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New York Post
6 days ago
- Climate
- New York Post
Rain soaks NYC Father's Day — and that's just the beginning
Dads across the Big Apple braved a rainy, gray Father's Day — as forecasters warn the gloomy stretch is only getting started. 'Monday through Wednesday is going to stay overcast, with highs mostly in the 60s and low 70s,' FOX Weather meteorologist Cody Braud told The Post on Sunday. 'It's just gonna be another kind of similar stretch of days like today, where it's kind of gloomy outside, but there may also be some pockets of extremely light rain,' Braud said. Advertisement Then the weather will take a turn for the worse Thursday evening. 3 Coney Island's attractions still lure dads and their families despite the gloomy weather Sunday. Gregory P. Mango 'There's actually a chance of severe storms on Thursday,' Baud said. 'There's gonna be a cold front pushing in from the west. Advertisement 'We could see some storms later in the afternoon, possibly even once the sun goes down, bringing the threat of damaging winds,' he added. Despite Sunday's dismal skies, several determined dads hit the sights from Citi Field to Coney Island to make the most of their rain-soaked afternoon with the family. At Citi Field in Queens, 41-year-old Michael Handell wouldn't let the rain ruin his Father's Day and his daughter's first-ever Mets game. 'The weather's been terrible,' said Handell, a Washington Heights native who runs a kids' sports program. 'It seems to rain on the weekends all the time, like every weekend there seems to be rain.' Advertisement But his daughters, Libby, 6, and Molly, 3, were still 'excited' despite the weather while clad in their colorful rain coats. 'It's what I want to do on Father's Day,' Handell said. 'It's a great gift.' 3 Families also braved the unseasonable weather at the Mets' City Field stadium in Queens. Michael Nagle On Coney Island in Brooklyn, Dan Lutz, 55, came in from Sayville, LI, with his son Jason, 12, for a new Father's Day tradition of riding the amusement park's famed Cyclone rollercoaster. Advertisement 'We would have gone more times but had to stop after three times because of the rain hitting you in the face, it's a little rough,' he said. Sebastian Green, a 40-year-old filmmaker from Astoria, Queens, also was at Luna Park and watched his sons, ages 7 and 4, play in the arcade. 'This is a great Father's Day!' Green said. 'It's important to teach them that the rain doesn't stop you from having a good time.' 3 'It's important to teach them that the rain doesn't stop you from having a good time,' Sebastian Green said as he enjoyed the day with his sons, 7 and 4, in Luna Park on Coney Island. Gregory P. Mango But some locals were fazed by the gloom. 'This whole weekend's a washout! This kind of cold, wet weather destroys the business,' grumbled a man named Denny, 70, who was slinging candy apples and cotton candy at Lunatic Ice Cream. 'You get nothing, maybe 10% of what's normal on a weekend,' he said of customers. 'It's only tourists. Who's going to want to spend their Father's Day walking around in this?' Advertisement But after the cold, rainy stretch this week, New Yorkers can expect a pivot to more summer-like temperatures. Sunny skies and hot temps reaching the 90s are expected toward the tail end of the week, Braud said.
