Just Your Classic 60-Degree Gale Storm Pre-Christmas Commute

Last night's long-forecasted coastal storm barreled into New York City last night and, judging by the oceanic roar of wind buffeting city buildings right now, is sticking around at least through this morning. 

While more torrential rain is in the forecast through noon, unlike the flooding in September, the story of this storm appears to be wind, and the inability of our above-ground transit infrastructure to be particularly resilient to 60-mile-per-hour gale-force winds. 

The Verrazano Bridge closed for a few hours early this morning due to high winds, while the Staten Island Ferry (in the relatively protected New York Harbor) went to an every-twenty-minutes schedule (so like, just don't leave Staten Island). New York City is proud of its burgeoning ferry system, but also does not want you to recreate "The Perfect Storm" by trying to take the ferry from the Rockaways. 

What about the trains? They mostly seem to be operating well—unless the line goes above ground. MTA workers spent the night removing a tree from the tracks of the Q train, another tree from the tracks of the Franklin Ave Shuttle, debris on the tracks on 6 trains in the Bronx, more debris on the N tracks in Brooklyn, and debris on the J train tracks. 

God bless our fully subterranean kings, the E, C and R trains. 

Unlike September's catastrophic flooding, Mayor Eric Adams and the full force of City government was way out in front of this coastal storm, updating the fucking shit out of New Yorkers, giving us a heads up to help clear storm drains, avoid planning much of anything this morning, and to prepare for flooding. The city went ahead and canceled alternate side parking (before people would have had to move their cars already, unlike in September), but schools are still opening on time.

In short, today is a great morning to make a steaming pot of coffee, put off those last minute holiday errands, and curl up with a massive new project about the Adams administration from Hell Gate that Politico is already calling "incredible" and "expansive." We hope you enjoy it. 

Some links that will not lead you to a 45,000 word project about the Adams administration:

• Using AI to answer softball questions from the media is pretty funny, as exemplified by new City Council member Susan Zhuang. 
• Only 15 families have been able to take advantage of a new rule allowing City housing vouchers to be used elsewhere in the state. 
• New York City's "Right to Shelter" has functionally ended as the Adams administration puts up new, arcane roadblocks that leave migrants sleeping on freezing city streets. 
• Have you noticed that the absolutely fraudulent new rest areas on the New York State thruway are home to Chick-fil-A, a fast food joint that isn't even open on one of the busiest travel days of the week? Some heroic state legislators are trying to change that.
• City Council is voting today on a measure to make the Yankees let you take in a reusable water bottle to games.
• Brianna Suggs, Eric Adams's chief campaign fundraiser whose home was raided by the feds, has been relegated to just doing paperwork for the campaign, according to Eric Adams.
• Evil company makes hella cringe video.  
• Perhaps building a ton of new housing next to a Superfund site was not the greatest idea? 
• Oh, you thought Eric Adams was actually going to close Rikers? 
• Andrew Cuomo re-emerges onto the political scene by coming out hard against Andrew Cuomo. 
• And finally, live footage of Tommy Devito's Sunday in New Orleans.