We Aren't Ready for What Comes Next
Let’s just lead with this: Yesterday it rained so hard and so quickly that at least some raw sewage that “originated” in Greenpoint likely ended up in either Newtown Creek or the East River. Pee-yew to you too, and welcome to this July 23, 2019 edition of East & Creek, the Greenpoint newsletter.
What’s up in Greenpoint?
Well, a manhole exploded on Monday afternoon on Noble St, near the Brooklyn Expo Center:
Greenpoint’s West Street bike lane is the perpetual subject of bitter tweets and, occasionally, parking summonses. Streetsblog explained last Monday the brief history behind this failed protected bike lane; at the end of the week, they heard back from the DOT, which is “looking at additional ways to enhance protection” on West St.
And another note about streets, for those who use them! According to the DOT, the following streets will be “milled” this week (before being eventually repaved):
Tuesday night: Bridgewater St, between Meeker Ave and Apollo St; Van Dam St, between Meeker Ave and Bridgewater St; and Gardner Ave, between Lombardy St and Meeker Ave.
Wednesday night: Gardner Ave, between Lombardy St and Meeker Ave.
Meanwhile in New York City…
It was a recipe for near-disaster: Take one (1) city; add heat and then water; watch it unfold.
Subway trains on the numbered lines stalled Friday evening in the sweltering heat, some stuck between stations for more than an hour. (The meltdown was reportedly caused by computer failure, and not heat, though its miserable effects were exacerbated by the weather.)
Con Edison’s electricity went down on Manhattan’s West Side a week and a half ago, and then it went down twice in Staten Island, and once in South Brooklyn, and finally, to “prevent a bigger outage” elsewhere in Brooklyn amid record-breaking demand, ConEd took parts of Canarsie, Mill Basin, and Flatbush off-line. It was Sunday evening, and the heat wave was only just beginning to break.
Over the weekend, detainees at one local jail complained of “boiling hot” conditions. On Monday, traffic signals went down at various intersections, including Bedford Ave and Manhattan Ave in Greenpoint. And as the streets began to flood Monday evening, some New Yorkers cleared drains while others wondered whether their city, nearly seven years after the last superstorm, was ready for the next one.
In short, during the past several days a brief heat wave and a serious spot of rain seemed to cause the city’s infrastructure — its roads, tunnels, tubes, wires, and walls — to go haywire. For those New Yorkers hopeful that their city would know best how to face, let alone counter, our likely, climate-changed future, this was not a comforting week.
A few other headlines:
An investigation into the world of food-app deliverymen revealed frantic danger, illegally low pay and, sometimes, outright theft by the app itself. (New York Times’ Andy Newman)
Maybe you heard yesterday that Manhattan’s longest-serving District Attorney, Robert Morgenthau, passed away yesterday at 99. You may have missed that Janos Marton, a leading decarceration activist, declared his candidacy yesterday for D.A. Marton would face incumbent Cy Vance in 2021. (The Appeal’s Aaron Morrison)
Ya gotta love the Freedom of Information Law: one reporter obtained internal NYPD documents explaining the force’s procedure… for trying to funny online. (Motherboard’s Caroline Haskins)
And last but not least, we finally know what came to Queens in a flash of confounding blue light last December: a hamburger. (New York Post’s Tamar Lapin)
Thus concludes this July 23, 2019 edition of East & Creek, the twice-weekly newsletter about Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Read the full archives here.
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See ya around the neighb,
Jon Hanrahan
Author, e&c