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Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced today an effort to provide Thanksgiving dinners to those impacted by Hurricane Sandy. 

As we continue to recover and rebuild from the devastating impact of Hurricane Sandy, our City will do everything we can to bring some of the comforts and traditions of Thanksgiving to families in our hardest hit communities,” said Bloomberg in a statement. “We are grateful for the many generous community and corporate partners for their commitment to helping our City get back on its feet during this holiday season.

 

Here is a list of places and times people can get meals this week:


NYC Food Distribution Sites

Through a partnership with the Red Cross and a contract the City entered into with Whitson’s Culinary Group earlier this month, prepared lunches and hot meals have been available in the hardest hit sections of Queens and Brooklyn. The expansion to providing on-site prepared foods, including hot dinners, consolidated the massive food distribution effort that had been in operation in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. To date, the City, working with FEMA, has distributed more than 2.7 million meals and close to 700,000 bottles of water to those impacted by Hurricane Sandy.

Over 17,500 Thanksgiving meals prepared by Whitson’s will be distributed at the following sites from 11 AM – 3 PM on Thursday:

Brooklyn
MCU Park (Coney Island) (Parking Lot): 1904 Surf Avenue (@ West 19th Street)
Fine Fare Supermarket (Coney Island) (Parking Lot): 2901 Mermaid Avenue (@W29th)
Searise Houses (Coney Island) (Courtyard): Neptune Avenue and 37th Streets

Queens (Rockaways):
Waldbaum’s (Parking Lot): 112-15 Beach Channel Drive (@ Beach 112 Street)
Thriftway Mall (Parking Lot): 20-52 Mott Street (btw. 20th & 21st Streets)
Key Food (Parking Lot): 87-15 Rockaway Beach Blvd. (btw. Beach 87th & 88th Streets)

Additional Holiday Dinners

The Mayor’s Office is working with community organizations in impacted areas to host Thanksgiving dinners, with support from the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City at the following locations:

Wednesday Dinners
Brooklyn – Miccio Community Center in Red Hook with a food donation from Fairway Market
Staten Island – The Vanderbilt at South Beach in partnership with Borough President James Molinaro and with support from the Stephen Siller Foundation and the Mannix Family of ShopRite
Staten Island – The Excelsior Grand in partnership with Borough President James Molinaro and with support from the Stephen Siller Foundation and the Mannix Family of ShopRite
Staten Island – The Grand Oaks Country Club in partnership with Borough President Molinaro and with support from the Stephen Siller Foundation and the Mannix Family of ShopRite

Thursday Dinners
Brooklyn – El Caribe in Mill Basin on Thursday evening in partnership with Councilman Dominic Recchia. Transportation will be provided from the MCU parking lot in Coney Island.
Brooklyn – Miccio Community Center in Red Hook with a food donation from Feeding NYC
Queens – Beach 41st Street Community Center with a food donation from Fairway Market
Queens – IS 53 in Far Rockaway in partnership with Councilman James Sanders
Queens – St. Francis de Sales Parish in Belle Harbor with support from the Stiller Foundation

The City is also providing assistance and support for additional Thanksgiving dinners at the following locations:

Wednesday Evening
Queens – Hammel Houses in Rockaway Beach

Thursday Evening
Queens – St. Francis de Sales Parish in Belle Harbor
Queens – St. Helen’s Church in Howard Beach
Queens – Ocean Bay Community Center in Far Rockaway
Queens – Redfern Community Center in Far Rockaway
Staten Island – New Dorp High School
Staten Island – Pepper Jack Grill for Evacuees at the Mt. Manresa shelter
Staten Island – Baily Seaton Hospital Shelter

Over 2,400 turkeys and over 3,000 Thanksgiving sides sponsored by the Mayor’s Fund, Gristedes and Fresh Direct, were distributed to elected officials and religious and community organizations including the Alive Ministries, the Beth Abraham Nursing Home, the Calvary Baptist Church, the Coney Island Gospel Assembly, Congregation White Shul, the Cooper Square Committee, the Hamilton Madison House, the Miccio Community Center, and the Visitation Rectory. In addition, through a partnership with the Department of Homeless Services and the Department of Housing, Preservation and Development, the Red Cross is providing targeted food assistance to families that evacuated through the City’s emergency shelter system and have been placed in hotels in every borough.

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Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sent a message to his supporters today asking them to get out and assist in hurricane relief efforts that are ongoing across New York City. 

XXX,

As New Yorkers, we have a lot to give thanks for this year - our communities have stood together to withstand the challenges unleashed in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Unfortunately, thousands of our neighbors are still suffering without power, and in many cases, without homes. Volunteers are still desperately needed.

