More taxis, less Voice...and Staten Island.

In the midst of the taxi strike in the spring of 1998, Mayor Giuliani held a press conference in which he pointed out how much quieter the streets were, how much safer it was to walk around, and told the striking drivers that if they wanted to take a few more days off, it was okay with him.

We were no fans of Giuliani, but on that one we were with him 100 percent. Two-thirds of the cars that normally clog the streets had simply vanished, and the city was suddenly a much more pleasant place to be.

That's why the proposal to dump 900 more cabs onto the already congested streets of Manhattan makes us cringe. The city may be in need of a lot of things, but more cabs ain't one of them. Regular civilian drivers are bad enough (Turn signals? Stoplights? Crosswalks? What the hell are those?). We've all heard the jokes about NYC cab drivers, and we all know that those jokes are based on daily realities.

So why dump nearly 1000 more of them onto the streets? A new city-commissioned study has concluded that handing out 900 more medallions over the next three years won't cause that much of a negative impact on the environment. Plus, in spite of all those new cars, traffic congestion will be magically eased by tinkering with the traffic-light system. And to keep drivers happy, the Taxi & Limousine Commission will be raising fares. The bottom line is that the city will rake in a mountain of short-term cash through those extra medallion sales.

And what does this mean for the rest of us? The millions of bicyclists and pedestrians who have to deal with cars from the wrong end every day? Once again, we lose. It's not just a matter of having that much more noise to deal with, that much more traffic to dodge and that much more exhaust to inhale. Over the past week alone, out-of-control taxis have killed one man and sent another six to the hospital.

Granted, there are dozens of serious car accidents in the city every week, only a percentage of which involve taxis, but still. If we had our way, we'd ban cars from Manhattan, period. And don't laugh. During the last century, there was a serious movement?led by Paul Goodman and Lewis Mumford?to do just that. There were even detailed, workable plans drawn up. But it never happened, and we realize it isn't going to happen anytime soon. Especially when we have a mayor in office who sees that drivers pay fares and fees and tolls and fines?money that goes straight into city coffers?and so does what he can to make it easier for them. And taxi services, along with paying the fares and fines, also pay those hefty medallion fees. So why not dump a bunch more of them out there? Who cares if they drive on the sidewalks, run over old people or foul the air? Just so long as they pay for the right to do so.

Public hearings have been planned, but there's little doubt that this new flood of taxis will begin terrorizing us as promised this June?and with them, the city will get a little spurt of cash.

Until it's determined that the rest of us need to purchase "pedestrian medallions" from the city in order to walk the streets, we're pretty well screwed.

Still Lame, But Not Forgotten

Staten Island, your status as the forgotten borough is well deserved. You will always be just a New Jersey town chipped off the mainland with a Disney-like transportation system.

But we heartily congratulate your going for the scandal brass ring with gusto. First, you went national with the Oct. 15 ferry crash. You could almost hear the whispers spreading throughout America: Staten Island is still there...

Then, last week, you hit two dazzling shots on goal, pulling down a rare scandal hat trick.

That a fellow firefighter hit Robert Walsh in the face with a metal chair hard enough to put him into critical condition during a New Year's Eve party at the Engine 151/Ladder 76 firehouse is undeniably sad and awful. But the fact that his fellow firefighters told doctors that Walsh had fallen down a set of stairs is just pathetic. That the stationhouse was stinking of booze when the police got there hours later is doubly so.

From our fallen heroes at the FDNY, you lurched to another nominal pillar of the community: school teachers. And not just any school teacher. Fifty-year-old Staten Islander Dennis Loffredo may have been the best and most caring high school teacher ever, as evidenced by this quote from one of his students: "If you were cutting class or failing, and you hooked Mr. Loffredo up with drugs, he'd let you off or pass you."

Sadly, he will be able to trade drugs for grades no more, as he was arrested with $5000 worth of cocaine and a glock.

Nice going, SI. But you still shouldn't expect a visit anytime soon.

What does the Time Out New York drag effect look like in 2004? How about Village Voice media critic Cynthia Cotts explaining to readers that newsstands are places where you can buy newspapers and magazines?

New York Press understands the benefits of a yearly Best Of issue?we should; we invented it?just as we see the utility of a bi-annual back-to-school supplement. But last week's debut of the Voice's "Annual Manual" left us scratching our heads. Who, exactly, is this thing aimed at? Mid-year transfer students? Amnesiacs? Staten Island Ferry victims emerging from comas?

No doubt these groups will be happy to learn that New York has a community-supported radio station called WBAI. And that pets are indeed available for adoption right here in Manhattan. And that there is this website called craigslist where you can find all sorts of neat things.

To be fair, there are a few useful tidbits in the issue for longtime Voice readers. It turns out there is a Museum of Natural History right on Central Park. Who knew?

CRIME BLOTTER A Year's-End Crime Cornucopia

What better way to end a year in which the good old-fashioned bank robber was king than with a last-minute bank-robbing spree? But that's not all we got this week. We got a little bit of everything?bodies, "bombs," unjust busts and hurt feelings!

On Monday, Dec. 29th, NYC bank robbers decided to end the year in style, with six of them hitting six banks over the course of an hour. Too bad they were half-incompetent, but dagnabbit, they tried.

At 1:45 p.m., a man in his 20s approached a teller at a Citibank on Broadway and handed her a generic "I have a gun, etc." note. When she hemmed and hawed about the money, he decided to screw it, and hightailed it empty-handed.

At 1:53, a woman hit a Chase on E. 23rd. She got away with a bagful, but was nabbed a few blocks away.

At 2, a youngster went into a bank on W. 23rd. He tried the note trick, but was arrested at the scene and charged with at least one other bank robbery.

About twenty minutes later, a man with Satan on his side hit a bank at 666 Broadway and got away scot free.

Ten minutes after that, another guy got away with a bagful from the Chase at 1 Lincoln Plaza.

And finally, at around 3 o'clock, slightly more than an hour after the first job, another man got away successfully from a bank on Third Ave. Excelsior!

In other "crimes," a Newark man was arrested after trying to set fire to "a metal cylinder stuffed with rags."

Witnesses assumed it was a bomb and screamed at him; one observer shot him in the foot. Police, likewise assuming it was a bomb, evacuated the area for four hours. The suspect, meanwhile, limped to the police station and was taken to the hospital, where he was later arrested.

After determining that it wasn't a bomb, just some old rags, police are charging him with "making terroristic threats and creating a public alarm."

In a similar incident, a Queens man discovered a "suspicious device" under his car. When the bomb squad arrived, they found it was just some matches taped to a can of Red Bull.

After two armed men broke into a Flatbush apartment early Sunday evening and demanded money from the couple who lived there, there was a struggle. One of the intruders was shot in the head and killed by occupant Sheldon Barrow.

When police showed up to investigate, they discovered some pot on the premises and so booked the couple on drug and weapons charges, which simply doesn't seem fair.

"Anti-Greek insults," whatever those might entail, were scrawled on the steps of a Queens bank on Sunday. The bias crimes unit is investigating.

And some hapless security guard got in an argument with a customer at Dr. Jay's clothing store in Mott Haven. The customer, being better dressed and better armed, won the argument. The security guard is in stable condition, recovering from a gunshot wound to the back.