Between the Bridges in Broad Channel

Between the Bridges in Broad Channel

by
Peter J. Mahon
December 29th,  2016

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As 2017 rapidly approaches many columns you will peruse will be filled with predictions for the coming New Year.  Unfortunately, just like Chuck Schumer's weekly Sunday press conferences, nobody ever follows up to see if anything ever came of them.  I, on the other hand, am happy to advise you that during December of last year (2015) I also jotted down several predictions for the coming 2016 new year, sealed them in an envelope and set them aside, I recently came across that envelope brimming with my prognostications and opened it to to see just how finely polished my prophetic prowess was at the time. I thought I might share them with all of you as we head into yet another New Year.

Let's start with the easy ones...the ones I got right,....zip, nada, zero!  See - I told you that would be easy.

Now let's move on to the ones I got wrong, which, as you may have already figured out, was all of them!.

#1 - I predicted the Boston Red Sox would be the 2016 World Series Champs.  I'm not going to beat myself up too much one this one as...come on now! Did anyone actually pick the Cubbies? 

#2 - Back then my crystal ball whispered to me that Bill di Blasio would smarten up and fly right during 2016 and actually start to act like a real Mayor and manage our city. Unfortunately the only flying he is doing these days is apparently to stay ahead of several grand juries looking into to his questionable campaign contributions.

#3 - My spidey sense indicated that our very own word meister and editor in chief here at the Rockaway Times, Kevin Boyle, might have a good shot at grabbing the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature for his highly acclaimed weekly "Boyleing Points" column.  Alas, Bob Dylan somehow managed to sneak past Kevin waving and singing "It ain't you babe!"

#4 - I was absolutely convinced that Dan Guarino, our resident Broad Channel bon vivant, would be the subject of his own reality cable show due to his myriad and prodigious talents as an author, actor, singer, reporter, etc. Wrong again.  Instead, it appears that our very own City Councilman, Eric Ulrich, will be vying for viewership alongside the Deadliest Catch with his own, politically oriented, reality series.

#5 - I was certain that 2016 would see Broad Channel residents Sophia and Lenny DiVirgilio back in their Sandy destroyed home on West 12th Road.  Nope!  If you stroll down West 12th Road today and view their property, it looks not unlike the end the 1982 movie Poltergeist after the family's home has been sucked out of existence leaving behind only a hole in a dirt lot. 

#6 - A quick shuffle and deal of my Tarot cards indicated that the ongoing Broad Channel Flood Mitigation project on West 11th and 12th Roads just might be completed before the 2017 New Year rang in.  Again...not to be!  It was recently revealed that the project will be halted in March of 2017 to allow full access to the involved streets by Build it Back to elevate and/or/rebuild some 35 properties before turning the streets back over to DDC to complete the new bulkhead, street reconstruction, raising and finishing!

I have to admit that, in light of my above gaffes, I feel somewhat like Ken Olson, President, Chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp. who back in 1977 offered this prediction, "There will be no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."  Nevertheless, as we are all at the ending point of this year I thought I should thank everyone who reads these missives and all your comments which inevitably make me smile.  You are one of them so here goes...thank you and have a very happy and healthy New Year!

Broad Channel, why would anyone want to live anywhere else?