If you are able to help with relief efforts for those in need on Staten Island, Long Island, in the Rockaways and other hard-hit communities, please click here for a list of volunteer resources. If you or someone you know is in need of help, you can also get information about food and water distribution centers, shelters, heat centers, and other storm related resources from the City of New York.

The recovery isn’t finished yet—for some communities it has hardly begun—but I know that with everybody pitching in, we can get all of our neighbors back on their feet. I hope you are able to share in the season's spirit of giving, service and compassion, and are extended the same kindness in return.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

Sincerely,

Eric Schneiderman
Attorney General

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A new report brings the problem of food insecurity back to the table, citing new record highs even before Hurricane Sandy.

The number of New Yorkers living in households without enough food has hit an all time high of 1.4 million, or one in six, according to the report released earlier today by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger.

In the Bronx alone, 533,825 people, or 40 percent of the borough's residents, struggle against hunger, the report said. One in five over the age of 60, and over half of all Bronx children live in food insecure homes. Meanwhile, 90 percent of food pantries and soup kitchens throughout the Bronx reported an increase in the number of people served before the storm. Advocates believe that number has likely risen since Sandy.

"The devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy has had a tremendous impact on New York residents, especially those who are low-income," said Annabel Palma, chair of the New York City Council's general welfare committee, in a statement. "While we as a city will continue to rebuild after the storm and volunteer to assist storm victims, it is important to remember those for whom food insecurity and hunger were issues long before the hurricane."

From 2009 to 2011, nearly 474,000, or one in four children in New York, did not get enough food, the report said. That number is up 31 percent from 2006 to 2008, when 363,000, or one in five children struggled.

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Representatives of Occupy Sandy say they are in desperate need of one resource this Thanksgiving in their effort to help residents of the hurricane-ravaged Rockaways recover: Volunteers.

"We just need bodies," says Kei Dowea, a volunteer who has been helping out with the recovery effort in the Queens community for about two weeks. "We have had such an incredible response it just needs to be maintained. I've seen a slight decline in turnout in the last few days and what we really need are people in vehicles or in groups."

Dowea says volunteers can head to Saint Jacobi Lutheran Church at 5406 4th Street in Brooklyn where Occupy Sandy has a supply station to pick up goods and bring them out to the Rockaways.

Don't have a vehicle? Dowea says that isn't a problem.

"We just got two semis that delivered supplies to the church, so people are welcome to buy things and bring them out, but what we need desperately are the things we already have to be brought out there," she says. "Just come up here and we can get them a ride out to Queens."

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Thousands of barrels of biological evidence in criminal cases were damaged by Sandy flood waters in Brooklyn warehouses. Each barrel can contain several pieces of evidence such as bloodstained clothes and bedding. Hundreds of cars and motorcycles held as evidence were also inundated. Thousands of bicycles were as well. It's unclear how many cases will be affected. It could depend on whether damage is done to exclusive evidence needed to prove a case. Often, evidence in storage facilities has already been processed.

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Many city hospitals are still struggling to recover from the storm, and may be for a while. Bellevue won't reopen its emergency room until at least December, Coney Island Hospital fully operational until January, and the reopening timetable for NYU Langone Medical Center nor the Veterans Affairs Hospital is still murky. The extended shutdowns are stretching the resources of other hospitals, which are running at near capacity. Over 3,000 patients in the city had to be moved to other facilities due to the storm.

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About 200 homes that are so damaged they endanger public safety and other buildings nearby will need to be bulldozed, the Buildings Department said on Sunday. That is in addition to that 200 houses already destroyed by the storm. They are also inspecting nearly 500 other damaged structures the could be razed as well. The department said that “only a very small number” of the buildings slated for demolition were at risk of being razed without notice. Officials offered “as much assistance as possible” to homeowners, including aid for demolition costs. The homes slated for removal are located in Breezy Point, Belle Harbor and Rockaway Beach in Queens; South Beach, Midland Beach and Fox Beach on Staten Island, and Gerritsen Beach in Brooklyn.

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo has made it clear he is angry at utility companies for their response to Hurricane Sandy. Thousands of people have been without power and heat for weeks and Cuomo has questioned whether the utilities were prepared for the storm despite fair warning. Now Cuomo has officially acted on his anger by issuing an executive order under the Moreland Act to form a commission to investigate all of the utilities that were charged with maintaining their infrastructure in the wake of Sandy.

Cuomo has repeatedly threatened the Legislature with the Moreland Act to get them to move on ethics legislation but he never used the authority in that case. Now Cuomo has chosen to invoke the power in the wake of Sandy. Utility companies are likely the only group more disliked by the Legislature, and the move is almost certain to boost Cuomo's already staggering approval ratings. 

