Showing posts with label North Shore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label North Shore. Show all posts

Friday, November 2, 2012

Staten Island Hit Hard by Hurricane Sandy




A lot of damage to the plywood based houses on the South Shore. Living next to the ocean has its hazards. A lot of housing on the south shore by the ocean should have been left nature preserves or swamps and never built on IMHO.



They just turned the electricity on about sixteen hours ago here.  We were out of luck for 68 hours in this little pocket on the north shore of Staten Island, the many times forgotten fifth borough of "New York City".  

The two streets in an island of other areas that came back sooner after a day or two was because a lot of big old houses on these two streets have 130 year old oaks that were supposed to be taken down by owners in the last year or two but did not or could not trim or remove older trees.

Kind of expensive if you are retired and appear to be well to do living in a big old house. I live in an apartment complex surrounded by the shabby chic of yesteryear glory in an old neighborhood.  

Twenty three trees bit the dust on these two streets. First the cut downs, then cutting up the trees, non-stop roar of wood chippers, the inspections, minor repairs, priority of Con Edison personnel in not being called elsewhere etc. The Ferry is still not working, no electricity in St. George at the moment.

No rioting but some looting at a nearby Lowe’s and Kohl’s right after the storm.

Kudos to NYPD on catching some of the perps.

Was able to buy candles at Lowe’s on Tuesday morning for cash, cash registers down with the electricity.

Was surprised they printed this.  About a mile from here.


Some running by my son back and forth to places to recharge cells and lap top and try to make deadlines with college homework, the college only open yesterday, today public schools open.

We got ice and the meat in the freezer stayed frozen enough to think it is still good. Water was on and gas in the stove, pilot light intact.  

Candles, a transistor radio and started to write the first two chapters of a long threatened novel.  

Someone I know spent three hours in line for a tank of gas last night after going to five closed stations. Some skank was hanging around the line offering gallon cans of gasoline at $60 dollars a pop.

All in all we were quite lucky. Compared to what I hear about Jersey.

The infrastructure and planning in the nineteenth century for a twenty-first century New York City SUCKS in the age of global warming and or climate change.

Trillions of dollars of over-inflated obsolete skyscrapers returning to the primordial swamp etc. in downtown Manhattan. Not a good investment friends.

Be well guys.  Civilization is indeed a thin veneer


*     *     *




Saturday, October 20, 2012

Best Food in Staten Island – “Blue” Restaurant – Snug Harbor


"Blue" Restaurant - North Shore - Staten Island

Just had lunch the other day at “Blue” on the North Shore opposite the Snug Harbor Museum campus.

Snug Harbor

The old R.H.Tugs Restaurant jumped the shark in the nineties but ownership hung on to celebrate a twenty fifth year anniversary I guess for the sake of nostalgia and shabby chic?



This new restaurant with a basic Mediterranean cuisine actually surprised me along with a major interior architectural redo of the old basic structure. The Bar area is now doubled in size and more of a lounge complete with a few lounge chairs.  The restaurant is refreshingly bright with almost floor to ceiling picture windows facing the river and giving you a breathtaking, up front in your face, view of that major hidden forgotten asset in Staten Island, and that is of its long forgotten water front. 



The interior of the restaurant area is refreshingly simple. The walls are painted a Mediterranean color with Gothic Revival woodwork accents to match, compliment the hidden architectural gem of Snug Harbor across the street. This interior background tells you that so much thought and preparation went into this place. That forethought and care is also found in its fantastically fresh, tasty and excellent food.

What I sampled was from the Lunch Menu BTW. The pasta entre with clams and shrimp was the best I have eaten in a restaurant anywhere.  Seafood, fresh, fresh, fresh (you can taste the sea). I also had a taste of my companions’ dishes. The Angus burger, exceptionally excellent. And a lunch time special pastrami sandwich which was a quality, light tasting, not standard heavy, meat sliced and served with a real sense of style and excellence across the board of a creative eclectic menu.

They have an impressive wine list. Lunch for three with two appetizers, crab fritters - yum, three entrees, two cocktails, and one desert, a key lime pie to die for, and coffees all around for desert was for present day standards reasonable and under one bill.  You pay for quality and believe me quality is far and some distance between in that forgotten (gem) of a borough. That quality is found here in Snug Harbor at "Blue".

Blue
1115 Richmond Terrace
Staten Island NY 10310
718-273-7777




.