High Tide
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HAPPY NEW YEAR! May 2023 be better than 2022! Which we hope was better than 2021. Which we know was better than 2020. And may you have resolve in your resolutions.
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Congratulations to Keith Bugsy Goldberg on being named The Rockaway Times Person of the Year. We started this tradition last year when Liz Hanna was crowned for all her efforts helping businesses and the community. This year’s Person of the Year could have been named in any year because year after year he’s a one-man dynamo who makes us tired just thinking about all the things he gets done. Rockaway is a much better place because Bugsy lives here.
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For those who partake, enjoy the New Year’s Day polar plunge whichever beach is your preference. The original Rockaway plunge at Beach 145th is still going strong but a lot of groups do their own from one end of the beach to the other. The weather and high temperatures ahead look downright balmy. Over the next few days, we’ll see temps in the low 50s. Last week was single-digit brutal.
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And speaking of last week, many of us woke up to find our streets flooded. Unfortunately, it was worse in Arverne, Edgemere and Broad Channel where some houses were flooded as well. We extend our sympathies to those families who had to deal with this, especially during the holidays. Governor Hochul visited some of the flooded areas and pledged to seek federal help.
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As usual, though, some people found humor in it all. Sean Tubridy posted a video of a hallway in his house with flood water and – get this – fish! Small killies or spearing swam across his submerged floor trying to find a way out. Sean posted the video complete with soundtrack. Nothing like seeing fish in the foyer as It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas plays in the background!
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That video and others got a lot of play on social media and were picked up by established media outlets. One of the stranger things of the flooding was the appearance of big chunks of whale that showed up on Beach 116th Street and on Rockaway Beach Boulevard around Beach 118th. The whale remains, cut neatly as squares and rectangles because of the recent necropsy performed on a sperm whale a couple weeks back, made quite the splash. The Drudge Report, Newsweek, and the Daily Mail in the UK were among those citing Katie McFadden and The Rockaway Times for the “only in Rockaway” photos.
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In a wacky day of floods, fish, and whale chunks, three men driving a stolen car the wrong way on Cronston Avenue, crashed into a car around Beach 130th and then fled on foot but were soon arrested. Floods on some streets, cops in backyards looking for suspects. Just another day in the neighborhood.
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Out with the old, in with the new. Happy trails to Kevin Boyle who’s stepping down as publisher and hearty congratulations to Sean McVeigh, Jeanne and Jay Ferriola, and Tom and Pat McVeigh as they take the reins on the good ship Rockaway Times.
