calling New York City Dwellers | Page 2 | Golden Skate

calling New York City Dwellers

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
I wish I could visit Alaska, one of the most beautiful states, along with Hawaii. Who needs shows? LOL;)
 
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Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
Those of us who go through 7 months of cold winter - that's when they bring the shows up. We need to get out once in a while when it's too cold to go out and play! :yes:
 

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
We have it bad in New England, except last year. God only knows what is in store. I pray he takes it easy on us. Poor climate is so messed up, and the domino effect touches everything. This fall, I had a lady bug infestation. They are good luck, Dad said so don't kill'em. I had about 25 in my bedroom corners. Y'all know I could use the 'luck.' wish it were true.
 

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
It doesn't look possible to do NYC. Had I a partner, all would be different, but with sleep issues and sverely compromised knees, I can't do it. I should have a motorized chair, but my doctor is beyond ...I cannot sy. He does not know basic facts like I am a uterine cancer surevivor. Its been 4 years. So, I think I am going to try a religious retreat closer tom home and do things I can get to. I saw Nutcracker today-hybrid little kids and some pros for the principal roles and the local orchestra. I can't get over tix for Boston Ballet being 336.00 then ad in taking train or bus, or staying over if there is no matinee available for when I can go, and it's just as expensive as NYC. Still, if I just had a partner, but to hire someone doubles the price, and I have one pca who would not likely do it. Would not be a good match to travel as she is not really trained and would likely screw things up and blame me. Sorta like every day life at my house.

DFor 30 dollars i saw a pretty darn good Nutcracker with pros in the impt roles, and I saw so many adorable kids buying mice, nutcrackers at intermission. I did this for my neice at age 5, and the Nutcracker doll was her fave gift. We don't even see them-my mother is nearly 91. It is sad. I really wanted to steal the adorable kids in those holiday dresses. The mice and reindeer nwere beyond adorable. The theatre is nice and one of our only nice things left doing well in our typical dying US former mfg city.

So for Christmas, West Side Story is coming, and has six shows. I have tix for my mom, one of her gifts. I wish I could predict what will be in March or April, as Les Mis is coming. I have only seen it once on stage, years ago. I can't plan ahead. My constant prayer is for my mother, who is so frail. Anyway, the movie should be good. I don't buy many movies, nowadays, just hoping it will be worth it.

I know what you mean Toni times 10. I hate snow as I cannot ski of course, and ice is scary to disabled people and elderly. Two years ago, we were slammed every other day. And then summer is in the 90's! I amm in AC for 6 months, and missed summer-shingles. I am very affected by weather-humidity is bad here most days, so I wish my old best friend were not in seriouis relationship in his older age. I would have someone to help me relocate to florida. The sun, and just seeing the ocean is very healing. And I'd rather live in Ac all the time. I am toom afraid to travel alone, as i easily forget where I put my bag. I can't risk that in a strange city, or somone targeting me walking slow with a cane. This former world traveller is stuck.

2014 Nationals (darn cap key!) grrr is in Boston. I guess we are talking 2 grand, right for all event tix and staying in city, which I'd have to do. i cannot plan ahead. I might be in a nursing home by then. So, I have much help to ask God. When you do your best, care for others, and disability leaves you alone, it is tough to take. I used to have a college chum in NYC but she moved eons ago. Being disabled in one's twenties is something only those in the same shoes can fathom.

The cost of skating competitions seems rediculous-why so high? Who is making the money? I'd like to know why they allow all these seats to go empty rather than filling them at last minute with cutrate tickets. It looks really bad for the sport on TV and reinforces the notion it is a sport for rich peoiple, like horsemanship. People in charge should be rethinking things in this economy. Goodness knows the skaters are not getting the bucks even when they win. It really is a deplorable situation.
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
2000? Doubtful it's that high when you dont have to deal with airfare, the only reason it was 1600 for me was the airfare. It depends on where you stay and if you can split the hotel costs. I was only able to go in the years I did because i had friends to stay with or room with and my aunt gifted me airline tickets.

You can do it on a shoestring budget (that goes for any travel) but it takes a fair amount of work on one's part to do it. None of my trips have been outright splurges. I am a major planner and budgetter.

I don't begrudge anyone for being able to take a trip, to wherever for however long. Folks take trips that I wish I could all the time, it's not their fault that I can't - nor is it their duty to fight and make it easier for me to take a trip. Funny thing is you can have all the money in the world, splurge on the finest everything on vacation and still have a horrible time. Knowing that I have little desire to compete with fabled vacations. I can have just as good a time over a weekend in a neighboring town than I can anywhere else.

Guess I say all that to say - it's all a matter of perspective. Can't take the trip now? Save up. Even if you dont make it to that vacay goal, it'll be a good "unknown expense" savings.
 
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ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
If anyone in NYC is near Bryant Park today (Tue Nov 27), the tree lighting there from 6:30 - 8:00 pm will include skating performances:

- Steven Cousins
- The Haydenettes
- The Kerrs
- Joannie Rochette

"... free and open-to-the-public event ... Following the closing of the ceremony, stick around for free-admission ice skating for all."

http://citipondatbryantpark.com/event/holiday-tree-lighting
http://www.bryantpark.org/plan-your-visit/calendar.html?evt=2655#

Sorry for the short notice -- but I just saw tweets from Rochette and Sinead Kerr about the event.
 

