I write from my midtown office in New York after a forced two week sabbatical from the city brought on by Superstorm Sandy and last week’s northeaster.
There was no way I was going to attempt the drive from Cotuit in the days after the storm as Mayor Bloomberg had banned cars with fewer than three passengers from cross the bridges, the office assistants needed a place to stay with lights and heat after their places in Hoboken flooded, and in the end with the digital means to telecommute, why beat one’s head in just to make an appearance.
Walking around the Googleplex last night after a meeting with YouTube I saw very little evidence of the storm’s effects. An awning lay on the sidewalk, ripped off a store front. And lots of trash bags piling up on the cross streets awaiting the garbage trucks. Other than that — the only real evidence was on the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut where there was a lot of downed trees in the Westport-New Canaan area.
Hard to imagine the third-world conditions in the Rockaways and parts of Staten Island where things are still very deplorable according to the New York Times. I heard the PATH trains from New Jersey may be out for a year, meaning hell for commuters. But all in all, New York this sunny November morning is nothing like the terrible months following 9/11 when the city was so sad and wounded by the attacks.
