Michael Beirut, streetscape chauffeur. (Twitter)

Michael Bierut is one of the most renowned designers in the world. As a principal at Pentagram, he has created logos, identities and campaigns for everyone from United Airlines to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Citibank to New York and The Atlantic, Saks Fifth, Princeton and Yale, even Walt Disney and The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, for which he designed an updated “doomsday clock.”

Still, one of the greatest typographical minds of our time could never make sense of the city’s parking signs.

“On the occasions I drive and try to park on the street, I tend to get as confused as anyone,” explained Mr. Bierut, who lives in Westchester and normally takes Metro-North into the city. “I have received many tickets and been towed twice. I am so paranoid now that I will park in a garage for even a 15-minute errand.”

Perhaps now he can start parking on the street again.

On Monday, the city’s Department of Transportation unveiled new parking signs it created in partnership with Mr. Bierut and a team of designers at Pentagram. Simplified from four signs down to two—one for commercial vehicles, one for everyone else—the new signs feature a unified, streamlined design meant to convey the details in a straightforward way with as little clutter as possible. Previously, parking signs had been the work of the city’s sign shop, a no-nonsense place, the kind of outfit where the difference between left-aligned text and center-aligned text holds little meaning.

“Design conventions for the parking signs were basically almost 19th century in their character,” Mr. Bierut said. “It’s like if you were doing a playbill for vaudeville performances at some music hall in 1895. You’d have everything in capital letters. You’d decide what was important, make that the biggest. A little less important, something smaller. A little less important, something smaller. And you’d center everything. If something was really long, it would be in a squashed, condensed typeface. If something didn’t have that many letters, you’d make it in a wide typeface.

“It was as undesigned as possible.”

The very first thing Mr. Bierut and his designers considered was bigger signs—“you always want more room to play with”—but that was quickly dispensed with because every sign in the city must hew to set dimensions dictated by the sign shop, in this case 48 inches high by 18 inches wide. Besides, the signs might become less cluttered, but the streets would become more so. “No New Yorker wants that, not even me,” Mr. Bierut said.

Once the team had the dimensions, the Pentagram team got to tinkering. “As typical designers, our first inclination is to see if we can turn all the dials all the way down and still have the thing work,” Mr. Bierut explained. They started out by making every single word and letter the same size and set it in—what else—Helvetica. “And then you go from that, and you do this fairly painstaking—but this is what we do for fun—exploration,” Mr. Bierut said.

They tried out various colors and weights and shapes and types of fonts before settling on the current layout. It is similar to the original, with commercial regulations on top, but now both signs have the same format, the only real difference being the color of the type and the outline—a federal regulation that Mr. Bierut tried to do away with but couldn’t. “I don’t see why you need the line,” he said. “The sign acts as its own border. But I don’t make the rules.”

The other big debate was over the typeface. “We did one sign that used a custom Helvetica that we had designed for another DOT project,” Mr. Bierut explained. “It looked really beautiful, but in a way that they looked like they would be perfect parking signs in Zurich or Geneva, and somehow didn’t seem New York enough. They felt a little bit unnerving to the people at DOT, I think.”

So what makes a perfect New York City street sign? This is a town that’s always been obsessed with signage and typography, from the spectacles of Times Square to the crown of the New Yorker Hotel. Helvetica has long held sway in the subways, since Massimo Vignelli (Mr. Bierut’s first employer) imported it from Milan in 1966.

“The city of New York’s genius is, and this seems to have been part of its DNA from the beginning, is that it really derives beauty from function and necessity,” Mr. Bierut said. “The emblematic parts of New York often have some pure beauty that someone just did for the sake of it. It’s either people trying to solve complicated problems or someone trying to decide, ‘How do I get people to move into my fancy office building? Well, what if I put a fancy top on it?’ Voila, the Chrysler Building. Sometimes it’s, ‘How do I make my train system kick the ass of every other train system in the city?’ And then you get Grand Central.

“When it comes to the way we do things, it’s just someone trying to figure out how to maximize the value and efficiency and get the job done. And I think New Yorkers just getting the job done has actually created all these icons of inadvertence.”

We can now add the homely parking sign to that list.

Zoom, zoom.

One of the more unusual sides of the city's response to Superstorm Sandy has been the ingenuity of the transportation and planning wonks that help us get around this giant metropolis. It is not only the speed with which the MTA recovered, but also what it and the city's Department of Transportation did in between. Creating bus bridges to replace flooded subways, launching new ferry lines, creating special subway shuttles.

Today, Mayor Bloomberg and Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan announced yet another innovation, a second ferry for Staten Island. The Rockaways already has one, and now the city is looking for an operator to serve the hardest-hit sections of Staten Island's south shore. With widespread destruction, many locals' lives have been interrupted, forcing them to leave behind their homes and cars. The new ferry service is seen as a lifeline between Great Kills and Manhattan, for those struggling to get to work and beyond.

“We are committed to rebuilding and helping people in Staten Island and all impacted areas get their lives back on track,” Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement. “Part of the rebuilding effort is making sure Staten Islanders have manageable commutes to their jobs despite heavy damage to roadways and vehicles during the storm. This new fast ferry service from Great Kills is affordable and quick, and we are confident it will help ease the commute for Staten Islanders during these tough times.”

Already, DOT and the MTA have expanded express bus service in the area on the X23 and X24 lines, and starting next Monday, there should be a ferry running from Great Kills landing to both Pier 11 on Wall Street and the 35th Street Pier in Midtown. Currently, the city is soliciting bids from ferry operators to run the service and it expects to make a decision in time for rush hour Monday morning.

“For those Staten Islanders rebuilding their homes and their lives, every minute counts,” Commissioner Sadik-Khan said. “With this new Staten Island ferry service, we're doing our part to get New Yorkers back on their way and providing a new and faster commuting option to some of the city's hardest-hit neighborhoods and making that daily trip to work or school easier and faster.”

After all, even on a regular day, getting to work from Staten Island is not easy, as Councilman James Oddo points out. “Staten Islanders have some of the most difficult commutes in the nation, so adding this transportation alternative is welcome news,” he said.

Let's eat. (EPA)

Just before Hurricane Sandy hit, everyone was busy stocking up provisions to weather the maelstrom. Following the storm, there was a scramble to to find more to eat as stores were empty and restaurants closed. This is a city of gourmands, after all. For the city officials who were responsible for guiding the city through the disaster, this was no exception.

