From Screwed on the Boardwalk: Sandy reveals deeper issues

Screwed on the Boardwalk: Sandy reveals deeper issues

Sandy reveals deeper issues

Each day the line of people snaking through the MCU parking lot out onto Surf Avenue waiting to pick up donated goods made me wonder. As the issues of Sandy fade(power, heat, water) why do the lines still grow each day. I believe that the issue in the Coney Island community has more to do with chronic poverty and the pressing needs of people who are living on such a razor thin edge and not just a sudden collapse because of a rare weather phenomenon. In some of the areas affected on LI, SI, parts of the Rockaways it was the storm. In Coney Island and other parts of the Rockaways it was a lethal combination of the storm and deep-rooted poverty. Sandy tipped over that fragile lifeboat, The waters will recede in time but the sands of poverty will remain where every tomorrow is still uncertain.

Update on Sandy

Please go to the Friends of Ocean Parkway Facebook page for information posted on Hurricane Sandy. News stories and photos were posted on FB in order to get the information out as soon as possible bypassing Friends of Ocean Parkway blog that you are now reading.  We will return shortly to the process of posting information on the blog first that will be shared on the FB page. The greenway was seriously impacted by fallen trees and significant flooding up to Avenue X.  Many homes and businesses sustained terrible damages by the flood and the wind that evening. The photos and videos tell a dramatic story that cannot be adequately described in a post.
I hope you were spared the wrath of Sandy. If you were impacted like so many I pray that you and your family are now safe and warm and you are beginning to recover from such a terrible experience.

Bike-Share Equipment Apparently Damaged by Flooding

Bike racks for the New York bike-share program
 in August, stored in the Brooklyn Navy Yard

Bike-Share Equipment Apparently Damaged by Flooding - NYTimes.com

By MATT FLEGENHEIMER
Published: November 14, 2012

New York City’s seemingly star-crossed bike-share program, once promised for last summer but delayed until the spring amid software problems, has found its way into Hurricane Sandy’s unsparing path.


The storm dumped several feet of water at some points across the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where the city had been storing equipment like bicycles and docking stations in Building 293, near the northern tip of the yard and the waters of Wallabout Bay.

Building 293 was among those that flooded, and a spokesman for the mayor’s office said Tuesday that there appeared to be damage to program equipment, including docking stations for bicycles, as a result.

“We’re working on it,” Janette Sadik-Khan, the city’s transportation commissioner, said when reached by telephone on Tuesday afternoon. “We had six feet of water in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.”

Officials said it was premature to estimate whether the flooding could affect the program’s start date, scheduled for next March.

The city’s Transportation Department would not describe or detail the extent of the damage; officials released a brief statement on Tuesday saying that the agency was “making an assessment” and would provide updates if the program’s rollout might be affected.

The dock stations would appear to be particularly vulnerable to any flooding, given their electronic components, though officials did not respond to questions about potential damage.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard declined to comment on the bike equipment specifically, but said some of the 275 businesses at the yard “suffered significant losses to machinery, equipment and inventory.”

Asked about the financial and insurance ramifications of any damage to equipment, Julie Wood, a spokeswoman for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, noted, “We don’t own the bikes.”

Alta Bicycle Share, the company operating the bike-share program, referred questions to the Transportation Department.

Since the introduction of the program, seen as a likely centerpiece of the Bloomberg administration’s transportation legacy, officials have often been fiercely protective of details and developments — from the process of selecting an operator and sponsors, to the reasons for the program’s delay last summer.