I really don’t now if End of the Year lists are fun for readers or just a lazy way for writers to take up space in a newspaper of magazine. Maybe it’s both. Sometimes the lists are helpful in giving us a second chance at the news we’ve somehow missed. I’m guessing even the more oblivious among us remember Robin Williams died in 2014. But Mickey Rooney died, too. Who knew? As did another childhood star, Shirley Temple. I vaguely remember hearing they died but if somebody said they died in 2010 or 2011 I would’ve bought it.
I don’t remember anything that happened in the first few months of 2014 except the cold. Everybody remembers the cold. But I don’t have a clue about much else. Unless something personally significant happened to you (birth, death, engagement) can you remember February, 2014? We remember it was cold and it sucked. After all the local kooks jumped in the ocean on January 1, 2014 does anyone remember anything else from that frozen month?
While the usual media outlets will give you the best and worst of this and that on the national stage, here’s a rundown of what happened in Rockaway in 2014.
January. It was cold. But it’s also the month that Mayor de Blasio announced the EXTENSION of the ferry (for three months). The Parks Department announced a delay in the boardwalk rebuild because piping plovers couldn’t stand the noise.
February. It was cold. The YMCA opened. It was cold (after research I felt better about my memory: nothing really did happen).
March. It was cold. The Mayor blew off the St. Patrick’ Day parade. Beach replenishment was supposed to have started; it didn’t. The Homeowners Flood Insurance Affordability Act was signed by the President.
April. It was less cold (though on April 14th the temperature was 36 degrees). The Mayor announced that Build It Back would be fixed. The boardwalk rebuild got started. Parks announced that a whopping ten block stretch would be done in 13 months (Memorial Day, 2015).
May. The Irish Circle closed. I handed in a resignation letter at another paper, figuring Boyleing Points would be Mickey Rooney (dead in 2014). People loved the ferry which was extended through the summer.
June. The Rockaway Times was born (you might not remember that, but I do. Like I said, you can remember significant events – the Rock Times was like giving birth to a twelve pound baby). Rockaway! an art exhibit spearheaded by
The Rockaway Artists Alliance, MOMA PS1, and Jamaica Bay – Rockaway Parks Conservancy opened at Fort Tilden.
July. Your beach was open; your beach was closed. The Parks Department said one thing and did another.
August. The guy who could’ve been mayor, Anthony Weiner, was looking to open a restaurant in Rockaway. The actual Mayor turned his back to a large group of people from Rockaway who had come to City Hall to rally for making the ferry permanent. The Parks Department banned boogie boards for a few short days. Rockaway locals helped turn that one around.
September. Whales were spotted up and down the beach. The Rockaway Times scored a great front page, thanks to Jay Butler who sent us a picture of his son, Joe, on a boogie board looking out at a whale, not all that far off shore. The Rockaway Word Search became eerily popular. Who knew?
October, November, and December aren’t that long ago. I don’t have to provide reminders for those months, do I? All right, all right.
The ferry went kaput in October. The boardwalk rebuild looked stalled (officials say all is on schedule. May I digress? They may be “on schedule” but the schedule is a sham!). Come November, Rockaway wasn’t the only one now complaining about The Mayor. De Blasio earned citywide scorn when he showed up late to the Flight 587 memorial.
December was not that cold. And “not that cold” is not the kind of thing you remember.
So, that’s the roundup. I guess not much happened in 2014. If I didn’t have to fill a column, I could’ve given you the short version. We lost a ferry and never got a boardwalk. But we did get a speed camera.
Happy 2015!
No comments:
Post a Comment