While we were compiling our oral history of Hurricane Sandy, Joe Lhota mentioned that even in the worst of the storm, he had managed to keep his daily dietary regimen intact. This got us wondering: what was everybody eating while they scrambled around getting the city ready and helping it recover? Here is what the protectors and providers of the city had on their plates and in their pockets.

Joe Lhota, chairman and CEO, MTA: Even in the middle of the storm, I had what I always have—an omelet with two sausage patties. It's what I eat every morning. Would that be a cheese omelet? Is there any other kind? I don't put shit in them. Who needs onions in the morning? It's all protein, no carbs for breakfast, and that's the only thing I eat until dinner time.

Ray Kelly, commissioner, NYPD: He eats two patties a day, huh? Jeeze! He eats that stuff? I'm trying to eat egg whites. I had those Dunkin' Donuts egg white things, the sandwiches. I've had several of those. But I won't have anymore for a while.

It's funny because you take food for granted. I'm out riding around, and a place is closed, lots of places to eat are closed down. When the subways are closed, the restaurants are closed because they can't get their workers in there. It's something that is driven home sort of dramatically when you drive down Columbus Avenue, you think, "Hey there's no flooding here." Yeah, but they can't get their workers to work. Food suddenly became much more of an issue.

Sal Cassano, commissioner, FDNY: I think I ate a granola bar for dinner the night of the storm, and that was it.

Janette Sadik-Khan, commissioner, NYC DOT: I’ve been eating a lot of granola bars, a lot of granola bars. And they serve peanut butter sandwiches at every relief station, so between the granola bars and peanut butter and jelly, that’s it. Fortunately I walk up and down the stairs at home and work, and when you’re out all day in the field, I hope it won’t be too damaging.

Josh Vlasto, communications director, Cuomo administration: I don't want to sound complain-y, but when you're on the road, we haven't been eating that much. On the days when you're doing four or five stops, you leave at 10 in the morning and your don't get back to the office till 4 in the morning. It's a lot of granola bars and bottled water that you pick up. But people have been ordering pizza. But nothing has been open. Lots of granola bars, lets put it that way. It's a lot of throwing granola bars into the jacket and munching along the way.

Joe Bruno, commissioner, NYC OEM: Well I didn't eat that much. I mean, we do feed people here, so I'm a big salad person. If I can get fish I'm very happy, but we didn't get much of that. Mainly salads, a little bit of rice and little bit of bread. But I'm a skinny guy. I don't eat that much. There was pizza. I don't eat that stuff, but some of them do, unfortunately.

Cas Holloway, deputy mayor for operations: I was at OEM, and my hurricane diet was coffee. And I had a trail mix that I had that I actually had brought. Store-bought? No, no, I made it, I make my own. I go to this place called Nut Box and I make my own mix, and I had it in a big jar, and I was eating it by the fistful. Will you share your secret recipe? Almonds, cashews and dried apricots, dried cherries. And a little bit of coconut flaked shavings. It’s quite good.

Howard Glaser, director of state operations, Cuomo administration: Coffee, Coke, bagels.

John Rhea, chairman, NYCHA: I had a couple boxes of Ritz crackers that I was running around with, a bunch of bottles of water, and I had some spaghetti that I made with a little sauce. That tasted just as good cold, but it was even better if it was room temperature.

Robert LiMandri, commissioner, DOB: I didn’t eat very much all week. I remember having chicken soup on Monday, and that was probably the last time I ate for two and a half days. I didn’t have an appetite, standing down there, watching that crane.

(Photo illustration: Ed Johnson)

When Hurricane Sandy came ashore, it fell to the city’s leaders and the thousands of workers at their command to secure our coasts, to rescue those trapped by water and without power, to help the city rebuild. The Observer spent Monday and Tuesday talking with New York's top public officials about Hurricane Sandy. These are their experiences in their own words.

The Storm

Joe Lhota, chairman and CEO, Metropolitan Transportation Authority: I have an app on my iPad that monitors hurricanes on the East Coast. I have always lived on the water. I always watch the app. So when I first got involved in this—it was long before it even hit Jamaica—I knew when it started as a tropical storm, and a hurricane, and a tropical storm, and then a hurricane again.

Joe Bruno, commissioner, NYC Office of Emergency Management: We follow the weather very closely this time of year as it comes off the tip of Africa, or wherever it develops. This particular storm came out of the southwest of the Caribbean. At 11 a.m. on October 22, we saw a tropical depression. At that point it’s just a depression, and you don’t know much about it. By 6 p.m., it was upgraded already to a tropical storm called Sandy. It continued to strengthen during the next day, and we kept track of it as it moved across Jamaica.

On Oct. 24, we convened a coastal storm steering committee. That was made up of all the city and state agencies that would be part of any reaction to a coastal storm in New York City. When we do that, it means we see a potential threat to the city. On the 25th, we activated the situation room at OEM, we brought in the Police Department, the Fire Department, the city and state departments of health, the Department of Education, MTA, all the major agencies. We said, “We think this is going to be a big storm and we want to be ready.”

Josh Vlasto, communications director and senior adviser, Cuomo administration: We have a National Weather Service representative within our Homeland Security office up in Albany. When they send those emails saying “Potentially devastating storm coming in,” it puts everyone on notice.

Ray Kelly, commissioner, Police Department: It was a slow moving storm, so it was on everybody's screen that this storm had a lot of potential but these things are uncertain. We prepared. I think we prepared as well for this storm as any other and quite frankly we had more time because it was a slow moving storm.

Veronica White, Robert LiMandri, John Doherty, David Yassky, John Rhea, Mayor Bloomberg, Robert Steele, Janette Sadik-Khan and Sal Cassano at the Office of Emergency Management. (Mayor's Office)

Cas Holloway, deputy mayor for operations: Either Wednesday night or Thursday morning, the decision wad made that we were going to mobilize all the materials and stand up to shelters. And making that decision then, you basically are over the threshold of mobilizing staff, getting facilities ready and doing all that. So at that point, I was already fully committed to the idea that something was going to happen regardless of what the storm did.

