Let me just ignore what's going on in the city, and get the hell out of here alive. Hopefully people won't remember my name and they will confuse me with that Sesame Street character many call me.
That was the question Monday evening as people gathered outside the shuttered Loreto Park as renovation work ground to a halt. Loreto Park is a large square block of Parkland sitting on Morris Park, Tomlinson, Haight and Van Nest Avenues which is known as Loreto Playground X163 by the Parks Department. There are many different areas in the Playground/Park used for different purposes. The area under construction will be used for a Soccer/Softball field or Multi Purpose Play area that borders Morris Park Avenue.
Their are three different phases that happen called Design, Procurement, and then Construction. The Design phase began February 2018, and was completed in February 2019. The Procurement process then began ending in November of 2019 where two million dollars coming from the Mayor's office, Borough President, and State was put together to fund this project. Then the construction phase start date was September 2020 with a projected completion date of September 2021.
According to a letter dated May 14, 2021 the construction was halted due to the 'Excess Materials disposal plan' needing to be revised by the contractor and approved by the Parks Department, which has been completed. Also a revision to the 'electric point of entry' needed to be coordinated with Con Edison, which has been completed. The letter also states that 'Work will be resuming at the site in the near future, with the anticipated completion date remaining at September 2021.
What may have happened here is that the contractor moved on to a different project, and will come back to this project when they are finished. That is not uncommon with projects that are bid out by the city, and a contractor may bid on more than one project at the same time knowing there may be delays to move equipment from one site to another. However the community wants this park renovation to be completed so it can be used.
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1 COVID-19 Death Statewide Yesterday—Matches Lowest Since Pandemic Began For Second Consecutive Day
Statewide 7-Day Average Positivity is 0.88%
20,895 Vaccine Doses Administered Over Last 24 Hours
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today updated New Yorkers on the state's progress combating COVID-19.
"New Yorkers are continuing to fight COVID-19 throughout the state, and it's critical to remember that getting shots in arms is the key to our ultimate success," Governor Cuomo said. "I urge all New Yorkers who haven't been vaccinated yet to do so today at any one of the open sites across the state. Millions of New Yorkers have taken the vaccine and done their part to keep themselves, their families and their communities safe—everyone who's able should do the same."
Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good morning, everybody. Well, the Summer of New York City continues and last week, amazing things. We had the Macy's 4th of July fireworks. We had the incredible parade saluting our hometown heroes. And the Summer of New York City is amazing because it's big events and special things, but also spontaneous things happen. And look at what happened yesterday with the celebration for Italy in their amazing victory in the European Cup. I want to tell you as a proud Italian-American, I am so proud of this Italian team. There were celebrations all over New York City, Arthur Avenue, up in the Bronx, Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, Greenwich Village. People came out to celebrate this beautiful victory. And I got to tell you, there's something of a metaphor here because this Italian national team, they were in really tough shape a few years ago, but like New York City, here's your metaphor, down, but never out, they rebuilt, they recreated, they came up with a new approach and found their way to victory. And that's going to be the story of New York City. A special shout out to the Italian goalkeeper, Gianluigi – excuse me, Gianluigi Donnarumma. Donnarumma, the goalkeeper for the Italian team. Amazing effort. Forza Donnarumma. Forza Azzurri. Amazing victory. And the people in New York City got to enjoy it with celebrations all over the city. And this is what the Summer of New York City is all about.
And the reason we are able to celebrate the Summer of New York City is because of vaccinations. The vaccination effort keeps growing, as of now 9,616,298 doses. Well on our way to 10 million doses soon, and we've used incentives as a crucial part of this. A lot of people have gotten great prizes because they chose to get vaccinated. We want to keep that going. The big prizes, some of them that have been very, very popular, we're going to continue to the end of July. So, if you're into some of these particular prizes, the $2,500 cash prize, I know that one's very popular, the staycation weekends, we're going to be running those for the next few weeks and this is your opportunity. If you have not yet gotten vaccinated, get into the game so you can get these amazing prizes. If you're 18 years old or older, you can enter the contest. Now, you have to get your first dose at a City-run site by 9:00 AM on August 1st to win one of those prizes. Then we're going to phase those out, but we're going to keep the other great prizes after August 1st. And those will continue at City-run sites – Citi Bike memberships, free NYC Ferry rides, NYCFC tickets, Coney Island tickets, great opportunities. And then beyond that, the referral initiative that we've been doing with grassroots organizations, with community organizations, houses of worship, very, very popular, that's going to be incredibly helpful because it brings money back into the community for everyone who gets vaccinated through those efforts. Anybody who wants to participate in that bonus referral effort, you can go to nyc.gov/vaccineincentives.
