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NYC To Hurricane Joaquin: Yeah, That's What We Thought
By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 2, 2015
Modified Oct 2, 2015
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 2, 2015
Modified Oct 2, 2015
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After two days of totally not panicking and totally not having Superstorm Sandy flashbacks, NYC has officially told Hurricane Joaquin to take a hike, ya' lousy weather phenomenon. “The forecast confidence in Hurricane Joaquin maintaining an offshore track continues to increase," said Gary Conte, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s New York Forecast Office, presumably while holding two giant middle fingers up toward the heavens. Or if he's really skilled, three middle fingers.
The NYC Office of Emergency Management will continue to closely monitor Hurricane Joaquin, but meteorologists seem increasingly comfortable declaring this one a swing and a miss (let us all thank the European weather model for that). Even so, there will still be plenty of wet weather this weekend, so make sure to invest in an umbrella condom. Conte adds, "although we are not expecting direct impacts from Joaquin, fringe effects including high surf, beach erosion and minor tidal flooding remain possible even with the storm passing offshore."
During an interview on Brian Lehrer's WNYC show this morning, Mayor de Blasio reiterated much of what he said at Thursday evening's storm press conference about the city's preparedness for any major storm—only this time, he was able to do so while mangling a classic Yogi Berra quote. "Well, we’ve been in touch with National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center and the good news is there’s a decreasing likelihood that Joaquin will make a direct hit in this area," he said. "Now, as Yogi would’ve said, it ain’t over until the fat lady sings. So we - you know, we’re going to wait, obviously for a while to be able to see more information, but at this moment the news is good."
Of course, Berra didn't actually say that, something that listeners were quick to point out on Twitter. About halfway through the interview, Lehrer made sure the mayor was accountable.
Lehrer
: By the way, you’re getting some push back from a listener on Twitter on a very important point. He says, ‘Yogi didn’t say it ain’t over until the fat lady sings’, Yogi said ‘it ain’t over until it’s over.” Mayor: I’m sorry I misquoted Yogi, and I apologize. But I will now take the opportunity to say my favorite Yogi quote, which is ‘90 percent of this game is half mental.’ Lehrer: There you go. That’s true for politics as well as baseball? Mayor: Exactly.
Despite the apology, the Daily News still turned this verbal guffaw into a story today, because just one item about de Blasio making a minor flub wasn't enough for a slow Friday.
De Blasio, who postponed plans to head to D.C. and the United States Conference of Mayors meeting in Baltimore this weekend because of the storm, was also asked by Lehrer about the perception (there's that term again!) that he leaves town too much.
I think if you look at the history of New York City mayors, starting with Fiorello LaGuardia, who was one of the founder of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. And Fiorello was one of the people who actually helped to push some of the ideas that became the New Deal, and helped to turn around the economy of the country, and certainly New York City. I think we can see for decades and decades, New York City mayors have been key leaders in the debate over what urban America needs and how to push Washington DC to respond to the needs of our cities now. In the 1930s, our cities were much less central to our country. Now, as you know, we’re an ever more urbanizing country. So much of our economy depends on our cities. New York City is one of the economic hubs obviously in the entire nation.
So, of course, as mayor of New York City, it’s my job to push Washington to do more for New York and for all cities. And I think it is my job as well to try and get the bigger policy changes that will help address income inequality in this city. 46 percent of New Yorkers at or near the poverty line because our minimum wage is too low, because our benefits are not guaranteed, because we don’t have progressive taxation on the federal level, and therefore there aren’t the resources to invest in things that would employ people and make the infrastructure changes we need. So, everything I’m working on with the progressive agenda is to have an impact on New York City. Of course, I hope it’ll have in impact beyond, but all of this comes home to New York City. And the absence of these changes in federal policy are hurting our people.
It was a solid response, although if we were him, we would have also raised the competent but mysterious specter of a certain former billionaire mayor who spent large amounts of his three terms in office riding out winter storms in Bermuda without letting the public know.
Tagged
hurricane joaquin
hurricanes
mayor de blasio
oem
office of emergency management
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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