[Warm Fuzzy]: Local Photographer Raises Money for Cops Who Lost Homes in Hurricane Sandy

Okay FIPSters, time to heat up some hot chocolate, huddle around your fancy-ass fireplaces, and cuddle your kittens because it’s about to get warm and fuzzy up in here.

There’s a homegrown hero among us and she goes by the name of Erika Clark.  In addition to her freelance photography for Conde Nast and National Geographic, Clark is the corresponding secretary for the 78^th Precinct Community Counsel, which meets the last Tuesday of every month at 7:30PM with police officials to “exchange mutual views and seek ways to solve local problems”.  Local resident and genuine do-gooder, she took it upon herself to raise money for police officers from the 78^th Precinct left homeless by that bitch, Sandy.

The story goes like this:  Clark caught wind that some of Parks Slope’s finest -- four officers and one sergeant (literally a few good men) -- lost everything in Sandy, and was compelled to help out.  She started a relief fund for the officers and their families using social media, including Facebook and Twitter, and mass emails to reach out to anyone in the position to help.  Makes you feel like an asshole for posting pictures of your cat in a bonnet, doesn’t it? 

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Nursing Home Evacuee Pens Touching Letter From the Park Slope Armory

www.achildgrows.com

When Hurricane Sandy hit, Miriam Eisenstein-Drachler was evacuated from the Belle Harbor Manor nursing home in Far Rockaway and taken to the Park Slope Armory. During her second week stay at the Armory, she penned a letter about her experience during the hurricane, and how it took her back to a time in 1935 when she emigrated with her parents to America from Poland.

Here's her touching letter, in part:

The night storm Sandy was raging forcefully – and ­­ wrathfully, I found myself standing at the window in my room ad the Belle Harbor Manor observing, both faithfully as well as fearfully, the unstoppable rise of the  waters. “Mother nature is out of control,” I murmured to myself. “May the  Almighty, the Creator of mother nature, help us in this hour of need!”

By association my psyche took me back to January 1935, the time we were  heading on a Polish boat to the shores of the United States of America, ‘the  golden land,’ to rejoin our father, Rabbi Simon Eisenstein of blessed  memory, who emigrated from the Polish shtetl Jasionowka, near the better­ known city of Bialystok – several years before us. I relive the contradicting  emotions of that day – joy, hope and promise on the one hand; fear of the  unknown, on the other hand…And the Atlantic Ocean is raging on….

Read the rest at The New York Times. 

Alternate-Side Parking: We Hate It, But We Hate Not Being Able To Hate It, Too

Image via vosizneias.com

The NY Daily News just unveiled an enlightening piece about Park Slopers who have been creating quite the shitstorm caused by another shitstorm. Residents of our fine neighborhood have been bitching about the recent lack of alternate-side parking because the NYC sanitation department is busy focusing on parts of the borough that were more affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Yes, you read that right.

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Help Save Photos From Sandy

Hey, here's another innovative way to help out folks suffering damages from Hurricane Sandy. CARE (Cherished Albums Restoration Effort) is offering FREE digital restoration services for photos grimed up by that windy bitch. Cool, huh? You can help by volunteering your skills, pitching in funds, or tweeting/facebooking/etcetera-ing about it. So much fucking caring up in this, you guys!

Here's Your Guide For Buying Gas Under Bloomberg's Emergency Order

Photo via wsj.com

Since Hurricane Sandy hit, gas stations all over NYC and New Jersey have been selling out of gas faster than they can stock up on it. People have been lining up FOR HOURS -- sometimes in cars, other times on foot carrying brightly-colored canisters -- just to get their hands on some.

Last week, Mayor Bloomberg signed an emergency order to cut down on all of the madness, which states the following (via Park Slope Patch):

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