The Park City Police Department last week received at least two reports of water infrastructure issues in different neighborhoods.

On Saturday, Aug. 8 at 11:09 p.m., the police logged a report of water shooting out of the ground in the vicinity of tennis courts at or close to the intersection of Webster Drive and Three Kings Court. The water was reaching a height of upward of 12 feet and appeared to be a result of an issue with a larger pipe, the police were told.

On Wednesday, Aug. 5 at 6:53 a.m., meanwhile, water was exiting the ground on Deer Valley Drive, apparently reaching a height or distance of approximately 15 feet. The police said a utility issue caused the spraying.

Other incidents reported to the Police Department last week included:

On Sunday, Aug. 9 at 10:42 p.m., a person reportedly had slept in an apartment complex on Kearns Boulevard for three consecutive nights. The person who contacted the police indicated the person might be homeless.

The police at 10:13 p.m., received a report from someone who was looking up at the mountain he can see what he thinks is a headlamp that was flashing periodically but not moving. The person who contacted the police, who was in a pool on Lowell Avenue, said it was strange.

On Saturday, Aug. 8 at 11:35 p.m., a party was reported on Solamere Drive. There were approximately six people making lots of noise, the police were told.

The Police Department received two reports of apparently unrelated hit-and-run traffic accidents in quick succession at 2:08 p.m. and 2:27 p.m. They occurred within four blocks of each other on Park Avenue. Public police logs did not provide details.

Someone in the vicinity of Royal Street at 12:34 p.m. contacted the police wanting to report issues with parking. The person told the police drivers opted against a location where the price was $30, prompting them to hunt for spots elsewhere on Royal Street.

An altercation was reported at the skate park at City Park at 12 p.m. Public police logs did not provide details.

Two bicycles were reportedly stolen from the back of a truck at 11:27 a.m. The case was logged on Lowell Avenue and was classified as a suspected theft.

Someone on Woodside Avenue contacted the police at 2:12 a.m. about what sounded like a party on nearby Norfolk Avenue. The police logged the case as suspected disturbing the peace.

On Friday, Aug. 7 at 9:46 p.m., the police received a report of a possible party on Silver Star Court. A manager indicated there were complaints and numerous cars, according to public police logs.

A driver reported a vehicle suffered overheated brakes at or close to the Old Town roundabout at 6:13 p.m.

A truck reportedly hit a power line on Daly Avenue at 2:58 p.m. The line remained in the air afterward and it looked as it if skipped off the top of the truck, the police were told.

A steel plate in the road on the 1500 block of Kearns Boulevard reportedly had shifted, leaving the possibility of a tire becoming stuck in the opening, the police were told. The Police Department said the plate presented a traffic hazard.

The police at 11:43 a.m. received a report from a business on Lowell Avenue, where someone refused to wear a mask, the department was told. The person who declined to wear a mask indicated they were medically exempt, the police said.

The police at 11:35 a.m. received a complaint about people drinking beer at City Park or on the bordering Sullivan Road. The people had been there for nearly a week, the police were told. The police said the circumstances were suspicious.

A hit-and-run traffic accident was reported on Sidewinder Drive at 7:29 a.m. There was damage to the rear bumper, the police were told.

The Police Department at 12:55 a.m. received a report of loud youngsters outside somewhere along Daly Avenue. The person needed to wake up for work the next morning, and they wanted an officer to remind them to be quiet and ask if they could go inside, the police said.

On Thursday, Aug. 6 at 11:37 p.m., a party with music was reported on Prospector Drive while, in an unrelated case, loud music was reported close to the intersection of Main Street and Heber Avenue at 10:56 p.m.

A vehicle that was parked on Main Street at 7:02 p.m. leaked gasoline, the police were told. The leaking was bad, according to public police logs. The police classified the case as a suspected hazardous-materials spill.

On Wednesday, Aug. 5 at 8:50 p.m., a car was reportedly left in a location where it partially blocked a driveway on Comstock Drive. The police contacted the owner of the vehicle.

