submitted by Dennis McKeon - http://www.where-to-turn.org/

submitted by Karen Jackson

Hello All,

Minutes from our general meeting on July 24^th are attached.

Here are some important pre-weekend updates:

The first of three LTRO sponsored help fairs is tomorrow, Saturday, July 27^th from 10am-2pm at Home Depot, 2750 Veterans Rd. W.FEMA individual assistance, disaster case management, World Renew, Red Cross, Project Hope, Single Stop, and many others will be offering services. There will also be a DJ and hot dogs! Councilman Ignizio will be stopping in from 10am-11am.

Our World Renew team has already been diligently conducting a needs assessment survey around the island. LTRO members will be asked to respond to ‘immediate need’ cases as they are discovered. Residents with remaining recovery needs can connect with World Renew at the HUBS and resource centers listed in the attached flyer.

The Coming Back Stronger Workshop on resources and incentives for businesses has been moved to Tuesday, July 30^th from 6-8:30pm at New Dorp High School. The first 50 attendees will receive a free one year of identity theft protection. Attendees will be entered into a drawing for a grant for a free website or tech marketing package for a business affected by hurricane Sandy. English and Russian flyers are attached.

We yearn for frictionless, technological solutions. But people talking to people is still the way that norms and standards change. Illustration by Harry Campbell.

newyorker.com - by Atul Gawande - July 29, 2013

. . . In our era of electronic communications, we’ve come to expect that important innovations will spread quickly. Plenty do: think of in-vitro fertilization, genomics, and communications technologies themselves. But there’s an equally long list of vital innovations that have failed to catch on. The puzzle is why.

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Rendering of Seeding Office plan for the waterfront development in the Rockaways.  Photo - Seeding Office

Four semi-finalists out of a field of 117 design firms from around the world were tapped to design a huge waterfront development that can survive the elements and please its residents.

crainsnewyork.com - by Matt Chaban - July 18, 2013

A gaggle of architects from around the world has descended on the Rockaways in Queens in an effort to tackle a simple question without a simple answer: How best should the city build on the waterfront in the wake of Superstorm Sandy? . .

On Thursday, the four semi-finalists were announced. Among them is a prominent New York firm and the largest architecture outfit in Scandinavia.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

submitted by Peter B. Gudaitis

nyc.gov - July 13, 2013

OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AND DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND MENTAL HYGIENE URGE NEW YORKERS TO TAKE PRECAUTIONS AND HELP THE VULNERABLE DURING HOT WEATHER THIS UPCOMING WEEK

Use air conditioning to stay cool, drink water to avoid dehydration, limit strenuous activity

More Than 400 Cooling Centers Open;
To Find the Nearest Center, Call 311 or Visit Cooling centers are open Sunday, July 14 through Thursday, July 18; to find the nearest cooling center, tomorrow call 311 or visit www.nyc.gov
or CLICK HERE - FIND A COOLING CENTER

Be sure to call and confirm the center is open before traveling in the heat. The agencies providing Cooling Center facilities are the NYC Department for the Aging, New York City Housing Authority, Brooklyn Public Library, New York Public Library and Queens Library and The Salvation Army.

inhabitat.com - by Yuka Yoneda - July 12, 2013

It's already hurricane season - would you be ready if another Superstorm Sandy hit today? If you hesitated for a moment, you might be one of the many who meant to prepare for the next big storm but then just got sucked into the daily grind and forgot. The good news is that there's still time to gather up the essentials so that you'll be ahead of the game for the next hurricane instead of having to fight some lady for the last pack of batteries at Duane Reade. Read on for the 12 important items you should have at home in case of an emergency situation like a serious storm or other natural disaster. . .

A Soggy Neighborhood Fights to Stay Dry In order to mitigate flooding in Broad Channel, Queens, which is built on a marsh jutting into Jamaica Bay, city engineers have a plan to raise parts of the neighborhood.

nytimes.com - by Kia Gregory - July 9, 2013

As the sun began to set one recent Sunday, saltwater poured off Jamaica Bay onto West 12th Road, one of the lowest-lying areas in New York City.

Now, the city is budgeting $22 million to try to save the neighborhood by installing bulkheads and by raising streets and sidewalks by three feet.

But the project also raises fundamental questions about whether, in an era of extreme weather, the government should come to the aid of neighborhoods that are trying to fend off inevitably rising waters.

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statenisland.ny1.com - by J. T. Fetch - July 6, 2013

NY1 VIDEO: Members of the grassroots groups Where to Turn and Beacon of Hope New York collecting data to possibly pursue legal action against the city Health Department, saying they want city to perform air quality tests and declare abandoned homes with mold in them as health hazards.

http://statenisland.ny1.com/content/top_stories/185060/grassroots-groups-go-door-to-door-to-collect-data-on-mold-in-si-homes

submitted by Samuel Bendett

inhabitat.com- by Yuka Yoneda - July 17, 2013

New York City wasn’t ready when Hurricane Sandy hit last year, but city officials are hoping that a new prefab disaster housing prototype will help them prepare for the next big storm. Part of the Office of Emergency Management and Department of Design and Construction’s “What If NYC” campaign, the post-disaster housing system is expected to be tested this summer in Brooklyn.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

What If New York City - Design Competition for Post-Disaster Provisional Housing
http://www.whatifnyc.net/

View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.

submitted by Dennis McKeon

nbcnewyork.com - July 5, 2013

Mold has been an ongoing problem for Staten Island residents after Sandy, but the summer heat and humidity is now making it especially dangerous. One man is on a mission to battle the mold. Marc Santia reports.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/video/#!/on-air/as-seen-on/Staten-Island-Residents-Battling-Growing-Mold-Problem-8-Months-After-Sandy/214424031