Yup, The Lights Went Out

Is there a Staten Island angle on the 1977 blackouts? Don’t worry, the Advance has it covered:

On the night of July 13, 1977, drivers crossing the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge into Staten Island were confronted by a truly unsettling sight: The borough, all 58.5 square miles of it, was shrouded in black.

It has been nearly 30 years since the “Blackout of ’77” plunged New York City into darkness for nearly two days, including a frenzy of looting and lawlessness, particularly in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.

Many Staten Islanders can still vividly recall “the day the lights went out.”

“Our area went black, and everybody was out in the street walking around. It wasn’t really until the next day that we knew what happened,” said Marjorie Decker Johnson of Clifton, a local historian and preservationist.

. . .

James McBratney, owner of Jimmy Max restaurant in Westerleigh, remembers taking advantage of the situation and having a little fun while the lights were off.

“I was 16 years old, working at Denino’s (the Port Richmond pizzeria) making pies. When the lights went out we had no customers and no air conditioning. I went to the back room with my friend John and we split a six-pack. Somehow, we thought we were helping the situation by drinking whatever beer there was before it got too warm,” said McBratney.

OK, so in lieu of exciting Staten Island blackout stories, revert to Staten Islanders’ blackout stories:

Danny Blaine, owner of the eponymous saloon in Fort Wadsworth, was working with Ladder Co. 122 in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Staten Island should count itself lucky, he said, considering the hellish conditions that obtained in the “borough of homes and churches.”

“It was like being in a war zone,” said Blaine, a Livingston resident. “We were out all night on calls. There was one call where we passed six fully involved, three-story roaring fires just to get to our building.”

Bob FitzSimmons of St. George was working as a stationary engineer at Manhattan’s Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital. He described scenes that resembled the post-apocalyptic landscape of John Carpenter’s 1996 action flick “Escape From L.A.”

“We had a large diesel engine to supply lights and power. It was chaotic because everything was dark except for us. We were like a lighthouse. The whole neighborhood congregated outside the hospital and our security was overtaxed with people trying to escape the dark,” said FitzSimmons.

“We had a lot of surgeries because there were a lot of bullets flying around that night. There were people chasing each other with shotguns. I couldn’t believe the devastation around me,” he continued.

When asked how he remembered Staten Island during the blackout he replied: “It wasn’t that bad. We got lucky.”

The In-Flight Magazine Of Paul Castellano’s Lincoln Town Car

A Maxim for the Mob, a Mother Jones for the Made Man:

A new Mafia magazine with a Staten Island flavor may give some residents another reason to gripe about the borough’s negative image.

But for those who’ve always wanted to be a gangster, Mob Candy has got you covered.

Claiming to be “The Underworld Magazine of Mafia Politics, Pleasures and Power,” Mob Candy promises an inside job on “The Life,” from hit-men confessionals and pictorials of getaway cars, to tips on pulling off the perfect smash-and-grab or buying bada-bling-bling for that special cumare.

The first issue features articles on Don Carlo Gambino’s legacy; 50 years of mob “rats;” the FBI vs. Italian Americans, and a profile of Christian (Chris Paciello) Ludwigsen of Eltingville, a mobbed-up former Miami nightclub owner who once dated pop star Madonna and was the getaway driver in a 1993 Richmond Valley home-invasion murder.

And of course, there’s plenty of “candy,” in the form of several Staten Island models. New Springville resident Mercedes Maia adorns the cover in pinstripe lingerie, with her finger on the trigger of a silver semi-automatic pistol. On the inside pages, Ms. Maia, a bartender from “Level One Lounge” in Annadale, poses crawling on a bar in leather corset, and little else.

New Dorp native Laura Siani and New Springville resident Priscilla Manella are also in the premiere issue.

Pleasant Plains resident Danielle DiPietro, one of three Islanders featured in the MTV “True Life” documentary, “I’m a Staten Island Girl,” joins Ms. Maia in some of the photos.

Ms. DiPietro, who also happens to be the magazine’s vice president of advertising and sales, doesn’t think Mob Candy will elicit the same negative responses the reality show did when it aired last fall.

“Most of the responses we’ve had have been very positive. People tell me ‘I can’t wait until it comes out,'” Ms. DiPietro said during a phone interview at the periodical’s first public event — a children’s fund-raiser in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

Who Caused The Dog’s Death? We All Did.

