What you need to know for Wednesday.
A Water Main Breaks Every Day in the City |
Weather: Partly sunny, with a high in the mid-40s. Watch out for rain in the evening. |
Alternate-side parking: Suspended for Lincoln’s Birthday. |
 | | Karsten Moran for The New York Times |
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The Times’s James Barron reports: |
New York City has 7,000 miles of water mains, enough to send water to Seattle and back. Those water mains are one part of an incomprehensibly intertwined network of tunnels, wires and cables below ground that help keep the city moving. |
The average New York water main is 66 years old; if it were a person, you would call it a Boomer. |
The city spends about $400 million a year to replace the pipes, but at least one water main still erupts each day. On Monday, a water main gave way on the Lower East Side, closing streets and gushing water for hours. Last month, a pair of breaks caused widespread delays for commuters. |
The city recorded 459 water main breaks in the last fiscal year, about 1.2 per day. Only a few of those were big enough to attract most people’s attention. |
There were about 6.6 water main breaks for every 100 miles of mains last year, according to Vincent Sapienza, the commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection. While that may sound like a lot, it is actually the second-lowest rate among large cities, behind Boston, which has 4.1 breaks per 100 miles of mains. The national average is 25 breaks a year for every 100 miles of mains. |
Two water main breaks in January caused major subway delays, as did two breaks last year and one in 2018. But most do not cause widespread delays. The Environmental Protection Department has recorded more than 400 water main breaks nearly every year since 1998. |
The city says 44 percent of water main breaks happen in December, January and February. |
“The freeze-thaw cycle certainly plays a part in causing breaks,” Mr. Sapienza said. “If you have 20 degrees one day and 45 degrees the next day, that presents a challenge.” |
The city says it replaces roughly one mile of water mains every week. Mayor de Blasio’s administration plans to spend $800 million over the next two years on new water mains and related infrastructure. |
City workers also try to step in before a problem occurs. They work on “modulating pressure,” which involves slowly opening valves to keep them limber. You can think of it as Pilates for pipes. |
Equipment can also detect the telltale sign of leaky pipes: a distinctive whooshing sound. |
And there is the human ear. Anastasios Georgelis, the deputy commissioner for water and sewer operations, said workers know what trouble underground sounds like. “It could be a couple hundred feet away, but you’re going to hear it,” he said. |
“The big thing in Queens right now is the bus redesign,” Andy Byford, the outgoing subway chief, said in an interview. [Queens Chronicle] |
Hispanic residents, young people and renters are underrepresented on Manhattan’s community boards. [The City] |
Go to a screening of “Jimi Plays Monterey” and “Shake! Otis at Monterey” at Nowadays in Manhattan. 8 p.m. [Free] |
— Alana Herlands and Melissa Guerrero |
Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times’s culture pages. |
And finally: Why you can’t take a car on the Staten Island Ferry |
The Times’s Derek Norman writes: |
At some point, you might have wondered: Should I drive between Manhattan and Staten Island or take the ferry? |
Not long ago, you could have done both. As many New Yorkers remember, drivers used to take their cars and motorcycles onto the Staten Island Ferry. |
Vincent Barkley, a native New Yorker living in Maryland, recalls those days fondly. Mr. Barkley, whose father worked on the ferry, said he regularly took the boat to his job at a machine shop in Manhattan. |
“I used to, on occasion, ride my motorcycle through the night in New Jersey and Staten Island and take the ferry to work in Manhattan, bright and early,” Mr. Barkley said. |
“It was such a lift to motor onto the ferry and watch the harbor view unfold to the low rumble of the ferry’s engines,” he added, “then to go upstairs and buy coffee and a hard roll with butter for dunking.” |
A few years ago, Mr. Barkley was visiting the city. When he reached the ferry with the intention of driving his car aboard, he said, the transit police told him it wasn’t possible. |
According to the city’s Department of Transportation, the ferry service, which operates 24/7 and carries about 25 million passengers a year, stopped allowing vehicles after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. |
At the time, Transportation Department officials said vehicles posed a security risk because they could be used in an attack. Screening each one, they said, would be too time consuming. |
It’s Wednesday — take a ride. |
Metropolitan Diary: Tuesday morning |
I awoke with chest full to bursting |
From a dream of life’s fleeting beauty |
But I could not sustain the feeling. |
My makeup smeared, coffee spilled down my wrist, |
The train, hot and crowded, |
Still, I tried to remember the dream, |
How a stranger had offered up a piece of ripe pear |
That might have been her last. |
A small dog crossed the street |
Pulling a bemused human behind it, |
A crossing guard’s lithe laughter |
Shared with me for a moment |
New York Today is published weekdays around 6 a.m. You can also find it at nytoday.com. |
We’re experimenting with the format of New York Today. What would you like to see more (or less) of? Post a comment or email us: nytoday@nytimes.com. |
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