Sal Cassano, commissioner, Fire Department: We were getting all of our boats out, getting all of our pumps ready, getting all of our equipment to where we knew we would need them, areas which would be hit the hardest. We would redeploy our equipment to the most vulnerable areas in the A-Zone, such as Staten Island, such as the Rockaways. We kept extra resources in the tunnels, in case the bridges were cut off because of the wind. That way, if the island was isolated we would have enough equipment to handle the calls that we knew we would receive.

Veronica White, commissioner, Department of Parks and Recreation: We sand-bagged everything, every recreation center and field house, every parks facility, everything that could possibly flood. It was all hands on deck, with people working twelve-hour shifts around the clock. We tried to station people near their homes, so they could be safe and still get to work without having to rely on mass transit for the clean-up we knew was coming.

John Doherty, commissioner, Department of Sanitation: Our department faced this like we would fight a snowstorm. That was the kind of plan we followed for where to deploy, what to prepare for. The weather is different, but the job is the same.

Mr. Kelly: We've been in this business for a long time, and we learn from experience. I was a police commissioner in 1992, I guess, when we had that Nor’easter that did a lot of damage. We learned a lot from that storm, from all of these storms and disasters. It's in the details. This administration put in these boats, they’re called Jon boats, which is a boat without a motor. They’re very shallow. You want to be able to get around on our streets. We had at least one per precinct that was reasonably close to water or had a history of water. Most people if you're on land someplace, you don't think of having boats.

Howard Glaser, director of state operations, Cuomo administration: Really this started a year ago, the day Hurricane Irene ended. Everything we learned from that storm, we realized the system needed a total overhaul.

Joe Lhota inspects the storm preparations downtown. (MTA)

Mr. Lhota: Given the experience I had a little over a year ago with Irene, everyone was aware of what and how long it took to get our equipment on safe ground. The Transit Authority needed 12 hours for the subways, the buses needed eight hours. With the Long Island Railroad, some of the equipment will snap if the wind gets above 40 miles per hour. That’s the last thing in the world you want.

John Rhea, chairman, New York City Housing Authority: Right up until the storm hit, we had cops out there knocking on doors, trying to get people out. We had buses from the DOE and the NYPD, school buses, prison buses, just pulling as many people out as we could. But at a certain point, you know, there’s nothing more you can do, and it actually becomes a danger to our people to be out there, so you just have to let them go and hope for the best. If only they had known better.

Janette Sadik-Khan, commissioner, NYC Department of Transportation: You had wind gusts hitting 101 miles per hour. We had not seen that before, and we didn’t want anyone stuck on the bridge. We knew we weren’t going to be able to get anybody onto the bridge to rescue them in those conditions. So we shut the eastern bridges, and we had crews overnight manning them. I mean, the heroism that went into the people who sat in those trucks all night keeping the bridges closed, and the people manning the ferries all night long as the surges were chest-high in the terminal.

Mr. Vlasto: We were looking at a statewide event, so we had to be prepared everywhere. One, you had the front coming down from the north, potentially hitting the front coming up from the south, so it had the potential to blanket the whole state. The second piece was our experience in Irene. Everyone said Irene was going to be a downstate event focused on the coastline.

Instead, it mostly missed New York City and it was disastrous upstate. We were lucky. We had deployed our national guardsmen in the Catskills and up through the north country so they could be out of harm’s way and deployed downstate quickly as needed. It turned out they were exactly where they needed to be. But we learned that these type of storms have to be treated as a statewide issue. The governor visited with security officials and met with them in all the different regions of the state: Nassau, Suffolk, New York City, the Catskills, Binghamton, Albany and up to the north country. We were treating this as something with the potential to be disastrous all over.

Sandy arrives. (Getty)

The Surge

Mr. Holloway: When the Mayor did his press conference at 11:30 on Monday morning, we had looked at the surge, tracking actual surge values and where flooding was happening, and it was happening on the FDR. I turned to Janette Sadik-Khan, and said, "Look, look at the numbers, I mean, isn’t this basically what we saw at the height of Irene?" And that was at 11:30 in the morning. So at that point, that’s where I thought, "Well boy, I don’t know that we really know exactly how bad the inundation is going to be here."

Mr. Cassano: On Monday we were here all day, planning. It was still relatively quiet when we got a report of a crane on a 90-story building that collapsed. That was pretty much the start of a very, very active and serious night. We had a four-alarm assignment for an incident that wasn’t even a fire, so we had a couple of hundred firefighters up there evacuating buildings, and now it’s starting to get windy, and now the activity is starting to pick up, and we have all these resources in Manhattan.

Robert LiMandri, commissioner, Department of Buildings: Certainly none of us—including contractors, anyone you talked to—ever expected the boom on that crane to snap back. For me, that was when we started to see the actual power of the storm. I think most commissioners would tell you that it really put everyone on edge. But then as the fire broke out in Breezy Point, the flood surge was coming up and we saw how bad it was past Zone A.

Mr. Cassano: And then we get a fire on City Island, another four-alarmer, and that took a lot of resources up in the Bronx, and that was not even because of the hurricane, it was just a fire, a fire in a restaurant.

Mr. Holloway: When the storm starts to get worse, there's not much you can do. It’s like turning an aircraft carrier. What you can do is you can put people on the ground, and you can really encourage people to leave, and you can make sure that you have the capacity to accept them. It just shows that this is a truly life-and-death situation that people need to take it very seriously.

A police officer watches the surge in Battery Park. (Getty)

Ms. Sadik-Khan: I live downtown. When I saw the water go all the way up to Washington Street, which is two blocks from the river, and the wind was howling and glass was flying through the air, I had a pretty big ‘oh shit’ moment right then.

Mr. Lhota: I was on my way downtown to see Tom Prendergast, the head of New York City Transit, who was down there keeping an eye on the subway tunnels at the Batter. I was at NY1, I left NY1, and the West Side Highway was just gone. We headed down 14th street and we couldn't get onto 11th Avenue. It was already at least a foot of water at 11th Avenue. Chelsea Piers will tell you they were completely underwater. So we did a U-Turn and then went down Washington Street and went down as far as we could and then the water was coming up over Washington Street. So the water had gone beyond, you know, had gone up one more block, and in fact the next morning we could see all the debris that was left there. So the surge pushed up and pushed over on both sides of the Hudson. And then it was looking for anywhere, anywhere to go.

