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Volume XVIII • Number 10 • February 3 - 9, 2011 •
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Weary Riverdalians moan, ‘No mo’ snow!’ By MIAWLING LAM Riverdale is certainly no longer a winter wonderland. A series of deplorable snow removal efforts, along with a record January snowfall, has wreaked havoc on local businesses and frustrated motorists and pedestrians. Vast expanses of fine white powder have now been replaced with towering mounds of dirty, brown snow. Vehicles are struggling to pass on twoway streets due to snow accumulation, pedestrians are getting splattered with slush and motorists are resorting to parking at a 45 degree angle on some streets. According to the National Weather Service, the latest dumping—19 inches last Thursday—broke the city’s January snowfall record. Since the beginning of the year, an unprecedented 36 inches of snow have fallen in New York, trouncing the previous monthly record of 27.4 inches in 1925. And more is expected this week. The typical snowfall for an entire New York City winter is just 22 inches. The avalanche of snow was blamed for the collapse of the awning at Garden Gourmet supermarket on Broadway and West 233rd Street. Heavy snow sent the 60-foot-wide awning crashing to the ground early Thursday morning, causing the business to delay opening and lose hundreds of dollars in sales. Grocery manager George Hernandez told The Riverdale Review that when workers arrived to open the store, the awning was already on the ground. “There was too much snow on top and it just fell down,” he said. “I felt bad because my boss lost money. We had customers come in the morning but we
couldn’t let them come in.” Riverdale resident Emilie Swanson estimates she has spent at least nine backwrenching hours shoveling her driveway this season. Although she initially welcomed the snowfall, Swanson said she is now over winter. “This is crazy. I feel like I’ve had a shovel in my hand all winter,” she said. “It’s ridiculous, and the scary thing is, it’s only going to get worse next month.” Desperate to avoid a repeat of the now-infamous December 26 blizzard, the MTA also temporarily suspended all morning bus service last Thursday, leaving hundreds of commuters stranded. Among them was straphanger Ricardo Ramerez, who waited half an hour for a bus on West 231st Street. The grocery store assistant said his boss called him in at the last minute after his colleague couldn’t dig her car out from the snow. “I wasn’t going to say yes, but I needed the money,” he said. “I just didn’t think it would take me this long. Had I known I would be waiting this long, I would’ve walked. I would be there now.” New Yorkers also took to Twitter to lament about the unusual snowfall. One user, jamesrr1, said, “Pretty soon there will be no distinction between streets and sidewalks in NYC. We’ll all just glide around like amoebas.” Another user, willieln, complained about the piles of dirty snow that are fast building up. “New York grayed and besmirched by dirty snow and fjords of slush. City not wearing its finest colors.”
The late Guy Velella at his last public appearance last September 11th.
By BRENDAN McHUGH Guy Velella, a hugely popular former Bronx state senator, died last Thursday. He was 66. Velella died at a Bronx hospice with his wife, Pat, and his children at his side. He had been suffering from inoperable lung cancer. Once a powerful figure in Albany and beloved in his district, Velella pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy seven years ago, forcing him to resign from the Senate and surrender his law license. Velella served in the Legislature for 28 years, the first 10 as an assemblyman. He represented the 34th state Senate District as the lone Republican elected official in The Bronx. His district also covered parts of Westchester County.
Guy Velella, former Senator, was 66
A former Bronx Republican chairman, he was known for his ability to push through important legislation and to acquire state aid for New York City projects. “He was very good at bringing money into his district and protecting the neighborhoods he represented,” Congressman Eliot Engel said. “If people wanted a facility built, he would always call and push for it and do those types of things. He wasn’t a laid back person. He was someone who made things happen. He did a lot of good for the communities he represented.”
Engel knew the former state senator for 35 years and visited him a week before his death. “We had always been in different parties but had always been representing our districts in The Bronx and had a cordial relationship,” Engel said. Velella and Engel worked together from 1977 to 1982 in the Assembly. “I felt it was important for me to go over and give him some comfort,” Engel said. “He had mentioned to his wife that he enjoyed meeting with me.” Engel recalled that the two reminisced over the Continued on Page 12