The night the traffic lights went out in Middle Queens

 

QNS

Following rampant power outages in his district on Nov. 30, Councilman Robert Holden released a letter calling for a meeting with NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell, DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez and OEM Commissioner Zachary Iscol to discuss what caused the outage and what steps could be taken to prevent it from happening again in the future.

Holden expressed concern over the city’s failure to swiftly address the Nov. 30 outages in Maspeth and Middle Village in which thousands of residents lost power for as long as five hours. Traffic in the area was drastically affected by this, according to Holden, as the outages occurred during rush hour.

 According to Holden, additional police officers were not deployed to the 104th Precinct until the end of the outages. Holden cited a desire to know what caused the outages and delayed response, as well as wanting to know how outages like this will be handled in the future.

“The areas affected routinely suffer due to overhead lines that cannot handle rain storms,” Holden said. “The transformers on Eliot Avenue blow often, including last year on Election Day. After two conversations with Commissioner Iscol, I still did not understand what additional resources our district would be receiving, nor what the emergency response was other than ‘monitoring the situation.’ It was only after 10:00 p.m. did the 104th Precinct receive additional police officers. Considering heavy rains and strong winds were forecasted, it would make sense that the Office of Emergency Management and NYPD would have coordinated for expected power outages in Queens.”

Holden said he wanted DOT Commissioner Rodriguez to take part in the meeting so his office could discuss plans for when a large amount of traffic lights go out. Holden is hopeful that such a meeting could help ensure each department is better prepared for the next massive outage.

Current mayor's climate event and emergency plan will take 2 more years to complete

 

 NY Post

 City officials were well aware of the death traps that basement apartments would become in the event of a flash-flood emergency like the one that drowned at least eight New Yorkers living below grade Wednesday night — yet they did nothing to warn them.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Stormwater Resiliency Plan, released in May, includes an initiative that would “develop notifications for basement dwellings to keep residents out of harm’s way.”

The plan required the Office of Emergency Management to “pre-draft messaging regarding potential dangers for residents living in basement dwellings to be used for outreach and notification in advance of forecasted extreme rain events.”

Completion date? 2023.

“There are multiple initiatives, all that are very pressing and important, that are currently underway,” City Hall spokesman Mitch Schwartz said.

Leave it to Mayor Big Slow to draft a plan to make basement dwellings part of the city's housing program first and then come up with an emergency plan for them over a year later. What a stupid fucking idiot. 

 

Did not age well at all. https://t.co/2EuW0DMUCh

— Queens Crapper (@QueensCrapper) September 3, 2021

There's nowhere to cool off in Southside Queens

  

Patch

  New York City is under a heat advisory for the next few days, but the city has allocated fewer resources to helping some of Queens' most vulnerable residents stay cool in their neighborhoods.

In response to forecasts that the city will feel hotter than 100 degrees through Tuesday or Wednesday, the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) has opened hundreds of cooling centers throughout the five boroughs — but, many areas of Queens with residents that are at high risk for dying during extreme heat events don't have access to a cooling center in their neighborhood.

As of Monday there was not a cooling center in the southeastern Queens neighborhoods of Hollis, St. Albans, Springfield Gardens, Laurelton, Cambria Heights, or Queens Village — all of which are among the areas where residents have the highest or second-highest risk of heat injury or death, according to the Department of Health.

When Patch reached out to the OEM with questions about these disparities the agency said in a written statement that "many sites that served as cooling centers in previous seasons remain closed due to COVID-19 pandemic but should be open in the coming weeks to New Yorkers," likely alluding to Queens Public Library branches, which usually operate as cooling centers, but are not right now.

The agency also said that New Yorkers can access outdoor cooling options like showers and drinking fountains, many of which "are located in neighborhoods across New York City that may not have traditional cooling centers available at this time."

Queens is still the most powerless days after the hurricane

Gothamist

While crews with Con Edison have made progress restoring power to the five boroughs following the wind-related outages caused by Tropical Storm Isaias, more than 33,000 customers remain powerless in the five boroughs. And they're not expected to get their electricity back until 11 p.m. on Sunday night.

Manhattan stands as the only borough where full service has been restored to Con Edison's customers, according to a press release Con Edison sent out early this morning. Queens holds the largest number of outages with 19,000, with the Bronx at 9,700, Staten Island with 3,200, and Brooklyn with 1,400 customers still out. In Westchester County, 53,000 customers remain without service.

The storm on Tuesday packed a wallop, bringing gusty winds of 70 miles per hour in New York that caused widespread outages. At the height of the blackout, some 300,000 customers were left without power. That prompted Con Edison officials to deem the outage is the second worst next to Superstorm Sandy.

Con Edison has enlisted the help of outside utility companies to help restore power, with 1,230 contractors working alongside the 1,700 Con Edison workers. They say crews have been working "84 straight hours" since the storm hit, clearing out downed trees that became entangled in wires.