Mr. Cassano: We had resources being deployed all over. Once the surge came, we got hit with a flurry of calls. The tide was rising and the wind was knocking down trees. In the middle of all that, we got this fire at Breezy Point, and we had no access to the fire, our apparatus couldn’t get down the street. So what the firefighters did was, they went in to evacuate the people out of buildings, get them out of there. We thought we’d take care of the life hazards first and then we would fight the fire.

That was happening in Breezy Point and we were getting a flurry of calls from people in Staten Island and certain parts of the Rockaway who were trapped in their houses, trapped in their attics. We had 30 small boats deployed all over the city and they were being used, our high-axle vehicles—like the brushfire and torpedo vehicles—we were getting them deployed to try and get these people out of their houses in the high waters. By the way, we were also getting those calls from Manhattan and the Battery. That was flooded and the power had gone out, and people were trapped. I don’t think anything has overwhelmed the city like that before.

Mr. Rhea: We were watching the television, we were seeing this movie play out in real life, in terms of water gushing in Battery Park, Lower Manhattan, the Rockaways, you name it. Seeing the level of surge, it's rushing into the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, knowing that so many of our projects in these low-lying areas, knowing how much water we took on with Hurricane Irene, which was nothing close to this, realizing that most of our mechanicals are subterranean—it was clear we were going to have real problems.

Joe Lhota, Josh Vlasto and Governor Cuomo inspect flooding in the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. (MTA)

Mr. Lhota: When I got downtown to meet Prendergast, we were looking at where we were, we both realized how deep the water was at South Ferry station. It didn’t surprise me when we found out later that the water was all way up to the ceiling. It was four feet above the ground that night. And then we walked over to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, where we ran into the governor totally by accident. I don’t know why I went over to the Brooklyn-Battery tunnel. I really don’t. We hadn’t been told about water rushing in, but we went over there, and boy, what I saw was extraordinary. White-water rapids, and a pace—you could have created hydro power.

I’ll use the words that the governor used. It was disorienting. It was. You heard it. You saw it. And you weren’t really sure you were hearing it and seeing it correctly. I never expected the Hudson River to do that.

Mr. Vlasto: The governor was standing with Lhota at the mouth of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and the water was rushing in so quickly that the sound was deafening. I think that for him, that was the moment—where the water was that night, when you’re down there, standing at the tunnel, there’s so much water that you can’t hear—I think the governor would say that was the “We Got a Problem” moment.

Mr. Glaeser: It was a sound you never heard before in Lower Manhattan, a rushing river. And then we went over to the World Trade Center and we saw Niagara Falls was pouring into the site. This was no ordinary storm.

Officials inspect the damage to the Rockaways, including a decimated Breezy Point, from National Guard Blackhawk helicopters. (Governor's Office)

The Flood

Mr. Cassano: We started to get into the buildings that were actually flooded to make some searches. We were still getting a lot of calls from people who were trying to get out of their homes. So we had to use the boats again the next morning. The challenge was to actually assess the damage. We had firehouses that we had to evacuate in the Rockaways and Coney Island, along with a number of EMS stations. We had streets blocked, we had streets still flooded—it was a very difficult operation. It was a mess, and it still is.

Mr. LiMandri: We use a methodology that is used in earthquake recoveries called ATC-45—it’s modified because it’s not an earthquake, but all the principles are the same. The first path is to do a windshield: to sweep the neighborhoods and try to identify how hard-hit each neighborhood is. With the areas that are hard-hit, we go block by block and then identify those buildings that have some damage. The categories start with green, meaning fine, we don’t see any exterior degradation of the façade or foundations. They may have had water damage, but we don’t think it is significant. The second is yellow for minor structural damage, major water infiltration that we know could be a concern for the foundation. The third is red, and we found this in many communities in Rockaway and Staten Island, where the building foundation had been compromised to the point where it could collapse or there was significant damage to the structure.

We’ve tagged 16,000 buildings so far, going back to last Wednesday. We expect to be done by Sunday. There were 400 red buildings so far, but far more are in worse shape. You may have a green building that has been destroyed inside. Structurally, it’s sound, that is our first concern, because it is a matter of safety, but everything else is ruined.

Mr. Doherty: There are some areas, particularly in Rockaway and parts of Staten Island, where you had structural damage to buildings and debris came out into the streets from them. Furniture, wall boards, insulation, tile, just about anything that people would have in their basements or on their first floors. It was just piling up everywhere. You'd spend the day, think you'd finally cleaned up the street and you could mark it off your list, and you come back the next day and it's full again.

The police rescue stranded New Yorkers. (Getty)

Mr. Vlasto: We were going downtown, the day after the storm, to look around. It was right after or shortly after the streetlights went out, and I was driving down Second Avenue with no streetlights. The sun was just rising. It just sort of sunk in. There were no cops on the street directing , no crosswalk lights to tell people when to stop and go. No lights to block people crossing avenues. It was scary. That was really scary. Because you never knew when you were going to hit people, when you were going to get T-boned. Or if somebody was going to jump out into the street. That was really scary. It’s almost better to be driving in than when it’s completely open.

Mr. Lhota: The MTA is a very complex organization. You’ve got the bridge-and-tunnel guys, they had two tunnels down. Not only is the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel out, which didn’t surprise me, but we had water in the Queens-Midtown tunnel. We’ve never had water in the Queens-Midtown tunnel before—ever. So that was a surprising occurrence. I always knew that the LIRR and Metro-North would have trees down all over the place, but this was hard to believe. And then there was the subway system, which I knew was going to have some water. The reality is that the preparatory work that the Transit Authority did helped in many cases.

Nobody’s ever asked why the 4/5 tunnel, the Drummond Tunnel—why did it come back so fast? Bowling Green station is a little higher, and so is Brooklyn where the train comes out. But we also made sure to seal up as much as we could. We moved the trains out and everything was ready to go. More importantly, everyone was ready to go, and they worked nonstop to dig us out, pump us out and get us back up and running. A week ago, when I saw all that water rushing in downtown, I never would have imagined we would be up and running again like this so quickly. Not in that moment, at least.

