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for larger version       Beachcomber The calls came hot and heavy, from Bayswater, Far Rockaway, Edgemere and Arverne. For a few hours on Saturday, October 27, calls to 911 reported a "heavy smell of gas" from the Nassau County line to Beach 70 Street. A number of people were felled by the smell. Police and fire units responded to the "hundreds" of calls. Keyspan Energy reported several dozen. At the end, the smell dissipated and then went away. Nobody seems to know where the smell came from or what caused the foul odor. The local American Legion Post is seeking the names of Rockaway and Broad Channel armed forces members so that they can send them some packages from home during the upcoming holiday season. Family members of armed forces members in Iraq and Afghanistan should call Vinnie at 718- 318-4625 or Mike at 917-685-4974 no later than November 17. The New York Yankees continue to be a major topic of discussion even though their season ended in futility last month. Scott Boras, Alexander Rodriquez's agent, says that nobody should blame the star slugger for the team's playoff woes, but a look at the statistics proves that Boras is all wet. In 2005, A-Rod managed two hits in 15 at bats. In 2006, he went one for 14. In 2007, he hit four for 15 with one RBI. That gives him a total of 23 for 94 and a .245 post-season batting average since becoming a Yankee. Those are not exactly allstar numbers. Diane Ravitch is one of the most knowledgeable education pundits in America, having served in education posts with the city, state and federal governments during her 40-year career. Yet, Chancellor Joel Klein and his minions have begun a concerted attack on her credibility, because she dared to say that the mayor's vaunted "merit pay" system is not merit pay at all. That's largely the way the mayor and his cohorts operate, by attempting to blacken the reputation of anybody who challenges their programs or their credibility. Wave historian Emil Lucev, who pens the "Historical Views of the Rockaways" column, wrote to say that his book, "The Rockaways" is quickly approaching four digits in sales. In his book, which features post cards from the peninsula's past, he wrote about local survivors of the HMS Titanic tragedy. He says that a Los Angeles (California) resident wrote to tell him of a Blanche Greenfield and her son, William, who resided on Summit Avenue in Bayswater in 1912, escaped the sinking liner in Lifeboat Number 7, the first to leave the sinking ship. Lucev's book can be purchased at arcadiapublishing. com or at other online book sellers. The city's Department of Transportation (DOT) is holding a series of meetings around the city to discuss parking problems in neighborhoods that are particularly hard-hit by a lack of parking space. The Upper East Side of Manhattan is first, followed by Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, Central Harlem, Forest Hills and Long Island City. Does anybody see an impacted community missing from that list? Rockaway, you say? Nope. Too far from Manhattan to worry about. If you really want to understand how paranoid the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) has become, read this portion of a press release the organization issued on the question of the Real ID program that will be mandated by the federal government in 2013. "A national ID card will facilitate the tracking of Americans' movements. What starts as the swipe of the card to board an airplane or enter a federal building, which the Real ID Act already demands, could easily expand into requirements to scan the card to pick up your child from school or to attend a baseball game. Each swipe of the card will leave a digital fingerprint that can be centralized into one national database that can track Americans' activities. Coming from the administration that brought us the Patriot Act and warrantless wiretapping, the possibilities are endless, as is the potential for abuse." Enough said. The Baxter Theater on Beach 116 Street will host a comedy- variety show on Saturday night, November 17. The show, at 160 Beach 116 Street, will feature Stand-up comic, actress and singer Tomasina DeCrescenzo, John Baxter and Jason Levinson. Tickets will be available at the door on the evening of the show.
Business groups, the Port Authority and the airlines continue to hack at the FAAfor proposing that the number of flights departing from and arriving at JFK Airport be reduced. The argument seems to be that both business and tourism would be somehow destroyed by the reductions. Nobody, however, is talking about safety and Rockaway residents know all too well from first-hand experience that the neighborhoods under those departure and arrival routes can quickly become a dangerous place for those on the ground as well as those on the plane. When a final decision on the number of hourly or daily flights to be allowed is negotiated and made final, safety should be job one. Perhaps the airlines should remember the old saw. "Better to be safe than sorry." In addition to discussing and addressing the safety issue, there should be some discussion about the already-fragile Jamaica Bay ecology before the decision is made to extend the runways into that bay or to build a new runway out into the center of the bay, because previous "borrow pits" apparently had a major impact on the bay.
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