Reeling from nude sunbathers who assault both their eyes and their standards of decency, Rockaway residents are begging for a large fence to shield them from an adjacent nudist beach.
Hurricane Irene destroyed the fence that once served as a barrier between the bare-naked beach bums at Riis Park and the more conservative bathers at Neponsit, who are none too fond of the breast-barers frolicking nearby. Read More
Hurricane Irene is just a memory in the five boroughs, but upstate, this summer’s succession of storms continues to wreak havoc. Even as city residents prepared to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11, New Yorkers living along the Susquehanna River in the Southern Tier were fleeing their homes, hoping that that flood waters would prove merciful.
Their suffering and losses come after earlier floods ruined homes and businesses in the North Country beyond Albany in the days just after Irene passed through.
The summer of 2011 has been a disaster for upstate. Read More
With Hurricane Irene still affecting New York—clean-up continues, the sun is only now shining, the Hudson runs red with upstate clay—the city is making preparations and procedural changes to prepare for the next disaster. Yet with evacuations being one of the biggest effects of the storm, so far no action has been taken to address neighborhoods in low-lying areas, the now-well-known Zone As of the city. Read More
Hurricane Irene played matchmaker for the political odd couple of President Obama and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. The potential 2012 rivals are unlikely allies in the debate over hurricane relief and they’re spending an awkward afternoon together tomorrow touring flood damage in Paterson.
Despite his repeated denials, Christie is viewed by many insiders as a Read More
Of all the various ways people could come together over Hurricane Irene’s mopey, rainy tour through New York City—or the fervent preparations in its lead-up—romance was of course inevitable. Following that logic, the ‘Missed Connections’ section of Craigslist would generate a few moments of Sliding Doors-esque romance as well. Naturally, it doesn’t disappoint. Read More
With all the angst and frustration over Hurricane Irene, the city actually got off pretty good. At ground zero, precautions to protect the 9/11 memorial actually helped prepare the site for its opening in just over a week. But as Port Authority executive director and big man downtown Chris Ward told the audience at a New York Building Congress forum today, we were inches away from disaster. Read More
When Hurricane Irene finally blew through the city Sunday morning as a mere tropical storm, many New Yorkers were left disappointed. No, not primarily because of the inconvenience of suspended Subway service, the annoyance of a flooded basement or the over zealousness of a few public officials, though there was plenty of that, too. No, these New Yorkers were angry at Mother Nature for not putting up more of a fight.
“I have to say, if we’re going to be stuck inside for 48 hours, I was hoping for at least more excitement,” Carly Frasier Doria said yesterday afternoon, the sun shining from the clear blue sky as she was returning from a Starbucks run at 43rd and Sixth, Frappuccino in hand. “It’s good nobody got killed, I guess. But a little more excitement would have been good. Not so much that anyone died, but enough to keep things interesting.”
“The worst part was that they shut the subways down,” her coworker Emily Turner said, sipping on a grande. “Even though it was boring, there was nothing to do. You couldn’t go visit your friends.”
“All the bars in Dumbo were closed,” corrected Ms. Frasier Doria. “That was the worst part. I really needed a cocktail. And the next morning, there was no coffee.”
Irene was no hurricane. It wasn’t even a tropical storm, it turns out. It was a case of tropical depression. Read More
The Observer has cataloged 25 reasons why Hurricane Irene was good for New York City, and Streetsblog gives us another: burnishing our urban superiority complex. After all, a major storm or disaster like this reminds us of the value of living in dense, transit-rich communities, where you can walk, cab, bike, bus, train or—if you must, if you can—drive to work, to the store, to see friends. Read More
Video
Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a visit to Engine 166/Ladder 86 Fire Company on Staten Island today, to thank the firefighters there for their work and hold his second post-Irene press conference.
With clear skies and the city back to work, the mood was light enough for a daring reporter to ask the mayor about El Bloombito, the parodic Twitter account created this weekend by soap-making stay-at-home mom Rachel Figueroa-Levin. Good humored as always, the administration even posted the clip to its YouTube page, titled “El Alcalde Bloomberg habla sobre su esfuerzo por aprender español.” Read More
It rained Saturday night! The Wall Street Journal sent reporters to far-flung locales such as Long Island City and Crown Heights, where places decided to stay open despite the fake hurricane that, it turns out, never actually existed. Some barkeeps and deli owners thought, hey, a hurricane has never hit New York before. Maybe it’ll just rain a little. Maybe I can make an extra buck. Maybe things will be OK.
And that’s what happened! They might have gotten a little bit wet, but they did great business. Read More