Mr. Glaser: Coming in with the National Guard on Thursday, carrying food and water with the governor down in Lower Manhattan—we were at the Lexington Avenue Armory with the Food Bank of New York—you don’t expect to be doing that in Manhattan. The power was still off. It was just a shift in our expectations of what government is. Just every day, on a regular basis, there were things like that happening every day. Just the sight of National Guard troops in Manhattan. They were on a humanitarian mission, you know, but it makes you realize what a thin thread it can be any time, keeping a society going.

FEMA, the govenror, the mayor, the MTA. (Governors Office)

Ms. White: We walked every street in every community board, the entire city, looking for downed trees and other damage. We inspected every park and playground, approximately 1700 of them, and made certain they were safe to open to the public. Now we have about 83 percent open. We've had over 3,000 volunteers come out to help us clean up. And we have hundreds of Parks people in the field documenting everything that has occurred to submit to FEMA so we get back every penny New York is entitled to for its parks.

Mr. Lhota: We heard that a 40-foot boat ended up across the tracks outside the Ossining station. The first thing everyone wants to do is get a picture: “We gotta see this.” So we got a picture. And then Howard Permut, the president of Metro-North, and Robert Lieblong, the executive vice president who operates the railroad every day, without blinking an eye they found a piece of machinery in our shop that could lift up a boat. They went to a boatyard and bought the racks and put the boat underneath and lifted it up. They used a train crane to move a boat. It’s emblematic of how anything could possibly happen. They just said, “Okay, let’s deal with it.” And they did.

Mr. Cassano: I spent this weekend on Staten Island helping out a couple of different command centers, and this weekend is when it really hit me to the core, because my sister lives in the area. When I was helping out, I just took a ride down to make sure that she was okay, and they were just emptying the house out. It had been totally flooded. All her possessions were on the sidewalk. And going down blocks and blocks and seeing the same thing in other people’s homes, it really hit home how bad this was.

Mr. Vlasto: I think it was Lyndenhurst—this will stick with me—we were walking, and we went to a street and into a house. The governor walks in a house, and this old lady was standing outside the house crying. She had a picture in her hand and she was crying, and she said, “This is my grandson.” She said, “I’m so happy I found this picture.” She said, “I found it right here.” And we couldn’t figure it out. And then she said, “But I live four houses down.” That was sad. I don’t have any happy moments yet. I’m waiting.

The mayor surveys the damage. (Mayor's office)

The Wake

Mr. Lhota: The thing that amazed me is that when we put together maps of what was together in the system, it was substantive. And then there was the desire to put together the bus bridge, because we realized we had a gap in service between Brooklyn and Manhattan, and Queens and Manhattan with the 7 train, so very quickly Tom Prendergast and his team, along with Darryl Irick on the MTA Bus, put together the bus bridge.

Ms. Sadik-Khan: You had issues everywhere, you had no subways coming across from Brooklyn to Manhattan, so we needed to set up a new surface subway system. We worked with the MTA—we’d set up the bridges, so why not some bus bridges?—and the NYPD got their people out there to enforce that.

Mr. Lhota: I drove by it the first day, but the was so horrendous I just wanted to get into the city. But what I saw was a lot of people gathered around. New Yorkers don’t do things in a line. People were all jockeying around, seeing who could get on the bus first. But we learned our lesson. That was Thursday morning, and by Friday morning, we took the Disney approach—we created pathways, allowing people to see that they were moving through the pathways. On Friday morning we were putting 3,700 people an hour on buses, three buses loading at a time, dedicated lanes from the city, police escorts from the city. And once they got on the buses, they were at 42nd Street in 20 minutes. A world of difference from what happened on Thursday. First time through, it was really important to see what we could learn, how could we make it better, and we made it better.

Ms. Sadik-Khan: On Wednesday, when everybody came in to drive, it was just one big parking lot. So looking at that, you needed to do something. I wanted to go with the HOV3, and of course that only works if you have the Police Department doing the enforcement. And they were really terrific—they did an amazing job. I can’t say enough for Ray Kelly’s team, it was really extraordinary what they did.

Govenor Cuomo comforts families put out by the storm. (Governor's Office)

Mr. Kelly: I’m going out again tonight, and I know I will ask people, “How are cops treating you?” And it will probably be very positive, because it’s been very positive. I haven’t had a negative comment. And people aren’t afraid to give me a negative comment.

Mr. Doherty: We have had a number of sanitation workers, particularly out in Rockaway and some areas in Staten Island, who have either lost their homes completely or had a lot of water damage. The ones that I have talked to, they are coming to work, they have been coming in. And I remember earlier in the storm, I was talking to this gentleman out in Rockaway, and he said “I’m here to help my neighbors. Yes, I had damage to my house, but I’m here to help.” The morale has been outstanding by the men and women of the department. They are looking for work to do sometimes. If I’m not moving them quickly enough, they are asking me, “Where can we work, where can we work?” Relax, we are going to get you there.

Mr. Kelly: Cancelling the marathon is something I'm going to remember. It was something that we were prepared to do, and all of a sudden, it was cancelled. But probably more significant for me was the sight of the area that was burned in Breezy Point. I went there, the ground was still smoldering, and all you see is an open field where the houses had burned down. But then I looked out at the end of the field, and I could see a person, and the person was very, very small. The breadth of the damage, it didn't really hit me until I saw the size of that person so far away. It's something that you see in other parts of the world. It's not something that you see on the East Coast of the United States.

Mr. Vlasto: You’re seeing idleness, and kids who are so lonely and tired and exhausted, so the governor said, you know, lets get something for kids. Give them some board games, something to make them smile. That’s where he came up with the idea to ask Walmart for some toys. They had volunteered to help, they had been donating water, so we just said, how about some toys for the kids?

Mr. Bruno: Key people, the president and everyone on down, have reached out to us. Every major official came through here, and they’ve been following up on it. We have the National Guard here. We have Department of Defense forces—they’re helping a lot with the fuel. We got the Army Corps of Engineers, they’ve been a huge partner for us and totally dedicated to getting New York City back up and running. So after the anxiety about whether help was going to come—it is a good feeling when you see this stuff.