On Tuesday, Aug. 4 at 6:01 a.m., elk were seen close to the road on S.R. 224.

On Monday, Aug. 3 at 8:22 a.m., graffiti was reportedly found in three locations a bridge, a retaining wall and a rock on or in the vicinity of Twisted Branch Road.

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Park City police blotter: Water shoots out of the ground - The Park Record

Where were you when the lights went out?

Alyssa Nightingale was changing the sheets on her mom's hospital bed. She didn't think much when the electricity went poof;after all, Tropical Storm Isaias was coming through, hammering Long Islandwithpunishing wind and rain.

How many calls did you make trying to get somebodyat PSEG Long Island to estimate when the darkness, the heat, the rapidly warming foodstuffs and a whole lot more would end?

Nightingale said she tried to report the outage, but everything, including internet and phone service, went dead. And, she said, she wasn't about to leave the house or her mother,Gisela.

"At that point, you know,I was concerned, because I couldn't have her getting up at night in the dark, getting injured or hurt or breaking something," said Nightingale, who works in public relations.

Many people tried to use PSEG's text-message system, but Nightingale took to herphone.

On Aug. 5, Nightingalestarted calling.

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And calling.And calling.

Over six days, she said, she ended up making two shy of 50 phone calls.

And that's a conservative number because it doesn't include the times she punched PSEG-LI's number into her phone butcouldn't get a connection.

"I went kind of crazy," Nightingale said. "There came a point where I said, no, no, no, I have had enough, I am going to get through to somebody, anybodyand get some answers," she said.

To that end, Nightingale often would get into her car and hunt, firstfor stronger cellphone service and, later, for PSEG-LI service trucks.

But let's not get too far ahead.

Nightingale was changing the bed on the afternoon of Aug. 4because her mother had been released recently from the hospital. Because of COVID-19, Nightingale and doctors had decided that home was the best place for mom to recover from an infection unrelated to the virus, Nightingale said.

Luckily, mother and daughter live next door to each other, on Spring Street, in Cold Spring Harbor.

That's alot of springs, but they have a place in this saga because the homes like many of the historic buildings inthe area were built over springs. Thus, they rely on pumps to keep water from the springs from accumulating in the basement.

On Aug. 5, she made three calls and got through, she said, to report the outages.

At Newsday's request, Nightingale shared records from her cellphone.

It shows that she started out small with the three calls to PSEG-LI's 1-800 on Aug. 5.

On Aug, 6, Nightingale called eight times.

On Aug. 7, she called seven.

One day later, she ended up calling 12 times.

The day after, 11.

Then came 8more calls, on Aug. 10.

But it wasn't just the volume of calls, it was time a total of 438 minutes, which works out to 7.3 hours.

Her shortest time on the line wasone minute. The longest was an hour and five minutes, her records show.

Did you ever get through, not to a recording but to a livingPSEG-LI representative?

Nightingale did several times, in fact, when she ended up talking to PSEG-LI repsincluding Jay and Christina and Katie.

That's not to say she didn't spend time on hold before getting disconnected; that happened a few times, including after a31-minute wait that ended when she was cut off.

Nightingale got crafty. When prompted, she didn't press any of the options and ended up getting real people on the other end of the phone.

"They would tell me one thing, then another and then promise one thing and another," she said.

A few times, at the end of a call, she wasprompted to answer a company survey.

She said she savaged PSEG-LI's service in the ratings, "but I made sure to give the reps high marks because they were doing the best that they could, and it wasn't their fault we kept getting different estimates, that we weren't getting power."

On Aug. 8, the power went on in her mom's house.

She remembers it well because she'd tried to reach PSEG-LI at 2:19 a.m., and againat 2:23 a.m.

Nightingale grabbed a flashlight and made her way next door, hoping to hearpumps working.

There still was silence.

So Nightingale remained with her mother.

