The vaccine mandate big chill

 

NY Daily News 

New York City restaurant and bar owners fear that their bottom line could freeze up this winter if Mayor de Blasio doesn’t renew an emergency permit allowing them to use propane heaters for outdoor service.

The permit, first issued by de Blasio in October 2020, lifted a ban on portable propane heaters to help keep eateries and watering holes open at a time when indoor service was prohibited because of COVID-19. But the waiver expired over the summer, and de Blasio has not said whether he’ll roll out another one ahead of this cold season.

James Mallios, owner of Amali, a Mediterranean restaurant on the Upper East Side is concerned.

Mallios said the propane heater permit was “one of the few bright spots” during the pandemic and that his restaurant would’ve gone belly up without it.

“Without exaggeration, if we did not have propane heaters last season we would be out of business,” said Mallios, who estimated he could lose nearly half of his 75-seat capacity if he can’t have propane heaters this winter.

Mallios is one of 85 restaurant and bar owners who sent de Blasio and Council Speaker Corey Johnson a letter in April, pleading to keep propane heaters burning this winter.

Neither men responded to the note, Mallios said. “That was disheartening,” he added.

 Before de Blasio’s emergency permit, propane heaters were long prohibited in commercial and hospitality settings due to fire hazards.

FDNY data shows there have been no propane-related explosions or fires at any city restaurants or bars since de Blasio’s order, which specified that heaters could only be placed on sidewalks, not near street seating.

Still, FDNY inspectors have issued more than 1,200 propane compliance violations and confiscated at least 1,000 improperly stored tanks since the ban was lifted, according to the data.

“In some of the most egregious incidents, 20-pound containers of propane were found on roadways, concealed by planters and other objects designed to provide vehicle impact protection,” said Frank Dwyer, an FDNY spokesman.

 

Cuomo's requiem for restaurants

 

 NY Times

 

Indoor dining will once again be barred in New York City restaurants starting on Monday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Friday, a significant reversal of the city’s reopening that comes as officials try to halt the escalation of a second wave of the coronavirus.

The decision, which Mr. Cuomo earlier this week suggested was all but certain, is a crushing blow to the city’s restaurant industry, a vital economic pillar that has been struggling all year in the face of pandemic restrictions and a national recession.

As he announced the new restrictions, the governor called on federal lawmakers to provide relief to the hospitality industry. Congressional leaders have struggled to reach an agreement on a new economic stimulus package.

 

“The federal government must provide relief to these bars and restaurants in this next package,” Mr. Cuomo said at a news conference.

For months, New York City’s restaurant owners have warned that their businesses, many of which operate on tight margins in the best of times, are on the edge of financial collapse. Thousands of employees, many of them low-wage workers, have been laid off since March, and their jobs have yet to fully return.

The industry’s anxieties are only mounting as winter approaches and frigid temperatures threaten to deter customers from dining outdoors. Industry groups have called repeatedly for federal or state financial assistance, with restaurant and bar owners watching nervously as stimulus talks drag on in Washington.

Congratulations on making it through!

If you're reading this, you're still alive!

Unhappy Valentine's Day for Maspeth family

From PIX11:

Imagine what it's like if your apartment inside is as cold as it is outside, just as New York City is experiencing the coldest temperatures and wind chills in 20 years this weekend.

One Maspeth family knows firsthand.

"We keep the heater going nonstop and we keep bundled up at all times," Dawn Stahl told PIX11 News.

Dawn, her husband Michael and 16-year-old daughter Ashley have been living in the second-floor apartment at 54–66 46 Street with no heat and hot water for three months.

Her Con Edison bill is over $2000.

And to make matters worse, her oven and stove don't work because she said National Grid removed the gas meter in the basement because her landlord didn't pay his bills. She's now using a hot plate for cooking.

The family stopped paying rent months ago and took the landlord to court.

And now they're moving out in April, but, in the meantime, they have to deal with this weekend's arctic blast.

Cuomo's infamous order to shelter doesn't actually do anything new

From the Daily News:

Cuomo inked the order on Sunday to remove homeless people from the streets and move them to shelters when the temperature is 32 degrees or lower. The mandate goes into effect Tuesday, when temperatures are expected to fall into the low 30s.

As homeless New Yorkers rebelled against the order and others questioned the legality of yanking people off the streets, Cuomo administration officials elaborated on the process, saying people would not be forced to leave the sidewalks.

