How Times Have Changed For Anthony Weiner

Rockaway used to be part of Anthony Weiner's old Congressional district.

He was pretty popular there and, indeed, was well-received in Rockaway when he first entered the race for City Hall back in May.

Less than a month ago, Weiner told Buzzfeed “I’m tellin’ ya, it’s like everything’s right in the world,” as he walked the beach on Rockaway greeting supporters.

But that was before his sexting scandal 2.0

The NY Times reports he got a chillier reception last night from about 50 residents and continued to be dogged by questions about his sexting scandals.

In addition, foul-mouthed Weiner communications director Barbara Morgan was not present last night.

It seems Weiner did not want to deal with one more distraction in a campaign full of them.

Remember earlier this year when Weiner was raising funds in Rockaway and Norm Scott got tossed from the venue?

Times have changed since then.

Now Weiner's lucky he's not getting tossed.

Walcott, Bloomberg Put Rockaway Children At Risk

Because they just don't care:

Parents at a Sandy-battered school in the Rockaways were up in arms after learning mold was discovered in a building that city officials had assured them was safe.

The fungus, which can cause health problems, was found last month in a classroom on the third floor of Public School/Middle School 114 in Belle Harbor.

Experts said it was caused by a leaky radiator that damaged classroom floors — and not the five feet of water and sewage that flooded the Cronston Ave. school’s auditorium during the superstorm.
“It’s outrageous that seven months after the storm, we’re still finding out there’s still health hazards in our schools,” said Assemblyman Phillip Goldfeder (D-Rockaway Beach.) “They need to do a more extensive study to ensure they’ve found it all.”

An independent expert, hired by the United Federation of Teachers, also found high moisture levels in two classrooms on the second floor. The levels can lead to mold growth.

“It’s scary that our children were allowed to go back to a school that wasn’t properly cleaned and wasn’t properly tested,” said parent Dana Carioti, 33, of Belle Harbor.

“I’m really on the fence about sending my son back there in September,” she said.

The school was deluged with stormwater and sewage during Sandy. It reopened on Nov. 27 — less than a month after Sandy — despite parents concerns about the safety of the building.

The auditorium was closed shortly after when the teachers’ union found high moisture levels. The city reopened it after it was dried out with dehumidifiers.

City Department of Education officials said school buildings walloped by Sandy underwent visual and moisture tests before they were reopened. The union also tested the worst-hit schools.
The city will begin repairing the damaged floors at P.S./M.S. 114 this weekend, said Education spokeswoman Marge Feinberg.

“The school is safe,” she said. “Whatever repairs are required, we will do them.”

But parents, who have been battling asthma-causing mold in their homes since Sandy, said the city needs to properly test schools for the fungus.

“We’re just very, very concerned,” said Parent Teacher Association Co-President Irene Dougherty. “I’d like to think when I send my child to school, my child is safe.”

There's are old friend Marge Feinberg assuring us that the school is safe.

They always send her out on the bed bug cases too to assure parents there are no bed bugs in schools because schools do not have beds.

That the NYCDOE and City Hall do not care about the children or parents in Belle Harbor is quite clear.

All they cared about was getting that school building reopened as quickly as possible.

Now they refuse to conduct the tests necessary to see if the school is safe.

They always have refused to conduct these tests.

You see, these tests must show that the NYCDOE and City Hall have been putting kids and teachers at risk by sending them in to a sick building.

Parents should not only sue the NYCDOE and the City of New York over this, they should sue both Bloomberg and Walcott personally as well, for putting their children at risk.

NYCDOE Screws Up Bus Travel For Students To The Rockaways

The managerial geniuses at the NYCDOE didn't get this piece of management right:

Some parents in the Rockaways are furious after waiting for their kids for hours to come home from school Tuesday.

They say they were told they could pick up their children between 2:15 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, but the bus didn't arrive until hours later when it was dark out.

The kids had to be relocated because of damage to their school building and this was the first day back for many of them.

Parents said it's unacceptable.

"Shocked and surprised because I feel like, from the storm until now, they had enough time to work this all out," said parent Deborah White.

"It's unreal," said parent Bharat Singh. "Somebody has to do something about this. My kids are not going back to school until they clear this up."

"We were at school before and we came out early, so we had to wait in the auditorium and we stayed their for a little while and then went on a bus, and we were, like, in a little bit of traffic," said student Sarai White.

The New York City Department of Education said it will add two shuttle buses to try to alleviate the delays.

Just as Michael Bloomberg doesn't give a shit about people living in Far Rockaway and whether they have light, food and water, the NYCDOE doesn't give a shit about the kids from the Rockaways and how long it takes them to get home.

Children First.  Always.

Except for these children.

Forgotten In The Rockaways And In Broad Channel

No power, little food, little water - and little help:

Watching the Manhattan skyline shimmer over Jamaica Bay had always been one of the charms of life in the Rockaways. But now, when the Empire State Building winks on each night, those lights feel almost like a punch in the gut. 