New York Post
04-06-2025
- Health
- New York Post
NYPD's teenage ‘Commissioner for a Day' is on a mission to end deadly subway surfing through social media
He wants to stop subway surfing dead in its tracks! A bright Bronx teenager who won the NYPD's annual 'Commissioner for a Day' award Wednesday is on a mission to end deadly subway surfing through social media, he told The Post. Carmelo Vereen, 18, was given the honorary role after penning an essay on how to 'deter young people' from the daredevil stunt, which has killed 14 New Yorkers in the past two years. Advertisement 'Kids are subway surfing as young as 11, so their minds aren't really fully comprehending what they're doing,' Vereen, an 11th grader at the Urban Assembly Bronx Academy of Letters, told The Post. 'Social media is one of the ways that subway surfing has gained a huge popularity. It's one of the [reasons] why people are doing it now,' he said. The same tool should be used to 'dismantle it' and 'make it seem as not cool a trend,' he said. Advertisement For the contest, the Police Athletic League posed the essay question, 'As Police Commissioner, what steps would you take with MTA officials to prevent and deter young people from participating in 'subway surfing?'' Vereen, center, said social media and other forms of education could help stop subway surfing. Gregory P. Mango Vereen — who eventually wants to become a police officer himself — begins his essay with a bold statement about the growing trend, which involves riding on top of moving trains. 'When a 14-year-old died subway surfing in 1996, former Mayor Giuliani said this: 'There is no way that you can protect a child who decides to surf on top of a subway car.' ' Advertisement 'However, I disagree with that,' he writes. Vereen wants to eventually become a police officer. Gregory P. Mango He goes on to recommend a 'TrendStat' program that would track and flag online posts that glamorize subway surfing with the goal of getting them taken down. In the essay, the clever teen also pushes for cops to use youth programs that bring the survivors of subway surfing and families 'who lost loved ones' together to educate young folks about the dangerous trend. Advertisement During a ceremony at One Police Plaza Wednesday, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch praised Vereen's ideas. 'Your essay rose to the top. And it wasn't just because of how well you wrote. It was the way that you thought,' she said. 'You approached it with empathy, with depth, and with the understanding that no one agency can solve any problem alone.' Along with the honorary title, Vereen was also awarded $500 cash and a chance to spend the day with some of the city's top cops, according to PAL New York.
New York Post
04-06-2025
- General
- New York Post
War on rats gets ugly as hundreds of ‘eyesore' Empire Bins gobble up parking spaces in Harlem
These drivers are in for rat-ical change. West Harlem has become the first neighborhood in the United States to have all of its trash containerized in order to squash uptown rats' curbside trash feasts, City Hall officials said Monday – but the hundreds of UFO-like 'Empire Bins' are now permanently taking some coveted parking spots, The Post has learned. Advertisement 4 West Harlem has become the first neighborhood in the United States to have all of its trash containerized in an attempt to squash uptown rats' curbside trash feasts. Gregory P. Mango The latest cohort of European-style bins, which are mandatory for all residential properties with more than 30 units, were installed over the weekend — and have gobbled up about 4% of parking spaces in the neighborhood overnight, a city sanitation department rep told The Post. 'It takes up parking spots that were already hard to find,' said Harlem resident Erica Lamont, who claims she circled the blocks of Broadway and West 149th Street for a half-hour on Tuesday morning. Advertisement 'The bins are the size of small cars and when you put two and three on a residential street, you are ultimately forcing people to force blocks away,' Lamont, 46, said. 'It's not placed in no standing or truck loading zones – they are placed in the few actual parking spots that residents could get,' said Michelle R., a 40-year-old dog sitter in the neighborhood. 'I like the garbage cans, but I feel bad for the people that normally park their cars there.' Other locals, like Harlem resident David Jones, simply blasted the bizarre look of the gargantuan containers. 'It's an eyesore,' said Jones, 40. 'It's right there in front of your face. I'm neutral. If it does the job then let's applaud it — If it doesn't, then let's get rid of them and come up with something else.' Advertisement 4 The latest cohort of European-style bins, which are mandatory for all residential properties with more than 30 units, were installed over the weekend, the city said. Gregory P. Mango Some locals previously told The Post the massive receptacles clash with the neighborhood's aesthetic, even though they may be needed to scare away rats. The pilot program, which spans Manhattan's Community Board 9, includes 1,100 on-street containers for about 29,000 residents living in properties with over 30 units, as well as about half of properties with 10 to 30 units that opted to use the bins. The locked bins are accessible to building staff and waste managers via 'access cards,' and have been serviced by automated side-loading trucks since Monday. Advertisement 'Rat sightings in NYC are down six months in a row,' a DSNY rep told The Post. 