The above video, uploaded onto Youtube by Victor Miranda, pans, zooms, and fades it way into our hearts with some beautiful scenes from Bay Ridge’s Shore Road area – including shots of the 69th Street Pier, ships navigating Upper New York Bay in the foreground of the Manhattan skyline, a group of frolicking squirrels in Owl’s Head Park, and the Shore Parkway Promenade.
In the above video the Bay Ridge All-stars perform the Ozzy Osbourne heavy metal anthem Crazy Train, at Prohibition on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, this past weekend.
Last Tuesday the NYPD carried out the daring rescue of a cargo ship captain suffering from a heart attack, and the entire incident was caught on video, as reported by CBS 2.
The Grey Shark, a 330-foot commercial vessel, was anchored between the Verrazano Bridge and Staten Island Ferry Terminal – not far from Ambrose Anchorage, when its pilot Captain Aly Akl reportedly suffered a heart attack.
The NYPD rushed to the ship, which a medic then boarded in order to treat its skipper.
After Detective Robert Brager confirmed that Akl’s condition had stabilized, a decision was made to airlift him off the Grey Shark for medical treatment.
An NYPD helicopter on the scene lowered a rescue basket which was used to hoist Akl up, followed by Brager.
In the above video, courtesy of insideNYPD, you can see Akl being prepped for the rescue basket – which begins at around 41 seconds, with the actual airlift taking place at approximately 3:20.
Other police involved in the rescue include Det. Ralph Gaglioti, Sgt. John O’Hara, Officer Colin Woode, and Officer Christopher Maher.
If you’ve recently donated to Reaching-Out Community Services aka the Dyker Heights -Bensonhurst Food Pantry, then the above video should be in your email inbox.
During the five minute segment, various disaster relief groups, private sector volunteers, and community leaders including State Senator Marty Golden and Reaching-Out’s executive director Thomas Neve join Gerritsen Beach Cares to speak out for people whose lives have yet to return to normal well over two months since Superstorm Sandy wrought havoc on coastal communities.
If you’d like to support continued aid for hurricane victims in Gerritsen Beach, please call (347) 585-8630. For more information on Reaching-Out Community Services, please visit rcsprograms.org or call (718) 373-4565.
Still stuck at home and bored? Or maybe you’ve made it in to work and decided to take your mind off commuter hell for a few moments?
Here are a couple examples of footage taken on Monday while superstorm Sandy was still raging over our area.
One video shows the 69th Street pier during what looks like the height of the so-called frankenstorm.
In another, World News Australia conducts a phone interview with stranded-at-home high school math teacher Ellie Terry – who works at Telecommunications High School [350 67th Street], while scenes captured during Sandy’s wrath play on screen.
Terry’s plans while schools are still being used as evacuation centers? Using a special Facebook plug-in, she’s opted to take a couple of days to phone undecided voters in Pennsylvania for President Obama’s reelection campaign.
Mayor Bloomberg held another press conference from the Office of Emergency Management [OEM] in Downtown Brooklyn just after 11 a.m. The mayor said that while damage is severe and ten New Yorkers lost their lives as a result of Superstorm Sandy, no first responders had died. The mayor praised the heroic work of rescue personnel during the storm.
Bloomberg vowed to keep shelters open, tweeting that the emergency lodgings would remain open until New Yorkers “can safely return to their homes.” He added that drinking water has been tested and, although safe, it has been treated with additional chlorine as a precautionary measure.
U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer also gave an update on federal efforts to aid in the city’s storm recovery, telling the press that President Obama would give local officials all the help they need. Schumer stated that, as is usually the case, federal reimbursement for storm damage would be at least 75%.
Earlier this morning, State Senator Marty Golden tweeted that FEMA has begun taking applications at DisasterAssistance.gov.
Bloomberg said that he would give updates as the day progressed, and continued to remind the city that parks are closed and public transit is still not running. He urged residents to use caution and not venture out unless necessary and only to help others.
In the continuation of a similar thread, let’s play devil’s advocate to that forgotten borough across the bridge.
When historians write about the tragic side of the Verrazano Bridge’s construction in the 1960s, it’s normally limited to the hundreds of Bay Ridge residents who were displaced from their homes by eminent domain and the all-powerful Robert Moses.
But what about the rural denizens of then-sleepy Staten Island – who would soon have to deal with becoming a sort of suburban Brooklyn exclave?
In the above Youtube Video, jazz composer and Staten Islander Alex Leonard sings a bittersweet bebop ballad from the perspective of the oyster fisherman – many of whom were the descendants of freed black slaves, farmers, and factory worker who called the largely rural island borough home before the great Brooklyn migration brought condos and McMansion-lined cul de sacs.
In the song, Leonard exhorts visitors to take the ferry rather than the colossal, car-centric span. I guess the Staten Island discount bought less goodwill on the island of Shaolin than Brooklynites commonly believe.
From a Southern Brooklyn perspective, one can draw certain parallels between the eradication of Staten Island’s pre-1964 pastoral landscape with the development of bucolic pre-1920s South Brooklyn.