#600.1 Update on First Av. closure

UPPER EAST SIDE — Police continue to block off parts of East 63rd Street to traffic and pedestrians three days after bricks rained down onto the roadway from a building under construction. A wall of bricks tumbled off the facade of 340 E. 64th St., near First Avenue, and onto East 63rd Street on Monday at around the same time as Monica & Xavi walk up 63rd to go to swimming, and while no was hurt during the incident, East 63rd Street, from York to Second avenue, and First Avenue, from East 62nd to East 64th streets, remains closed until the city determines they're safe for pedestrians, according to a Department of Buildings spokesman. The building was undergoing renovation at the time, including work on its facade, roof and terraces, according to DOB records.

While some Upper East Siders said the street closures are inconvenient, others said it was a welcome relief from the heavy traffic that usually takes over the area. "It's wonderful," said East 63rd Street resident Jay Katz. "I hope they keep it closed. This is the loudest street in New York." Katz, who moved to the block four months ago, said he can't sleep at night without running his air conditioner to block out the sound of honking horns caused by traffic backed up from the Queensboro Bridge, an issue that has been attributed to the timing of the street lights. "I feel unsafe here," Katz added. "It's bullsh-t that bricks have fallen and to not know the reason." Celeste J., a resident of East 63rd Street, was walking her dog west on the street until she came upon the road block. She ended up having to walk around to York Avenue and up East 64th Street instead to go home, she said. "I'm just curious why the bricks fell," she said.

Several stores are also closed off to pedestrians as well, including Lunetta Pizza, Felice, JAJ's Nails, Ahana Sushi, a wine shop, called Cork & Bottle and 16 Handles. "We have zero business right now," said Cork & Bottle owner Tom Schasar, adding that he typically gets 500 to 600 customers on an average day during the holiday season. He said he was also concerned for his nine employees who have been out of work for the past three days. "Nobody knows what theyre doing and there's no information about when they're going to have the sidewalk open." Residents of Yorkgate, at 405 E. 63rd St., told their doorman, Leo Sahiti, that its been hard to go shopping on the block, Sahiti said. "Everybody is complaining" he added. http://pix11.com/2015/12/10/threat-of-more-falling-bricks-on-upper-east-side-prompts-evacuation-of-neighboring-building/

#600 First Avenue Partially Closed After Wall Collapses Into Street, City Says

UPPER EAST SIDE — A wall of bricks tumbled off the front of a building on the Upper East Side and crashed onto East 63rd Street, leaving part of First Avenue closed Tuesday, officials said. The avenue was temporarily shut down to traffic from East 59th Street to East 64th Street. The bricks were still strewn across the roadway after falling from the face of 340 E. 64th St., just off First Avenue, about 10:40 p.m., officials said.

The building has eight open DOB violations, mostly for elevator issues, according to the agency's website. "It's the layer above the roofline that came off," FDNY Deputy Chief John McLaughlin said. "Most of it landed on setbacks, but quite a good amount of debris ended up in the street at this intersection." Miraculously, no one was injured, fire officials said. Witnesses said they heard a thunderous crash. "I just got into my car and heard screaming from the street," said Rachel Surizon, who lives in the building. "It was a very big noise. The first minute, I thought maybe it was a bomb. I saw some stone falling." McLaughlin said First Avenue would likely be shut down for at least a day. "The big issue is not so much what needs to be fixed, it's how to get up there to fix it," he said. "So we're talking about 24 to 48 hours probably before we get a good assessment of what's happening." The Department of Buildings was dispatching staff to investigate, according to its website. McLaughlin said the damage could've been far worse had the incident happened earlier in the day. "I would say that's the one thing the worked for us," he said. "But even at that hour, it's New York City. You generally have pedestrian traffic, so it is remarkable." source: By Trevor Kapp and Aidan Gardiner | December 8, 2015 8:55am (www.dnainfo.com)

#599. Happy Thanksgiving

Beautiful day today: got up to 15C. Central Park was spectacular. Watched the parade in the morning and had Aust. expat friends Ray, Diane & Katerina for dinner in the evening.

