These scene, at East 23rd between Avenue W and Avenue V, is repeated on many local streets. Four days after the weekend storm toppled scores of trees in our area, many roads remain blocked. What streets do you know of that remain blocked?
Archive for the 'News & Features' Category
Courtesy of Daily News
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has signed a five-year lease on 3157 Coney Island Avenue, after a fierce battle with the landlord to keep the Brighton Beach Post Office branch open.
The agreement caps an almost year long fight in which the new landlord attempted to jack up rent in excess of 30 percent of market value. According to the Brooklyn Eagle, Congressmen Jerrold Nadler and Anthony Weiner, and City Councilman Michael Nelson, joined the fight when their Brighton Beach constituents expressed outrage that the neighborhood’s only local office would close.
“Losing such an important neighborhood asset would have been unacceptable, as this is the only post office in Brighton Beach,” Weiner told Brooklyn Eagle. “The outspoken members of this community rallied to prevent this closure, and they deserve a great deal of credit for helping to avert what surely would have been a severe blow to those who live and do business in Brighton Beach.”
Garbage overflows regularly at public trash cans. (Photo by Ray Johnson, two weeks before the storm.)
The storm has caused so much destruction, sending boats, trees and their limbs, signs, and houses crashing to the ground. But it’s not just the trees that got whipped in the wind. Garbage like this gets blown onto the streets by the strong winds, just as well.
Sheepshead Bay, we have a major cleanup to do. Let’s hurry and clean up our act before our streets become one big trash heap.
177 MacKenzie after it was fully demolished Monday afternoon (Photo by Ray Johnson)
Leland Bodenmiller, his wife, and their three children are breathing much easier, as the Department of Buildings granted a quick 20-minute reprieve to enter their condemned home and retrieve personal possessions.
The demolition of 177 MacKenzie Street took enough stress off the Bodenmiller’s home that, with the addition of braces, building inspectors gave the green light to a quick in-and-out rescue operation.
“It was a great effort to get things out of the house and onto the lawn in 15 or 20 minutes,” said Leland. “We had to run and grab .. Whatever we have used recently, we grabbed.”
Bodenmiller said the family was able to snatch clothing, computers, photos, his wife’s wedding dress, some smaller furniture, and their son’s engineering books – among other things.
The 20 minutes “really opened it up. Precious things that were personal to us [were recovered],” he said. “We weren’t able to get some things, but we’re happy about what we got.”
Some valuables left behind include televisions, china and crystals from their wedding 35 years ago, a telescope, organ, and larger furniture.
But the Bodenmillers may have another chance. The DOB has given the landlord a one-week deadline to demolish the property since it’s no longer in immediate danger of collapsing, though it’s still condemned. Bodenmiller is hopeful the DOB may give them one more opportunity to get into the house.
“It’s like the weather,” Bodenmiller said. “Yesterday it was rainy and dreary and we couldn’t get in the house. Now it’s sunny and beautiful and we’re very happy we go to go inside.”
177 MacKenzie Street in Manhattan Beach Get Demolished
On Monday, March 15, Jacqulyn Bodenmiller should have been relaxing in advance of her marriage to Bittman Rivas in two weeks. Instead, she stood in the rain outside of her family’s home on MacKenzie Street. The family of five, and Rivas, watched helplessly as their home of 27 years was fenced up and prepped for demolition.
Almost all of their possessions were still locked inside the house, destined to be crushed by a huge mechanical claw.
On top of their home sprawled a three-story wooden frame, once a neighboring stalled construction site at 177 MacKenzie Street. During Saturday’s storm, the building slammed into the Bodenmiller’s home with a thunderous boom and shoved their house off its own foundation. Over the course of the next two days, the FDNY and the DOB inspected the home, declared it in “emergency condition” and an immediate threat. The family’s home could collapse under the weight at any time, according to city officials, and so they began demolishing both 177 MacKenzie Street and the Bodenmiller’s home at 181 MacKenzie Street.
The Bodenmillers are tenants without renters insurance. The American Red Cross put them up in a Sunset Park hotel for the time being, and they’re moving fast to secure an apartment in the area. But all their clothes and other possessions are trapped inside the house, except a few choice items Jacqulyn’s mother, Irine, was able to grab in a brief opportunity.
“It was the saddest part,” said Rivas. “Her mother had the opportunity and she grabbed the veil, wedding rings, and other wedding jewelry. She didn’t grab a thing of her own, just things for the wedding.”
Read more about the structure’s history, who’s to blame, and for photos of the demolition
As we all know by now, damage was widespread. For the most part, downed trees took out power lines, blocked off roads, crushed cars and shattered concrete like egg shells. In some areas trees fell into houses. Aluminum siding and roofing was stripped from some homes, as were signs from businesses. Boats slammed into the Ocean Avenue footbridge, splintering wooden guardrails.
In the worst damage I’ve seen from the storm yet, a stalled construction on MacKenzie Street in Manhattan Beach collapsed onto a neighbor’s home, knocking it off its foundation and causing the family to lose nearly everything (more on that later).
Ironically, Plumb Beach didn’t seem too badly damaged (more on that later, too).
These 111 photos come from Sheepshead Bites’ great readers, who went about chronicling the damage and sent us their photos. It’s only a selection of what we received. To see more photos – many with captions from the photographer – connect with us on Facebook and browse the photos tagged “Sheepshead Bites.”
Thanks to all of those who sent these in.
A lot of people have been asking for updates from yesterday’s attempted robbery of Sovereign Bank. From Vos Iz Neias:
Reports from the scene confirm that there are two hole in the roof with a ladder going down into the bank. The crooks crawled through a heating vent but were unable to gain access to the vault and fled empty-handed.
And yes, we ripped off their headline, too. Just one question: why is the Jewish press covering this better than anyone else (including us), and why do both Jewish press sources put the location in Flatbush?
Regardless, we’re not criticizing. They whipped our butts on this one fair and square. Here’s a link to a Yeshiva World News photo gallery that even shows the holes on the roof. Kudos to my khaveyrim.
Tree uprooted. (Photo by Ray Johnson)
The high winds during yesterday’s storm on Saturday, March 13, 2010 has uprooted this tree on East 19th Street, between Avenue Y and Avenue X. Park officials were on the scene assessing the situation.
Passersby were checking out the situation, apparently glad that the tree didn’t fall onto their house!
Yesterday’s storm did more than just knock trees down and rip signs up, it totally submerged the Belt Parkway. New York City shut down the highway near Bay 8th Street because of truly epic flooding you see in this video. Thanks to David Z. for sending this over.
We just received these photos of a small sailboat slamming into the Ocean Avenue footbridge, near the Manhattan Beach side. We’re not sure yet what happened or if there’s any damage. But from the looks of it, the boat somehow became unanchored and drifted with the storm’s choppy waves, eventually hitting the bridge. Please leave any info you have in the comments. We’ll update you as we find out more. (Photos and tips courtesy of nolastname)
UPDATE (6:55 p.m.): I’ve been out of the ‘hood all day, and now I’m getting reports that the wind and rain are incredibly bad and doing a lot of damage. Reportedly, the marina is overflowing and water is splashing onto the sidewalks and the bridge. Gusts are also taking down signs in the area.
Perhaps most importantly, the wind has taken out power, phone, and cable lines in a few spots. Please be careful and stay inside! It goes without saying, but downed power lines can be very dangerous.
Please take photos/video of damage and send it over to us. More importantly, be safe!