'This is the exact same period that residential bin requirements have been in effect. Containerization WORKS, and there is no reason that other cities can have it and New York can't.' 4 The pilot program, which spans Manhattan's Community Board 9, includes 1,100 on-street containers for about 29,000 residents. Gregory P. Mango But while citywide rat sightings are down, Manhattan's Community Board 9 has seen a 7.8% jump in rat sightings compared to this time last year, according to a Post analysis of 311 data. Still, City Hall hopes the new bins will end the curbside rat buffet fueled by garbage bags lingering on residential streets — which uptown residents say have made it nearly impossible to walk on some streets at night. 'When there's trash on the sidewalk, there's rats—plain and simple. And yet for years, City Hall acted like trash cans were some sort of sci-fi/fantasy invention,' said Council Member Shaun Abreu, Chair of the Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management. 'Now with full containerization in West Harlem and Morningside Heights, we've got clean bins, no more sidewalk piles, and fewer rats. We fought like hell to make this happen, and now we're proving it works.' Harlem resident Rick M. said he hopes the new containers are effective as residents have historically had to move quickly past piles of street side trash 'because you don't know what may run out. 'I've seen rats run from one big pile to another so it's nice to not have to walk by piles of trash,' the 30-year-old said. Advertisement 4 Harlem resident Wise Grant, 64, warns the containers are only as effective as those who use them. Steven Vago/NY Post 'The rat problem was so bad here that humans couldn't be living here — they'd be attacking you right here,' lifelong Harlem resident Shanice Day told The Post at Morningside Avenue and 124th Street. Day, 39, recalls rats as big as cats 'like Master Splinter rats from Ninja Turtles' that would chew wires off people's cars — and attributes the Empire Bins to a rapid decrease in rodent sightings. 'What I can honestly say is we are almost rat free,' she added. 'If people are upset about the bins they're crazy, because they are a big help.' Advertisement But Harlem resident Wise Grant, 64, warns the containers are only as effective as those who use them. 'It slows them down but it's not a way to get rid of them,' the retired voting machine technician said. 'It's up to the individual people. People throw food on the floor and it feeds them.' 'That's what people do on the streets. They don't care … They have to care about where they live.'
New York Post
01-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
NIMBYs in million-dollar pads try to topple NYCHA plan for new apartments
6 This problem-riddled Chelsea housing project is slated to be replaced. Gregory P. Mango NIMBYs living in million-dollar pads are trying to derail the planned massive overhaul of one of Manhattan's largest NYCHA apartment complexes. The city's first-of-its-kind public-private partnership with prominent social-driven real-estate firms Related Companies and Essence Developments aims to create an entirely new neighborhood in place of the dilapidated Fulton & Elliott–Chelsea Housing projects. But some well-heeled locals are pushing back against the touted trail-blazing type of public housing. Advertisement Lydia Andre, a leader of her Chelsea neighborhood block coalition, has been knocking on the NYCHA tenants' doors, warning them of the project's dangers since it was announced. She is the first to admit she doesn't want to deal with the noise and pollution of a 16-plus-year local construction project — but she claims her opposition is mostly altruistic. 'I don't think that's outside interference,' Andre said of her efforts to raise opposition. Advertisement 'I think that's helping people speak truth to power,' she told The Post of her belief that she's protecting the tenants from displacement. Andre lives in a brownstone across the street from the NYCHA complex in an apartment that was last purchased in 2007 for $4.2 million dollars. 6 fultonelliottchelsea The design of the planned new complex moves away from the 'super block' model typically associated with public housing, while guaranteeing all current tenants will receive a new apartment in the new buildings. Advertisement The project, which will involve the demolition and rebuilding of 2,056 NYCHA units for 4,500 residents — will also construct an additional 3,500 mixed-income units. It also will feature scattered small parks and small businesses in a bid to create a more vibrant community feel. As part of her push against the plan, Andre has started championing a new candidate for City Council – a tenant who lives at Fulton Elliot – to challenge the district's incumbent of four years, Erik Bottcher, who supports the project. 