When I passed by Corbin Place last week, I found a major project underway with the entire center of the street torn up. From Brighton Beach Avenue to Brighton 15th Street, a 10-foot-deep-or-so gash snakes through the asphalt. At its bottom are pipes.
But on that Thursday afternoon, not a single worker was in sight. Nor a van or truck with identification claiming jurisdiction over the project. I called Community Board 15 to try and learn more. But though the board is routinely notified when utility projects kick-off in the area, Corbin Place is the dividing line between us and Community Board 13. The board wasn’t notified, and they could only guess that it might be a sewage project.
Days later, I ran into a National Grid employee on another work site. I asked him if he knew. He looked confused, shrugged, then said, “Yeah, I think it’s gas. There’s a big gas thing going on around Corbin.” He didn’t sound so sure either. More like he just wanted me to go away (and who can blame him?).
So… has anyone seen a labeled van or a work crew at this site?
Is this undercurb water leak a symptom of something bigger?
On Wednesday, April 19, 2010 this hydrant was observed in use at the side entrance of P.S. 254 on East 19 Street. There was nothing apparently out of the ordinary about its use, except that there was a pool of brown water collecting at the curb.
Upon closer inspection, it could be seen that there were three or more little fountains of water spewing out from the seam where the curb meets the sidewalk. (The picture doesn’t show the little fountains, but if you look closely you might see one of them towards the left of the picture.) That definitely seemed out of the ordinary, because usually water flows from the hydrant to the hose attached to it.
Is water supposed to be spurting out from the curb or is this a sign of a major leak to come?
Let’s hear from all of you water conservationists and hydrant specialists.
Early morning reports from the Daily News and the New York Post tell us that a car went into Sheepshead Bay. There were three people in the car and all three were rescued by fisherman, Keith Gorman, who was nearby.
Alla Yelizarov was taking her two daughters to a family birthday party and had just parked her car in an angled parking spot on Emmons Avenue near Dooley Street. For reasons unknown at this time, the car went racing through the barrier and ended up at the bottom of the bay. When, Keith Gorman, who was working on the dock saw what had happened, he immediately jumped in the water to save the family.
This summer heat can take its toll on a cart. Even under the shade of the greenway trees, the heat coupled with the exhaust from the excessive Ocean Parkway traffic is enough to melt my plastic.
It’s not easy rolling around with all this water. What do these people think I am? A camel? Shoot, I’m not even a Hippo Water Roller. At least that thing makes carrying water “meta” efficient. I hate to admit it, but this has got to be the most inefficient way of getting water out to the thirsty.
Used to be that I would come in stacked high with bottles and by the end of the day, I could get some relief on the roll home when all the bottles were gone. But, my job out here doesn’t seem to be worth the effort now that the recession is causing dwindling sales of bottled water.
I don’t want to be dragged out of the cool garage where I could be resting all day. So, they whet my appetite for public service by telling me that I’m helping parched people stay hydrated — until I realized that this ain’t the middle of the desert!
At first, they christened me as the “Ocean Parkway Water Carrier” and smashed a bottle of Perrier on my front side. That made me feel all important thinking I was some huge ocean carrier with some precious cargo on board. But, then I heard some smart aleck pedestrian reciting the official definition of water carrier and I realized that I was neither a person, a ship, or even a pipe or duct for conveying water. No, I wasn’t a ship at all. I’m a shopping cart filled with unwanted plastic bottles.
Now that the TapIt Water project is getting everyone on the band wagon of filling their own bottles with tap water, who needs me? Even the bicyclists riding down the greenway bring their own bottles. I would have been better off carting produce in an air conditioned megastore.
Really, I don’t think I can last the whole summer like this. If you’re driving down Ocean Parkway and I come rolling into your vehicle, don’t be surprised. Just let’s just hope your insurance covers collisions with suicidal water carriers.
Even though I was born and raised a stone’s throw away from the Bay’s water, I was never a boat person. I never sailed, never went on ocean fishing trips and certainly wasn’t a dinner cruise kind of guy. If I was in the water, it was either a pool or a bathtub. But lately I’ve been trying to change that, and so when I saw a Craigslist posting from the Miramar Yacht Club (link doesn’t work in Firefox) advertising a one-day “Learn to Sail” class, I saw it as an awesome and affordable opportunity.
The class fee is $25 per person and covers class materials, refreshments and a free sail on the water. It takes place Friday, June 6th, at 8:00 p.m. at the clubhouse at 3050 Emmons Avenue, between Lake Avenue and Haring Street.
The class will cover:
Sailing nomenclature, parts of a sail, apparent wind, Bernoulli Principle, points of sail, luffing, sail trim, slowing and stopping a sailboat, sailing after stopping, tacking, jibing, general rules of the road, red-right-return, anchoring, docking and a few knots.
Just a note: the free sail does not take place the night of the class. Mine is scheduled for June 21st, but I’m not sure if that’s just me or everyone from the class.
For more info, call (718) 769-3548 or email sail@miramaryc.com.
