We woke up today, the 320th consecutive day without snow in New York City, like we did every other day this winter.
First, we rubbed some ice cubes all over our worn copy of "The Power of Positive Thinking." Then we consumed eight Hostess Snoballs, one for each inch of the snow that we are attempting to will into existence. Next, we logged into PlowNYC, the City's snow plow tracking website, because we want that site to get some traffic. Finally, we made coffee.
It seems that all our efforts are finally paying off. According to the National Weather Service, it may be cold enough in New York City on Wednesday to substitute this miserable rain with actual, bonafide snowflakes. NWS says "new snow accumulation of around an inch [is] possible," but our pal John Homenuk, aka NY Metro Weather, gives us even more hope.
"Some guidance suggests as much as 2 to 3 inches of snow could fall before the change to rain, while others suggest precipitation simply starts as rain—a non event," Homenuk writes.
As Homenuk points out, this snow would be the second-latest ever recorded in NYC, with the first being in 1973, when we didn't get any real snow until January 29.
Even if we do get this Wednesday snow, it's gonna turn to rain. But we'll take what we can get!
While we make some new ice cubes here are some links:
- Lawrence Ray, the leader of the Sarah Lawrence "sex cult" detailed in a New York magazine feature, has been sentenced to 60 years in prison.
- City employees who were fired for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine are being reinstated as a result of their successful lawsuits.
- Governor Hochul's $1 billion Buffalo Bills stadium giveaway has been snagged on the "community benefits agreement" for months—i.e., what exactly are the residents of Erie County getting out of this gigantic sop to billionaires? There's an official meeting today to discuss the topic.
- Speaking of New York football teams: Let us not speak of them for another year.
- The Times has a horrifying story about a Brooklyn anesthesiologist whose epidurals allegedly killed one woman and made six others seriously ill. The doctor has since been stripped of his license, but it's a glaring example of the substandard care that women in predominately Black neighborhoods receive. And it's why Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso has dedicated the entirety of his office's $45 million budget to improving maternal care in his borough's public hospitals.
- Racial disparities also extend to crash investigations: Streetsblog reported that the NYPD is more likely to solve fatal hit-and-run crashes in majority white neighborhoods.
- If you haven't yet read about how the Getty family dodges billions of dollars in taxes, you should.
- Ten people were killed in Los Angeles on Saturday night, shot dead by a gunman who stormed a Lunar New Year's Eve celebration. Huu Can Tran, the 72-year-old man who police believe was responsible, later killed himself.
