Friday the 13th, a lunar eclipse, conspiracy? It’s anybody’s guess why the park and street lamps failed to come on at dusk, cloaking the entire park block in darkness.
FDHP director Kim Baker reported the total blackout on 9/13 to Parks Manager Shena Kaufman and filed a 311 complaint ticket. Six days later, the park block was still cloaked in darkness. When we learned that DOT maintains all lamps and that standard wait time can be a week to 15 days, we sent out an SOS. Many thanks to 17th Precinct Captain Maggie Clamp, Manhattan Parks Chief of Staff Steve Simon, and Patrick Hill, Community Liaison FOR CM Keith Powers, who raised the clarion call for immediate attention.
Now we wait as this UN gateway goes into lockdown and heads of state attend the 79th session of the UNGA.