The local paper for the Upper East Side
WEEK OF APRIL THE LYRICAL EVERYDAY ◄ P. 20
13-19 2017
Former President Barack Obama joined then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg to tour some of the sites hardest-hit by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Photo: Spencer T Tucker/Mayor’s Office of Photography
CITY COPES WITH TRUMP APPROACH TO CLIMATE CHANGE ENVIRONMENT With proposed cuts to the EPA, will there be more Sandys in Manhattan’s future? BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
“People were living in our backyard in tents,” said Jeff Lydon, board secretary of the West Village Houses. “It looked like Katrina with piles of personal belongings, personal effects, sofas, photographs just piled up. It was terrible.” He was talking about Hurricane Sandy, which became the second-costliest storm of its kind when it made landfall in October 2012. Though most of the damage was to New Jersey and the outer boroughs, Lower Manhattan and the West Side are among those still recovering. Lydon’s residential co-op houses more than 1,000 people, and many of those whose apartments were
flooded during Sandy had to pay for the repairs out of pocket. In a recent study commissioned by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Office of Resiliency and Recovery, the global nonprofit think tank RAND Corporation found that many New York City households could lose crucial flood insurance if Congress decides to phase out certain subsidies in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). “A considerable number of one- to four-family structures face substantial flood risk based on their elevation relative to water depth,” the report reads. Individual premiums could increase by $2,000 per year if the government lets the program expire at the end of September. The mayor said he was proud to unveil the report as part of the city’s “multilayered resiliency program.” “If Congress doesn’t act, rising flood insurance rates
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Volunteers in the church kitchen. Photo: Nancy Ellis Yates
DINNER WITH DIGNITY CHURCHES All Souls on the Upper East Side serves restaurant-style meals to almost 400 people every week BY LAURA HANRAHAN
“Dining with dignity” is the motto at All Souls’ Monday Night Hospitality dinner. Every week for the past 37 years, volunteers at All Souls Unitarian Church on Lexington and East 80th Street have prepped, cooked and served sit-down, restaurant-style meals to in-need members of the community. George Collins, the program’s cochair, has been volunteering every
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Monday night for nearly two decades. Twenty years ago, he says, the average Monday night dinner would serve 75 guests. Now the number is closer to 400. “It’s an aspect of the economy,” Collins said. The program was initially created in response to Upper East Side servants and maids whose living standards declined after losing their jobs due to age. Today, roughly 40 percent of those who attend are homeless, while others are working poor or elderly. Starting at 4:30 p.m., volunteers busily transform the large, basementlevel church hall into a makeshift restaurant. Twenty-five tables are carefully set with tablecloths, cutlery, china dishes, napkins, bread baskets
and vases of flowers. Stations for food and drinks are set up along the outside walls, where the volunteer waitstaff, in their matching aprons, can refill their trays. In the kitchen, a team prepares the evening’s feast. On the menu is a gar-
CONTINUED ON PAGE 13 Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat and the Holiday candles. Friday, April 14 - 7:17 pm End of Passover, Sunday, April 16 - 7:19 pm Monday, April 17 - after 8:21 pm from a pre-existing flame For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com
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