NeverSleeps
NeverSleeps

"They don't care about Brooklyn, man."

This week was a rough one for many NYC residents - especially those of us stranded in the outer boroughs. My roommate's mom had to leave her car where it got stuck in the snow (in the middle of the road!) and she wasn't the only one. As one guy digging his car out of the road told the Times: "They don't care about Brooklyn, man."

I haven't ventured much from my neighborhood since the storm - but all of the snow has illuminated just how poorly insulated my apartment is! It's especially NOT warm at my place.

The snowstorm made for interesting photo journalism, however: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/12/31/nyregion/20101231wip-6.html

Does anyone have their own snowstorm tales of woe? Find any awesome pictures or stories that resulted from the 20 inches of snow piled on the city?
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
Since I am not in NYC I dont have any tales of woe but read enough reports about travelers being stuck at airports and in trains..that would have been pretty awful I think.
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
I don't know if I believe that no one cares about the outer boroughs; it seems like something else is going on here. Has anyone ever known another instance when the streets were promptly plowed? When I witnessed a blizzard hit DC last year and the city basically shut down, I thought, oh mean, this would never happen in my city! Shows what I know.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK apparently the sanitation workers used the blizzard as a protest against Bloomberg cutting off funds for the department. I have posted the links to the controversy on another thread.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK its not only snow even garbage was not picked up during the blizzard though apparently the sanitation crews have got to work across the city now.
http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/sanitation-crews-finally-tackle-trash-piles-1.2584676
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ajadedidealist
ajadedidealist 2yrs+
You guys think this is bad? After the insanity that happened in London after 5 inches (FIVE!) of snow, I'm grateful NYC is still functioning at all!
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@ajadedidealist London is just not equipped for the snow..
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
@uptowngirl I heard about that but it seems outlandish to me. Also not surprised that garbage was neglected; I think the sanitation crews were otherwise busy.

@everyone Came across this article detailing problems in Brooklyn due to the snow: http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?id=40382

I'm pretty sad that I missed out on the snow day in Prospect Park featuring free hot chocolate for all. But grateful that I won't be shoveling my car out of any four feet-high drifts.
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
Yeah, not a big shocker that they don't care about Brooklyn. They also don't care about Harlem. If you look at the history of power outages in the city, they happen more in Harlem and Brooklyn and the outer boroughs because the put all the good Manhattan juice first! It's all about property value, guys...
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish even though I live in Manhattan I know what you say is true.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
It seems like Brooklyn constantly gets the end of the stick. I wonder why.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@hhusted Is it because all the richie riches ( not me of course) live in Manhattan?
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish I'm going to go ahead and venture that they don't care about the Bronx, either.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@BroadwayBk and Staten Island as well...I think Queens gets some attention though...
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK Yup, I'd say that's a good venture.@uptowngirl I'm in no position to verify this, but popular wisdom has it that the mob all have family homes on Staten Island, so they might actually get taken care of pretty well over there.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Uptowngirl: If you look at the stats, you will notice the city pays more attention to the city because not only do rich people live there, but I'll bet there are other reasons as well.
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
@Urainumfish There are "mob neighborhoods" in BK, too - for all the good it did us.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK: What about gangs. I got attacked twice in the Bronx because of gangs.
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
@hhusted Nobody cares about the Bronx, yo.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish: Yeah, that is the problem with this city. Nobody cares about places where minorities and low income people live at.
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK Which ones are the mod neighborhoods in Brooklyn?
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish Legend has it there is still a mob presence in Dyker Heights. But why would the city cater to mobsters? It sounds like Staten Island got the worst of the blizzard: http://www.silive.com/northshore/index.ssf/2010/12/mayor_bloomberg_meets_staten_i.html
Which gave Andrew Lanza yet another reason to call for the island's succession: http://gothamist.com/2011/01/03/blizzard_gives_staten_islands_seces.php
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Everybody: How many times have you've been to Staten Island. I'm just taking a short survey here. I've been there twice in the last 10 years.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@hhusted I been to SI only once but if you didnt have any business there why would you go?
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ajadedidealist
ajadedidealist 2yrs+
I've been there once since I was little (when I was really young, I visited my babysitter, who lived there). I used the Staten Island ferry as a budget way of showing my English boyfriend the Statue of Liberty.
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
My first boyfriend had family who lived on SI and since he lived with them one summer, I was over there quite often. The area around the ferry is horrifyingly poor and awful, but up the hill there are some impressive mansions. It doesn't feel like SI is part of NY though. It's its own world.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish so true I don't really seem to pay any attention to S.I. its seems so far away.
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
I've only ever driven through SI on the expressway on my way to the NJ turnpike on the occasion that I'm headed south.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish: I agree with you when you said SI doesn't feel like a part of NY. It really doesn't have any direct connecting points. You have to take the Ferry to get there.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@hhusted The Verrrazano Bridge connects SI to Brooklyn though but youre right its a bit different from the rest of NYC..
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Uptowngirl: I wonder if that is why SI wanted to branch off and become independent.
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish So it looks as if the mob still maintains a big presence in BK, even if no one knew about it: http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=40837

http://brooklyn.about.com/b/2011/01/21/the-mob-as-in-mafia-is-still-in-brooklyn.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/nyregion/21mob.html?scp=1&sq=mafia%20arrests&st=cse

