Results tagged “citycouncilmanericgioia”

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Amboy Rd. in Staten Island, another bank robbery on 5th Ave. in Manhattan, and a scaffolding collapse on Grand Concourse and 149th St. in the Bronx.
• A building slated for destruction on Governors Island will become a lab for the FDNY to examine the dynamics of high-rise fires and how best to defeat them. Fire crews from cities around the country will be on hand to observe.
• Someone crunched the numbers and found that The New York Times Fashion Magazine is almost as white as the arctic in February, pre-global warming. The 55% of New Yorkers who aren't white are probably not the targeted demographic the Times Fashion Mag is looking for anyway.
• A New York Presbyterian Hospital official in charge of the Women, Infants, and Children program--which was designed to provide food for impoverished women and children--is accused of siphoning off a few hundred thousand dollars for vacations and comfortable living.
• City Councilman Eric Gioia is running a "carbon neutral" campaign for public advocate, that involves the use of more emails than flyers, the purchase of carbon offsets, and the use of hybrid vehicles.
• The International House of Pancakes downtown Brooklyn location is doing so well that plans are in the works for locations in Bed-Stuy, East New York, and Williamsburg.
• The family of a 25-year-old, who allegedly had his jaw broken by an EMT, is suing the city for $2 million. They accuse the EMT of punching the young man in the face after the patient accidentally drooled on him as he was giving him oxygen.
• Summertime probably seems far off today, but the organizers of the Movies With a View program are looking for submissions of short films to be shown before features in July and August amidst the moonlit shadows of the Brooklyn Bridge.

The 69-year-old woman who was burned over 90% of her body in a gas explosion in her Sunnyside home died yesterday. City Councilman Eric Gioia said, "It is with great regret and sadness that I announce the passing of Kunta Oza. My deepest condolences go out to her entire family, and I ask that all New Yorkers keep them in their Thanksgiving prayers." On Wednesday afternoon, calls were made to 911 about a gas smell...

Yesterday afternoon, a gas explosion in a Sunnyside home burned a 67-year-old woman over 90% of her body. Six other people were also injured, as over 200 people needed to be evacuated and over a hundred firefighters responded. Kunta Oza, who lives in a three-story at 41st Street and 48th Avenue, is at New York Hospital Burn Center in critical condition. WNBC reports that she "sent her grandchildren outside as a precaution. The move might...

Con Ed is laying the blame on Mame Mother Nature for the two power outages this past week. The utility issued a statement saying that the 48-minute blackout on Wednesday - the one that hit the Upper East Side and South Bronx - was caused by a "strong lightning strike." This is what the Con Ed statement said:

Information obtained from real-time lightning tracking data show that detection instruments measured a lightning strike of 34,000 amperes in the vicinity of a substation in Queens at 3:42 p.m. on Wednesday, precisely at the time of the power loss. The lightning strike momentarily affected communication equipment that prompted circuit breakers on multiple transmission feeders to open, causing the service interruption.

Well, there's nothing like having a barely-one-hour blackout on a sultry weekday to make you consider stocking up on flashlights, batteries, water, and maybe a Go Bag. Con Ed is still investigating the cause of yesterday's brief power failure to parts of the Bronx and Manhattan; Newsday reported "the blackout was caused when breakers opened at an Astoria substation and cut off power to stations servicing Yorkville and parts of the Bronx." It's unclear why the breakers were opened in the first place.

The Landmarks Preservation Committee unanimously approved designating Sunnyside Gardens a landmark. However, amNew York reports that the preservationists who supported the measure were outnumbered by residents of the Queens enclave. One expressed dismay by saying, "It's going to cause a lot of problems for the low-income people We are disappointed. This process is not a democratic system."

Yesterday, a five people were injured on Queens Boulevard at 47th Street when a Jeep Cherokee slammed into a Honda. The Jeep, which witnesses describe as trying to beat a red light, lost control and hit the Honda. The Honda, which had been making a turn onto Queens Boulevard, was crushed from the impact and then "plowed up onto the crowded sidewalk, pinning a 16-year-old boy against a lamppost."