And that was a good thing. Itmeant Nightingale could cease her daily hunt for cellphone and Wi-Fi service, which had taken her first to a locationoutside a Starbucks on Main Street in downtown Huntington (no good); to a darkened Dunkin Donuts on Southdown Road(also no good); to a Dunkin Donuts on Route 25A in Northport (nope); and finally to success outside an office building not too far from her home.

"I don't know," she said, "but as awful as it was for us, I kept thinking, over and over, how awful it was for people who didn't have cars, who couldn't make calls, who couldn't get their work done.

"It made me angry," she said.

She grew angrier once she began to see PSEG-LI officials on television.

"They kept spouting numbers, rather than saying, hey, we accept that we messed up and it's going to be a while and maybe you need to make other arrangements," she said. "They kept giving estimates, and we kept believing them, but I'd go out when they were supposed to be there and they weren't there, and I would drive around looking, and couldn't find anyone out there,either."

Where were youwhen the lights came on? For Nightingale, it was two days after her mother's.

Nightingale was sitting on a retaining wall, across the street from her cottage after a neighbor had blocked a PSEG truck.

She sat there, on Aug. 11, watching as a line was repaired.

Nightingale didn't go inside her cottage, she said, until after another neighbor had confirmed the return of electrical power.

She'd been out for eight days.

PSEG Chief Operating Officer Dave Eichhorn, has acknowledged the frustration of PSEG-LI's customers.

Joye Brown has been a columnist for Newsday since 2006. She joined the newspaper in 1983 and has worked as a reporter, an editor, newsroom administrator and editorial writer.

Read the original post:
Brown: How many calls does it take to get the lights turned on? - Newsday

A truck landed in an improbable place on Friday morning, and the Camden County Sheriff says they have an idea how it happened.

According to a brief report published by the Camden County Sheriff's Department, in the early hours of Friday, Aug. 7, deputies responded to the area of Bittersweet Circle, on a call about an accident involving three vehicles. They found quite a scene.

A truck was stuck, partway into the top of a building, resting atop another vehicle. According to Camden County Captain Chris Twitchel, "the subject reported he was traveling past Camden On the Lake and a person ran him off the road." Unfortunately, that took place next to a retaining wall, Twitchel says, so the road sat higher than a nearby building. "He ran off a retaining wall and, well, the rest is history," Twitchel added.

Incredibly, the sheriff's office says there were no injuries or arrests as a result of the incident.

See the original post here:
Here's How A Truck Landed In The Top Of A Building On Horseshoe Bend - Lake Expo

Yonkers' Greenwood Road residents are trapped on their dead end street, with fallen power lines and a giant tree. Rockland/Westchester Journal News

YONKERS Cassandra Mondonedo knows trees are down everywhere and that crews are working to restore power I get it, she says.

She also knows its not safe that the only way to leave her street is by walking over live wires still pinned under a tree three days after Tropical Storm Isaias swept through.

It's so frustrating, the 38-year-old said, echoing a chorusheard across the region in the storm's wake. We're not in a rush to get power. It's more about the access to get out because it's not safe.

Greenwood Road resident Cassandra Mondonedo is pictured in front of a huge tree and downed power lines on their dead end street Aug. 7, 2020. Four families are stranded on the end of the street. (Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

LOST IN YONKERS: 'Where are these guys?' mayor wonders about ConEd

ISAIAS: Officials rip utilities days after storm.

COVID-19: An 8-year-old boy survives. His tale.

Mondonedo lives at the end of Greenwood Road, in the citys Dunwoodie section, with her disabled 82-year-old father, Fred, and her sister, Cathy. Her sister isa nurse practitioner who has been unable to get to work in the city since Tuesdays storm, when a tree fell across their road, snapping a utility pole and pinning the neighbors in behind it.

