NADLER, CUOMO ATTACK DELAY IN SANDY AID
The House of Representatives’ failure to vote on a $60 billion Hurricane Sandy disaster aid bill last week prompted a number of angry responses by local elected officials representing the storm-ravaged city.

“This is a betrayal of the millions of Americans who are struggling after Sandy and a trivialization of the loss of more than 100 American lives,” said Congressman Jerrold Nadler. “Not taking up the $60 billion Sandy funding bill will mean that many Americans could remain homeless, the rebuilding of homes and businesses across the Northeast will be delayed, and the coastal infrastructure of the region will remain damaged and vulnerable to the next storm.”

He noted that agencies including the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could not proceed with major repairs until funding is secured.

Local governors were similarly incensed. “This failure to come to the aid of Americans following a severe and devastating natural disaster is unprecedented,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a joint statement with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. “The fact that days continue to go by while people suffer, families are out of their homes, and men and women remain jobless and struggling during these harsh winter months is a dereliction of duty.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg expressed more patience about the delay. “You know, democracy is something that takes a while to come together and to get the results,” he said. “As long as it turns out that we get the monies that we think are appropriate for the federal government to send to a part of the country that’s had a major natural disaster, all’s well that ends well.”

The House cast a preliminary vote to direct funds to the National Flood Insurance Program on Friday, and has scheduled to vote on the remaining aid on Jan. 15, the first day of legislative business from the new 113th Congress.

FIRE FATALITIES DROP TO LOWEST NUMBER EVER
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano announced last week that 2012 saw the fewest civilian fire deaths in New York City history. Fifty-eight people died in blazes, four fewer than the former record low of 62 deaths in 2010, and a 12 percent decline from the 66 deaths in 2011. It was the seventh consecutive year that fire-related deaths have numbered under 100, which has occurred only 12 times since the city began keeping records in 1916.

The top two causes of fire-related deaths last year were accidental electrical fires and smoking. Forty-three percent of those killed in a blaze were over the age of 70, and 79 percent of the fatal fires struck where there were no working smoke detectors.

Bloomberg and Cassano also announced that FDNY’s Emergency Medical Service set a new record last year for fastest average ambulance response time: The new record, 6:30, is down one second from 2011’s previous record.

“With a record low number of murders and shootings and the fewest fire deaths in our city’s history, 2012 was a historic year for public safety,” Bloomberg said. “The FDNY has consistently improved fire safety over the past decade and has continued to drive response times to historic lows. These achievements and the efforts by our firefighters, EMTs and paramedics to save lives—while putting theirs on the line—is the reason fewer New Yorkers died as a result of fire in 2012 than ever before.”

POLITICAL MEMORABILIA SHOW TO HOST ED POTTER AWARD
The American Political Items Collectors’ Big Apple Ed Potter Chapter is sponsoring its 25th annual Political Collectors Show on Sunday, Feb. 3. The show will run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Sixth Street Community Synagogue, 325 E. Sixth St., and will feature over 10,000 political items for sale, including buttons, posters, mugs, bandannas, watches and clothing that cover the presidencies of George Washington to Barack Obama, as well as a special exhibition of political memorabilia from the 2012 election.

The show will also include the presentation of the fourth annual Ed Potter Memorial Awards, named after the political memorabilia collector, which are given to those involved in the political process who have used political items and artifacts in their campaigns. This year’s recipients are New York State Assemblyman and City Councilman Adam Clayton Powell and Manhattan Media’s own CEO and mayoral hopeful Tom Allon.

Admission is $3 for adults and free for children under 16. For more information, call 212-764-6330.

Clown Dies During Thanksgiving Day Parade
Robert Blasetti, 67, of Yonkers was following the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade route when he collapsed from a heart attack at Sixth Avenue and West 39th Street. Blasetti was dressed as a clown and was making balloon animals along with his wife, Irene. According to a witness, people in the crowds tried to pump Blasetti’s chest. He was pronounced dead at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital. An NYPD employee, 58-year-old Charles Sutton, also suffered a heart attack and died during the parade.

East Village Vegan Ice Cream Store Says Goodbye
Vegan-friendly ice cream store Stogo scooped its last flavor on Sunday. Stogo shut down its East Village shop, located on East 10th Street between Second and Third Avenue, after a year of high rent. The store shared the news with costumers via Twitter. Anticipation of the decrease in winter sales forced owners to consider closing. Hurricane Sandy sped up the decision, a source told DNAinfo. “We were going to try to fundraise to move, but then Sandy happened and I didn’t want to ask people to help move our shop when people were homeless and had lost everything,” the source said. Stogo partners, who have been working together for four years, have not decided if the shop will open elsewhere at a later time or sell its product through outside vendors.

NYC Hospitals Launch Virtual Doctor Visits
Those sick with the flu have a small reason to rejoice. Earlier this month, Continuum Health Partners and its member hospitals launched a new program that would make primary and urgent care more accessible. The initiative, designed with the help of Teladoc, the country’s largest telehealth provider, will offer physician assistance by phone or video. No more dragging yourself out of bed hacking and spewing to get that antibiotic! The telemedicine initiative is focused on New York City, but will later extend to neighboring regions. Patients can subscribe for a $30 annual membership and a $38 consultation fee for each use. Continuum intends the program to primarily be utilized when a member is unable to visit their doctor, not as a permanent substitution for office visits.