Okay, now, community efforts are where it's at. That's true with vaccination. That's true with keeping us safe as well. So, a wonderful community effort was launched this weekend. It's called Saturday Night Lights. This is part of how we build public safety from the grassroots up. Saturday Night Lights is a key part of our Safe Summer NYC plan. And the idea is to get young people a positive alternative. So, NYPD, Department of Youth and Community Development, local partners, altogether, opening 100 gyms citywide on Saturday nights to help kids have a safe place to be, a quality place to be, a warm, inviting place to be, obviously someplace free for them to be. It builds a connection between our police officers and our kids, because our officers are there for our kids. This is the focus on helping youth, that Commissioner Shea’s been talking so much about. It's a way to proactively keep people safe. Saturday Night Lights, a wonderful initiative. We've put $5 million into our Recovery Budget to make sure this could happen, and to have, in all five boroughs, gyms open on Saturday nights, 100 gyms. Police officers will be there playing with the kids – middle school kids, high school kids. And this is how you build trust, you build relationships, you build a sense of everyone's in it together. This is a really exciting initiative that I think has got to make a big impact this summer.
And continue on the theme of amazing things that are going to happen this summer, unprecedented things that are going to happen this summer. Another reason why New Yorkers are going to have an amazing summer and anyone who's not from New York City needs to come here this summer. Restaurant Week, launching next week in a new, amazing form, not just one week, five weeks, five weeks of Restaurant Week with great discounts, great specials from Monday, July 19th to Sunday, August 22nd. I want to thank NYC & Company. This is an amazing initiative. 500 restaurants participating across all five boroughs. This is going to be amazing. Think about restaurants you've always wanted to go to, here's the opportunity to experience them. And it's a wonderful, super Restaurant Week that is going to be really inviting, again, for New Yorkers, a special opportunity to come out and celebrate for folks who are not from here. This is the moment to be here. This is the Summer of New York City. We've gotten so much energy around this idea. I want to thank everyone in the restaurant community who's a part of it, but also in the City Council, really extraordinary efforts. I want to give the City Council a lot of credit. They really focused on how to bring our restaurant community back. With their help we've been able to do amazing things like Open Restaurants, Open Streets, cut red tape, make it easier.
Alright, let's go over our indicators for the day, and we're going to continue to analyze the indicators. Publicly, what we're seeing is, again, some greater number of cases and positivity, but we also see the thing we care about the most, thank God, hospitalizations staying very low and people not being put in dangerous results. So, let's go over the indicators. Number one, daily number of people admitted to New York City hospitals for suspected COVID-19 – today's report is 78 patients, confirmed positivity level of 6.10 percent. Hospitalization rate per 100,000, 0.28. Number two, new reported cases on a seven-day average – today's report, 328 cases. And number three, percentage of people testing city-wide positive for COVID-19 – today's report on a seven-day rolling average, 1.27 percent.
“As a precautionary measure, DEC annually prohibits shellfishing in these waters during the fireworks event because of increased recreational boating activity,” Commissioner Seggos said. “We strongly encourage boaters to act responsibly and be aware of the no-discharge zones in Three Mile Harbor and to use pump-out facilities to prevent impacts to our natural resources and protect public health.”
Since 1993, DEC has closed Three Mile Harbor to shellfishing on the day of the fireworks, as well as the following four days. DEC enacts the temporary closure due to the increased potential for contamination of shellfish beds from the large number of recreational boats that gather for this popular event. Potential discharges of waste from marine sanitation devices (toilets) may temporarily contaminate nearby shellfish beds, rendering them unsafe for human consumption.
The annual event draws hundreds of boaters each year, including many that remain in the area overnight. Boaters are reminded that they are required to use pump out facilities in the Peconic-Gardiners Bay area, which includes Three Mile Harbor, because the area is a No-Discharge Zone. A No-Discharge Zone is a body of water designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where discharges of treated or untreated boat sewage are prohibited. The Town of East Hampton Trustees operate a pump out boat that can be reached by using marine radio, VHF Channel 73, or calling 631-644-7162. The Town Harbormaster’s office at Gann Road has a self-serve facility. Both are available at no fee for boaters.