Greenwood Road residents in Yonkers, from left, Angela Macheda, Cassandra Mondonedo, Laura Macheda and Gina Mimiasie are pictured behind a huge tree and toppled power lines on their dead end street Aug. 7, 2020. Four families are stranded on the end of the street. (Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

The fire department came that night, saw the live wire and said it would wait for Con Ed. The first Con Ed representative came about 10 a.m. the next day, the first in a line of reps,carrying cameras to document the damage but no chainsaws to remove the tree.

The utility put up caution tape and sent someone else: a worker to watch the trapped wire, which Mondonedo says is still live. A Con Ed rep was there Friday, in a red truck noting that a live wire was nearby.

Everything is live, Mondonedo said, her voice rising in frustration. Because we've been calling ConEd so much, they sent a security guard to watch us. They put caution tape lines over the lines that we have to walk over. We already know how to maneuver over it, but everything is still live.

Getting around the wire is something she and her neighbors have learned to do, although its not easy.

A Con Edison representative watches over the area where a huge tree and downed power lines have fallen on Greenwood Road in Yonkers, a dead end street Aug. 7, 2020. Four families are stranded on the end of the street. (Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

It's not like a straight shot, she said. You have to go down one retaining wall, up another retaining wall, through trees with wires hanging down. It's tough.

The neighbors worry that an ambulance would never be able to get down their street. They have a paralyzed neighbor, someone on oxygen, someone coming home from the hospital.

"We told them we were on the priority list. The rep took my name and said 'We're trying to make everyone a priority. We'll eventually get to you.'

Eventually could be next week.

The rep my neighbor spoke to yesterday said we'd have power by August 10, she said.

In the meantime, they keep working the phones, negotiating those retaining walls, and relying on friends and family to give them rides or drop off food.

It's peanut butter and jelly during the day and then if I can get out at night to go and get something and bring it back, that's what I do, she said.

Peter D. Kramer is a 32-year staffer at The Journal News. He can be reached at pkramer@lohud.com or on Twitter at @PeterKramer. Read his latest stories. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers. Sign up today for a digital subscription.

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Tropical Storm Isaias: Living on a dead end street, trapped by live wires - The Journal News

The City of Rice Lake is purchasing a small area along Messenger Street from a private entity in order to repair a deteriorating retaining wall.

The property is a gully next to JJ Elf Shoe Repair that is an important waterway to the Red Cedar River from the northern parts of the city.

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City buys property to fix crumbling wall | Subscriber - Ashland Daily Press

ROCKFORD, Mich. A West Michigan contractor is accused of taking thousands of dollars and not doing the job.

Davide Uccello says in October he hired Eric Demorest of RAM Concrete and Flatwork to fix his failing driveway at his newly bought home.

The cost of the job was roughly $20,000. Uccello says he paid half, down.

They were out here the first day that I actually gave him the check and they excavated. That's the last time I saw him, Uccello told FOX 17.

Uccello says they excavated and left, leaving his driveway in an even worse spot heading into winter.

At that point, I had a whole complete mudslide towards my house that could essentially just wipe the whole house out Uccello explained.

I tried to make contact with him, he kept telling me yes I'll be there. Well after about 30 days of text messages I just realized he wasn't going to come and I had to get on fixing the situation, Uccello said.

Uccello hired a different contractor to put in a retaining wall to protect his home.

He then sued Demorest in Kent County court and in April was awarded a judgement of more than 50,000 dollars, which includes damages.

But Uccello says Demorest wont pay up.

He's unwilling to cooperate with the courts, he's unwilling to cooperate with any juncture of this lawsuit, so I have a judgment that I really can't collect on. I want to make sure that he doesn't do this to anyone else in the community, Uccello added.

According to documents obtained by FOX 17 Problem Solvers, Eric Demorest filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy on July 15th.

In his filing, numerous creditors including individuals and other companies are listed, totaling nearly $140,000 owed.

Last week, FOX 17 Problem Sovler Aaron Parseghian called Eric Demorest to ask him about whats going on.

