile Food Providers Alliance, delayed commuters on their way home from work by up to 90 minutes. At 5:30 p.m., at least 215 food trucks pulled onto the Riverside Parkway and drove 15 mph. The speed brought traffic to a standstill, and was symbolic of the new toll the trucks will have to pay on the city’s highways, starting Monday. The toll plan, which City Council passed two weeks ago, seeks to discourage the city’s taco trucks and other mobile restaurants from taking to the highways at peak traffic periods. Trucks that do so will be required to pay a $15 fee. At a press conference before the traffic protest, Elena Cardozo, who operates Luchita’s Mobile Taco Truck No. 1 and is a co-organizer of the alliance, called the fee “industrial discrimination.” But City Council President Martin Wernstrom, who has asked the city attorney to bring public endangerment charges against the group, says the pricing scheme only makes sense given the burgeoning number of food trucks in the city. “When [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>Friday Facts: Impes, &#8220;Leapin&#8217; Lepean,&#8221; Debtors Prison</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/23/friday-facts-impes-leapin-lepean-debtors-prison/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/23/friday-facts-impes-leapin-lepean-debtors-prison/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:42:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[budget]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[city council]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Craig Gaines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Downtown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[friday facts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holidays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Morris]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prison]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=521</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[:: Mayor Cosgrove is expected to deliver to City Council on Monday her administration&#8217;s plan to make up the city&#8217;s now $728 million five-year deficit. :: Expected remedies: Rec Center  and library cutbacks, trash collection, city vehicle usage cuts, wage rollbacks, hiring freeze. :: The plaque on the Trade and Securities Building (43rd Ave and Roosevelt) remembers investor Tom Lepean, who on October 28, 1929, had made the decision to sell his sizable portfolio of stock and retire to a secluded wooded area. Although Lepean had been inspired by the book Walden, several scorned investors the following day – suspicious of Lepean’s timing &#8211; accused him of either benefitting from inside information of the coming stock market crash, or possibly engineering it. The legend of Lepean’s perspicacity exceeded public temperament, and the once-lucky investor was pushed out a 16th story window by a stenographic pool secretary whose father had been ruined in the Crash. :: Fast-Cash Plus, a national chain specializing in your-auto-title-for-easy-cash swaps, has opened an outlet in the Crestmoor Shopping Plaza, at 35th and Wallace Streets. That plot of land was the location of Munson Prison until 1938, which contained a sizable debtors prison wing. :: Alfred Garret, [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://thecitydesk.net/2009/01/23/friday-facts-impes-leapin-lepean-debtors-prison/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Traffic Scofflaws Forced To Run Marathon</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/09/08/traffic-scofflaws-forced-to-run-marathon/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/09/08/traffic-scofflaws-forced-to-run-marathon/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:58:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Craig Gaines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[police]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=315</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A judge has ended an experimental, controversial program to promote fitness among parking violators — but not before a determined Wilders administration compelled the city’s most chronic scofflaws to compete in what may be the grimmest marathon anywhere. The past few days have seen frantic races to the finish, figurative and literal, as city attorneys stalled a lawsuit to halt the Tickets to Health initiative long enough to hold the first and only Triple Offenders Marathon. The lawyers got what they wanted, successfully delaying Judge Horace Table’s ruling until Monday morning — mere hours after the marathon’s finish. Table ruled the Tickets to Health program was “in violation of the City Charter, in violation of the Constitution and in violation of any standard of human decency.” A year and a half ago, local gymnasium magnate Carolanne Tapscott approached Mayor Wilders with an idea intended to decrease widespread anger at the city’s aggressive parking enforcement and increase physical activity among residents. After a series of private discussions and one poorly attended public hearing, the city unveiled Tickets to Health to a confused, sedentary population. The program worked like this: a resident’s first parking ticket would result in a mandatory 25-minute walk [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Friday Facts: Peelers, It&#8217;s the Humidity, Blood</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/08/08/friday-facts-peelers-its-the-humidity-blood/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/08/08/friday-facts-peelers-its-the-humidity-blood/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:41:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[aviation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Craig Gaines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dancing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[friday facts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hospitals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ray Ingraham]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sports]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[weather]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=288</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[:: When the new Southside High School opens at the end of the month, it will be the first high school in the city built without an Olympic-sized swimming pool in 46 years, after the school district was finally able to override the requirements of Elanor Jean Hapsworth&#8217;s will. :: Number of days (so far) this summer in which the temperature has reached 90 degrees or more: 23 :: Ecdysiast