Sandy
At the six-month mark, superstorm Sandy dominates the news cycle
Superstorm Sandy got a second wind in the news cycle today as the coastal areas devastated by the storm continue to grapple with recovery efforts six months after the historic event. "We can't forget about so many people still hurting," said Joe Scarborough this morning, standing with his "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski on the boardwalk in Asbury Park, N.J. "Please remember, six months later, so many people still suffering after Sandy." More
Brooklyn label Norton Records, back from the brink after Sandy
Norton remains a primarily regional, and a primarily in-person label, and they rely on the annual WFMU Record Fair (normally held in November) for a huge portion of their annual sales. “I think we’ll get seven or eight albums ready, books, a lot of repressings. So we were ready to go in with the guns blazing.” Instead Sandy not only wiped out a good deal of the label’s stock but also ended up canceling this year’s Record Fair, a double blow to the label. Norton had lost 175,000 records right off the bat, including a brand-new series of Rolling Stones cover singles that were supposed to have been their Record Fair feature. The 25,000 more records that weren’t a total loss were going to require serious measures to make saleable. Norton Records faced an aficionado's nightmare on an apocalyptic level. More
Chelsea galleries emerge from Sandy devastation
“We shared and offered spare generators, gloves, masks, suits, headlamps etc during it all,” Wallspace's Nichole Caruso told me last week over email. “The camaraderie in Chelsea has always been incredible, to say the least, and during this time it was no different. Everyone banded together and helped one another where and however they could.” The gallery re-opened its show of Gaylen Gerber’s 20th-century minimalist art and African sculpture painted white and gray. A block and a half east on 10th Avenue, though, recovery seems farther down the road. Printed Matter reported having lost 9,000 books from its basement and $200,000 in damages. Nonprofit spaces the Kitchen and Eyebeam reported having lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment, and 80 percent of Eyebeam's 15-year digital archives were damaged by corrosive flood waters. More
A deputy mayor calls storm barriers 'financeable,' in a discussion on keeping the city above water next time
"I think the elephant in the room is really adaptation,” said Jacob, a specialist in disaster mitigation research. “It will cost much more money for decades to come to secure the livelihood and the welfare of this city." After all, he said, a large percentage of the population of New York resides in low-lying areas. Over the next few hundred years, he said, "it's a gradual Atlantis." Remnick asked whether the city is, in a word, doomed. "'Doomed' is not a productive word," Jacob said. "I'm for 'managed retreat.'" To wit, he lives in a village 30 miles north of New York City. More
(1)Brooklyn restaurateurs swap epic food-failure tales for Red Hook small-business relief
In addition to stories by Brooklyn chefs and restaurant owners, there were food vendors (among them Frites 'N' Meats, Dreamscoops, and Anarchy in a Jar); a raffle (prizes included a box of kombucha from Mombucha and a gift card for BrisketTown); and “speed networking” for food professionals, sponsored by Work It Brooklyn. The website Brooklyn Based co-sponsored the event. If it were possible to OD on the Brooklyn brand, this was the place to do it. More
A Knicks-Nets event that lives up to the hype, and a Katrina comparison that mostly doesn't
Each day, the New York tabloids vie to sell readers at the newsstands on outrageous headlines, dramatic photography, and, occasionally, great reporting. Who is today's winner?
A triage unit for storm-damaged artwork in the Brooklyn Navy Yard
When the lights and elevators turned back on, the company decided to devote 15,000-square-feet of the space for a set of conservation labs called Art Crisis Solutions. Dozens of distraught artists, gallerists, and collectors from around the city flocked to the space, carrying their waterlogged and potentially mold-infused art objects in tow. “We basically created a M.A.S.H. unit,” said Leslie Gat, the director of the Art Conservation Group, which is based out of a light-filled studio on the third floor with enviable views of Manhattan. “We’re putting all our efforts into stabilizing the effects of the flood.” More
D.J. Tommie Sunshine on childhood summers at the Shore and his big Sandy benefit plan
“My family has a house on the Jersey Shore in Manasquan,” he explained. “It's the beach where my parents met, when they were 12 and 14, and they've been together ever since. And though the benefit took a lot to arrange, Sunshine hopes it won’t be a standalone concert. “Basically, this is a bit of a litmus test. If we pack the place, which I am confident we're going to do, then we're looking to do it in more places and we're looking to do a bit of tour. We want to take it to the Stone Pony in Jersey. We want to do one on Long Island. We already found a place in Philly. We want to do one in D.C. It's all dependent on how this goes.” More
Louis C.K. and Chris Rock deliver laughs and raise funds for Staten Islanders
"When your guy [Borough President James P. Molinaro] said 'Fuck the Red Cross!’" he said. The sold-out audience marked its assent with raucous applause. "You hear him saying the Red Cross is dogshit, and then you see Chuck Schumer standing behind him, wanting to put his hand on his face, thinking 'I'm a Senator, I can't deal with this.' I love the people out here." More
(1)Steve Earle, Mary Karr, and many more writers and musicians gather to support struggling Red Hook
It was like that all night. The money was flowing, the bartenders were mixing, and the readings were often very funny. But it was also so undeniably sad. “It’s a scandal that they have to have a benefit like this for social services,” cartoonist Ben Katchor said, shaking his head. “The whole thing is nuts. The people in public housing down there, they don’t even get enough social services when the sun is shining.” Katchor would later read from a few of his comics with the help of a laptop and overhead projector. More
After Sandy, a Red Hook farm awaits a soil test that will reveal its fate, as a local restaurant lends a hand
Hurricane Sandy flooded the Added Value farm with two and a half feet of brackish water from the Erie Basin. The remaining fall harvest—which consisted of thousands of pounds of eggplants, kale, arugula, and other vegetables—was wiped out. Computers, tools, and equipment used by the Red Hook teenagers the farm employs were also damaged. Ian Marvy, who founded the farm in 2001, estimated the losses at around $40,000. To aid in the rebuilding effort, Palo Santo, a chic pan-Latin restaurant and wine bar squeezed between brownstones on Union Street in Park Slope, held a benefit for the farm on Sunday night. The 50 available seats quickly sold out. More
After Sandy, a great and complex city reveals traumas new and old
Now it's the aftermath—businesses without power, days without work, cars without fuel, homes without heat or light, shops without food, sick without medical care—that is taking its toll, and making new, often shocking, demands on the city and its citizens. More
(3)What's Miranda Kerr doing in the middle of a snowstorm? Oh, right.
Each day, the New York tabloids vie to sell readers at the newsstands on outrageous headlines, dramatic photography, and, occasionally, great reporting. Who is today's winner? More
Beloved indie radio station WFMU is back on the air, but running on fumes
WFMU took a $250,000 hit as a result of the storm—no small thing for an independent community radio facility overwhelmingly funded by listener support. It was another reminder that Sandy's impact will continue to be felt by the region's cultural institutions long after the last FEMA truck has left. More
Traumatized art owners gather at MoMA for advice on how to save their flood-damaged works
“Take a step back, breathe, and assess yourself,” said Kala Harinarayanan to a crowd of around 150 beleaguered art owners in MoMA’s Celeste Bartos Theater. Harinarayanan, the Director of Environmental Health and Safety at the American Museum of Natural History, was the first speaker at what was deemed a “Consortium on Recovery of Works of Art Damaged by Flooding.” “Once you enter a space,” she continued, “you may think you’re prepared, but your emotions can quickly take over.” More