He refuted Uccellos claims and said hed have his attorney send information and a statement within a couple days.

We waited four days and still heard nothing, our crew then visited a home we heard he was doing work at.

Our crew waited in the driveway for someone to come outside and in a few minutes, someone inside saw them, closed the doors, the windows and our crew left.

Hopefully he will man up and make this right you know because I will put whatever is in the past in the past, as long as it's made right, Uccello said.

A couple hours after taping this on Monday, Eric Demorest called FOX 17s Aaron Parseghian and said he was on his wifes property and informed Aaron that she was pressing charges against him for trespassing.

Aaron Parseghian nor the photographer he was working with saw any no trespassing signs on the property and are fully cooperating with local law enforcement.

Demorest also told Aaron if FOX 17 ran the story hed be suing him for defamation.

Well keep you updated as this develops.

Continue reading here:
Contractor accused of taking thousands, calls cops on FOX 17 Problem Solver - Fox17

When two strangers walking by stopped to accuse James Jaime Juanillo of defacing private property, the San Francisco manimmediatelytook a defensive posture.He started recording the encounter, which eventually went viral, garnering more than 23 million views.

I came up recording not because I thought there was a potential for a viral video, but because I believed that I was going to need to prove my innocence, that they were going to accuse me of a crime, says Juanillo, 50, a Filipino American.

His crime was chalking a Black Lives Matter message on the retaining wall in front of the Pacific Heights home he shares with his husband and some friends.In the video, the woman,identifiedas Lisa Alexander, along with her male partner, approach Juanillo and question whether he lives at the property. They say they know that he does not and suggest he is breaking the law.

Juanillo is heard calmly refusing to answer any questions while challenging the womans apparent insinuation that a person who looks like him could not belong in the wealthy enclave.

What I experienced is this kind of polite, everyday, ubiquitous, accepted racism where it's delivered gift wrapped and politely, stipulating your acceptance of their superiority and their supremacy, Juanillo says. The presumption is that they are entitled to whatever answers [to questions] that they feel like posing to a random person of color in whatever situation.

Alexander, the woman in the video, was dubbed a Karen. The term originally referred to an entitled white woman who tries to use her privilege or status in society to threaten orsupersedesomeone in an argument.

The origins of the meme a humorous image, video or words that spread rapidly on the internet are unknown. Some trace it to a character in the 2004 movie Mean Girls, while others say it came from U.S. comedian Dane Cook, who did a sketch about a friend nobody likes, a girl named Karen.

Wherever it came from, the term has evolved, according to Matt Schimkowitz, senior editor of Know Your Meme, a website that documents internet phenomena.

I think that the term took on a more serious meaning in the past year, given that it's kind of associated with what we call, on the website, a white cop caller nickname, he says, which is this trend of videos of white peopletypically ... white womencalling the police on people of color for just usually living their lives or doing their jobs.

The turning point for the Karen meme, Schimkowitz says, came in May when a woman called the police after a Black birdwatcher in New Yorks Central Park asked her toput aleash on her dog in keeping withalocal ordinance. The man, a 57-year-old Harvard-educated science editor, recorded the encounter during which the woman threatens to tell police there is an African American man threatening my life.

Just who a Karen is continues to evolve with the times. The meme can also now refer to a white woman who tries to cough on people wearing masks because she thinks the coronavirus is a hoax. Or throwing a tantrum in a store after being asked to wear a mask. No male equivalent of the Karen meme has caught on.

Which leads a lot of people to debate the sexist connotations of Karen,and why we use it,as a kind of double standard, Schimkowitz says.

He thinks the Karen meme has reached sucha high levelof saturation that people online will stop using it. However, the word has become soingrainedin the culture that it is likely to continue to be used.

Because the word is so specific in its meaning and everyone understands it, I think it will probably just continue to be used,because it's good shorthand for a society that, really more than anything right now, valuesbrevity, Schimkowitz says. There's not a lot of space for long pieces about the world. We would rather just read a tweet,and in that interest,I think Karenstays with us sort of like the way a smiley face emoji does.

