WHO GIVES A SHIT: ARE YOU ACTUALLY DOING ANY WORK AT HOME?

So many of us Park Slopers have now been celebrating brunching stranded here for days under the guise that we're "working from home."

But I overheard someone at Bagel Market yesterday morn talking about how they told his whole office that he had power back on, but no internet...even though that was a total lie. The dude he was talking to confessed that he just stopped responding to texts from work as he told his boss cell phone service was "totally spotty"...even though that was also a total lie. 

And yet the restaurants are packed all day, stores are jamming, and our local friendly wine store guy told us that Hurricane Sandy produced their highest day of sales in the history of their shop...even more than New Years. 

So, yeah: we wanna know if you guys are *actually* working hard, or hardly working. 

BE HONEST. 

Brooklyn Has Run Out of Gas

As if catching a cab hasn't been difficult enough since Hurricane Sandy dropped in and messed up most of New York City's public transportation -- now there's a gas shortage to deal with.

As Gothamist reports, via a tipster: "Tonight every gas station on Coney Island Avenue, and all stations in Park Slope and Sunset Park, besides the two Hess stations, ran out of gas. Lines at the Union Street Hess went around two seperate blocks and had police road blocks. The line at the Sunset Park location was 10 blocks long in two lanes of Fourth Avenue, with road flares and cops galore. Brooklyn is out of gas."

Part of the problem is that there just isn't enough gas to go around -- a lot of it is currently being user to power generators in an attempt to get lower Manhattan up and running. In addition, the two refineries where we get 1/4 of the region's gas have remained idle because of flooding and power outages.

Can we officially declare this ride your bike/rickshaw/scooter/horse/piggyback-to-everywhere week? 

Brooklynite Offers Free Rooms To Hurricane Sandy Victims Via AirBNB

If you know of any local residents in need of shelter while relief efforts for Hurricane Sandy are underway, a very kind Brooklyn resident named Shell is offering up her 5 Clinton Hill guest rooms free of charge to local residents in need. Here's the listing and Shell's AirBNB profile.

And if you're an AirBNB member with space to rent in NYC and areas of New Jersey, the company asks that you consider lowering your prices or dropping them completely to accommodate victims of the hurricane. You can learn how to do so on their website.

[Via AirBNB]

How to take the MTA to work today

I'm grateful for many things, post-Sandy. One, that my friends and family are all safe. Two, that I live in the greatest city in the world, with heroes working overtime to help those in need and get our city back up and running. And three, that my office and the e-mail servers that control my work e-mail is located below 40th Street in Manhattan. No power = no work. Yay!

But for those of you who are forced to head into Manhattan for work today, there's some good news. As of 6AM this morning, the MTA is back up and running in limited capacity.

Here's a map of what's running right now. 

Don't get it twisted. There's no trains running between Park Slope and lower Manhattan yet. Starting tomorrow morning, the Army Corps of Engineers is bringing in 250 (!!!) high-speed pumping devices to help clear out the water from the tunnels. Once that's done we'll have a better understanding of when we'll get subways back up and running from Brooklyn to Manhattan.

Click to read more ...

It's Probably Not a Good Idea To Drive Into Manhattan Today

As FiPS writer Jonathan reports on his way to the airport, "Every north/south street is gridlocked beyond Sunset Park. It's like everyone in the world is trying to drive into Manhattan today."

So there's that.