March 05, 2014

New York Today: A Winter to Remember

By ANNIE CORREAL



Good morning. It’s Ash Wednesday.

And it’s a temperate 29 degrees.

So let’s give up winter, for now.

And take a look back at some of the things that it brought us:

• Trash. Lots of it. With sanitation workers busy plowing, sidewalks resembled interactive installations.

• Alternate side parking was suspended for 22 days, the longest stretch since 2001, though nowhere near the record of 62 in 1978.

Heated sidewalks. So-called snow-melt systems are a rarity in the city, but they exist. They are popular among “the doggies,” as one doorman put it.

Heated bus stops. A publicity stunt by a Florida tourism board, complete with models in bathing suits. The concept is unlikely to catch on.

Drinks, sandwiches and signs outside liquor stores riffing on the term “polar vortex.”


• The cold selfie. Thousands indulged, few looked cold. We commend you, superlou1010.

Road salt shortages. About 40,000 tons were stuck in Maine because of an old law.

• Wintry descriptor shortages. Media outlets had to raid the adjective pantry to come up with something new. Witness “icy grip,” “bitter blast,” “thundersnow.”

• The snow hazing of Mayor de Blasio. Or the last stand of thesanitation commissioner (and his cable knit sweater).

• Forget seasonal affect disorder. We got snow rage. See Al Roker’s critique of the mayor for not calling snow days. See, Upper East Side, unplowed.

Here’s what else you need to know for Wednesday.

WEATHER

Rejoice! The sun breaks through the clouds, with a high of 35 degrees.

Temperatures drop again at night, when there may be snow showers.

COMMUTE

Subways: Looking good. Check latest status.

Rails: Scattered delays on the L.I.R.R. Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or N.J. Transit status.

Roads: Delays of up to 25 minutes at the Lincoln Tunnels. Traffic is backed up on the northbound F.D.R. from 116th Street to the 70’s following an accident. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s orthe 8s.

Alternate-side parking is suspended for Ash Wednesday.

COMING UP TODAY

• Rob Astorino, the Republican county executive from Westchester, announces that he will challenge Andrew Cuomo for governor. 11 a.m.

• Cardinal Dolan distributes ashes at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Noon.

• Anti-abortion advocates pray at the Brooklyn Bridge before starting a cross-country relay race for the cause. 7 a.m.

• The mayor accepts his first invitation to appear at the Inner Circle Show, the annual political parody, on March 22. This year’s theme: “Stuck with de Bill.” 1 p.m.

• “The Rollin’ Colon” continues its tour, unfurling at Mount Sinai Hospital in observance of National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. 8 a.m.

• The Art Show, organized by the Art Dealers Association of America, opens at the Park Avenue Armory. Noon. [$25] …

• … Followed by the Armory Party 2014 at MoMA. 8 p.m. [$150 and up]

• “Modeling the Melt: What Math Tells Us About the Disappearing Polar Ice Caps,” a talk at the National Museum of Mathematics, in Midtown. 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. [Free, R.S.V.P.]

• “Nerd Nite” talks on Tetris, “Star Trek” and a theme-park ride based on “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” at the 92nd Street Y. 8:15 p.m. [$29 and up]

• Happy birthday week, Lou Reed. Seven bands pay tribute to the singer-songwriter, who died last year, at the Way Station in Prospect Heights. 8 p.m. [Free]

• For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

• The police commissioner said street stops would remain a “basic tool” in fighting crime. [New York Times]

• A crusader for charter schools is locked in combat with a formidable opponent: the new mayor. [New York Times]

• What the city’s old snow looks like to a polar geophysicist. [New York Times]

• Donald Trump sued the state attorney general over allegations that Trump University lured students into debt. [Daily News]

• Astoria is the latest neighborhood to see a rise in burglaries-via-fire-escape. [DNAinfo]

• An Upper East Side resident lost everything when trash removers emptied the wrong apartment. He is suing. [New York Post]

• Crosses to go. Be on the lookout for mobile ashing teams today. [Daily News]

• Scoreboard: Devils braise Red Wings, 4-3; Islanders ground Jets, 3-2 in overtime.

AND FINALLY …

One last tidbit from the annals of snow journalism.

Specifically, slush.

It was a problem in the late winter of 1860.

“The combined powers of the salt and sun have been at work upon the snow,” The Times reported. The resulting substance “cannot be described appropriately by any other word than ‘slush.’”

The streets were a mess, or, as the reporter put it, “Wherever there was inclination enough, the water ran in mimic brooks.”

This was particularly trying for women.

At the street’s edge, they would “look into the waste of waters before them with a melancholy gaze, turn and stalk slowly and meditatively along for a short distance, like cranes on the banks of a country pond, and then beat a retreat altogether, or make a despairing dive for the opposite shore.”

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till late morning.

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http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/new-york-today-a-winter-to-remember/?ref=nyregion

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