As shown time and again, when a crisis strikes, New Yorkers always pull through, and they do it by pulling together. The blackout that started last Thursday afternoon was a truly frightening event. First of all there was the extent of the outage — stretching all the way to Cleveland and Detroit and into Canada. Second was the duration of the blackout. In some Downtown neighborhoods the power was out for 29 hours and it looked as if a second sweaty and anxious night would be spent in the dark, in many cases without running water.
Through it all, Downtowners and all New Yorkers showed their true spirit, by helping each other. The comparisons with 9/11 were bound to happen. To deal with an event of overwhelming proportions that laid our city low, we again united in care for each other. The able-bodied watched attentively over seniors who could not move around easily to make sure they had the water and food they needed and that they were kept from overheating. In many cases, merchants gave out free water and some restaurants even cooked food and gave it away for free, knowing that it would otherwise soon spoil without refrigeration.
The blackout can’t be compared to 9/11 in terms of the horrible loss of human life and devastation, yet the risks posed were very real, real enough that Councilmember Alan Gerson had a plan in place with the mayor’s Office of Emergency Management to provide food and water trucks at critical locations.
Questions need to be answered in terms of why parts of Lower Manhattan were without power so long and were in fact the last parts of the city where electricity was restored. Four years ago, the same sub-grid — the Cooper Sq. Network — was shut off in an induced blackout as the city faced a potential overload in sweltering weather. Since then, it would have been hoped that this network, which includes Noho, Chinatown and the Lower East Side and East Village, would have been upgraded so that this would not have to happen again. This time, while the whole city suffered a blackout together, it was again the Cooper Sq. grid that was last to be brought back on line.
Con Ed says that, in addition to other factors, this grid is simply geographically large, which was a factor why it took so long to power up. Maybe it’s time to subdivide this grid, if possible, so that such repowering lags in the future can be avoided. Whatever needs to be done, must be done.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is on target in calling for an investigation into why these neighborhoods had power restored so late. There were also reports of conflict between New York State and New York City in terms of who would get electricity first. What is clear is that the East Side of Lower Manhattan continues to be put last. Washington Heights, which was also artificially put into a blackout four years ago at the same time as the Cooper grid, was one of the first to have power restored this time. It’s not acceptable for one area of New York City to keep bearing more of the brunt of these outages. Hopefully, the investigation Silver has called for will find some answers that will lead to change and the East Side can get fair treatment — and some relief.
Sweet sounds will soothe frayed nerves
J&R Music and Computer World’s Ninth Annual Jazzfest, which swings into action this week, from Aug. 19-24 in City Hall Park is a great event for Downtown Manhattan. It pulls together top acts, like Al Jarreau, Najee and Yolanda Adams, in the beautiful setting of City Hall Park and best of all, it’s all free. The J&R Jazzfest is an exciting event and is a positive sign of confidence in Lower Manhattan. This will be an event not to be missed. Downtowners owe it to themselves to check out these fantastic musicians’ sweet sounds. After the blackout, we can all use a little soothing melody and groove.