DEC will designate the following area as closed to the harvest of shellfish beginning at sunrise on Saturday, July 17, and continuing through Wednesday, July 21: all the normally certified shellfish lands in Three Mile Harbor, including tributaries, located south of a line extending due east from the northern end of the western jetty at the inlet of Three Mile Harbor, to the northern end of the eastern jetty, on the eastern side of the inlet. This area of approximately 945 acres includes the entrance channel into the harbor.
Shellfish harvesting is expected to resume in this area on Thursday, July 22. If the event is canceled or postponed due to inclement weather, DEC may rescind the closure and reopen the areas to harvesting earlier than July 22.
A recorded message advising the public about temporary closures of any shellfishing areas in New York State is accessible 24 hours a day by calling (631) 444-0480. The recorded message also advises harvesters when such areas have reopened. Information, including maps showing the affected areas, is available on DEC's website.
New York State Police Issue More Than 10,238 Tickets During the July 4th Weekend Enforcement Period
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today in conjunction with the New York State Police announced that 10,238 tickets were issued statewide during the July 4th Weekend enforcement campaign.
"Putting others in danger by driving impaired is unacceptable in the State of New York and those who do it will be held accountable," Governor Cuomo said. "Thank you to the women and men of law enforcement around the state who patrol our streets to keep us safe. Lives were saved this holiday weekend because of your hard work and dedication to the people you serve."
The special enforcement period began on Friday, July 2, 2021 and ran through Monday, July 5, 2021.
During the campaign, partially funded by the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee, State Police utilized sobriety checkpoints, targeted reckless and aggressive driving, and ticketed distracted drivers who used handheld electronic devices.
Troopers arrested 195 people for DWI and investigated 648 crashes, including 122 personal injury crashes and two fatalities.
As part of the enforcement, Troopers also targeted speeding and aggressive drivers across the state. Below is a sampling of the total tickets that were issued.
During last year's 4th of July Weekend enforcement campaign, which ran from July 3, 2020, through July 5, 2020, the State Police issued 8,214 total tickets and arrested 180 people for DWI.
Scammers Use Fake Text Message to Try to Get Users to Click on Fraudulent Link
The New York State Division of Consumer Protection and the Department of Motor Vehicles today warned New Yorkers of a text message phishing scheme. Phishing texts are fraudulent messages designed to obtain data or sensitive personal information to be used to commit identity theft or trick the recipient into installing malicious software onto a computer or mobile device. To help protect against phishing or smishing (SMS phishing) scams, the NYS Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) and the Division of Consumer Protection recommend the following precautions:
For more information on phishing scams, as well as steps to mitigate a phishing attempt, visit the NYS Office of Information Technology Services Phishing Awareness resources page at https://its.ny.gov/resources or the Division of Consumer Protection Phishing Scam Prevention Tips page at https://dos.ny.gov/identity- The New York State Division of Consumer Protection serves to educate, assist and empower the State’s consumers. For more consumer protection information, call the DCP Helpline at 800-697-1220, Monday through Friday, 8:30am-4:30pm or visit the DCP website at https://dos.ny.gov/consumer- |
"Another round of storms are expected to hit downstate this afternoon with heavy rain and high winds bringing with them possible flash flooding and isolated power outages, not to mention difficult travel," Governor Cuomo said. "I have directed state agencies to stand ready to assist local partners if needed, and I encourage New Yorkers to pay close attention to weather forecasts and help to ensure loved ones and neighbors are prepared and safe."
For the downstate area, including the Lower Hudson Valley, New York City and Long Island, showers are expected to begin this morning, changing over to thunderstorms this afternoon. Some storms may produce gusty winds and heavy rainfall, and an isolated tornado cannot be ruled out. It will be humid with highs in the mid-80s and winds generally at 5-10 mph, with gusts up to 60 mph in some locations at times. More showers and thunderstorms are forecast to impact the downstate area throughout the week, bringing more rain and the potential for flooding and power outages.
A Flash Flood Watch also remains in effect for parts of Central New York, including southern Oneida County, until noon today. Showers this morning may contain locally heavy rainfall. Parts of the area that already received significant rainfall during the past several days are at risk, especially in poor drainage areas and locations that have very wet soils from recent rains. Rivers are expected to crest between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. tomorrow.
Multiple Flash Flood Advisories, Watches and Warnings have been issued by the National Weather Service through Tuesday morning. New Yorkers can view weather alerts in their area by visiting the National Weather Service website here.
