By Kim Velsey 3/13 7:07pm

IMPRESSIVE DISPLAYS OF CHUTZPAH

The club, eight hours beo

You Can’t Stop the Silver Gull: Cabana Club Shrugs Off Warnings Not To Rebuild Pier

The Silver Gull Beach Club likes to do things the old-fashioned way. When The Observer first saw the club it was the Fourth of July and there was a band of hefty middle-aged men in Hawaiian shirts playing “Sweet Caroline” and little kids flinging themselves into the pool and leathery old women in loungers deepening their already very-deep tans. Having wandered over from the hipster-strewn stretch of Breezy Point, the club seemed like a mirage—a vision of an earlier Brooklyn, another Brooklyn. In fact, it was—the club opened in 1963 and has managed to stay largely as it always has been, a cabana club long after cabana clubs’ cultural moment passed.

Nor does the club intend to let Hurricane Sandy do what time could not. While the storm destroyed some 200 of the club’s 460 cabanas—particularly those built on a pier that juts out into the sea—club management intends to rebuild the whole shebang, against the wishes of Gateway National Recreation Area, which owns the club and the rest of the beach, reports The New York Times. Read More

By Hunter Walker 12/27/12 10:44am

Baywatch

The beached whale struggling in the water near the shore in Breezy Point yesterday. (Photo: Getty)

Whale Beached in Breezy Point Presumed Dead

Residents in Breezy Point, which was devastated by Hurricane Sandy, were hoping the rescue of an endangered finback whale that washed up on the beach there yesterday would provide a happy ending to what has been an incredibly difficult year for the neighborhood. However, it was not meant to be. Rob DiGiovanni, the executive director and senior biologist of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, which was attempting to help save the animal, told The Observer the whale did make it off the beach, but it seems to have died.

“As of right now, the animal was lost last night,” Mr. DiGiovanni said. “It looks like it moved a little off the shore, relocated and it does appear to be dead.” Read More

By Steve Huff 9/08/12 12:44pm

Bad weather

A twister strikes in Queens. (Screengrab from Roy Currlin's storm video)

Updated: A Tornado Strikes in Queens [Video]

Heavy weather like tornadoes isn’t as common in New York and points north as it is in the Midwest and the South, but it looks as though this Saturday may be an exception. The National Weather Service has already issued multiple severe thunderstorm and tornado watches and warnings for New York and New England.

If you’re skeptical about the possibility of twisters in New York (all the boroughs have had their share of such severe weather, but they’re not going to give Oklahoma City a run for its money any time soon), Youtube user Roy Currlin’s nearly 6-minute video of an apparent tornado blasting through a neighborhood in Queens late Saturday morning may give you some pause: Read More