Touch Screens Replace NYC Phone Booths
City24/7 has a mission to make New York City more tech-savvy, starting in Union Square. The company premiered its first touch-screen kiosk at 12th Street and Broadway last Tuesday. Located in a phone booth, the kiosks are meant to replace the defunct stands. The kiosks feature screens provided by electronics manufacturer LG and 16 apps, including subway information, local events and maps of the neighborhood. The screens are free for users, although the company hopes that local businesses will pay to advertise on the kiosks. City24/7 worked with Victor Calise, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People With Disabilities, to ensure that the kiosks were accessible to the blind and wheelchair users. Anticipating future power outages, the screens have a 48-hour backup battery.
Compiled By Tatiana Baez

Photo by David Shankbone, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

A fire beneath a subway tunnel just north of DeKalb Avenue station caused line delays and closures Tuesday evening.

The two-alarm blaze began around 3 p.m., and was caused by a shorted cable beneath a manhole, according to FDNY. Authorities removed power from the station as firefighters arrived on the scene to extinguish the flames.

“The firefighters were battling a blaze that was so deep in the tunnel, they could barely see,” said ABC’s Traffic Center. “It was so hot, so smoky down there, that some firefighters were overcome by it, needed oxygen when they got out, and all of them needed to cool off after a fire ripped through the afternoon rush hour.”

DeKalb is a Brooklyn transportation hub, so the B, D, F, N, Q and R lines were all affected: M.T.A. paused all B, D, N, Q and R service between Manhattan and Brooklyn, and redirected the F line.

FDNY declared the fire under control at 6:17 p.m., though service irregularities lasted into the night. Everything was back to normal this morning.

According to an M.T.A. spokesperson, no injuries or trapped straphangers were reported.

Photo by Joscarfas, courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons.

Don’t panic!

The fire that reportedly broke out on 1 World Trade Center’s 88th floor this morning was just welding, FDNY officials said.

84 firefighters rushed to the ground zero construction site at about 7:45 a.m. Steve Coleman, a spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, told the Associated Press that the fire report was called in by a member of the public.

The crew investigated the tower and found no fire. Flames from welding equipment that were visible to passersby 88 floors below caused the false alarm, FDNY Battalion Chief Kevin Brennan told CBS. The equipment was turned off, and the flames disappeared.

Construction began on the 104-story skyscraper — the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere — in 2006, and it is expected to be completed in 2014. Check out what the final product will look like here.

Flood and her mother Anette had just parked her car in front of the house five minutes ago. Now, it was teetering on the edge of a 20-foot-deep by 20-foot-wide sinkhole that had opened up while she was inside.

Photo of the Bay Ridge Sinkhole by Twitter user @gazawia

“We’re so blessed,” she told CBS News. “If we were five minutes later or anything, we could have been in the hole.”

FDNY and members of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) arrived at the scene — 79th Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenues — and were able to rescue the car. No injuries were reported, though some family’s cars were stuck in their driveways.

According to the DEP, the hole was caused by the collapse of a 50-inch, century-old sewer pipe.  It remains unclear, however, exactly why the hole opened up.

DEP spokesperson Jim Roberts says repairs will last at least through the weekend. “It’s a reasonably deep excavation, so we have to be cautious about how we go about it so it’s safely done,”  he told CBS.

Some residents are skeptical about the quality of work that is going into the city’s street construction in the first place. Christine Hansen said to CBS, “The work is shabby. They’re not doing the work right. It’s not being filled in properly.”

Whether or not Hansen is correct, this certainly isn’t the first sinkhole the city has seen. In fact, one appeared last month just 15 blocks away.

One struck 106th Street in Manhattan a year ago when a water main broke and flooded several subway stations.

A reoccurring one also stopped traffic in Midtown last year.

One hit Bedford Park in 2010.

One even swallowed an SUV in Brooklyn back in 2006.

The list goes on, sadly. Know of more? Share your New York City sinkhole story below!

In August 2007, a fire in the Financial District’s vacant Deutsche Bank building claimed the lives of two New York firefighters. The tragedy prompted State Senator Daniel Squadron and Assemblyman Richard Gottfried to create a joint New York City-New York State Task Force on Building and Fire Safety. The Task Force just released its full report this week, and the results have Squadron calling for immediate action.

The report warns that firefighters may be at risk when fighting fires in the city’s hundreds of state-owned buildings. Discrepancies in fire codes between state- and privately-owned buildings exempt the former from fire safety standards, such as  proper building equipment (such as standpipes and hosethread connections) and hazardous material reporting.

Brooklyn College, City College, Hunter College, the Jacob Javits Convention Center and Downstate Medical Center are among the many schools, state office buildings and state building-leasing restaurants and salons included in this loophole.