Back in San Francisco, the police who responded to the call about Juanillo recognized him as a longtime resident and left without incident. Alexander and her partner released a public apology after the encounter went viral. Juanillo decided to release the video of his Karen moment to highlight what everyday racism can look like.

Racism just doesn't mean being executed on the streets of America. Sometimes it just means being questioned for why you existand where you exist, Juanillo says. Someone can call the copsmen with gunson you for innocuous actions like designing chalk art on property that's not theirs, that they have novested interestin. They don't feel threatened by youand yet,they're still willing to bet your entire life.

The term and people who embody it will continue to exist, but people like Juanillo who might have previously felt helpless or vulnerable during such encounters, now have a powerful weapon of their own to deploy.

This is no longer a world where its he said versus she said or he said versus he said.It is now a world where technology is a great equalizer, Juanillo says, and we all have the ability and the technology to record the truth,and justice will be visually on our side.

Read more:
What It's Like to Encounter a 'Karen' - Voice of America

In 2015, Baltimore had an uprising against police violence much like those occurring around the country this summer. When it happened, we were both working at the Baltimore City Paper, an alternative weekly much like Boulder Weekly except that it no longer exists.

The Baltimore Uprising was the sort of event that alt-weeklies exist to cover: A massive community-organized protest in response to the death of one of its residents standing up and saying, no more. Our coverage focused on the people in the streets organizers, gang members who were trying to make a truce, for example and we put the reporting together into dispatches that all assumed the voice of the paper which was the voice, we hoped, of the city.

The experiences we had trying to chronicle that rebellion and the police blowback that followed it, was ultimately translated into our new book, I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of Americas Most Corrupt Police Squad which came out July 21. I Got A Monster details the way a corrupt crew of cops working in a unit called the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF) ran a criminal enterprise, robbing drug dealers, stealing and dealing drugs in the aftermath of the uprising. Co-writing the book could only have happened because of the alt-weekly newspapers where advocacy journalism, narrative storytelling, and actually good writing are encouraged rather than discouraged.

As we write this, many cities continue to organize against police violence and after sending in federal law enforcement to snatch people up in Portland, Donald Trump threatens to send federal agents into other cities and do the same. And while their federal authority and intervention is novel, their activities are not. They are an extension of policing as it is intended to function in all of our cities as this excerpt from I Got A Monster shows.

DETECTIVE MOMODU GONDO DIDNT SHOW up for the new GTTFs first raid. Detectives Jemell Rayam, Daniel Hersl and John Clewell got the guy dirty in his car, and Hersl and Rayam waited on the porch while Clewell went for a warrant to search his house.

Hey, if theres any money, you know, well split it, Rayam said. Hersl agreed. It was no big deal for either of them.

Clewell returned with Sgt. Wayne Jenkins and Detectives Hendrix, Ward, and Taylor to execute the warrant. Ransacking the house together, GTTF found weed, coke, heroin, two pistols and a massive rifle with banana clips.

Hey, did you get any money? Hersl asked Rayam after the search.

I figured, you know, it should be money in there, Rayam said. But I didnt find any.

There was always the possibility that one of the new guys had found the cash first and not cut them in. Even if they didnt get any money, Jenkinss new unit gained glory in the form of news coverage: Guns and Drugs Seized in Southwest Baltimore Raid, the local TV declared the next morning with a photo of all the dope and guns laid out on a table.

A few days later, Jenkins, Gondo, Rayam, Hendrix, and Ward entered Milton Millers row house in East Baltimore and forced him to show them where he kept his money. In Millers bedroom, they found a shoe box with $10,000 stuffed in it. They sent him downstairs and stole $2,000. They also found $15,000 in a boot along with fifty grams of heroin. They took the money and left the heroin.