City Councilman Eric Gioia, took it upon himself to eat only what he could afford for $28, the equivalent of a week's worth of food stamps. He followed in the foosteps of Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, who only allotted himself $21 (the Oregonian food stamp equivalent) for the week. According to the New Yorker, Councilman Gioia conducted the challenge "to draw attention to the issue of how people are living in New York City.”

While the city has spent the last few years making life difficult for bar owners in a fixed location with a vested interest in maintaining good relations with its neighbors, the State Liquore Authority has been passing out temporary liquor licenses like refills at an all-you-can-drink affair. According to the New York Post, the SLA issued 2,899 temporary liquor licenses in the city during 2006. That's 13% more than in 2005 and a 55% increase from the temporary licenses handed out in 2002.

Alarming news to start the workweek: The Daily News exclusively reports that the authorities are looking for "64 fugitive rapists, perverts and molesters" who have lied about where they live.

Weekend 7 train service has been horrendous the past few weekends due to MTA service work. Many business owners, namely bar and restaurant owners, were worried what the lack of a running 7 train would do to St. Patrick's Day business. St. Patrick's Day falls on a Saturday, and MTA Executive Director said that the MTA may suspend weekend service disruptions on March 17. Another possibility is to have the E, R, and LIRR "pick up slack" for people to go to the parade. Aw, Sander wants to make sure people can get drunk and ride the rails! amNY points out that many Irish immigrants live in Woodside and has a quote from City Councilman Eric Gioia: "You wouldn't close the No. 7 train for the World Series and shouldn't close it for the St. Patrick's Day Parade."

This past weekend, residents and business owners held a rally to protest the 7 line's weekend service disruptions. They were probably also complaining about MTA's poor efforts to explain new directions during the diversions as well.

Yesterday, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that the State will sue ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, Keyspan and Phelps Dodge over a 17-million-gallon oil spill in Newtown Creek that has spread underneath Greenpoint over 100 acres. The spill was detected in 1978, when a Coast Guard pilot noticed an oil plume; oil seeped underground from ExxonMobil refinery and storage operations since the 1950s. Attorney General Cuomo said:

This is one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation, larger than the Exxon Valdez and slower in the cleanup. ExxonMobil must and will be held accountable. The toxic footprint of ExxonMobil is found all over this area. It is ExxonMobil’s oil that remains under the homes and businesses. And it is ExxonMobil that has dragged its feet and done as little as possible to address the dangers that it created.”

If you want to read an incredibly damning indictment of Con Edison ever put to 185-page PDF, we highly recommend reading the Public Service Commission study (here's the PDF) of what happened during last summer's Queens blackout. Our favorite summary of the major screw up that was Con Ed's response is Con Edison’s performance in preparing for, and responding to, the outage event was deficient, a gross disservice to its customers. Or is it The Company failed to fulfill its responsibilities under Public Service Law. And then there's

While many line employees of Con Edison worked hard to contain the crisis, the Company’s senior management failed, or refused to comprehend, the magnitude of the damage to its secondary system and the subsequent impact on consumers. The processing of the event illustrates deficiencies in the Company's ability to accurately develop and process information in an emergency and properly communicate that information internally and externally.

“My power was lost on Monday evening, July 17. I am 92 years old and live alone. I was very afraid because I live alone and I had no electricity or hot water. My family came to get me and took me to the state of Pennsylvania. If I did not have family, I would have been dead." Another consumer said, “...does Con Edison… have any idea what it is like to sleep in an oven for seven nights, to worry about your mother who is a senior citizen who decided to leave the apartment after three days of sweating like a pig, only to find her on the fourth floor crying and stating she had chest pains from trying to walk up six flights of stairs?"

City Councilman Eric Gioia will be demanding that the NYC Housing Authority explain why over 200 registered sex offenders are living in public housing. NYCHA policy - and federal law - prohibits sex offenders from residing in Post puts it, "they are filled with children and other vulnerable targets and in the past were havens for criminals." And the Daily News notes that this past week, a registered offender attacked a woman at the Ravenswood Houses in Long Island City.