Squadron urged state and city agencies to close these safety code holes immediately by creating consistent standards.

“Simply put, these major gaps in fire code put our first responders and the public at greater risk,” he said in a statement. ” The task force’s recommendations will go a long way toward closing these holes and improving safety — but they must be implemented now.”

Local Rob Tucker took this photo of emergency vehicles arriving on the scene.

Two people were hospitalized Tuesday morning after a car plummeted down the elevator shaft of an Upper East Side parking garage.

A parking attendant at the East 76th Street and 1st Avenue garage reportedly drove the vehicle into the car elevator on the building’s fifth floor, but the elevator was not there, CBS reported. He and the car plunged down five stories before hitting the ground.

At around 9:45 a.m., the fire department arrived on the scene at 355 East 76th Street, which houses a Hertz Rent-a-Car business, according to NY1. Firefighters rescued the driver, who was trapped inside the vehicle, as well as an individual who was in the elevator on the ground floor at the time of the accident.

Neighbors reported that there were at least 10 emergency vehicles on the scene, in addition to a helicopter hovering over the building. Fire and police officials closed off the sidewalk to passersby on both sides of the street.

The rescued driver and another victim were transported to New York Presbyterian-Cornell Hospital to be treated for what are believed to be non-life-threatening injuries.

NYC Department of Buildings records show that the garage faced a code violation in May 2009 for non-compliance related to maintaining elevator service equipment. The complaint was later resolved.

The fallen vehicle landed upside down on the ground level. (Photo Courtesy of @FDNY)

The car extracted from the elevator was completely crushed. (Photo Courtesy of @FDNY)

FDNY officials carefully removed the car from the elevator. (Photo Courtesy of @FDNY)

Firefighters extracted an occupant from the fallen car. (Photo Courtesy of @FDNY)

Organized by OccupyTheBoardRoom.org and OWS Direct Action, a mass march took place on Friday, Oct. 28. Protesters, including foreclosure victims, unemployed New Yorkers and students with debt, split into two groups and marched from Bryant Park, delivering letters “from the 99 percent to the 1 percent” at the headquarters of Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase.

SAFETY CONCERNS ARISE AT OWS

Last Friday, Oct. 28, members of the Fire Department of New York and the New York City Police Department reportedly confiscated six generators and biodiesel fuel from people camping out in Zuccotti Park on the grounds that the items were potential fire hazards.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, State Sen. Daniel Squadron and Council Member Margaret Chin released the following statement that day in response to community concerns about OWS: “We continue to work with the city, OWS and all stakeholders to respond to community concerns. Fire hazards like generators and gas affect both the community and the protestors. We are glad that there were no incidents as the FDNY carried out its safety inspection this morning.

“Other major issues remain, specifically noise, sanitation and access related to barricades. We’ve met with the city and, today, Borough President Stringer and Senator Squadron met with representatives of OWS who have been designated to work with the local community to address these ongoing concerns.”

Lower Manhattan
ICONIC SHOPS CELEBRATE ANNIVERSARIES

Today through Sunday, Nov. 6, J&R Music & Computer World and Century 21 Department Store will celebrate their 40th and 50th anniversaries, respectively. The businesses, just a few blocks from each other in Lower Manhattan, have partnered up to launch a special gift card promotion during this time. Shoppers who spend $100 or more at J&R will receive a $10 Century 21 gift card and tote, while shoppers who spend $100 or more at Century 21 get a $10 J&R gift card and tote.

Lower East Side
CHIN RALLIES TO PROTECT P.S. 137

Council Member Margaret Chin attended a rally on Tuesday, Oct. 25 to support the P.S. 137 community in the Lower East Side. Although the Department of Education hasn’t officially ordered the school to close, school officials have been warned that its doors might be shuttered due to low performance.

That day, Chin also sent a letter to City Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, noting that P.S. 137 has struggled to establish its identity since it was moved into the P.S. 134 building in 2006. She added that the school lost many experienced teachers mid-year because of attrition and has had to cut one after-school program due to budget cuts.

The DOE is expected to conclude its evaluation of the school by December.

Chinatown
PRESCRIPTION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and City Council Member Margaret Chin met with senior citizens at the Project Open Door Senior Center at 168 Grand St. in Chinatown on Thursday, Oct. 27 to help educate them about the Partnership for Prescription Assistance program.

The program helps some 6.5 million people across the country get the prescription medicines they need. Patients seeking help in obtaining medicines can call PPA (1-888-4-PPA-NOW or 1-888-477-2669) to talk to a trained specialist. Specialists speak a number of Chinese dialects, including Cantonese and Mandarin

Occupy Wall Street Out in the Cold: The winter weather is setting in a little earlier than expected. According to the National Weather Service, the snow on Saturday, Oct. 29, was a rare, early-season storm that broke several historic Northeast records for this month. Central Park charted 2.9 inches of snowfall. Photographer Scot Surbeck found his way to Zuccotti Park and snapped this image of protesters braving the sleet and frigid temps. Surbeck’s work can be found at cityclickr.net. Photo by Scot Surbeck