Ha..everyone around here is talking about this, crazy how we brought it up a few days earlier.
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK Oh I heard about this roundup! I guess I never envisioned a day when the mob would be decimated - somehow it is so much part of NYC lore that it's hard to imagine this place without "the family"! But good riddens!
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK And, by the way, how often can we say that there's actually some good news reported in the paper?
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ajadedidealist
ajadedidealist 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK - I'm a born and bred New York and I had no idea about this! My goodness - thanks for charing!
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
@ajadedidealist No prob. When it happened it was a surprise to everyone around here, too!

@Uraniumfish If this were a movie, these wise guys would just work on their sauce-making skills in the joint until they were given an early release to return to business. There is a huge mob presence in Florida too - so much so that I can't imagine the FBI ever taking them completely out.... it's like the war on drugs or something.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK Thanks for sharing, as Uraniumfish says the mob is so much of NYC lore and is always lurking in the shadows..speaking of the mob et al, I have always heard whispers of the triads in Chinatown but havent seen much news coverage.
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NeverSleeps
NeverSleeps 2yrs+
@everyone I just read this op-ed piece today, which offers an interesting perspective on why the mob is still around - and will remain so: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/opinion/23raab.html?ref=nyregion
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Everyone here's another article that highlights the fact that the outer boroughs have a lot to cope with while Manhattan receives special attention.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/29/nyregion/29snow.html?nl=nyregion&emc=ura1
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
@uptowngirl I had a feeling that the Bronx would be the forgotten borough when it came to snow fall; looks like I wasn't far off.

I loved this from the article: Everyone waits as New York digs itself out of a big snowstorm. Mr. Bloomberg had to wait, too.

“I had to wait a whole minute and a half before the train came that I took downtown,” the mayor said at a news conference at City Hall on Thursday. “And everybody on the train seemed in a good mood.”
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK The mayor's quote was just priceless!
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
I don't know about the rest of you, but having done research in the past on mobs, there is one thing that I found consistent - the mob seems to find a way to get out of a bad situation, even going to jail. I wonder if we will read in the paper, on the Internet, or see on the news that a certain leader of the mob got released pending trial over some kind of technicality or loop-hole in the legal system. Whether you know this or not, there are a few members of the justice system, and I repeat the word "few' who have been paid and are still being paid under the table by the mob, to do the mob's bidding.
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
@Uptowngirl There are definitely some places in Chinatown I've wandered into and felt distinctly that it was a front for something else. Like the one flower shop where these old-timers are always playing mah-jong at a huge table in the center. The flowers on sale are definitely secondary, and there are very few of them to begin with. Plus they all had dusty leaves, like they'd been sitting there for the last 20 years. One thing that place was not doing was selling flowers!
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JenMac
JenMac 2yrs+
@uraniumfish: there's a coffee and pastry shop in Williamsburg that I am convinced is a mob front. There are men in track suits hanging out there all day long playing chess. And, it doesn't seem like many other people do a lot of patronizing. Seems fishy.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish Wow! it sounds so mysterious and exciting. You always here whispers about the Chinese Triads - found an article about them but it seems a bit dated. Don't think the Chinese are still coming to the USA in search of the American Dream.
http://irs-agency.us/chinese_triads.htm
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
I think pastry shops/bakeries are the perfect front - you can sit one of those Styrofoam cakes in the window for decades and no one will be the wiser.
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
There are so many wild little "is this the mob?" moments in Chinatown. Things go on in my building - ah, don't get me started. I think it's good not to want to know too much in this neighborhood, though everybody who comes by for a visit gets a kick out of this scene.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish: Knowledge is a dangerous thing. The more you know, the more dangerous you become to those that don't want you to know. Remember the Untouchables?
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
@hhusted Ignorance is much scarier, I find.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK so true
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
I want to know, it's better to know, but maybe what's dangerous is asking too many questions.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish: When you become too nosy, then you do get too dangerous, at least based on the mob. They won't hesitate to rub you out if you know too much.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish exciting as it sounds it could be quite dangerous
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