The New York City Office of Emergency Management has been managing tree removals across the city.

"Queens specifically has been the hardest hit," said OEM commissioner Deanne Criswell of the downed trees. "Right now, we have over 1500 people working on clearing trees across the city, and 153 of those are in Queens. We're continuing to bring in additional resources, and reassigning some of of other personnel from city agencies to help support the tree removal efforts."

Flushing, Bayside, Astoria, and Woodside are being given priority to have downed trees cleared. It will take next week to have all those trees removed.

The restoration also came when a pop-up blackout knocked out electricity to 180,000 customers on Friday morning. The incident--which cut off power to 187,000 customers in the Upper West Side, Upper East Side, and Harlem in Manhattan, and 77,000 customers in Maspeth, Queens.

Update:

CBS New York's report from Woodhaven, one of the men at the end of the video says it all about the city's and Con Ed's response.

City sneakily sent 100 prisoners from Rikers to Fresh Meadows hotel to shelter in place from COVID-19

Queens Eagle

More than 100 people released from Rikers Island are being housed at a Fresh Meadows hotel as part of a city initiative that local leaders say lacked any community input.

The city is putting up the formerly incarcerated New Yorkers at a Wyndham Garden Hotel on 186th Street to prevent the spread of COVID-19 behind bars and in homeless shelters, officials said. The Office of Emergency Management and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice are overseeing the program.

The city paid for rooms in the hotel because the individuals did not have stable housing and would have otherwise become homeless, said MOCJ spokesperson Colby Hamilton. A handful of other hotels around the city have served the same function.

“This and other hotels have provided an invaluable network of stable, reliable lodging for those in need, keeping people departing the jail system out of congregate housing, while we work with them to find more permanent living solutions going forward,” Hamilton said.

The individuals were released from Rikers Island because they have pre-existing medical conditions that put them at particular risk of COVID-19, he said.

Local Councilmember Barry Grodenchik said he was blindsided by the city’s plan.

“We found out because people started calling the office from the community,” Grodenchik said. “We didn’t get advance notice. At all.”

Grodenchik said he and members of Community Board 8 will tour the facility Wednesday.

The employee who answered the phone at the Wyndham Gardens hotel directed questions to City Hall Tuesday.

“This information is confidential and we cannot give information about who is staying with us and if you want more information you can call the Mayor’s Office,” the official said.

City O.E.M. is letting an LLC profit from housing homeless people,released prisoners and frontline workers in hotels

THE CITY

In recent weeks, the city has placed hundreds of vulnerable homeless shelter residents, frontline hospital workers and recently released Rikers Island inmates into hotel rooms to help contain the spread of COVID-19.

And every time one of these temporary guests check in, a company down in Texas pockets a $27 per room, per night fee.

The firm, Crewfacilities.com LLC, also bills the city $18 for every breakfast, $19 for every lunch and $34 for every dinner provided to the guests, according to records obtained by THE CITY.

And then there’s the actual hotel rooms. The city Office of Emergency Management blacked out the room rates spelled out in Crewfacilities’ contract, arguing the information was protected from public disclosure as a “trade secret.”

But according to an unredacted copy of a related document obtained by THE CITY, nightly room rates range from $128 for a room in Queens to $163 to spend the night near Times Square.

A review of Hotel.com Thursday showed much lower rates available at struggling hotels all over the city. A Hilton Garden Inn in Tribeca, for example, was offering a discounted rate of $89 per night, while rooms at a Best Western in Herald Square were going for $75.

So far, taxpayers have shelled out about $15.5 million for more than 8,600 rooms booked by Crewfacilities in hotels around town. That includes the per room, per night fee and the thousands of meals for guests who request them at the rates set by Crewfacilities’ contract.

In an interview with THE CITY Friday, Councilmember Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan), chair of the city contracts committee, questioned Crewfacilities’ $27 per room, per night fee, noting that the industry norm for such a booking fee is typically 10% of the room rate. That would come out to $12 to $16. As of last week, Crewfacilities had charged $2.5 million in these fees.
 

Kallos called on OEM to cancel the contract, estimating that between the $27 fee and the $71 per-day meal charge, Crewfacilities could be charging taxpayers $3,000 per month — above the cost of hotel rooms — for each guest.

“At the height of the pandemic we were desperate for hotel rooms and we got ripped off by a contract with $27 overhead,” he said. “We can and must do better by cutting out the middleman and going directly to the hotels. We can use the savings to fund essential services for youth and seniors this summer.”

As for the cost of an $18 breakfast, he added,  “That better be one fancy breakfast. If it’s $18 for a bagel and coffee, that’s expensive even for New York City.”