#598. Beautiful fall colors at the NYBG

Fall colors are past their peak in the NYC area now, but they were peaking last week when we visited the Botanical Garden

#597. Big Top at Lincoln Center

This evening we were at the Lincoln Center, but not to see the ballet or listen to the NY Philharmonic. We were there for the Big Apple Circus - not in Avery Fisher Hall or David Koch Theater, but on a back lot at W.62nd b/w Columbus & Amsterdam. We were with a group from Xavi's nursery school, on discount tickets. It was fun, although with mild apprehension after the terrible events in Paris yesterday

#596: Missing marathoner is found, still in his race gear (source: NY Times)

For most runners, the finish line of the New York City Marathon is the end of an arduous journey. For Gianclaudio P. Marengo, it was just the beginning of a two-day ordeal that ended on Tuesday morning when he was found by an off-duty police officer on the subway — disheveled, confused and still in his running gear. His race started like thousands of others, on Sunday, in the predawn hours on Staten Island. Mr. Marengo, 30, does not speak English and had never been to the city, but he was with a team of seven other runners from Italy and he had trained months for this day. Antonio Boschini, 58, who served as a medic for the Italians, said in an interview that just getting to the race had been a victory of sorts. Mr. Marengo was part of a group of recovering addicts from San Patrignano, a drug rehabilitation center on the Adriatic coast. Since February, the center's group of elite runners has been training with a top marathon coach in a program designed to help recovering drug addicts improve their self-confidence through sports. “He is certainly a fragile, vulnerable and very emotional person who after years of drug dependency found the chance to recover in San Patrignano,” the center said in a statement. Mr. Marengo was not registered to run but wore a number assigned to Mr. Boschini: 23781. He carried a bag with a few essentials: a subway map, a card for his hotel in Queens and some food. At some point along the 26.2-mile course, Mr. Boschini said, Mr. Marengo reached into the bag for a bite to eat. For a long stretch he ran with a partner, but Mr. Boschini said that Mr. Marengo was the least athletic of his group and by the time he crossed the finish line in Central Park, he was alone. Officials for New York Road Runners, which organizes the race, said that the person wearing No. 23781 finished the race in 4 hours 44 minutes 27 seconds. It was 3:03 p.m. Mr. Marengo looked for his friends, Mr. Boschini said, but could not find them. Then he looked in his bag. Somewhere along the course, perhaps when he pulled out the food, he had dropped both his hotel card and his subway map. “He could not find the way to the hotel,” Mr. Boschini said. “So he remained in the park.” After a few hours, the other Italians realized something was wrong. “We went to the park but we did not find him,” Mr. Boschini said. When he did not show up for a dinner reservation, the group called the Italian Consulate. The consulate called the police. Mr. Marengo was lost. “He spent the night in the park,” Mr. Boschini said. The Italians were scheduled to fly out of the city on Monday morning so, Mr. Marengo went to Kennedy International Airport to catch the rest of the group. “He stayed at the airport and waited,” Mr. Boschini said. “But they thought he looked homeless so they kicked him out.” By then, it was late on Monday and Mr. Marengo had nowhere to go. He boarded the subway still outfitted for the race. While many runners, medals dangling around their necks and blue capes draped across their backs, could be seen around the city for hours after the race, by Monday night Mr. Marengo was looking a bit out of place. On Tuesday morning, Officer Man Yam, 43, boarded the No. 2 train, heading for work in Lower Manhattan. He was reading a Daily News article about a missing runner on his phone, when he lost reception as the train reached the 34th Street-Penn Station stop around 6:40 a.m. “I got a seat and, literally, he is sitting across from me,” Officer Yam said. “It hit me right away based on his mannerism and what he looked like.” The man, his lips dry and trembling, was “looking left, looking right, looking left, looking right,” the officer said. “He kept turning and looking to the map. He seemed like he was under duress, like he happened to be lost or not knowing where he was going.” Officer Yam identified himself and showed his departmental identification, saying “police” in Spanish. He asked the man if he minded coming with him. The man nodded. They got up to the street and Officer Yam bought him a glazed white doughnut with coffee for $3. He confirmed he had Mr. Marengo by pulling the photo from the newspaper’s website. “I was just doing what any person, man or woman, whether in my department or not, would do,” Officer Yam said. “What mattered the most is he smiled. He realized that he’d been found, he was in good hands.” The Italian Consulate said that, aside from minor dehydration, Mr. Marengo was in good health. On Tuesday night, Mr. Boschini went to the hospital to pick his friend up. Together, the two were scheduled to fly back to Italy, the marathon finally over.

#595. Marathon highlight

I did 3:57. OK,but not great. Did 3:55 two years ago (and 3:47 in 1990)