Here is the make up of the commission that will hav ethe power to subpoena and examine witnesses under oath: 

Co-Chair Robert Abrams, former Attorney General of New York State
Co-Chair Benjamin Lawsky, Superintendent of the Department of Financial Services
Peter Bradford, former Chair of the Public Service Commission
Tony Collins, President of Clarkson University
John Dyson, former Chairman of the New York Power Authority
Rev. Floyd Flake, Senior Pastor of Greater Allen African Methodist Episcopal Cathedral
Mark Green, former New York City Public Advocate
Joanie Mahoney, Onondaga County Executive
Kathleen Rice, Nassau County District Attorney
Dan Tishman, Vice Chairman at AECOM Technology Corporation, and Chairman and CEO of Tishman Construction Corporation

And here is the Executive Order that Cuomo signed: 

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In many pockets throughout the city, the effects of Sandy are still being felt. It could be weeks before damaged hospitals reopen, but Mayor Bloomberg $500 million emergency plan for those hospitals and also public schools. Out of the city's 1,750 schools, 37 remain shuttered. Public housing residents who still have no power will receive a rent credit for their time without services, but not until January. Rockaway is still a demolition zone and mold is becoming a large concern. The city is launching "one-stop restoration centers" that will provide recovery services and disaster relief. The extra money Gov. Cuomo requested from the federal government is far from definite.

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Officials have been meeting with the real estate industry in an effort to pair vacant apartments with those displaced by storm damage.

Half of those still without power in the city, some 35,000 residents, live in public housing. Residents and public officials have panned the housing authority's response to the storm. The tenants will be eligible for rent credits for the days they've been without power.

The Long Island Power Authority told hundreds of powerless Rockaway residents they would need to hire a licensed city electrician to inspect their homes before LIPA could restore power. Con Ed said Wednesday's nor’easter knocked out power to 55,000 customers in New York City and Westchester. And LIPA blamed 60,000 new outages on the storm.

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Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the city would begin rationing gas for the first time since the 1970s, in response to fuel shortages caused by Hurricane Sandy. Drivers with cars with license plates ending in odd numbers or that end in a letter or other character will be able to fill up on odd-numbered days. Cars with plates ending in even numbers get their turn on even-numbered days. The odd-even rationing system begins today, Nov. 9, with odd-numbered plates. "Drivers are still facing long lines. Frustrations are only growing," Bloomberg said at a news conference at City Hall yesterday.

More stories:

Sandy Troubles Won't Stop Con Ed From Seeking Rate Hike (Associated Press)

Gov Says Sandy Could Cost NY $33 Billion (Associated Press)

Coney Island Group Launches With Focus On Sandy Cleanup (NY Post)

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Councilman Eric Ulrich announced via Twitter this morning that he has conceded to Sen. Joe Addabbo in the race for the 15th Senate District in Queens. 

“This morning I called Joe Addabbo to congratulate him on a decisive victory & pledged to work w/him to unite our community," he tweeted. He followed that tweet up saying, "This was a hard-fought campaign and while I truly appreciate the strong support I received on election day, its time to get back to work." 

This was a bitter contest between two men who went to the same school, attended the same church and are beloved and respected figures in their neighborhood. Hurricane Sandy ravaged the district and saw both men drop their campaigns to focus on the recovery. But Ulrich's camp complained that the response to damaged polling places was detrimental to their campaign. Ulrich is still seen as a bright star for the Republican Party and holds his seat on the Council. 

Meanwhile, it seems that Senate Democrats have defended their turf and can only add seats depending on the outcomes of the races in the 41st and 46th districts. Senate Dems still have to contend with the Independent Democratic Conference if they want to hold a majority but even if they don't take control, as Nick Reisman of State of Politics pointed out this morning, the enrollment numbers favor them so strongly that it seems to be only a matter of time before they take control for good. 

Senate Democrats became increasingly confident of pickups in the days leading up to the election. It looks like their confidence was justified. 

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The city’s Board of Elections moved 66 polling sites, many to supersites that consolidate multiple poll sites into one location. Shuttle buses running every 15 minutes will ferry voters to and from polling places in three areas hit particularly hard by the storm. The MTA is also providing voter shuttles. for people in the Rockaways, Staten Island and Coney Island whose polling places were damaged in the storm. Voters in the city can cast affidavit ballots at any polling site, but if they vote in a different district than where they're registered, the can't vote for legislative races other than the U.S. Senate. The GOP has accused the board of playing politics with relocating polling places in Queens, saying it will make it harder for Republican Eric Ulrich to get his supporters to the polls.