'I think [Bottcher] is wrong — and you know what? So do a lot of people — that's why I got a protest candidate on the ballot and why she's qualified for matching funds,' Andre said of candidate Jacqueline Lara. 6 fultonelliottchelsea Advertisement Layla Law-Gisiko, who also lives in a million-dollar apartment in the area, has joined the fight against the plan, too, and sends weekly email blasts opposing it. Gisiko – who once ran for state assembly – may still have political ambitions, sources close to the matter told The Post. 'This project is wrong on so many levels. It siphons public funds and public land into private profits, with 91% of the financing coming from taxpayers — yet the upside goes to Related,' Law-Gisiko said. 'The first building they've targeted for demolition is the senior building. These are tenants in their 80s and 90s. If they survive one forced move, they may not survive a second. The project has relied on misinformation, manipulation, and silence. Fear is the best eviction notice—and that's exactly what's being weaponized here,' she said. Law-Gisiko runs point on the opposition to the project, alongside Fulton Elliot Houses President Renee Keitt and with the help of Lydia Andre and other neighbors. 6 Layla Law-Gisiko, a previous candidate for state assembly and a Chelsea resident, runs point on the opposition to the project. Gabriella Bass Keitt calls the project a 'land grab' and insists there is nothing in writing guaranteeing current tenants new houses. But an agreement between the city and Related has two separate clauses that protect tenants and ensure they get new homes, a review by The Post found. Advertisement Miguel Acevedo, president of the tenant association and a resident of the housing project for more than 23 years, doesn't deny that tenants feel anxious about the planned demolition but thinks the NIMBYs are actively fear-mongering. 'People always say, 'Not in my back yard,' ' he said. 'I've never seen what I'm seeing today with people outside of the development who don't live here and don't understand how unhealthy the conditions are here.' 6 This building would be replaced under the plan. fultonelliottchelsea He cited constantly broken elevators, lead, mold and a lack of working heat and water as common occurrences. Advertisement 'I always invite [the outside neighbors] to come live with us so you can see how bad it is,' he said. Acevedo said the NIMBYs are specifically targeting tenants who are behind on their rent and at risk of eviction to get behind their cause. Law-Gisiko and Andre denied the claim. It's expected that 6% of the residents may have to relocate off the site, but 94% will be able to remain in their current apartment until their new home is ready, officials said. The plan laid out by the city works like a puzzle, moving residents into empty apartments and demo-ing two buildings at a time. Advertisement 6 The current complex is rife with building-neglect issues, some residents say. Gregory P. Mango Allen Roskoff, a Democratic activist and fixture of Chelsea, lives directly across from the houses. He welcomes the project and thinks other neighbors are getting involved because they don't want noisy construction. '[The neighbors] are telling people they have to stop so that they don't have to live down the street from or listen to the construction,' he said. 'This is being done for the building, it's not being done for you — I think it's insulting to people who live there,' he said. Advertisement Sources close to the opposition have indicated they think Acevado is getting paid by Related to speak positively about the project to neighbors — which he denies. Andre and Law-Gisiko have both publicly testified also against 'City of Yes,' Mayor Eric Adams' housing plan that encourages new construction to address the Big Apple's housing shortage through zoning changes. 'They say they're for affordable housing — so why fight a plan that actually builds it?' Acevado said. But Andre fired back, 'I want to stress that this is not NIMBY-ism. 'I believe the best hedge against bad development is good/better development,' she said. 'If this project were about building 100% affordable housing on the Chelsea campuses, we would all stand down. What we object to is the idea that 70% of the campus is being turned into market-rate housing, leaving the NYCHA tenants segregated into three 38-story tall towers that will overwhelm the low-rise neighborhood on Ninth Avenue.' A NYCHA rep said that since 2019, residents at the NYCHA complex have participated in 'unprecedented, detailed and collaborative meetings and workshops' on the buildings' infrastructure needs. 'Throughout this six-year engagement process, residents have overwhelmingly made their voices heard, and themselves have outlined a plan that not only addresses over $900 million in mounting physical needs at the developments, but creates a more equitable living experience for NYCHA residents in Chelsea, inclusive of modern amenities and accessibility features, while maintaining their rights and protections,' the representative said.