clubs out near the airport with aviation-themed names: The Landing Strip, Propellerz, The Cargo Hold, Lindy&#8217;s, Flyboys, The Landing Strip Too :: More than 500 units of blood were transfused in the Nilsson-Presbyterian South Hospital emergency room during the month of July. Below is a percentage breakdown, listed by causes provided in accident/police reports: 32.5% Car/truck accidents 22.8% Miscellaneous/Not specified 14.4% Gunshot, stab, and/or assault wounds 10.7% ATV/motorcycle accidents 9.9% Aneurysm/hemorrhage 4.3% Firework mishaps 3.1% Injuries from falls (2.8% falls from objects, 0.3% crushed by falling objects) 1.6% Household/landscaping/construction equipment accident 0.5% Domestic animal attacks 0.2% Wild animal attacks :: New events for Citywide Field Day XV, to be held at various elementary schools across the city during the second week in September: Four-square (individual and pairs), tennis-ball fling, spitting, [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>The Blotter: Potato Guns Are Surprisingly Illegal</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/07/31/the-blotter-potato-guns-are-surprisingly-illegal/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/07/31/the-blotter-potato-guns-are-surprisingly-illegal/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:35:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Craig Gaines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hoyt Schermerhorn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leonard Pierce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[police]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the blotter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=277</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As a public service, The City Desk periodically offers up selected items culled from local police reports. (Note: More violent, standard items do not frequently show up here, as they are covered in the local papers with regularity.) 7:23 am 3700 block of Pennsylvania Avenue: A group of students are arrested after carrying Davidson High School principal Stephanie Allen&#8217;s 2007 Mini Cooper into the school&#8217;s second-floor cafeteria. The students, who are all underage, are charged with grand theft auto, operating a motor vehicle without a license, disorderly conduct, local and state hazardous-materials infractions, vandalism, property destruction and a parking violation. 9:02 am 1700 block of Marway Lane: Tandem bicycle reported stolen. 9:27 pm 2000 block of Dunn Avenue: Gupta’s Stop ‘n’ Pop calls in a shoplifting incident. When police arrive, suspect claims that Gupta offers free in-store refills on fountain drinks. Mr. Gupta explains that the policy was never meant to be offered in perpetuity, and the suspect, who has been continually refilling his 44-oz. Mountain Dew since 1:30 PM the previous day, is violating the spirit of the contract. No charges are filed, but suspect is politely asked to leave. 12:52 pm 2100 block of Villers Street: A 22-year-old [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/07/31/the-blotter-potato-guns-are-surprisingly-illegal/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Three Stooges Convention Turns Surprisingly Violent</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/07/07/three-stooges-convention-turns-surprisingly-violent/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/07/07/three-stooges-convention-turns-surprisingly-violent/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:18:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[conventions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Craig Gaines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[police]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[riots]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[violence]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=274</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A gathering of slapstick aficionados turned violent Saturday, requiring dozens of city police bearing shields and batons to quell the riot. It was the first conflict in the 13-year history of the Three Stooges Enthusiasts and Impersonators Annual Convention, held every year at the Westport Heights Sheraton &#38; Conference Center. The yearly event is part reunion, part workshop for the small but intense group of people from across the country who &#8220;want to live the Stooge way the right way,&#8221; as the convention&#8217;s mission statement says. &#8220;This is the worst thing to happen since the 2005 protests,&#8221; said convention founder Howard Dewey, referring to a handful disruptive picketers that year, angry over the exclusion of devotees to Stooge replacements Shemp and Curly Joe. The fracas broke out during a class on how to successfully block an attempted double eye poke. Instructor Bob Silver demonstrated the proper technique — it entails holding your hand at a perfect 90 degree angle from your face — and then paired off participants to practice the move. A fight started between attendee Lewis Oster, a member of the Moe group, and Curly group member Morris Heinz, who claimed later that Oster poked too hard and [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Blotter: Monster party, pets in trouble, misc.</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/06/27/the-blotter-monster-party-pets-in-trouble-misc/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/06/27/the-blotter-monster-party-pets-in-trouble-misc/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:25:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Craig Gaines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hoyt Schermerhorn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[police]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RJ White]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the blotter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=276</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As a public service, The City Desk periodically offers up selected items culled from local police reports. 9:17 pm 200 block of Euclid Avenue: A 7-year-old girl reports to 911 that &#8220;monsters are knocking at my door.