With the weather turning quite brisk today, it's almost hard to remember that back in stifling July heat, many neighborhoods were without power for days and days. Almost. Yesterday, Con Ed released a 600 page report detailing what happened, why they decided not to shut down the network, and why trying to fix the problem caused delays. All in all, Con Ed is saying it wasn't really their fault - it was the equipment! Please, Con Ed needed 600 pages to come up with that excuse? Anyway, the NY Times summarizes what Con Ed says happened:

According to the report, three unrelated events on July 17 combined to knock out five feeders. The first event was a fire, around 3:50 p.m., that broke out in an underground conduit near 30th Avenue and 44th Street when a low-voltage secondary cable short-circuited. The fire damaged two of the primary feeders, causing both of them to fail in a 32-minute period. More than two hours later, at 6:48 p.m., a third feeder failed.

Continue reading "Con Ed Blames Queens Blackout on Eqiupment, Not Itself"

Yesterday was the third day of the August heat wave, but the sprinkling of rain in the early evening and cooler weather today and the weekend should hopefully bring relief to us all. And it looks like Con Ed managed to avoid a bigger blackout when feeder cables on the East Side failed and manholes exploded in the area as well; of course, Con Ed sending its own non-essential employees home certainly freaked everyone out! Bigger institutions, from hospitals to universities and performing venues - even the Bronx Zoo - switched to generators for power in order to conserve energy. However, some areas, such as in the Bronx, have been without power for days. Mayor Bloomberg is asking us to continue to conserve energy.

- City Councilman Eric Gioia wondered, "You're telling me the only way to find out is for the customer to call up but you don't have the capacity to receive the phone call, and what you're trying to do is do some calculus based on how long people took to hang up the telephone. It seems like this is an exercise in absurdity." (NY1)Queens City Council members and Senator Charles Schumer are asking Con Ed to lift the $7,000 reimbursement cap for businesses.

Most of the city got to enjoy yesterday's cooler weather - except for Queens residents and business owners. For the second day in a row, homes and businesses had little or no power and subway service was limited, with many commutes that would take 30 minutes tops taking 90 minutes. The MTA blamed Con Ed, saying, "Because of the low-voltage problem, not enough power is available to power subway signals in the area." And Con Ed blamed Queens residents, essentially telling one of our readers when she asked what the ETA for power would be, "maybe if our neighbors actually listened to them, the load would go down and then we'd have power."

Be still Gothamist's beating heart: Two men have been arrested for placing an "ATM skimming" device onto an ATM in Elmont. The men stoles the account and PIN numbers from a Bank of America branch and took $2500 dollars from ATMs in Manhattan, Rosedale, and Queens. Newsday reports that a witness saw the pair remove the skimming device from the Elmont ATM and followed their car until police stopped them on Queens Boulevard. Go concerned witness! This is exactly the kind of story that gives Gothamist ulcers, as we hear stories about ATM skimming all the time and try to inspect ATMs as best we can, but we don't really know what we're looking for. And sometimes we really need the cash, but there was the recent City Council warning that ATMs in bodegas are highly susceptible to identity theft (City Councilman Eric Gioia says not to be suspicious of the bodega owner, as it's a problem with the vendor).

While the Mayor and City Council Speaker Gifford Miller may seem similar - they are white...they live on the Upper East Side...uh... - they actually aren't, and the NY Times examined their extremely political spitting match. Gothamist liked how Mayor Bloomberg views Miller as unaccomplished and unambitious, because next to him, who can be (this does not bode well for prospective suitors for Emma and Georgina), but there was another quote that got us thinking:

City Councilman Eric Gioia, a close associate of Mr. Miller, says the friction stems in part from the vast age gap between the two. "I think the mayor looks at Gifford and says, 'Why don't you just listen to me?'" he said. "And Gifford looks at the mayor and says, 'Why can't you see things from a different perspective?'"