Outage outrage

Persistent power outages pester West 247th

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Car theft, excessive wait times for the Bx10 bus, unpaved streets — residents contend with a diverse set of ills on a regular basis. 

But there’s a particular issue plaguing some people living in a serene enclave just south of Wave Hill — and it’s something one wouldn’t imagine in this day and age: frequent power outages.

Elizabeth Cooke Levy, who lives on West 247th Street, says she and some of her neighbors suffer from such outages several times a month. In fact, losing power is more of a weekly event now, something that’s persisted for years. In fact, some of her neighbors are even considering investing in generators.

But the bigger question, Cooke Levy says, is why Con Edison can’t stop the outages from happening. “Our power goes out way too often.”

In fact, it happened as recently as Aug. 11, Cooke Levy said, when the blackout lasted at least a couple of hours. It started in the morning and spilled into early afternoon.

“Everything flips off and comes back on again,” Cooke Levy said. “It’s as if ConEd is transferring our power from one source to another. You come home and your microwave and all your clocks and everything are blinking. Anything you have that isn’t connected to a power surge connector has gone off.”

The Aug. 11 blackout wasn’t how Cooke Levy and her neighbors preferred to spend their Saturday, spurring some to re-float the idea of dropping thousands of dollars on a generator.

“I said, ‘Why are my neighbors all standing around deciding how much they’re going to spend on generators?’” Cooke Levy said. “Why is this acceptable?”

Unlike the significantly more severe outages caused by this past winter’s storms, these shorter ones are something of a mystery — not only to Cooke Levy, but also to her husband, Reynold.

“They’re inexplicable,” said Reynold, who’s lived in the area more than 30 years. “They come in good weather. They come in bad weather. They come in short durations of two minutes. They come in longer durations of three to six hours.”

More frustrating to the couple is the fact the outages aren’t getting the attention they deserve.

“We feel that none of our elected officials, nor the newspapers, nor the public service commission are monitoring the performance of ConEd,” Reynold said, calling the utility “in effect … a monopoly.”

It’s an issue that affects not just businesses and quality of life, but property values, too. In fact, it reminds Reynold all too much of his time in third world countries through the International Rescue Committee where such blackouts are a far more common.

Their neighbor is Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, a former book reviewer and obituary writer for The New York Times. It was during 2012’s Hurricane Sandy where the neighborhood was hit the hardest, knocking out power for more than a week, he said.

Writing on deadline in the glow of a lantern late into the night, Lehmann-Haupt got his work done for the newspaper. But since then, he’s still experienced outages, but not as frequently as the Levys.

“Nevertheless, even infrequently they are bothersome,” Lehmann-Haupt said, not to mention risky to major appliances. He still keeps several lamps and flashlights handy for when power vanishes.

“It’s a bother to re-set up our cable television every time that happens,” Lehmann-Haupt said. “Something should be done about this because we don’t have any choice but to subscribe to ConEd. They should be able to deal with this.”

ConEd did a preliminary check of records on the area near West 247th Street and Independence Avenue, and indeed found two recent outages — one on June 20 and the Aug. 11 event, spokesman Allan Drury said. Both were caused by downed wires, the more recent one because of a toppled tree.

The June outage lasted five hours while the one on Aug. 11 dragged on for 11, Drury said.

James Denn, public information officer for the Public Service Commission spokesman Janes Denn  said the regulatory agency wasn’t aware of the Riverdale problems, but that providing residents safe and reliable service is a “fundamental component” of their work and that they would “review the situation” on West 247th. 

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz has advocated burying powerlines as a potential solution to future outages. While he wasn’t aware of what was happening to Cooke Levy and her neighbors, spokesman Brendan Fitzpatrick said, the Assemblyman’s office has “dealt with these sorts of issues in the past after storms.” That means calling out ConEd when appropriate while urging residents to call Dinowitz when power fails.

Rabbi Thomas Gardner notes his Independence Avenue synagogue, Riverdale Temple, also was affected by the Aug. 11 outage. While other “very small” outages have hit the temple in the past, “This is the first one that’s been troublesome,” Gardner said, not only because it lasted longer, but also because power went out right before Saturday Shabbat services were about to start.

Still, Gardner contemplates the outage with equanimity.

“I think it’s an isolated issue,” the rabbi said. “If your power lines are above ground, as they are in the Bronx, then you’re going to have power outages.”

Nor was he quick to cast blame on the oft-criticized ConEd.

“I feel they provide decent service,” Gardner said. “I’ve lived in various places around the country, and the power companies are mostly the same. Occasionally you get a really great one or a really terrible one. ConEd is right in the middle, I think.”

Unfortunately for Cooke Levy and her neighbors, the question still plagues them.

“What is the reason for these multiple mini outages?” she asked. “I’m not an electrical engineer, but it feels like they (ConEd) just switch our power on and off. 

“I’m not trying to claim that it’s some enormous problem, but I do think of people who have medical devices that are on. Everything in your house goes off. And I don’t understand why we’re getting such poor service for so many years.”

Power outages, utilities, Elizabeth Cooke Levy, Con Edison, Reynold Levy, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, Hurricane Sandy, Independence Avenue, Allan Drury, Jeffrey Dinowitz, Brendan Fitzpatrick, Thomas Gardner, Riverdale Temple, James Denn, Zak Kostro

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