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
Just as an aside, on the news tonight, while FEMA is giving lots of money to folks on Staten Island for housing, there is a housing shortage which may effect hotel availability and prices.
There was a town hall meeting which got pretty rowdy as Staten Island politicians wont allow FEMA trailers so people are living in their dangerously damaged homes without sewer or water
as they have no where to go....
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Here's a news report
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=8903133

It didn't make it clear to me.

It sounds like there is a lot of confusion and misinformation.

Like if I take a trailer, do I still get help to fix my house?
If I fix my house with the fast fix program, do I lose any FEMA insurance help?
Apparently you are OK -just document the damage. That's how it worked here.

Apparently, Gerritsen Beach residents want FEMA trailers
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/investigators&id=8902882
 
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Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Thanks, Doris.

I know that one advantage (so to speak) of the storm having occurred so late in the year is that mold grows more slowly in the cold weather. But there are some awful complications from the storm's coming at this point. One is that almost immediately the temperature dropped. (It was in the sixties the day of the storm and in the thirties a few days later.) Also, the days are shorter. I'm telling you, it was pretty depressing sitting in the dark and the cold on the days I had no power or heat. I had my power restored within the week (though it seemed like forever) and my heat back after almost two weeks. These poor souls are still without, after a month. I don't see how they're still even sane.
 
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skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
This is heart breaking and should be on the local news nightly. Fema is doing a terrible job and Obama has his hands full, but he promised rapid relief. NYC is money town. Where are the uber rich in this? Major fundraising arm must be developed. We are seeing disasters everywhere and the money does not get to the problem. People around the country do not understand the enormity of this storm and the ongoing suffering because the news is doing a bad job of staying with the disasters. One can feel people think they are immune til mother nature destroys their town. I Imagine they are begging the country for 500 rv's when fema has 2000 and the space is their. I'd fire that fema director so fast his head would spin. People WILL freeze to death as the man feared. I hate most US news stations because they censor the news, have commercials. PBS is better. It seems one has to go online to really get any news. I recall when Al Jazeera was reporting more about Occupy Wallstreet while US news was blackedout.

I have no trailer nor fortune to buy, but there are many uber rich in NYC who could buy 500 trailers and barely notice the dent in their swiss bank accounts.

Are Americans now immune to disasters? :cry:
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
FEMA can only help if they are asked. This was the same issue as Katrina - the feds wanted to step in but the local leadership dug their heels in.
 

heyang

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Just as an aside, on the news tonight, while FEMA is giving lots of money to folks on Staten Island for housing, there is a housing shortage which may effect hotel availability and prices.
There was a town hall meeting which got pretty rowdy as Staten Island politicians wont allow FEMA trailers so people are living in their dangerously damaged homes without sewer or water
as they have no where to go....

There were prior reports of rents doubling and even tripling after Sandy hit. Families are having problems finding affordable rental homes in their neighborhoods.
 

heyang

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
This is heart breaking and should be on the local news nightly. Fema is doing a terrible job and Obama has his hands full, but he promised rapid relief. NYC is money town. Where are the uber rich in this? Major fundraising arm must be developed. We are seeing disasters everywhere and the money does not get to the problem. People around the country do not understand the enormity of this storm and the ongoing suffering because the news is doing a bad job of staying with the disasters. One can feel people think they are immune til mother nature destroys their town. I Imagine they are begging the country for 500 rv's when fema has 2000 and the space is their. I'd fire that fema director so fast his head would spin. People WILL freeze to death as the man feared. I hate most US news stations because they censor the news, have commercials. PBS is better. It seems one has to go online to really get any news. I recall when Al Jazeera was reporting more about Occupy Wallstreet while US news was blackedout.

I have no trailer nor fortune to buy, but there are many uber rich in NYC who could buy 500 trailers and barely notice the dent in their swiss bank accounts.

Are Americans now immune to disasters? :cry:

Most help is donated immediately after a disaster. People don't want to hear about it every day.

I chose to donate to Habitat for Humanity because the disaster will be 'forgotten' by the time the real rebuliding effort begins.

Just about every local organization for children and families has been doing fundraising. It gets a bit much since so many charities push fundraising at this time of year. I probably get at least 3-4 mail solicitation per week. My employer usually has 2 collections post Thanksgiving - United Way giving tree and Robert Woods Johnson gifts of kids in the hospital. Yesterday an e-mail was sent out saying that we'll also be collecting for Toy'for Tots for Sandy victims. I've upped my contributions overall this year because of Sandy and I have decided this 3rd 'drive' is going to be my last for the year. I'm tapped out!
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
I've upped my contributions overall this year because of Sandy and I have decided this 3rd 'drive' is going to be my last for the year. I'm tapped out!

