From the New York Daily News:

A zebra and a pony ran wild through a shopping center parking lot off Victory Boulevard in Staten Island Wednesday morning, stopping traffic and leaving onlookers in disbelief.
“There was basically a stampede in front of my store,” said Zachary Osher, who caught the bizarre scene on video.
“It was crazy. It’s something you don’t see everyday.”
Osher was at his desk at Metropolitan Drape and Blind when he spotted the unlikely duo, pursued by two men clad in dark suits wielding lassos, the Staten Island Advance first reported.
“When I saw the pony, I was like ‘eh,’ but then I saw the zebra,” he said. “I thought it was some kind of a circus act.”
The hoofed animals headed out onto the busy boulevard, dodging cars along the way, until they landed in the Greenbelt Native Plant Center across the street.
“There was a whole show here. I couldn’t believe it,” said a Center employee who wished to remain anonymous. “I said ‘Oh my God, am I dreaming or what?’”

I love New York.

A zebra and a pony ran wild through a shopping center parking lot off Victory Boulevard in Staten Island Wednesday morning, stopping traffic and leaving onlookers in disbelief.

“There was basically a stampede in front of my store,” said Zachary Osher, who caught the bizarre scene on video.

“It was crazy. It’s something you don’t see everyday.”

Osher was at his desk at Metropolitan Drape and Blind when he spotted the unlikely duo, pursued by two men clad in dark suits wielding lassos, the Staten Island Advance first reported.

“When I saw the pony, I was like ‘eh,’ but then I saw the zebra,” he said. “I thought it was some kind of a circus act.”

The hoofed animals headed out onto the busy boulevard, dodging cars along the way, until they landed in the Greenbelt Native Plant Center across the street.

“There was a whole show here. I couldn’t believe it,” said a Center employee who wished to remain anonymous. “I said ‘Oh my God, am I dreaming or what?’”

I love New York.

STATEN STRONG President Obama shakes the hand of a New York City sanitation worker during a visit to storm-ravaged Staten Island on Thursday. He assigned Shaun Donovan, secretary of the federal housing agency and a former city housing commissioner, to oversee recovery efforts. ”I’m very proud of you, New York,” said the president. ”You guys are tough.” (Photo: Luke Sharrett / The New York Times)

Help rebuild Staten Island.

(h/t The Daily Show)

It was already dark when Laurajean Sammarco, 48, ventured to the doorstep of her house on Father Capodanno Boulevard.

She was startled to see a surge of bay water tumbling over a barrier near the beach and rushing toward her house.

“I said, ‘That can’t be water!’ ” she remembered. “It wasn’t like ‘Hawaii Five-0.’ It was like ‘The Blob.’ ”

She started calling relatives. “I’m screaming: ‘Get out! Get out!’ ” She jumped in her car with her husband, daughter and dog and raced through the neighborhood trying to pick up relatives and friends.

Panic began to seize household after household in Midland Beach as water pushed relentlessly into the neighborhood, slowly in some places, more quickly in others.

“Calls were coming in: somebody’s calling somebody, who’s calling somebody,” said Bill Owens, a retired police officer, whose family has lived in Midland Beach since 1928.

Residents reported water coming not just from the direction of the bay but, in some areas, from Hylan Boulevard to the west, or pushing south from the wetlands or north from Miller Field.

As water arrived on his street, Mr. Owens stepped outside to move his truck from a space on the corner.

But he never got there.

Within minutes, he was swimming frantically to get to the high stoop of a neighbor’s house.

Some residents who lived in two- and three-story houses grabbed children and pets and ran to upper floors. But for those in bungalows, higher ground was harder to reach.

“All these poor old-timers,” Mr. Owens said. “They must’ve been sleeping in their beds or watching TV.”

The New York Times, “How a Beach Community Became a Deathtrap”

DEATHTRAP A doll hung tangled in bushes outside the home of Eugene Contrubis, who died after drowning inside his house in the Midland Beach section of Staten Island. A storm surge during Sandy turned the beachfront neighborhood into a virtual lake, with water nine feet deep in some spots. The storm led to eight deaths in Midland Beach, the highest concentration of Sandy-related deaths during the superstorm. (Photo: Todd Heisler / The New York Times; caption via The Times)

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;
And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.

We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
We hailed, “Good morrow, mother!” to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, “God bless you!” for the apples and pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

Recuerdo by Edna St. Vincent Millay

RECUERDO Commuters disembarked from the Staten Island Ferry in New York Monday. Transit was slowly returning to normal in New York, but many commuters endured long waits and packed trains one week after superstorm Sandy hit the area. (Photo: John Minchillo / AP via The Wall Street Journal)

Photographs covered with mud from the storm on Staten Island. (Photo: Todd Heisler / The New York Times)

caseyneistat:

i love staten island and the wu tang clan equally, that’s why i made this movie

“Tabor Heights, NJ” is actually Historic Richmondtown on Staten Island. No filling station there. :-)

timelightbox:

Photographer Christine Osinski on her photographs of New York’s forgotten borough, Staten Island:

“I generally look to photograph the supporting players and not the main characters,” she says. “I tend to look at the minor players and the overlooked places. A lot of my work is about the familiar so that it begins to take on a more unusual presence. It makes you question your assumptions about things you know. Right under your nose there might be something that you’re not familiar with. Maybe taking pictures is an opportunity to make someone look again.”

See more of Osinski’s photographs here.

I miss my old borough.

Before I hit the gym, thought I’d share a reminiscence of my old haunt: Staten Island, and the ship graveyard at Rossville, one of my favorite photography spots.

Resident Kevin Holligan kayaks across a flooded section of Hylan Boulevard, Staten Island, on Sunday. (Photo: Anthony DePrimo / Staten Island Advance via the AP / Connecticut Post)

WETTIN’ ISLAND Cars remain submerged on a street in Staten Island, the New York City borough where flooding posed major problems and 11,000 customers remain without power. (Photo: Michael Kirby Smith / The New York Times)

In his 34 years with the New York Fire Department, Capt. James Melvin has seen his share of stuck elevators. But he had never witnessed anything quite like what happened Sunday on Staten Island.

Two construction workers were stuck in an elevator that was filling with water, Captain Melvin explained, with a hint of amazement in his voice. By the time firefighters arrived, the water level had risen as high as the two trapped men’s necks.

“We’ve had plenty of elevator emergencies, but never one that’s down sinking in water,” said Captain Melvin, of Ladder Company 86 on Richmond Avenue. As for the two men, he added, “They were happy to see us.”

The New York Times, “Two Rescued From Water, Neck-High, In Elevator.”

Yikes.

And that’s how much it’s fucking rained in the New York City metro area today.