Joe Lhota directs traffic at the bus islands in Brooklyn. (MTA)

Mr. Holloway: I was in the Rockaways this morning and this recovery, we’re going to be dedicating an absolutely enormous amount of resources to getting cleaned up and helping as many people get back into their homes as quickly as possible. We have another storm coming, you know, and now we have to brace for that, too. In Irene we responded, the storm broke up, and everybody was able to get back to business as usual pretty quickly. Here, there are certain areas in the city where people’s lives have truly been turned upside down. And we are going to be out there for as long as it takes to get it right side up.

Mr. Rhea: There were many people, through no fault of their own, who bet against Mother Nature, and to see the faces of those who were impacted because they were still in their residences and didn’t evacuate, or those who didn’t think they needed to evacuate because they were outside of the zone, that was hard. They were saying, “We really need help to get basic necessities and power and heat and hot water restored.” And asking very directly and emotionally for that assistance.

Then there’s the flip-side of that, which is being able to fix a problem—to have someone say to you, “Thank you for being able to get that done as fast as you were able to.” So for every person who is still without heat and water, there is somebody who has had it restored. For every person who is without electricity there are four times that number who have had it restored. The people who ask for help, and the appreciation when we do our jobs and deliver on behalf of these families, that is something I will remember.

Mr. Vlasto: Seeing the subways fill up, I think, was a very jarring sight for the governor. He says that it’s not just that, it’s the frequency: now we have dealt with this twice in two years. How many times do we have to deal with this again before we make substantial change? It’s almost like, “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.” And now we’ve just been fooled again.

Mr. Lhota: I walked into a bar on Saturday night, and even though I’m somewhat of a public figure, I’ve always enjoyed my anonymity. When I was budget director for the city and when I was deputy mayor, I didn’t even unlist my phone number. On Saturday, I walked into a bar, and people wanted to buy me a drink. That’s something that’s going to stay with me, because I was very surprised. By the way, that was my first drink after that whole week. I had wine.

Don't forget to tip your driver and look out for bikes. (NYC DOT)

(NYC DOT)

Last week the city's Department of Transportation (in partnership with the fed's Department of Transportation) unveiled new LOOK! crosswalk decals and bus banners to remind pedestrians and drivers to pay attention to each other while making their way across the busy cityscape.

Now the department, along with the Taxi and Limousine Commission, has unveiled new stickers that will adorn the doors and windows of the city's 13,000 cabs. They implore occupants to "LOOK! for cyclists." These are accompanied by a new 30-second spot in everybody's favorite ad-viewing venue, Taxi T.V.

“This safety campaign takes the message to New Yorkers and visitors that you need to take a second and take a look around whenever you get out of a car,” Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said in a release. “The best protection that bike riders and pedestrians have is our attention, and there is one thing everyone can do—look.”

The idea is to make cab riders, especially those who might not be from town, more aware of their surroundings. The city has recorded seven deaths because of dooring incidents over the past five years.

Like all good taxi ads, TLC commissioner David Tassky said these new spots will really get people's attention: "We believe the stickers and video will really resonate with riders and inspire them to pause for that critical second before they open the door and exit the taxi. It’s that moment of pause that could make all the difference in the world to both a bicyclist and the taxi passenger alike.”

When it comes to crossing the street, the city's Department of Transportation hopes the answer is oncoming traffic—and not your smartphone or your beautiful European model boyfriend.

As any good three-year-old could tell you, always look both ways before crossing the street. But harried, hurried and distracted New Yorkers (and perhaps not a few New Yorkers) are ignoring the rules they learned in preschool, so the department has launched a new campaign to nudge as all into paying more attention when crossing the street.

The heart of the program is a cleverly designed LOOK logo, created by design impresario Michael Bierut and his team at Pentagram. Turning the O's into anthropomorphic eyes, the graphics provide an arresting reminder to straight-ahead New Yorkers. Especially when they are seared into the pavement of some 110 crosswalks at the city's most dangerous intersections.

"We need New Yorkers to look out for one another," DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan told reporters assembled at the corner of Second Avenue and 42nd Street, deemed one of the dangerous intersections (DOT data was used to identify the most high-impact locations).

A neighboring bus shelter featured a LOOK ad, part of the second half of the campaign. "Walk safe. Cross smart," it reads, featuring a set of three multicultural eyeballs. "Traffic injuries are avoidable. Your mom was right. Look before you cross the street."

Similar ads will be posted at bus shelters and subway entrances near the 110 intersections, and in a push to get drivers' attention as well—after all, they are the ones wielding the multi-ton weapons targeted by DOT in these accidents—on the backs of buses. "Drive smart," it warns. "Last year 57 percent of traffic fatalities were people on foot. Look out for your fellow New Yorkers."

It was a theme repeated by the commissioner. "More than half of all accidents occurred where pedestrians have the right of way, so while it may not be their fault, it doesn't hurt to be paying attention," she said.

She was joined by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who spends much of his time campaigning against distracted driving. "I can't think of a place I would rather be because we're talking about safety," Mr. LaHood said. "Janette has been a real leader, and as a result, this is the only city in America that I know of that has this campaign, but I'm sure it will catch on."

The two transit czars pointed out that the nation saw some 416,000 injuries and 3,092 fatalities last year because of distracted driving. New York accounted for 9,200 of those injuries and 41 of those deaths.

"The majority of these accidents are in urban environments just like this street corner, and a majority of them are because of someone looking at their email, talking to a friend, not paying attention, whether they're driving or walking."

Ms. Sadik-Khan said the department was "using every tool in the toolbox" to tackle the problems of safer streets. She said the idea for this project came to her while in London, where their busy intersections warn visitors to "Look Right" because those silly Brits drive on the wrong—or is it right?—side of the road.

The street stamps cost about $60,000 to create and install, with most of that money coming from the Federal Highway Administration. Commissioner Sadik-Khan has a way of getting the feds to pay for her traffic calming programs given their impact on reducing accidents. It's a national issue, and such. The ad buy for the next six months cost $1 million, and in away funds mass transit because they will be paid to the MTA.

Following the press conference, the commissioner and the secretary made their way for the intersection for the photo op. As they are wont to do, a gaggle of half a dozen photographers walked backwards ahead of them, snapping away. They backed right into the intersection, too, clearly ignoring the LOOK sign at their feet as cabs and black cars whizzed by.

As her press secretary tried to hustle the photographers back onto the sidewalk—"Just wait for the light, we'll wait for the light," he yelled—Ms. Sadik-Khan could barely contain a smirk that seemed to say it all: When will they ever learn?