The Mayor’s new noise code claims its first victim as violence increases in the aftermath of the law’s enactment:

A Port Richmond couple’s Yorkshire Terrier Eddie was shot and killed in front of its owners home on Tuesday afternoon, possibly by a pedestrian angered that it barked too much, according to a published report.

Marie and Michael Buckley are upset and bewildered about who would harm their 8-year-old dog.

“It’s just horrible,” Michael Buckley told CBS-Channel 2 News. “Horrible.”

Eddie was sitting on the front stoop with the front doors open when he suddenly ran yelping into the house and was found badly bleeding in the bathroom.

“He came in like he was shot out of a cannon,” Michael Buckley told CBS. “A neighbor heard three pops.”

A veterinarian, who tried to save the dog’s life, extracted a pellet from Eddie’s intestine after it pierced the diaphragm and liver. Two other pellets were found on the ground close to where the dog was sitting.

A month ago, an anonymous note was left in the Buckleys’ mailbox complaining of Eddie’s barking, and someone would turn on a car alarm whenever the dog started barking.

Is The Outerbridge Crossing Along The Eightfold Path?

You visit Staten Island for the love*, not just to avoid the Lincoln Tunnel:

They are walking 100 miles — from the Chinese consulate in Manhattan to the birthplace of American freedom in Philadelphia — to raise awareness and gain support for the movement to free Tibet from Chinese rule.

Yesterday, 26 members of the International Tibet Independence Movement walked through Staten Island with signs, T-shirts and Tibetan flags, as part of the “March for Tibet’s Independence.”

Jigme Norbu of Bloomington, Ind., noted the importance of the Independence Day arrival in The City of Brotherly Love as he walked on Hylan Boulevard through New Dorp yesterday. “When we arrive on July 4, it will be very symbolic,” he said.

The group hopes it can rally support to urge the Chinese government to grant Tibet its independence so one day it can celebrate its own day of freedom.

. . .

Upon beginning the march Wednesday, the group delivered a letter to the Chinese consulate urging the nation’s government to grant independence to Tibet, Southern Mongolia and Eastern Turkistan. “We’re trying to let the government in Beijing know they need to end the illegal occupation of Tibet,” said [International Tibet Independence Movement president Larry] Gerstein.

Gerstein is driving the support van, which will pick up the walkers at the end of each day and drive them to a church where they will spend the night, then next morning, return them to the spot where they ended their walk the previous day. They will be driven over bridges, such as the Outerbridge Crossing, that do not allow pedestrian access.

*Don’t forget to visit the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art on your way to the bridge!

Not Too Soon?

Crazy to think that today’s vandals are only dimly aware of Sept. 11:

Borough President James P. Molinaro yesterday said that another plaque at the Staten Island World Trade Center memorial was damaged during a recent incident.

In light of the vandalism, Molinaro said he would ask the city to install video surveillance cameras near the St. George memorial.

Initial reports said part of a granite plaque devoted to Jason Christopher DeFazio, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee from Sunnyside, was shattered and its pieces scattered on the rocky shoreline near the memorial. The pieces were later recovered.

Yesterday, Molinaro said the plaque adjacent to DeFazio’s, belonging to Firefighter Jeffrey James Olsen of Great Kills, is missing its silhouette-style profile.

Authorities didn’t initially notice the vandalism to Olsen’s plaque because the layout of the 9/11 “Postcards” memorial can make it difficult to match victims’ profiles with their corresponding nameplates, the borough president said.

“It’s an easy mistake to make,” Molinaro added.

The part of the plaque containing Olsen’s name was not damaged.

Olsen’s mother, Carol Olsen, said the vandalism was “awful,” noting, “Many families rely on that memorial.”

She said her family wanted nothing to do with the memorial planned for Manhattan because it’s “too controversial.” Said Mrs. Olsen of the St. George site, “This is where we come.”

Officials believe that all the vandalism occurred sometime last weekend.

And by the way, how many other surveillance cameras around the city are only decoys?

Molinaro said two surveillance cameras mounted on light poles near the memorial are actually decoys. He said he’d never requested working cameras be installed at the memorial because “I was naive enough to think that people wouldn’t damage it.”

He also didn’t want to potentially invade the privacy of grieving family members by having them videotaped.

“Now I see we’re at a different level,” said Molinaro. “It’s necessary that you do it.”

Location Scout: Postcards Memorial.