Brooklyn Views: 2013-10-27

November 2, 2013

Lessons Learned from Superstorm Sandy

Superstorn Sandy and Utility Preparedness | The Energy Collective
(Excerpt)
On the one year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, it’s important to look back and reflect on the lessons learned about disaster recovery. On Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, the largest Atlantic hurricane on record made landfall along the heavily populated Jersey Shore causing massive damage and devastation. Approximately 240,000 natural gas customers were impacted as the 15-foot storm surge ravaged systems across four states.

Breezy Point-one year later.

In New York Casino Vote, a Dance With Temptation

In New York Casino Vote, a Dance With Temptation - NYTimes.com
(Excerpt)

The ostensible attraction of the amendment is its promise to relieve budget woes without new taxes. In proponents’ eyes, state income from gambling is a form of voluntary tax payment. But modern casino revenue comes mostly from slot machines, and the relationship between them and some of their patrons is voluntary in only the most superficial sense. “Addiction by Design” (Princeton University Press, 2012), Natasha Dow Schüll’s gripping account of slot machine gambling in Las Vegas, looks into the technical wizardry underlying modern slots and their effects on players. According to slot designers and casino managers surveyed in the book, the mission of these machines is simple: to separate patrons from their money in the most ruthlessly efficient — yet psychologically agreeable — ways possible.

The machines create an experience so compelling that some people stop playing only when they’ve exhausted every available resource. Ms. Schüll, a cultural anthropologist on the M.I.T. faculty, interviews a slots player who sees the machines as so immersive that winning becomes a distraction, something that matters only because it lets her play a little longer. “It’s like being in the eye of a storm,” the woman says, later adding, “You aren’t really there — you’re with the machine and that’s all you’re with.

Subway platforms are ‘grim and dreary’: study

Subway platforms are ‘grim and dreary’: study | New York Post
(Excerpt)
The Straphangers Campaign rider-advocacy group released a report Wednesday that looked at conditions on 862 subway station platforms over the summer.
Surveyors scouted for overflowing garbage cans on platforms, rats, graffiti, peeling paint and missing tiles, among other conditions.
They found that 82 percent of underground platforms had significant water damage and 74 percent needed a fresh paint job, according to the report.