Con Ed has pretty crappy luck. No sooner than a few hours after announcing that most of the Queens neighborhoods plagued by a week and a half power outage had electricity did three feeder cables in Staten Island fail. Luckily, this power outage that hit 16,000 customers (about one in every 10 Con Ed customers on SI, according to the Advance) only lasted six hours, ending around 10PM. Which meant Mayor Bloomberg had to cancel a trip to Queens and visit Staten Island instead. Gothamist totally gets why he did that - he's already hated in Queens, so he might as well preserve his rep on the Island. Con Ed described the power outage on Staten Island as being a "different animal" than the one in Queens, but SI does have more blackouts than any other borough (perhaps as revenge for wanting to secede to NJ?). At this rate, the Bronx, followed by Brooklyn, and then Manhattan should be getting blackouts in the coming weeks.
And Mayor Bloomberg is no longer going to Ireland as planned, so he can do some damage control in the wake of his mediocre performance during the Queens power outage. On the slightly bright side of things, the city is trying to expedite Queens residents' and business owners' claims with Con Ed: Con Ed will waive the requirement for grocery receipts so people can file for the full $350 reimbursement while businesses may opt for a special low-interest loan program. And the city will have a "Power Up Queens" advertising campaign to encourage New Yorkers to visit the affected neighborhoods in Queens. Papers are donating ad space, there will be a special restaurant promotion, guides will be printed up. The MTA, however, has yet to confirm that weekend subway service to Queens will be normal.