A few days ago it was revealed a company from Texas got a contract to build a hospital that was never used, now we got another Texas firm profiting from a pandemic.

What is up with these Texas connections? Could this be tied anyway to de Blasio's farcical presidential run last summer when he was traversing the nation for donations to his PAC's?

Water main break floods Queens Hospital Center

Emergency housing for storms, not the homeless

From Brick Underground:

My first impression of the three-bedroom on the edge of Brooklyn Heights? It’s airy and light, 800 square feet, with a view of the Manhattan Bridge and One World Trade Center to boot. Somewhat sparsely furnished, it’s outfitted in a crisp, unfussy style that’s modern without being cold. In short, it’s the opposite of what I’d expect to live in if, say, a tornado had just leveled my apartment building.

But that’s exactly what it is: a prototype of an urban post-disaster shelter that could become New York’s answer in the event of another Hurricane Sandy.

For the last week, Jim McConnell, an assistant commissioner for strategic data in the city’s Office of Emergency Management, and his husband, Joe Hickey, have been acting as guinea pigs, living in the place and recording their observations. Another 30 OEM staffers have signed up to do the same.

Why all the testing? The problem is that in a place as densely populated as New York, other types of post-disaster housing, like the infamous FEMA trailers used in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, don’t work—particularly if victims of a hurricane, tornado, earthquake or explosion have to live in the place for a year or more until permanent housing is built. No, in New York City, we need multi-story accommodations that mimic our full-time abodes.

The prototype, situated on a city-owned lot next door to OEM’s headquarters, is a three-story building with an apartment on each floor: a 500-square-foot one-bedroom on the ground floor, an 800-square-foot three-bedroom on the second floor, and a 500-square-foot one-bedroom on the third floor.

The structure took a mere two days to put up, but it’s built to last for 50 years and can be moved to different sites. As many as 20 of them can go up on a single lot, preferably close to affected neighborhoods so disaster victims can stay close to transit and schools. This past April, the prototype was trucked to the city and constructed at a cost of $1.5 million. (The price should come down if and when it’s mass produced.)

Shouldn't these be built now to alleviate the emergency homeless crisis, and not shelved for 100-year storms? Oh wait, we sold all the city owned land for $1 to developers of luxury condos. Never mind.

Ain't no wave strong enough...

From the NY Post:

The city is moving closer to getting emergency housing with the selection of a three-story, three-unit prototype — complete with balconies — that will soon be erected next to the Office of Emergency Management in Brooklyn.

The prototype includes two, 822 square-foot three-bedroom units on the upper two floors, and one 480 square-foot one-bedroom handicapped accessible apartment on the ground floor — still far larger than the city’s 250-to-370 square-foot permanent Micro Units.

We’ve learned the mini-complex — designed by Garrison Architects of Brooklyn for American Manufactured Systems and Services of Vienna, Va. — was selected this month for the $1,135,147 contract by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Are people really complaining about the quality of free food?

From the NY Post:

Mayor Bloomberg has crusaded against salt, fat and sugar, yet the city seems to have no qualms about feeding artery-clogging grub to desperate victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Self-heating packets of MREs (military meals ready to eat) — stuffed with more salt and fat than a Big Mac and more sugar than a 21-ounce Coke — are among the foodstuff being doled out to the unsuspecting.

“I was told that folks shouldn’t eat these for more than two days straight,” said a concerned city source distributing the items in Brooklyn.

The $7 MREs were handed out last week at the city-run Restoration Center in Coney Island, where many residents still lack power and heat.

Made by the Indiana-based Ameriqual Group and distributed via the city’s Office of Emergency Management, they include such entrees as home-style chicken with noodles and vegetables in sauce: 1,180 calories, 45 grams of fat (17 grams saturated), 1,330 milligrams of sodium and 64 grams of sugar. (A Big Mac packs 550 calories, 29 grams of fat and 970 milligrams of sodium.)

MREs are meant for active soldiers who are expending calories and need something quick to eat in the field. They are perfect for short-term situations. It's time to stop sweating the small stuff.

The calorie, salt and fat content of these packs are not a problem.
Not having food is a problem.

Agencies doing a bang-up job providing help

While the politicians are praising each other and the agencies they oversee, I thought you might like to see what's really happening out there:

MAJOR screw up by Bloomberg administration

From the Huffington Post:

The staff and residents of at least five nursing homes on the coastal edge of this storm-battered city were told by New York officials to stay put in advance of Hurricane Sandy, even though the facilities were in a mandatory evacuation zone and are just blocks from the Atlantic Ocean, according to accounts of those who work and live there.

As a result, hundreds of disabled, handicapped and elderly residents watched fearfully as one of the most severe storms in the city's history roared ashore, sending brackish water surging into the first floor of their buildings, flooding lobbies, basements and -- crucially -- backup power generators.

