Which one?There have been three major blackouts in my memory - There was one in the early 1960s (I can t remember which year, I was a little kid back then). It was very peaceful and it was well known that the crime rate went way down during the blackout itself. This blackout effected most of the Eastern seaboard, in addition to all of New York City. It did not, however, effect large parts of New Jersey, where I was living back then. People could look across the river and see the lights in NYC go out! There was one in the summer of 1977, just a few weeks before I moved to NYC! That one was remembered for terribly violent riots in poorer neighborhoods of NYC. It was awful and many neighborhoods of Brooklyn did not recover for decades (many blocks still show the scars of that night.) There was another one in 2003, though this one was not the entire city (I think parts of the Bronx were not effected.) Queens was hit particularly badly and did not recover electricity for days after the rest of us did. This one was very peaceful and even fun! I remember taking my kids to check in with our neighbors to make sure everyone was okay.So which blackout are you talking about?
If you mean 2003, here is information.It was FirstEnergy Corp in Ohio area has failed to trim trees, which resulted Northeast Blackout.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_B��I was in August 2003 blackout. I was coming home from Midtown to my apartment in Yorkville, and I also help with directing traffic at T-intersection at East End Av 79th St.Lots of employees at Metropolitan Museum of Art sleepover inside museum because subways are halted and buses are form in long line.I was walking around Midtown, and there were good samitrians directing traffic, and buses are forming long line because New York City subway service are afftected by blackout. Because of blackout, crossing busy streets are major difficulty because lots of other New York drivers does not give way to pedestrian.I also have seen motorist on York Av near FDR Drive South entrance at 63rd St directing traffic, and so I did same at 79th St/East End Av.I was scared of blackout because it was dark.We have to use candle light and I could not use computer or watch TV.
I was in New York during the 1977 blackout. It was a significant year as I recall because Elvis died in the summer when the blackout occurred. When it happened I was at home and lucky I was not on the subway or in an elevator somewhere. But the AC stopped working and it was hot and humid. I had to sit outside at night. Couldn t go on the roof. To get to work I had to walk 30 blocks. All the taxis were taken, all the phone booths had lines. We did not have any hot water for a week. The stores lost electricity and gave all the ice cream away. But in Harlem there was rioting and looting of stores at night with no lights or burglar alarms working. It was like the Watts riots in L.A. in 1965. I had no flashlight and I got charged $1 per candle from someone. But one good thing, everyone was helping everyone else in Manhattan, where I lived. I remember the Upper East side got their hot water back in 3 days because the Mayor s mansion was there. That was a year of the transit strike and the garbage strike. It was very fascinating.
I witnessed the three blackouts we had in the last half century and each one was very different. In 1965 I was living in the South Bronx and I remember seeing so many people walking across the Willis Ave Bridge that I could see from my house. I never saw more than one or two people before, but that night, thousands. There was peace in the crowd and some people offered them a little comfort with some water. We were poor, but we could at least do that much.1977 was a veryviolent event with large scale looting and rioting. Some people felt entitled because they were suppressed. To this day I don e understand the logic. You feel victimized by society in general, so you steal a TV from a particular guy. He did nothing to you, perhaps even financed you when you didn t have the bucks to buy something, so now you ruin his life by trashing his store, looting it and possibly even burning it down. The only bright spot of that event was that it spawned the rap music. I am not a big fan, but it is a significant cultural event.Then, in 2003, we had a different mind set. I was out of town that day visiting my aunt in San Diego when she got a call from her granddaughter in queens that there was a blackout, but she was fine. In this post-9/11 event, when people realized that nothing blew up and nobody died there was an almost circus like atmosphere. I remember seeing people walking across the Brooklyn Bridge laughing and carrying on, so much to the contrast of similar footage that I remember seeing from two years prior.
I was only around for the one in 2003 (I wasn t alive during the other two) and it was awful. Can you imagine having no air conditioning during a hot, sticky summer? I tried to sleep that night and it was awful. The worst part was that my neighborhood was one of the last to get power back since it s so far south.