Tomato Design Goes Green!

Hurricane Irene, continued

Leaving my loft at 23rd and 6th, I walked one block east to 5th Avenue. The Flatiron Building (or at least the phone store in it) had taken unusual precautions, given the odd-shaped windows they had to cover. A+ for wrapping excellence!

Next I walked south on Broadway to Union Square, where a large number of emergency vehicles was parked at the north end, opposite the New York Film School. They looked so useless sitting there, as the streets were dry and very few tree branches were down. I don’t think anyone in Manhattan even lost power.

Naturally, the above truck had “Emergency” written on it

Further along in the park there were a few downed branches; but not enough to justify closing the park.

I kept walking along 14th St., south of Union Square, and came upon a hardware store with this telling sign:

Just past the hardware store was a ConEd truck, parked and opinionated:

Okaaayyy. Well, moving right along: I continued on into the East Village and saw a tree trying to get out of its box in a schoolyard:

On the sidewalk in front of the tree was the perhaps the most discouraging comment on the heavy rainfall. It reminds me of Sisyphus or maybe the Sorcerer’s Apprentice:

You can’t fault them for trying.

At Tompkins Square Park (in the heart of the East Village) there was tree debris all over, but only a few branches and one tree down that I could see.

On my way back, I crossed town on 10th Street, which gave me this thought-provoking vista. You’d think she would have seen this coming!

At least the trees weren’t real . . .

That pretty much covers the “devastation” of Irene, as we experienced it in NYC. It was very cloudy, but the sun occasionally brightened the sky and it didn’t rain all day.

Arriving in the West Village, I saw these 2 houses by NYU, and photographed them for the hell of it:

I don’t know how you feel, but I find it’s utterly essential to ensure that your ride always matches your shutters.

Next door to it was this house, with an (old?) sign advertising “Private Boarding Stables”. As there was also a sign concerning an Active Driveway, I assumed that the horses had been retired to their celestial pasture some time ago. But maybe not . . .

And, after a ±4-mile trot, I arrived home soaking wet from the humidity.

Some weekend.

Hope yours was better!

Hurricane Irene, NYC — Saturday, 8/27/11

OK, we’ve got the message. The trains and buses shut down at noon. Everyone in low-lying areas has been, or is being, evacuated to shelters. The National Guard is prowling 23rd Street (along with thousands of cars and taxis, the only means of transport left). Even then, the streets are fairly deserted.

So I go to my grocery store (The Garden of Eden, of all things) to see if I can pick up a couple of items. This is what I see there:

The lines are longer than the store! So forget about last-minute shopping.

It’s a funny thing: New Yorkers (and New Jerseyans/-ites) respond to events in nature by hoarding food. True, they seem to be terrified of nature (one drop of rain and every NYC pedestrian is under a giant umbrella; and every NJ car comes to a standstill in bumper-to-bumper traffic, generating fender benders right and left). They are basically biodegradable people who are afraid of melting. It never fails.

I continue the mile or so in the drizzle (or is it just humidity?) to Pier 62 of Chelsea Piers.  Here I find an almost totally deserted playground, normally teeming with sports enthusiasts, cyclists, runners and people hell-bent on getting melanoma. Today, however, it’s just iron-gray water, iron-gray clouds, the odd photographer (like me), and emptiness everywhere one looks. Here is what I see:

This is looking northwest toward NJ, looking up the Hudson River.

One of my favorite things at this pier is the carousel, featuring animals from New York State: including a skunk, a crayfish (doubled over and facing backwards), an eel, a turkey (bolt upright and proud) — and even two white unicorns with purple butterflies (something I’ve never seen anywhere in NY state!) Today, however, all the animals are trapped in a cage:

All you can clearly see is one of the unicorns, apparently in distress.

Even the gardens, with their winding paths and tables, are devoid of life:

The Empire State Building (or the Entire State, as a friend’s son once called it) has a scarf of fog tossed carelessly around the base of its zeppelin spire:

Looking down toward Staten Island and The Narrows, one can barely make out the Verrazzano Bridge and the Statue of Liberty (at the left of the photo):

And not a boat or plane or helicopter in sight! The silence is eerie. Only the flowers are there to greet me, so I photograph them. After tomorrow, they will be demolished, I figure:

Was anyone actually preparing for this event named Irene? On the way home, I find my answer. The inscrutably named “Ha.Ha.Fresh” deli has boarded up its windows:

And a restaurant in the next block is taping up its windows, while being filmed in the process. (Many places had Scotch-taped their windows in a half-hearted and pointless way; but this guy is serious, albeit bemused by the camera):

Inspired, I immediately go home and take all the flower pots I had placed on top of the deli’s duct in front of my window, securing them below the duct.

Now the waiting begins. Stay tuned . . .