A few days later, Jenkins called Gondo, who was with Rayam at an auto shop in South Baltimore. The two were trying to get some additional police lights put on an unmarked car. Jenkins told Gondo about some fuckin ballers he was up on and suggested getting together to do some street ripping later on.

We over here right across from the Ravens stadium now trying to get these lights in, Gondo said.

Oh, you found somebody to do it? Jenkins asked.

Yeah, we did, man, but I mean, we strikin out, Gondo said.

How much they want? Jenkins asked.

They talkin like four or five hundred, Gondo said.

Man, tell them bitches three hundred cash, its for the police, Jenkins said. And they get a get-out-of-jail-free card with my bosss phone number.

Right. This is a legitimate business, though, Gondo said. They saying, I think they cant even do it, though, they talking to Rayam now, they saying they cant do it.

Man, there aint no legitimate business anywhere, Jenkins said.

Right, Gondo said dutifully.

Lazy motherfuckers, Jenkins said. Tell them we about to drop a case on em.

THAT NIGHT, the GTTF got together for a series of door pops. A little after midnight, two cars rolled down Baltimores historic Pennsylvania Avenue not far from where Freddie Gray was grabbed, looking for groups to roll up on and grab anybody who ran.

A couple of nights a week, we would just go out to hot areas, we would drive around, Hersl said. We drive around them areas kind of go hunting, see what we can get into.

A group of black men were hanging out near a corner store, some against the wall and one sitting on a bus stop bench emblazoned with Baltimore: The Greatest City in America. Jenkins whipped a manic turn and pulled up to the curb. Clewell popped the door, scattering the group, moving targets running in all directions.

Someone in a white T-shirt rushed around the corner, and Clewell went after him, but he was too fast and Clewell lost him. From the back seat of the car, Hersl saw another man dart the other way, holding his waistband like he was trying to stop a gun from slipping through his pants. So Clewell went after the man and Hersl hopped out and ran with Clewell.

When the suspect leaped off a retaining wall, a gun fell out on the ground and Clewell grabbed it.

The door pop was a new strategy for the GTTF and it was unconstitutional. But numbers were numbers. They got three more guns that night with door pops.

Courtesy of St. Martins Press. Order your copy at us.macmillan.com/books/9781250221803.

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Book excerpt: 'I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Corrupt Police Squad' - Boulder Weekly

Written by Laxman Singh | Mumbai | Updated: August 8, 2020 4:44:32 pm Cracks on B G Kher Road. (Photo by Ganesh Shirsekar)

Ridge Road, or B G Kher Road, a link road from Malabar Hill to the rest of the city, and part of N S Patkar Road, also known as Hughes Road, are likely to remain shut for six months, after Wednesdays landslide caused massive structural damage to the road foundations, on the recommendation of a team of engineers from IIT-Bombay that studied the damage on Friday.

On August 6, heavy rainfall caused a huge landslide near Doongerwadi at Malabar Hill leading to the closure on a stretch of both B G Kher Road and N S Patkar Road.

A team of engineers from IIT-B inspected the landslide area on Friday to assess the damage and has recommended a partial closure for at least six months of both the roads. The team is, however, checking the possibility of opening the traffic on the south side of N S Patkar Road, previously known as Hughes Road.

Engineers from IIT-B will submit their report in two days. But after the inspection they suggested not to open either side for traffic on both roads. It would be risky as a massive portion of the hill has caved in and we have to remove huge quantities of mud and large number of fallen trees so that it does not fall further, said a BMC official. However, officials said that the final decision will be taken after the IIT teams report and in discussion with the municipal commissioner.

Primary investigation has revealed that over a period of time water had started accumulating between the retaining wall and the hill slope causing deterioration in the structural stability of the wall. The heavy downpour on Wednesday led to an increase in water pressure which led to the retaining wall giving in.

As per the inspection of the IIT team, a150-m stretch of the Ridge Road has sunk by four feet to six feet. Officials said that the landslide damaged about 220 m on N S Patkar Road.