"It was like Niagara Falls," said a worker at Rockaway Care Center on Tuesday afternoon who was standing outside the building, a few feet from a huge pool of standing water. The worker, who declined to give his name, pointed to the high water mark, about four feet up the lobby door.

Inside, the water had torn apart interior walls. Sandbags that had been piled up outside were split open, their contents strewn about the lobby.

So why didn't they evacuate before the storm? "Call the mayor's office," an official at the facility said. "We were told to stay."

The New York Office of Emergency Management did not return multiple calls or emails about the condition of the nursing homes, the status of the residents, or the decision not to evacuate prior to the storm.

It's not clear what happened to the residents of Rockaway Care Center, or another nursing home in the community, Horizon Care Center. The entire community is without power, water or any other services. Shops and restaurants are closed. Phone calls to the nursing homes weren't returned.

The Huffington Post confirmed that at least two Rockaway nursing homes -- Surfside Manor and Lawrence Nursing Care Facility -- were later evacuated to Brooklyn Technical High School, in a leafy neighborhood of brownstones near downtown Brooklyn, on Tuesday night.

These facilities are all in Zone A. Why wasn't everyone evacuated, especially considering the frailty of the population? Heads should roll over this.

After the storm, Bellevue and Coney Island Hospital were also evacuated.

Council gearing up for storm hearings

From NY1:

It promises to be one of the most closely-watched government meetings in recent history: a City Council hearing on the mayor's botched snow cleanup that's scheduled for Monday. The storm hit all corners of the city. And members are eager to sound off against Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his administration.

"This will be one of the best attended and probably longest hearings we've ever held in New York City Council history," said City Councilman Peter Vallone Junior. "I am expecting the Fourth of July of City Council hearings.

The Council announced Tuesday that additional public hearings on the storm will be held throughout the city. But before those get underway, some Council members are coming up with new legislation to address the snow problems and the apparent chain-of-command breakdown at City Hall as the storm approached.

"One of the things we are looking at right now is perhaps requiring that if the mayor goes out of town for any length of time that he notify, maybe the city clerk, and he appoint someone who has to be in charge and has to be here," Vallone Jr. said.

It's unclear where the mayor was on December 25, the day before the blizzard began. In an interview Monday with NY1's "Inside City Hall," Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson would say only that the mayor was in constant touch with his team.

"Where the mayor is or isn't is not important," said Wolfson.

Meanwhile, City Councilman Jumaane Williams is planning to introduce six new pieces of legislation, all related to the storm.

"The people of New York City deserve some relief and they deserve some answers and deserve to not have this happen again," Williams said.

Williams wants to throw out all parking tickets incurred in the days following the storm. He also wants all parking regulations suspended for any storm that produces a certain amount of snow. Additionally, he's looking to require the mayor's Office of Emergency Management to share an action plan with Council members 24 hours before a storm.

City Councilman Vincent Gentile, meantime, is drafting yet another piece of storm-related legislation. It all adds up to yet another storm for Mayor Bloomberg, who is still trying shovel his way out of the current one.

Storm wrapup features yours truly

Queens Crap was featured in a news report!



NEW YORK (WPIX) — People in Queens are giving credit to PIX 11 News for the recent surge of city cleanup crews in storm-ravaged neighborhoods.

"Amazing What Embarrassing TV Coverage Will Do" was the headline Tuesday on the popular blog Queens Crap, which spotlighted Greg Mocker's report on the rush of tree-removal crews to the Middle Village area, which was hit by a tornado on September 16.

PIX 11 brought increased attention to the neighborhood with reports on the slow progress of the cleanup. While city officials denied PIX 11's coverage triggered the cleanup surge, people commenting on Queens Crap disagreed.

"Bloomberg hates to have his 'Bloomberg' brand tarnished with negative comments particularly on TV," wrote one person.

That was echoed by "Linda" who said: "Who cares what sign is on the truck, the damn trees are getting cleaned up!"

Heh. I'm glad someone is paying attention. The rest of the news crews left a long time ago.

Brooklyn got help from the U.S. Forest Service.

CITYWIDE TORNADO WATCH UNTIL 6pm

TORNADO WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE FOR WT 686
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
1100 AM EDT TUE SEP 28 2010

TORNADO WATCH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 600 PM EDT FOR THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS

NEW YORK COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE

ALBANY, BRONX, BROOME,
CHENANGO, COLUMBIA, DELAWARE,
DUTCHESS, GREENE, KINGS,
MADISON, MONTGOMERY, NASSAU,
NEW YORK, ONEIDA, ORANGE,
OTSEGO, PUTNAM, QUEENS,
RENSSELAER, RICHMOND, ROCKLAND,
SCHENECTADY, SCHOHARIE, SULLIVAN,
ULSTER, WESTCHESTER