“The executive order directs localities to conduct an assessment when necessary,” said the governor’s counsel, Alphonso David. The process involves outreach to let people know shelter beds are available and competency assessments in certain cases.

Water main break causes problem in Hamilton Beach

Joe Thompson

From the Queens Courier:

A continuous stream of water has been flowing onto one Hamilton Beach street for over six days due to a water main break, causing flooding along the thoroughfare that turns into sheets of ice when temperatures dip below freezing.

“It’s been six days,” said Roger Gendron, president of the Hamilton Beach Civic Association. “I don’t understand why it is taking so long to fix. In all honesty I just feel like this is the way the city treats Hamilton Beach.”

On Feb. 23, water from the break, which is located directly in the middle of the First Street in Hamilton Beach, was gushing from cracks in the asphalt down toward 104th Street and into a catch basin. But now with temperatures set to plunge well below freezing again Monday night, Gendron is concerned about potentially hazardous conditions if the city doesn’t fix the problem.

The break was first noticed on Feb. 17 by Joe Thompson of the Howard Beach Civilian Observation Patrol during his nightly tour. He observed the water coming out of the ground and turning into ice due to the cold weather that night. He immediately filed a 311 report but the only response from the city, up to this point, was a sanitation truck dispatched on Feb. 18 to salt the road in order to break up some of the ice.

Deep freeze affecting transportation

From WPIX:

By land and by sea, the weather has been interrupting any trip around New York City for the past few days.

Most subway work is continuing through the weekend. Check mta.info for status updates.

The East River Ferry suspended rides again on Saturday due to ice in the river.

Bikeshare blues

From Crains:

Now some news out of Canada bodes poorly for urban transportation utopians. Public Bike System Co., the company that designed the sturdy bikes and nifty solar-powered docking stations used in New York and more than a dozen other cities around the world, was forced into bankruptcy protection in Montreal, where it also administers the local sharing program. The nonprofit, known as Bixi, has debt of nearly $46 million.

Bixi's financial troubles have persisted for years; Montreal gave it over $100 million bailout in 2011. Part of Bixi's shortfall is a result of New York and Chicago program operators withholding payments of over $5 million because of problems with the software that runs the bike docking stations.

Bixi acts as a supplier to Alta Bicycle Share Inc., which administers New York's Citi Bike and similar programs in Chicago, Boston and elsewhere. Alta said on its website Jan. 20 that its systems "are up and running and ABS will ensure that they continue to operate without interruption."

Citigroup said its program is safe.

"Alta has reassured us that they have appropriate plans in place, and we are confident Citi Bike operations will not be negatively impacted for users," said a bank spokesman.

It's not clear, though, what Bixi's troubles mean for CitiBike's scheduled move into new areas of New York City. Citi Bike is operated by Alta subsidiary NYC Bike Share.

From the Epoch Times:

As the weather got colder this winter, more New Yorkers set aside their Citi Bikes. On Jan. 3, the day after a howling overnight snowstorm, the city’s bike share system logged the fewest number of trips for a 24-hour period since launching in May last year, according to data posted on its website.

Riders checked out the blue bicycles a record-low 1,230 times across the city, compared to an average of over 30,000 times per day during the summer.

Snow was not the only cause for the record low reached on Jan. 3. The number of daily bike share rides has declined steadily as average temperatures have dropped. Citi Bike users rode the bikes four times less in January compared to the system’s record month of September.

The seasonal drop is likely to make a financial dent for the Alta Bicycle Share. Bloomberg said in October that Alta was still losing money due to the costs of rolling out the system.

The mayor’s office and NYC Bike Share did not return requests for bike share’s financial data.

It would probably help if someone plowed/shoveled the bike lanes. But that's not likely to happen.

Groundhog lets Bloomberg off easy again

From NBC:

...seemingly defying the odds, both Staten Island Chuck and Punxsutawney Phil did not see their shadows on this wintry Groundhog Day.

Amid shouts of "Chuck, Chuck, Chuck!" the little critter peered around for a bit before creeping out of his house, nibbling on some corn and posing for a rather awkward-looking photo op with Mayor Michael Bloomberg (whom he's bitten in the past) before retreating, gratefully, no doubt, to his home.

Winter walk in Little Neck

Click photo for story