Fractional changes. (Matt Chaban)

Walk with me. (Matt Chaban)

Janette Sadik-Khan, the sui generis city transportation commissioner, was standing on 51st Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues as rush hour was just starting last week. Rather, she was standing at the intersection with 6½th  Avenue, her latest asphalt confection. The pedestrian passageway was designated and demarcated about two months ago, connecting up a series of plazas running from here to 57th Street. Ms. Sadik-Khan was out for her first official stroll.

"It's kind of a secret garden, one of the new secret spaces we've helped create; we've got 500 of them in the city and we're trying to connect people better to their surroundings, make the city that much nicer," Ms. Sadik-Khan said.

She gazed up at the cute little green street sign one of her construction crews had installed. "6½th Avenue" it read, like a sign on any other corner, though it, along with five others along the seven-block passageway, are the only ones in the city bearing fractions. The commissioner looked down and smiled. "It's like Harry Potter," she said. "The 9¾ platform. Or Being John Malkovich, with the 7½ floor."

"I love it."

Back in the 1980s, a special zoning district in West Midtown required developers along this stretch to include public arcades and passageways within their buildings. Some are grand, like the public galleries at the UBS Building between 51st and 52nd Streets, full of benches and sculptures, a giant Sol Lewitt hanging on the marble walls two stories up, and not a few smokers, whose fumes wafted about the space. "They're killing themselves, but I guess that's their right," Ms. Sadik-Khan quipped.

There are others that are more bland than grand, like the passage between the City Center and CitySpire, a dimly lit hallway with posters advertizing upcoming shows. At the Metropolitan Tower across 55th Street, there is little more than a stark, neon blue lobby. Tiny video screens, lined up the length of the space, burble away silently, adding to the Matrix-like feel. As with all seven passages, these are privately owned public spaces, or POPS, and it is clear some landlords are more eager than others to invite outsiders in.

"I like that they're all different, that you have six different experiences," Ms. Sadik-Khan said. "Though I prefer the ones where you can sit down. This is actually something I hope we can work with the landlords on, making the spaces nicer."

The transportation commissioner, in her unending quest to re-engineer the city's streets, sidewalks and public spaces, hit upon a simple solution to connect up these spaces and make them more inviting: add crosswalks. For $90,000, or $15,000 an intersection, stop signs, bollards and road paint went down in June, following consultation with, and enthusiastic support from, local Community Board 5 in the spring.

"It really makes a huge difference, doesn't it?" Ms. Sadik-Khan said. "Before, maybe you knew about these spaces, but now, they're unmistakable. This ties them together and telegraphs where to go next." According to Department of Transportation counts, more than 12,000 people use the walkways a day as an alternative to the crowded avenues half a block away.

But before the crosswalks, vehicles regularly used to block the curbs between them, and there was no guarantee oncoming  traffic would slow down to let people cross. During lunchtime, when the combination of cars and lunch-seekers peaks, the mid-block streets came to resemble a game of Frogger.

Now, even cabs calmly queue up at some of the few stop signs in Manhattan (the others are at Vanderbilt Avenue, beside Grand Central) as women in heels, men in suits, listless tourists and dog-walkers, the menagerie of New York pedestrians, scurry by.

Ms. Sadik-Khan hopes to bring programming to the spaces at some point, but first any kinks have to be worked out, like getting landlords along the strip to open and close the spaces at the same time. Some are closed at 7 p.m., some at 10 p.m., some are open weekends, some are not. "You could see any number of cool art installations coming through here," the commissioner said. "You could see doing a design competition, food carts. Anything that's going to stimulate more people is going to be good. People are hungering for this, especially in Midtown."

Beep beep! (Matt Chaban)

Cabs and bikes and walkers, oh my! (Matt Chaban)

Raju Mann, chair of Community Board 5’s transportation committee, said there had been a few complaints about the project, but generally people seemed to like it, himself included. "CB5 has heard some operational complaints from the residents of the CitySpire condo, like cab pick-up and drop off, loading challenges and trash pickup, and we're working with DOT to sort through these issues," he wrote in an email.

"Walking these blocks quite frequently the through block crossings do make the stroll through Midtown noticeably more pleasant but we need to continue to work with DOT to refine and address the aforementioned logistical issues."

On 6½th Avenue, after Ms. Sadik-Khan departed from a down-and-back stroll to 57th Street, The Observer stopped a group of three casually dressed gentleman outside the UBS Building, where they worked. They said it made crossing the street to the Duke Cafe, one of those bland Midtown lunch spots, considerably easier. "I like it, but I wouldn't say it's had a material impact on my daily life," Michael Ventura said. One of his colleagues wondered how much "taxpayer money was wasted" on the project, while the other said he liked the crosswalk but had not even noticed the new street signs.

Nearby, Elaine Grubbins and Mark Davies were sitting on one of the granite benches, enjoying a coffee break. They said they often make their way over from their offices across the street for a breath of fresh air. "I used it every day on my walk home," Ms. Grubbins said. "It's always fun to see what's playing at City Center, even if I'm not going to go."

"I think all of the stuff the mayor's been doing on redesigning the streets has made a huge difference," she added. "It's very smart."

It was nearly impossible to flag down a cab, this being rush hour, but The Observer managed to corner Ali Nawaz as he was dropping off a pregnant woman coming home from a shopping trip. He offered to help her carry her stuff inside, but she insisted she could handle it. Mr. Nawaz's feelings were about what you would expect.

"It's a really stupid idea, like what they did with all the traffic. It's a waste of money, like these fucking bike lanes—everywhere!" he growled, arms crossed. "Where are you supposed to drop people off? You saw, I had to back in here around this damn stop sign, blocking traffic. People want you to drop them off exactly where they want to be dropped off."

"This job really gets worse and worse every day," he said, hopping back into his cab.

In the open-air passage between 53rd and 52nd Streets, Michael Tucker was walking his shih tzu, Cooper. "How you doing, gorgeous?" a man lounging on one of the benches said to the dog.

