The King's Bay YM-YWHA and Trump Village West - Community Carnival, May 19, 2013

Snow Shuts NYC Parks


by on Oct 29th, 2011

Notify NYC has issued the following alert:

ALERT issued 10/29/11 at 8:00 PM. No one should enter any City Park until further notice. Heavy snow and strong wind gusts, combined with full leaves still on trees, are damaging thousands of trees in parks throughout the City. This is creating an elevated and ongoing danger of falling branches and trees. City crews are working to address the damage and will continue throughout the storm.

Stay home tonight folks. Or at least stay out of the parks.  It’s dangerous and slippery out there.

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  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

    As far as winter storms go, to this point it is a rather small one. The winds may become a problem in a few hours, but intermittently so. I don’t remember parks being closed because of wind conditions in the past.

    Seems like they are getting overly cautious lately.

    • http://www.nedberke.com Ned Berke

      I don’t know about “overly” cautious. It’s true – they didn’t close parks because of wind conditions in the past. Or, at least, there weren’t the broadcast mechanisms to get word out like there are now (Notify NYC and sites like this one). However, another difference is that trees were pruned more often, causing far less of a problem. Now the pruning schedule is once every whenever-the-hell-they-get-to-it (figure 20 years). So trees are more dangerous, and we need to be more cautious.

      • BrooklynBus

        The City is primarily afraid of lawsuits if someone should get severely hurt or killed. . They couldn’t care less about your well-being. That is the real reason for the alert.

      • nolastname

        Because the city has been negligent and lives have been lost they have to be “overly cautious” to protect their asses.
        Like the bogus answer I got from the Parks Commissioner at whatever meeting. 
        They are just stringing along on a bunch of half dead and sickly trees.
        Rotting from the inside out due to infestations…near ready to fall over because of the curb and sidewalk repairs that left roots bare and covered in fungus and mildew.
        I blame Bloomie. He is a piece of crap. If money did grow on trees he would see to their health.

      • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

        My point is that they do not make these decisions except when the media plays up a weather story into more than it is worth. There have been other circumstances where the wind threat was far worse and yet most of us were unaware of it until we had to deal with it. The data was there, the threat was more real.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

    Far as I know they didn’t close the parks when we had the March 2010 storm, which was far more damaging than this one.

    Much of this overcaution is the result of the criticisms leveled at NYC government in the wake of the blizzard last December. Added to that is the fact that National Weather Service was slow in analyzing the changing characteristics of the storm, and the wind surge that was going to interact with it. Computer models serve a purpose but human analysis shouldn’t be underestimated. The storm failed to respond to earlier projections in a predictable way. So they must have changed the imput for the models which gave them an extreme projection of snow totals.

    As I write this it is 1:04AM. The current wind speed is 5MPH. The gusts haven’t gone above 25MPH, and appear to be rare. There was a small period in which wind speeds averaged around 25MPH with peaks near 40. In autumn this is not an especially unusual occurrence. BUt I doubt the Parks Department desires to close parks on other occasions where the wind reaches such levels. As the media has been playing this storm up as being more than it was (though certainly in other places this was a very dangerous storm) the powers that be decided that it was a show of efficiency to take actions such as closing parks. The long term problem is that when this occurs too often when the outcome is far less than projected the warnings given when there is a real problem are more likely to be ignored.

    And it wouldn’t be a bad idea for the city to hire their own meteorological staff, just so they might have other options to consider.

  • http://kibblesbits.wordpress.com/ Ann

    http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/mta-lays-emergency-action-plans-service-stop-halloween-mayhem-snow-power-outages-article-1.969099 and the animals, not the snow, are shutting down Gerritsen Beach. The cops will go to Sheepshead Bay instead, and arrest people for BBQing and stuff like that.

  • http://www.google.com/ F_a_b_a

    No one else see this as perhaps one more way to keep OWS people out of the park?
    I live in NYC for 19 years not once did a hear about dangers of going to the park during snow.

    • Anonymous

      Zugaati park, where OWS  is happening, is privately owned and not part of the city parks system, so it remained open.

      • http://www.google.com/ F_a_b_a

        Ah but if they need to enforce safety code like they did with generators wouldn’t the same apply to falling branches? Or do branches fall differently in private parks?