&#8221; Dispatch sends a cruiser to reassure the girl, only to find people dressed as Frankenstein and the Werewolf knocking on her door. Police interviews reveal a wrong address on a &#8220;Halloween-In-Summer party&#8221; Evite is to blame. The partiers leave and police calm the girl down. 9:26 pm 200 block of Euclid Avenue: The girl calls back, reporting more monsters. Police are sent back out to the house, and direct Freddie Kruger, 24, and Jason Voorhies, 25, to the right address, and again calm the girl. 9:45 pm 300 block of Pacific Lane: Baby with gun. 9:37 pm 200 block of Euclid Avenue: The girl calls again. A City Desk review of the 911 tape reveals the girl is hyperventilating while describing &#8220;a man with fangs and a black cape&#8221; at her front door. Police return, direct Dracula to the right address, post an officer in front of the house for the rest of the night, and take the girl into protective custody. According [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Blotter: Mischief, Various</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/06/12/the-blotter-mischief-various/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/06/12/the-blotter-mischief-various/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:49:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Craig Gaines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hoyt Schermerhorn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[police]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the blotter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/?p=265</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As a public service, The City Desk periodically offers up selected items culled from local police reports. 12:08 am Harding Park, Officers disperse a group of people loitering in the park after hours. 1:01 am 3400 block of Spring Street: A woman reports excessive noise in adjoining house. The responding officers could hear nothing. 2:17 am 300 block of Bay Street: City EMS reports a break in and vandalism to an ambulance parked at LeFleur&#8217;s Donuts while the paramedics were taking a lunch break. 2:42 am 3400 block of Spring Street: A woman reports excessive noise in adjoining house. The responding officers could hear nothing. 3:01 am 4700 block of McKinley Avenue: Officers respond to silent alarm at a Kwick Stop Market finding clerk unconscious behind counter. 3:12 am 3400 block of Spring Street: A woman reports excessive noise in adjoining house. The responding officers could hear nothing. 3:47 am 2700 block of Huron Street: Officers respond to a 911 call of a cow in the roadway. 4:37 am 3400 block of Spring Street: Officers respond to a complaint of excess noise. Beverly Fouineur, 86, arrested for wasting police time. 5:14 am 21000 block of State Road: Gerald Crass, 18, [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>&#8220;The New-Economy Day Laborers&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/03/11/the-new-economy-day-laborers/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/03/11/the-new-economy-day-laborers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:37:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Craig Gaines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[economic development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[freelancer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ilya Perchikovsky]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[immigration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/2008/03/11/the-new-economy-day-laborers/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A misunderstanding over the attempted coining of a new phrase has resulted in an unlikely friendship between two groups of the City’s workforce. When Tomas Babushkin announced the opening of WorkSHOP, his new “wiki-place” where freelance information professionals can rent cubicles, collaborate on projects, and drink complimentary espresso and yerba mate, he foresaw a clientele dressed in open-collar Prada shirts and Chip &#38; Pepper jeans. What he didn’t expect were strong, silent types in flannel shirts and Carharts. But WorkSHOP’s unexpected diverse clientele now includes many of the migrant workers drawn to the City in hopes of finding landscaping, construction, or agricultural work. Babushkin is still trying to adapt to this mixture of open-source and open-borders, but the “rock-ribbed entrepreneur” is thrilled to have the opportunity. “I guess I brought this situation onto myself,” said the former chief interaction architect for social-networking site MishMash. “But it is what it is, and I’m committed to serving all my customers, whether they’re running from corporate careers or ICE.” It all started during Babushkin’s media blitz to draw attention to WorkSHOP. He was looking to advertise his services but also cultivate an image of the nebulous group of writers, artists, and consultants who [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>Tech Company &#8220;De-friends&#8221; City, Investors</title>
		<link>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/02/04/tech-company-defriends-city-investors/</link>
		<comments>http://thecitydesk.net/2008/02/04/tech-company-defriends-city-investors/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:21:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>The City Desk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Craig Gaines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[economic development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fraud]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thecitydesk.net/2008/02/04/tech-company-defriends-city-investors/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The city’s latest great tech hope, Software &#38; Co., has swiftly and suddenly left town, leaving behind an angry mob of scammed investors, jilted customers, and red-faced city officials. Its abandonment of the city’s much-touted &#8220;High-Tech High-Rise&#8221; building (formerly known as the Main Administration Building at the old Bellmet Manufacturing complex) renders Mayor Wilders&#8217; “22nd-century incubator” devoid of tenants or much of a future. S&#38;Co.’s main number has been disconnected, its Web site has vanished, and the known homes of the company’s CEO and COO had for-sale signs posted in their front lawns yesterday. The company has vanished, as have its investors’ funds. “We don’t know where they are, and we’re beginning to think we don’t know who they are,” said a perplexed Mayor Wilders, who just eight months ago badly sliced open his hand when he christened the opening of the High-Tech High-Rise with a bottle of sparkling apple juice. “I can tell you one thing: They certainly won’t be getting back their security deposit on the building.” Trouble started mounting for S&#38;Co. last month, when it had to pull its debut software product 2Face, an application for the popular social-networking Web site Facebook that allowed users to keep [...]]]></description>
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