Mr. Tucker happened to be visiting from Virginia, making his annual trip with his wife. They always stay at the Hilton across the street, he said, and yet he had never noticed 6½th Avenue before the crosswalks had been put in. "My wife's family is from here, and we've been coming for 20 years, and this just makes so much sense to me," Mr. Tucker said. "It makes things so friendly for out-of-towners like us. You don't expect common sense from a bunch of city slickers."

Yet not everyone finds such projects to be common sense. At 55th Street, The Observer tried to stop a group of four women who clearly were from out of town. They looked confused and kept going, but a woman walking at a full New York stride pushed her way past them and moaned.

"I think it's stupid," Hope Kay declared, clutching a copy of the Times. "This is all about the tourists. Like everything else in this city the mayor has worked on. This is not for the office workers, not for the locals, no sir. One of the last oasis from the avenues, this was our secret, somewhere you could actually walk. This is what we're actually wasting our money on, to slow down the traffic to make it safe for tourists."

But didn't the crosswalks make it easier to cross the street?

"That's absurd. I've never had a problem crossing the street. I'm not a child."

Ms. Kay confided that she used to live on the Upper West Side and walked this route home, but she had recently been priced out of her rental and moved Uptown—another indignity visited upon her by the mayor.

"You were looking for your cranky New Yorker, weren't you," she said. "Well, now you've got one."

Ford motors on. (Vanessa Rieger)

Former mayoral hopeful and social media lothario Anthony Weiner once infamously declared to Mayor Bloomberg over dinner that his first year in City Hall would be spent "tearing out your fucking bike lanes."

It is a prospect that terrifies urban planners and bike advocates, who worship the public space rejiggering championed by current DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. Mr. Weiner is obviously out of the running, but some other mayoral candidates have expressed concern about these streetscape changes, as well, most recently Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who called the commish a "radical" recently. But would he really go through with it?

Streetsblog wonders aloud about the prospect of Mr. de Blasio, a former streets advocacy ally, changing course: "In a way, supporters of livable streets should be thanking de Blasio for this eye-opener ... the 2013 race is wide open and there’s just no telling, at the moment, how the next mayor will align on these issues."

Yet what was most striking was the evidence Streetsblog gave that these reversals are real. Case in point: Toronto. There, Mayor Rob Ford has reversed countless programs of his predecessor.

It was in Jane Jacobs’ adopted home town that a progressive mayor, David Miller, laid plans to prioritize pedestrian safety, surface transit, and bicycling, only to see his successor Rob Ford assume office, declare an end to “the war on the car,” and proceed to reverse much of the previous administration’s initiatives.

Mayor Ford's first day in office, he killed plans for a new light rail system and, yes, ripped up certain bike lanes. Streetsblog has a post from last year that explores his other transportation indiscretions further.

Following recent polls showing support for the new bike lanes, Commissioner Sadik-Khan sent The Observer a message praising the growing support for her programs: "After five years of careful planning, community consultation and implementation, New Yorkers have spoken, and they like their bike lanes. New York today has the biggest and best bike network in the United States. It’s satisfying to see the support and demand for a bike-friendly New York that has allowed us to get here."

The open question is just how demanding the electorate will be next year to keep it that way. If they do not speak up, or worse, if it becomes a wedge issue, the changes that seem so increasingly permanent—pavers, benches, bike lanes, plazas—might just disappear. It certainly wouldn't be the first time.

Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan has teamed up with Baron Davis—who can’t take his skills to the court due to injury versus The Heat, so we guess he's taken his skills to the street instead—to lecture New Yorkers on proper road side etiquette.

It is the latest marketing effort by the city to use celebrities to get pedestrians, bikers and drivers to obey the laws and rules of the road and respect each other. (Last year saw Mario Batali telling everybody "Don't be a jerk."

Between the two of them, the message is clear: when you’re walking, biking, and yes, even taxi'ing, driving, keep your eyes up, heads up and pay attention!

http://www.youtube.com/0cxG-UmgmTs

“Heads Up” is just the latest of DOT’s multi-faceted effort to attempt to increase street safety with programs to set up pedestrian countdown signals, build pedestrian refuge islands and reengineer streets and intersections. To date, DOT has already distributed more than 50,000 bike helmets since 2006 and is on track hand out an additional 25,000 by the end of this year.

Speaking of bike helmets, the campaign is timed to coincide with the busy riding season that comes each summer, though it also happens to coincide with the current furor over bike helmets. That a number of the flyers show cyclists in all manner of dress but always helmeted (see the accompanying slideshow), could this be the city's subtle way to get them into helmets without mandating they do so—something certain politicians would very much like to see.

“Whether it’s driving to the hoop or driving down the block, the cardinal rule of the road is to keep your eyes and ears open and your head up,” Ms. Sadik-Khan said in a statement. “Whether you’re on foot or on two or four wheels, New Yorkers need to stay alert and keep their heads in the game.”

With $14 million in funding, secured by Congresswoman Nydia M. Velazquez, the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative and the Regional Plan Association, the borough will finally see the completion of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, a 14-mile foot and bike path running from Greenpoint to Bay Ridge. Some segments of the greenway already exist on some streets and riverside parks, but these funds will help stitch the entire thing together.

The greenway's implementation plan, which was finalized today by the city's Department of Transportation, details plans of a finalized route, implementation framework and funding options for 23 capital projects to connect the neighborhoods. Congresswoman Velazquez represents many of these waterfront communities, hence her support for the project.

The document arrives after a three-year planning stint with the first phase finally coming to fruition. If all goes well, it is projected to enhance access to the borough’s waterfront as well as to improve safety and boost the area’s social allure.

“This plan was designed by Brooklynites for Brooklynites, and it charts a course for a reimagined waterfront stretching from Newtown Creek to Owls Head Park,” DOT Commish Janette Sadik-Khan said in a release. “This document marks both the end of the planning stage and the start of a new era, as these dynamic neighborhoods embrace the waterfront as New York’s sixth borough.”

For a visual, imagine a repaved and freshly painted Flushing avenue, accompanied by a foot and bike path extending the length of the road.

Unfortunately the folks in Manhattan will still have it a bit nicer. Because long stretches of the Brooklyn waterfront remain intermittently industrial, much of the greewnway will run near but not on the water, as it does along the East River in Manhattan and in Hudson River Park.

Still, this lets Brooklynites continue to nurse their superiority/inferiority complex while clinging to what little grittiness in the borough remains.