New York Post
31-05-2025
- New York Post
NYC subway assaults up 19%, with police officers often targeted
More subway riders have reported being punched, kicked and stabbed so far this year than last — and many of them were police officers, the NYPD said. Felony assault is up 19% in transit, from 214 incidents at this point in 2025, to 255 as of Sunday, according to NYPD statistics. Out of the 255 assaults so far this year, 93 — or 36% — were on city police officers and MTA workers. In the same span of 2019, 44 of the 154 people assaulted — or nearly 30% — were performing law enforcement duties, the spokesperson said. 5 Andrew Pashinin, 19, was arrested for allegedly shoving a man onto Brooklyn subway tracks in December — and told reporters he did it because the victim 'said mean things' to him. Gregory P. Mango Such incidents have skyrocketed a stunning 66% when compared to 2019, before the pandemic, when 154 straphangers reported being assaulted. Retired NYPD detective and John Jay College adjunct professor Michael Alcazar blamed the uptick in assaults on the number of mentally ill in the subway and the criminal justice system. 'It's all these things, the homeless population, the EDPs (Emotionally Disturbed People), the warmer weather, prosecutors not able to keep them in jail,' he said. 'It emboldens the criminals. They get out and they're back at it the next day.' 5 Police released a photo of a man who allegedly pushed a 39-year-old victim onto the subway tracks at the Sutphin Boulevard and Archer Avenue subway station on May 22. A woman-hating goon with 20 busts under his belt was the perfect example of a recidivist assaulter when he allegedly shoved a 70-year-old grandmother to the ground in a Midtown subway station on May 12. 'What are you doing here?' Sherlock Arana sneered at Janet Parvizyar, an LA resident before shoving her into a wall and to the floor, she said. 'I don't understand, why did they let them go like this,' Parvizyar told The Post after learning of her attacker's criminal history. 'I mean, they have to do something about this. He's going to kill somebody.' 5 MTA employees on a subway platform where a person was pushed into a train. Gregory P. Mango Arana, 37, was arrested two days later after cops recognized him. He remains locked up at Rikers Island correctional facility on a second degree assault charge in lieu of $45,000 bail, records show. He pleaded guilty to assaulting two women inside separate Queens subway stations nearly a decade ago because he thought they were of Indian descent, prosecutors said. At least one was actually Bangladeshi. The most recent of his nearly two dozen prior arrests was in 2023 for a robbery, law enforcement sources said. The disposition of the case was unknown. 5 Police released photos of a man who allegedly randomly pushed an elderly man onto the subway tracks at the 74th Street and Roosevelt Avenue station in Queens on April 23. DCPI The notable increase in assaults come as other transit crime has dropped 6% so far this year, including murders, shootings, robbery, burglaries and grand larcenies, the data showed. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has attributed the crime drops in transit to an increased police presence underground, including the addition of two cops on every train overnight and hundreds more working overtime shifts. A longtime Bronx police officer attributed the increase in assaults to mental illness and crowding on trains which have been busier since congestion pricing went into effect in January. 5 Police released photos of a man they said shoved a 33-year-old man onto the train tracks on Dec. 7, 2024, after a fight at the Atlantic Avenue- Barclays Center subway station. DCPI 'You have a lot more unstable people who are on the trains,' the cop with more than 20 years on the job said. 'Congestion pricing plays a part because the trains are also more crowded.' The police presence could also be adding to the uptick in the number of assaults, especially those against officers, a retired NYPD detective said. 'People don't like when police enforce drinking and minor offenses and they get aggressive,' the retired officer said.
