Tag Archives: New York

A Perspective on the Pandemic

In the past 6 weeks, the bloggers I know have kept up their normal postings of tranquil and beautiful scenes, with only an occasional nod to “the elephant in the room”, the COVID19 viral pandemic sweeping the world. I find myself very attentive to news and numbers in the USA, as we live in one of the current “hot spots” of infection, Long Island, New York.

New York City has had  more infections per capita than anywhere in the USA, and more hospitalizations and more deaths. Mercifully all the numbers now suggest the city has reached a plateau in mid-April 2020. Across the country there are great disparities in the the infection rates in different regions. So it is possible, if you live in an area with low numbers – as many of my friends do – to imagine you will not see many more.

Buy I want to offer you a more dire perspective from an area that has been hard hit. On March 21, Long Island had about 2500 confirmed cases of COVID19 infection, and about 20 deaths. But the numbers were doubling every 2-3 days, meaning we were on the sharply rising part of the now familiar curve that needed to be “flattened.” Simple math predicted that at this rate of doubling, the number of cases would explode in a month. Now in mid-April we have 53,000 cases and over 1,750 deaths!

This is just to say please be very careful to observe the social distancing rules, even if your current numbers are small. They can grow very rapidly! Don’t let warm Spring weather tempt you to enter crowded places!

Why We Love Long Island, New York

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From Facebook, Joe Zielenski, December 2, 2016  “I am not the author and take no credit for creating this. The time and energy that must have been put into this, I couldn’t imagine.”

Original author unknown

LONG ISLAND, NY, has a population of about 7.7 million in its 118 mile length from New York Harbor to its eastern terminus on the Atlantic Ocean at Montauk Point. It is about 28 miles in width from Long Island Sound on the north to the Atlantic Ocean on the south. Its western end includes the New York City boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. When Long Island is defined it generally excludes the Queens and Brooklyn sections of New York City. Long Island’s political divisions consist of Nassau and Suffolk Counties, 11 towns and 109 villages — all with their own administrations. The area has had an historical past from the arrival of the first settlers. Here are interesting facts:

Mastic was the home of William Floyd, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Long Island’s Deep Hollow Ranch in Montauk is the site of the oldest cattle ranch in America, built in 1658, and birthplace of the American cowboy

The Lighthouse at Montauk became NY’s first coastal beacon in 1796.

The first radio transmission, by wireless inventor Guglielmo Marconi, was in 1901 on Fire Island Avenue in Babylon

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field, as he embarked on the first non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

America’s first supermarket, King Kullen, started on Long Island in 1930.

Levittown, the first suburbia in the U.S., was built on Long Island in 1947.

The Lunar Module which landed men on the moon in 1969, was built on Long Island by the Grumman Corp.

The only working water mill and windmill in the US are located in the Long Island community of Water Mill.

Richard Nixon’s deceased dog Checkers is buried at Long Island’s Bide-a-Wee Pet Cemetery.

When the Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883, it became the first land -transport route between Long Island and mainland USA. Before that, the only way to travel between the two was by boat.

Long Island was sculpted by melted glaciers, which is why there is a clear difference between the hilly North Shore and the flat South Shore of Long Island.

Long Island is the most populated island in the United States and the
17th most populated island in the world. Interesting fact: Long Island is more populated than the entire country of Jamaica and of Ireland!

If Long Island was its own state, it would rank 12th in terms of population.

Robert Moses creation of a cars-only parkway system created the modern suburbs of Long Island and influenced a generation of engineers, architects and urban planners across the nation

The North Shore is known for its large mansions, exclusive vacationing, and rich history of its affluent citizens and architecture. The South Shore hosts more entertainment and sports venues together with Atlantic Ocean beaches such as Jones Beach.

The largest industrial park in the US is located on Long Island – The Hauppauge Industrial Park which houses 1,300 companies and employs more than 55,000 people.

Together Nassau and Suffolk counties’ nearly 180 fire agencies possess more fire trucks than New York City and Los Angeles County combined.

Suffolk County is the leading agricultural county in New York State based on the wholesale value of its farm products.

More 7-Eleven coffee is purchased on Long Island than in all of California.

George Washington commissioned the Montauk Lighthouse so that the ships coming in from Europe could identify the Atlantic Ocean from the Long Island Sound.

Fire Island got its name in the 17th century when it built fires to identify the coastline to the ships in the ocean.

After World War II, the Japanese were able to fly to just 5 places in the country with Idlewild Airport (JFK International) being one, which is why Canon, Nikon and Olympus located their corporate offices there.

The Town of Hempstead with 800,000 residents is the largest township in the country, larger than Boston, San Francisco and Baltimore.

The Nassau and Suffolk population is greater than 20 of 50 states.

Hicksville was the original home of Fudpucker World Airlines, the Worlds only steam powered Airline.

Long Island is the largest college “town” in the US with 175,000 students registered in 21 colleges.

Long Island has the highest level of volunteerism in the world.