We have to first remove all mud and damaged trees from the site. Following this the embankment will be constructed and after which filling of caved in portions of the road will be done to reconstruct B G Kher Road. Not much work can be done during the monsoon as there is a risk of more landslides due to water retention in the ground, said a senior BMC official.

IIT has suggested LiDAR survey of the damaged area. Our team will take help of a consultant for survey and subsequently a report will be submitted to IIT team for discussion. After that decision will be taken on traffic opening, said Prashant Gaikwad, Assistant Municipal Commissioner, D ward (Malabar Hill). A LiDAR or Light Detection and Ranging survey is a remote sensing technology to study the surface of the earth.

Area residents said a couple of weeks ago, BEST was doing some digging work along the B G Kher Road for laying cables, and are linking that to the landlside. About a fortnight ago, I was passing on B G Kher Road and saw excavation going on near Altamount Road. The work stretched till Tower of Silence. My car was stuck in one of the pits dug by them. It broke my cars shock absorber. When I enquired about the work they said it was pending because of Covid-19. I told them to at least re-lay the dug up portion to avoid accidents, said Deepak Bhayani, a resident of Napean Sea Road.

Meanwhile, the restoration of water supply in part of south Mumbai will at least take 48-hours. We are trying very hard to finish the work in next two days. But it is challenging as the approach road for carrying out the repair works of water pipelines is an issue, said a senior official from HE department.

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Malabar Hill landslide: Ridge Road, part of Hughes Road likely to be closed for six months for repairs - The Indian Express

Flats and shops will be built at the site of a former superstore in Swansea despite some of the new gardens facing a very high retaining wall.

The old Morriston Superstore at Rhodfa Fadog, Cwmrhydyceirw, will be demolished to make way for a new four-block scheme comprising 22 flats, seven houses and three retail units.

Swansea Council's planning committee voted in favour of the application by Morganstone Ltd by seven votes to one at a meeting on August 7.

Planning officer Ian Davies said the applicant had made changes to their previous scheme which the committee, and then a Welsh Government -appointed planning inspector, had rejected.

The alterations included gabled roofs on the main three-storey block, instead of a flat roof, and the introduction of some Juliet balconies.

Mr Davies said some concerns remained about the new proposal, but insisted all the housing would be affordable.

"It is finely balanced," he said.

"However, it is considered that the provision of 100% affordable housing, coupled with positive changes to the scheme, marginally outweigh the identified harm."

Some of the gardens at the rear of the sloping site will face a retaining wall up to eaves height, and will be just under the recommended 10m length.

"It is an issue that we have wrestled with," said Mr Davies.

He said the scheme, according to the applicant, would no longer be viable if there was a reduction in the number of residential units.

There will be 33 spaces for residents, and 15 spaces - including three disabled ones - for the retail units.

Planning agent Geraint John, on behalf of Morganstone, said the current scheme had 11 residential units less than the original one, and that no statutory consultees had objected.

Addressing the committee, ward councillor Ceri Evans said he backed some redevelopment at the site and was in favour of social housing.

"However, I cannot personally in good conscience support this application as it currently stands," he said.

Cllr Evans said he didn't think the two principal refusal reasons from the previous scheme had been overcome.

Affordable housing, he said, should not be used as a "loophole for inappropriate and substandard housing".

Committee member Cllr Mary Jones said she shared this "loophole" concern and wanted to know who would be responsible for maintaining the retaining wall at the rear.

Cllr Mike Lewis said he backed the development, saying the site would otherwise be left as a "desolated piece of land".

Cllr Linda Tyler-Lloyd was worried that occupants of the flats might "feel trapped" inside, but noted the introduction of Juliet balconies.

The consent given by the committee is subject to 23 planning conditions.

Officers had recommended approval, saying in their report it was a close-run thing but that the "current proposal overcomes many of the issues identified in the previous appeal".

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Superstore to be demolished to make way for new affordable flats, houses and shops - Wales Online