Designer Challenge: Build A Better Bike Rack
COMPILED BY LIZ GOFF

The city Department of Transportation (DOT) is partnering with the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in a big-bucks challenge to New Yorkers to design a better, more attractive and functional bike rack.

Officials are hoping to use the new racks to convince motorists to leave their cars behind and peddle their way to work through traffic-congested streets.

DOT and Cooper Hewitt are joined by the group Transportation Alternatives and Google, Inc., in the offer to award a top designer more than $65,000 in prizes and publicity for the best bike rack prototype.

The deadline to register prototypes for indoor and outdoor bike racks is Wednesday, April 30. Winners will be announced on September 30.

Awards will be presented during Cooper Hewitt's third annual National Design Week from October 19 to 25.

For information and application forms, visit www.nycracks.wordpress.com.

Peralta Blasts Roosevelt Avenue Porn Peddlers

Assemblymember Jose Peralta last week blasted individuals who display and distribute pornographic images and promote prostitution along the Roosevelt Avenue corridor in Elmhurst and Corona.

The Western Queens lawmaker said the distribution and display of the graphic images has turned parts of the borough, including sites located near schools, parks, playgrounds and local shops, into problem areas.

"These individuals get stopped and dragged into court, where they are slapped with a fine and let go," Peralta said.

Peralta said he is proposing stiffer penalties for the offenders, including upgrading the charge for promoting prostitution from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class E felony, which could land the offender in jail.

Members of the Guardian Angels supported Peralta's proposal, adding that the group would continue to patrol Roosevelt Avenue and will photograph offenders. The group hopes to publish the images on a Web site that will show the offenders to the public and alert area residents and businesses.

Peralta said he hopes to assist law enforcement officials in their attempts to jail offenders by upgrading charges and increasing penalties for individuals caught peddling the illicit materials