It felt that way to the two women caked in the sandy silt that still blankets most streets here, as they trudged up Rockaway Beach Boulevard on Saturday, pushing shopping carts they had dug out of wreckage piled beside the boarded-up C-Town Supermarket. 

The women, Monique Arkward and her neighbor Eyvette Martin, pushed the carts more than 40 blocks from their battered bungalows to St. Francis de Sales Church, where they had heard — by word of mouth, since phones hardly work here — that they might find bottled water, batteries and some measure of warmth. 

“We’re living like cavemen,” Ms. Arkward said. “It’s like we’re forgotten. It’s like they say, ‘O.K., when we get to them, we’ll get to them.’ ” 

The Rockaways, a narrow peninsula of working-class communities in Queens, have become one of the epicenters for the simmering sense of abandonment felt in still-darkened areas of New York City, and out into the suburbs and beyond, including large swaths of New Jersey and Long Island, where the lack of power was made more problematic by persistent gas shortages. 

Around the city, particularly in places already sensitive to the afterthought status conveyed in the Manhattan-centric characterization “outer boroughs,” the accusations of neglect seemed colored by a growing belief that the recovery from Hurricane Sandy has cleaved along predictable class lines. That sentiment was captured in a much-publicized street-corner confrontation over the weekend when residents shrieked their frustrations at Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg as he visited the Rockaways on Saturday. 

“It’s all about Manhattan,” said Nora McDermott, who lives in the Rockaways, as she stood in a relief center on Saturday. “It was unbelievable, to see Manhattan get power,” she said. “Was I surprised they got it quicker? Not really. But I was like, ‘Damn.’ ” 

...

  Every one of the over 115,000 residents of the Rockaways and Broad Channel is still without power, according to the Long Island Power Authority, which services those areas. And it will be several more days before the seawater-soaked substations along the Rockaway Peninsula are repaired or a workaround is in place. The substations power neighborhoods like Belle Harbor and Breezy Point, a community largely of firefighters and police officers where over 110 houses burned down on Monday night. 

But even once the substations are repaired, each flooded house must be certified on a case-by-case basis by a licensed electrician before it is deemed safe to flip the switch, said Lois Bentivegna, a LIPA spokeswoman. 

Even though some residents acknowledged the risks of living along the ocean, the contrast between Manhattan’s thrumming power lines and the snail’s pace of recovery was hard to bear.

At an American Legion hall in Broad Channel, Paul Girace, 66, stewed as he ate a meal of bow-tie pasta and canned beans provided by relief workers on Saturday. 

“They got electricity already?” Mr. Girace said. “It’s par for the course. Who is the population of Manhattan? The wealthy people. Who screams in Bloomberg’s ear? The wealthy people.” 

George Wright, 61, agreed. “You know Manhattan is going to get turned on first, because let’s face it, this city operates from Manhattan,” he said. “They can dry that out and get it going. Over here, it got ripped to pieces.” 

Near Shore Front Parkway, Bobbi Cooke, 51, and her sister Gwen Murphy, 62, who are caring for their disabled sister in a darkened apartment, had run through their stash of lighters, batteries and candles. 

Without electricity, Ms. Cooke said, they could not use A.T.M.’s to get money to buy what little food was available. 

But what she said she was most desperate for were answers. 

“Since the day it happened, and afterwards, we’ve all had to fend for our selves,” Ms. Cooke said. “We need to know when we’re going to have gas, light, electric. Everywhere is getting something but us.” 

“We’re totally knocked out of the world,” she said. 

Ms. Murphy joined in. “We’re like an orphan,” she said. “It’s like we don’t even exist.” 

 I've written this over and over during this crisis, but I'll write it one more time.

Bloomberg doesn't care about these people - at all.

And neither do the people on the Upper East Side who were applauding Bloomberg for the "great job" he was doing on the storm response when he showed up at an expensive steak house for dinner.

Navy Lands In Belle Harbor To Help Storm Victims

Good to see this:

Navy personnel showed up early Sunday morning to bail out flooded homes in Belle Harbor, Queens, in what residents said was the first help they’ve gotten from the federal government since Superstorm Sandy hit.
Several vehicles were unloaded onto the beach from a large landing craft, including two amphibious vehicles known as LARCs.

Chief Gary Evans-Murphy of Beach master Unit 2 said his crew of 29 would be in the neighborhood all day helping dewater homes.

...

Relieved residents hailed the Navy’s arrival.

"This is the first sign (of help) and it's a week later," said Beach 126th St. Resident Jeanne Duffy, a nurse recruiter. "Oh my God, I'm so happy the Navy's here. It's been total devastation."

Some members of the Navy unit grabbed shovels and started digging out the wall of sand that landed in front of homes, like retired Con Ed worker Marty Lattanzi's house on Beach 127th St.

"If I talk any longer you're going to see tears," Lattanzi said. "I'm just so relieved."

I'm glad they're getting help in Belle Harbor.

I hope the Navy can help down the Boulevard in Rockaway and Far Rockaway too.

Then Broad Channel and Staten Island too.

These people need the help.

Can't think of a better use for our military dollars than using the equipment to dig people out and "dewater" their homes.