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Between 20,000 and 40,000 were left homeless in the city by Sandy. About half of those are public-housing residents. The 115,000 people in the Rockaways remain without power, as do thousands more in Red Hook and Gerritsen Beach in Brooklyn, and New Dorp Beach on Staten Island. A cold snap is making this particularly problematic. Also, a nor’easter with 35-45mph sustained winds is likely to hit on Wednesday night, possibly bringing moderate flooding in areas already impacted by extreme flooding from Sandy.

Although the majority of the subway system is reopened, rail switch and signal failures will continue. It could also take several months to restore the A train to the Rockaways.

Fifty-nine polling places will be affected, and Mayor Bloomberg expresses little confidence the Board of Elections will manage it very well. The board still hasn't appointed an executive director and their Manhattan headquarters had no power all week. Those who can't get to their polling places may to go to the Board of Election's borough offices and vote until 5 p.m. today.

The city had been inundated with people dropping off goods, so officials and other groups are suggesting they give money, and possibly coats, instead. Dozens of buildings near the water’s edge, especially in the financial district, are weeks or months away from reopening. The fuel shortage could last for several more days. Currently 27 percent of gas stations in the area are empty. Major crime dropped significantly in the storm's wake, but burglaries saw a 3 percent increase. Generators, heaters, and other supplies for the canceled marathon remained unused in Central Park. More than 100 New York City public schools will remain closed today.

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Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced that the New York City Marathon is cancelled The move follows mounting backlash to holding the Marathon while recovery efforts from Hurricane Sandy are still underway. Here is his statement:

The Marathon has been an integral part of New York City’s life for 40 years and is an event tens of thousands of New Yorkers participate in and millions more watch. While holding the race would not require diverting resources from the recovery effort, it is clear that it has become the source of controversy and division. The marathon has always brought our city together and inspired us with stories of courage and determination. We would not want a cloud to hang over the race or its participants, and so we have decided to cancel it. We cannot allow a controversy over an athletic event – even one as meaningful as this – to distract attention away from all the critically important work that is being done to recover from the storm and get our city back on track. The New York Road Runners will have additional information in the days ahead for participants.”

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Gas Shortages As Recovery Continues

The slow, heart-wrenching reveal of Hurricane Sandy's devastating impact on the city continued yesterday.

So far, there were 40 confirmed deaths in the city related to Sandy, according to The New York Times. The bodies of two young boys, who had been swept from their mother's arms during flooding on Staten Island, were among those found yesterday.

A half-million residents were still without power in their homes, though city officials were saying that electricity likely would be restored in lower Manhattan by Saturday.

And residents relying on gas-powered generators found no relief at the pumps, where fuel was running short at stations and long lines left many frustrated. Gas stations also reported their own power problems.

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Today's Lead Stories...

Partial Transit Restored, Free Rides


Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a traffic emergency for today and Friday making mass transit free for those using the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's busses and trains. "The service in many cases is limited, the service in many cases will be crowded," Cuomo said at a late night press conference in the city. The move came afterimmense gridlock Wednesday. City busses were jammed with commuters and gas lines stretched for over half a mile. Commuters who wish to drive into the city will have to car pool. The entire transportation infrastructure has yet to be restored with flooding still impeding some routes but partial service has been restored. Check out the MTA's post-storm stubway map




In the Press...

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This is a map of the post-storm subway service, released by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority:

Service is estimated to resume at 6 a.m. tomorrow.

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Editor's Note: This post has been updated with statements from the city's Board of Elections.

"Election day will be on Tuesday, that is not going to change," John Conklin, spokesman for the New York State Board of Election, said earlier today.

He said county boards across the state are currently assessing the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy to polling places and trying to determine what alternate arrangements need to be made to make sure everyone who wants to vote can.

"The local boards impacted by the storm are assessing damage to the polling places right now," Conklin said. "We have been in meetings with the governor's office and local boards to work on these assessments. We have to see if power still remains at the polling site, if they remain accessible to the public, the board and the machines. We also need to make sure the sites are safe. Once that is done, we will check on alternate polling sites and make sure they have tents, generators and whatever else they need."

Conklin said he hopes that all polling sites will have power, but he admitted, "Some might not." In that case, paper ballots will be made available for voters. The ballots will be put in a lock box and then scanned at county BOE headquarters.

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Here is an update from Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Metropolitan Transportation Authority restorations that will start tomorrow morning: 

 

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced when limited subway, Metro North, and LIRR service will resume.

The following is an up-to-date service status list of the MTA operating agencies including New York City Transit, Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North and Bridges and Tunnels.

NYCT SUBWAY SERVICE:
EFFECTIVE TOMORROW MORNING PRIOR TO RUSH HOUR

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