That's just it - everyone is. Yes, even the "rich". We have too much going on locally for me to look to other areas of the US or internationally. You demand too much out of everyone and soon those giving charity will end up needing it. The solicitations this time of year (and anymore all year long) are getting out of hand. The guilt trips they pull are gut churning IMO. Don't tell me I'm a bad person because I can't give you more money just a week after I donated. And they really lay it on thick with older people... my gpa is always saying how he felt bad talking to someone on the phone so there goes more of his limited income to "charities" who've figured out who they can take advantage of. :no:
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Habitat is definitely one of my main charities for Sandy Victims.

Why? Because the damage in NYC, CT and RI, not as clear a case in NJ, was almost entirely due to flooding and storm surge, not wind.

Your home owner's insurance pays for wind damage. Pretty much the only useful flood insurance for anyone is FEMA and they cap at 32K payout or so. You can't rebuild with a FEMA payout. As one of the Sandy victims said at that New Dorp, NY, meeting, she has a destroyed house and only got $150.00 from her home owners.

People in the affected areas who are not rich are going to be having problems, just as the Katrina people had problems.

Habitat helps build & rebuild homes, something the areas really need.

However, permitting can be a difficulty. The reason many of these homes were destroyed is that they were grandfathered in their respective zoning areas. If you are not high above the ocean, you're supposed to have the house up on stilts so a storm surge doesn't carry you away in many areas. Older homes were slab on grade, many times, and the surge just picked them right up.

NY has speeded up the permitting process, but when you're hunkered out freezing in your house, where you can't turn on the power until everything is inspected for safety (lest your house burns and takes the neighbors with it) a week seems like a lifetime. (Heck just being without heat in my house seemed like a lifetime). And I had some alternative heat sources, just no hot water.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
All I had for heat for a week was an iffy supply of hot water for h.w. bottles, and it was pretty miserable. We also didn't have drinkable water from the faucets most of the time. (I used "preserved" water to heat for the bottles, the same stuff over and over.) A lot of the older residents were evacuated by family members, and parents took younger kids out if they could. Can you imagine living in that privation for a month...and we had all our things, and stuff was dry and didn't smell of mildew or worse. And we knew that in short order things would be fixed. If you have to rebuild a whole house, and they won't even let you rebuild yours--oh, my goodness!
 
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Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
Not to take from the dire situations, but you have to think that even with all of our economic issues in this country, our problems aren't that big compared to other areas of the world where poverty is much more. I just keep thinking "wow, these are all 1st world problems" that really our great-great-great family members would've dealt with every day (not the flooding, but the heat, water, etc)... It could've been so much worse...
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Having nothing or nearly nothing is painful no matter where it occurs. That's why I don't think your argument quite works in this situation. I know some people who are going through this. They're not in misery because they're spoiled rotten. They're in distress because they're living without the most basic needs, at the coldest, darkest time of the year. They are living in either cars or damaged homes in temperatures that go down to the thirties at night. They might or might not have a steady water supply. Their schools aren't operational. They might soon be forced to move a good distance away from the place where they've lived for years, or for generations, because they can't rebuild where they previously lived. They don't have the normal documents that make life easier for us: a bankbook, checks to pay their bills, a way to prove who they are. Can they obtain transport to get to their job or to find a new job? If they have a business, can they keep it going? If someone in the family gets sick, can he or she get an appointment to a doctor? In fact, is the nearest hospital able to accept emergency patients?

The fact that people in Haiti live every day without a roof or running water or a money economy or medical or dental care doesn't make a similar situation something that can be gotten through easily--and in fact leads to a life expectancy of 50 years or less, a situation we'd rather not go back to in this country.

And in fact if you read accounts of life in earlier eras in America, it's very rare that a community lives in such a dire stage of bare survival for long. In Plymouth Colony after that first awful winter (when about half the settlers died), people had enough to eat and did have warmth in winter, because they had a whole continent of firewood. In settlers' communities during the era of westward expansion, the hardscrabble privation of the first years generally led to more prosperity soon afterward, as better homes were built and more services were started.

The aftermath of Sandy could have been much worse for the likes of me, but it really couldn't get much worse for many of the affected communities, except (thank God) that so few lives were lost. Look at everything you value in your home--including small things (except to you) such as irreplaceable photos of those now dead, and fundamental things like your birth certificate, passport, tax records, and driver's license. Plus all the creative things you've ever done (many artists in the area lost their life's work, such as paintings), your notes from any schooling you ever had, your transcripts from every school you ever attended, and of course everything you stored on your electronic devices. The phone numbers and addresses of both friends and of institutions you must deal with. Now imagine replacing that all at once, and imagine being offered $300 to replace your stove, refrigerator, sink, bathroom, clothes, books, electronics, medications if you take any, and so on.

Yes, we're better off than Haiti, Congo, or Afghanistan. But such an awareness will not be helpful on a continuous basis for all those involved with the aftermath of this storm, I assure you.

(On rereading this, I hope it doesn't sound as if I'm arguing with you, Toni. But your observation seems to have brought all this out of me, and in this case I think it was important to mention these points--mainly because I feel so bad about what's happening and rather powerless to make things better in a hurry.)
 
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