        • Anonymous

          You obviously have not bee to Zuggati – there’s magic there. Branches don’t fall. The beautiful people are protected by their aura. 

  • Cabbie

    The danger was (and still is) caused by the combined weight of the snow and leaves that are still on the trees. So YES, the warning to stay out of the parks is warranted.

    I was in Park Slope yesterday at 3 p.m. and big branches were already down and blocking streets all over the area.

    We had less snow in the Bay, probably because of our proximity to the water. 

  • Arlene

    My friend’s nephew is still suffering the horrendous effects of a tree branch falling on his head back in 2009. Close the damn parks, prune the trees. They are very old. It’s no joke. 

  • Andrew Kent

    I wonder if the warning applies to beaches as well, where there are no trees but which are also Parks Department property.  Many parks, like Prospect Park and Central Park, have more open spaces than wooded areas, and many of the city’s major thoroughfares that border parks, like Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue and Central Park West, are lined with trees, as are thousands of side-streets, so many pedestrians are still at risk despite the caveats.  Perhaps we should all own helmets.

    I do think this unusual measure was more to protect the City than to protect the public, but it was probably a good idea, especially if the anticipated weight of this particular snow, given the 100% relative humidity, coupled with the wind velocity, suggested that this snowfall may be more problematic with respect to rotting tree branches.

    • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

      They closed the park at 8:15PM. Radar examination showed a decreasing level of snow activity and overall a moderate and diminishing amount of precipitation. Wind levels never reached critical levels previous to the issuance, and were not expected to do so for a long period.

      I went out looking for snow covered trees and failed to find them. We got about as much snow as Central Park, according to NWS readings. About 2.5 inches.

      People in places where it really snows laugh at the media reports about how NYC was terrorized by “The Storm Of The Century” which crippled the city.

      • nolastname

        I have to go with the notion of the trees still not dropping leaves. I have some damage from bushes bending too far over. I saw 2 branches in the area broken off. If we were not close to the water it would have been worse.
        http://www.flickr.com/photos/34224145@N04/6296204237/in/photostream

        • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

          They based their expectations on numbers that were inflated, and at 8:15PM it was obvious that the snow was not going to reach projected levels and the wind was not going to be as severe.

          The most dangerous period was a few hours before the warning was given. Winds had picked up a bit and snow was moderately heavy.

          Granted, even short term projections can be wrong.

          I haven’t heard much about damage from the storm here yet. That doesn’t neccesarily mean there was absolutely none. After every  rain/snow/wind event there’s some damage, even relatively minor ones. Given the state of our trees this has to be expected.

    • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

      Of course they were worried about the beaches. The NWS had issued flood warnings for LI Sound and Jamaica Bay. This is not unusual when it rains. But this, being the storm to end all storms, made these warnings most imperative.

  • http://www.brucebrodinsky.com Bruce B

    Surprised Bloomberg didn’t call for another evacuation… my gosh, society has gotten soft…

  • EndofDaze

    I was at the Bay 8th Dyker Beach Park yesterday, after the media’s new storm of the century, pursuing my usual weekend outdoor hobby activity, and it was absloutely lovely! Except for some slushy ice around, you couldn’t have asked for a nicer autumnal day. Between the media’s exagggerations, and a belief in many aspects of our culture, people who at another time were inmates, are now running the asylum, I think we are becoming a city and nation of wusses! Teach your children well, and have a Happy Halloween! 

  • Cabbie

    Most of the people commenting on this article are the same geniuses that stand under trees to get out of the rain when there is lightening coming down during a thunderstorm.

  • J. P. Zenger

    The city has pulled a new twist is trying to spare itself from Law Suites. Since snow is a natural lure for parents to take their children to the park for sledding as well as snow man making, if they get hurt in the park, they can’t sue the city.

    What about football games, which are continued in the snow!

    Next they will announce that joggers can’t use the parks except during daylight hours because there is not enough light. You can add your own conditions that the city can use to prevent law suites.

    I believe Zuccotti Park (Occupy Wall Street) is private property. If not, the cops can remove demonstrators when snow falls.

  • Andrew Kent

    Here’s one for Audrey Silk to ponder:  If a smoker lights up in a park that has been officially closed, should the smoker be issued a summons for endangering the health of park users who aren’t supposed to be there, and would the trespassing park users be entitled to complain about the smoke that they aren’t supposed to be breathing?