High Tide
Tomorrow is December 1. All those arguments about whether it’s too early for Christmas lights or Christmas music are out the window. Like it or not, it’s the holiday season!
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Along with the holiday season come many local markets and boutiques this month. Waited until the last minute to do your gift shopping? Well, here’s the answer to your problem! All the while, you are helping to support local businesses!
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Supporting local businesses — not just our beloved advertisers, but every shop and restaurant around town — is so important these days. Not long ago we saw the Rockaway Farmers Market on 116th Street close and then last month it was Bar Marseille. Now Claudette’s has announced they will be closing their Beach 116th Street location (while their Arverne location will remain open). We hate to see so many places close that have been such staples over the last decade. We wish everyone the best with whatever lies ahead.
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NYC Lifeguard qualifying tests will begin tomorrow, December 1. After several issues were reported by locals last year with the on-site vision requirement testing, the NYC Parks Department has announced that a letter from an eye doctor will be accepted in lieu of taking the test on-site. The vision requirement for employment is still at least 20/30 vision in one eye and 20/40 in the other — without corrective lenses.
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This week, we saw a few flurries as the city received its first (although it was extremely minimal) snowfall of the season. Also this week, Upstate New York, as they are prone to, saw over two feet of snow in some places. There have been many predictions about the amount of snow that we are in store for in the city this year. Even with all the hype, it is hard to believe since NYC has not seen an accumulation of over one inch of snow in over 650 days! This impressive streak is the longest since such recording began in 1869.
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Congratulations to local Noelle Carey and her teammates of Fairfield University’s volleyball team for making the Division I NCAA Volleyball Championship Tournament. They take on Perdue in the first round today. Congratulations and good luck to Noelle and the Stags!
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Although there has not been a whole lot of activity or updates concerning the migrants being housed at Floyd Bennett Field (since the disastrous first drop off, that is), the court hearing concerning the issue, which has been delayed several times, is scheduled for Monday, December 4.
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In a recent decision by New York State’s Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state, it was ruled that cyclists have the same legal protections against a police search as car drivers. The case brought before the court involved a Far Rockaway man who was pulled over by police when they noticed something “bulky” in the man’s waistband. The man, Lance Rodriguez, later admitted to police that it was a gun. After originally pleading guilty to the gun charges, Rodriguez later appealed the case with the help of the New York City Civil Liberties Union. In a 4-3 decision, the case was dismissed by the Appeals Court which said that the police infringed on Rodriguez’s Fourth Amendment rights by stopping him in the first place. Writing in dissent of the majority opinion, Judge Madeline Singas stated, “Today, the majority abandons this Court’s long-settled precedent, overturns a gun conviction stemming from reasonable police action, and creates a new rule that transforms any stop of a bicycle from a facts and circumstances inquiry into a per se seizure.” All three dissenting judges emphasized the ruling’s possible soft on crime consequences.
