NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodríguez announced in Times Square that this year’s Car-Free Earth Day will expand across the five boroughs for the first time ever.

Saturday April 23 will also be the largest Car-Free Earth Day ever with 150 participating partners.

Car-Free Earth Day is an international event that encourages pedestrians to travel without using their cars for a day.

It urges people to use other forms of transportation such as bikes, scooters, or walking to their destination in order to reduce the carbon emissions within NYC’s atmosphere.

During the event, selected streets will be closed off and turned into plazas for people to walk, as well as do other various activities.

The activities include art, cultural activities, dancing, music performances, educational workshops, and bike programs.

“Earth Day is when we can all commit to protecting our earth; and one way we can do that is by repurposing our roadways,” said the DOT Commissioner. “Car-Free Earth Day is a growing tradition that allows New York City’s car-free streets to come alive.”

This year’s event will expand to over 100 open streets, 22 plazas, as well as over 1000 miles of NYC’s bike networks throughout the five boroughs.

The list of neighborhoods for each borough are as follows:

• Bronx, Roberto Clemente Plaza, 3rd Avenue, 148th Street to 149th Street
• Bronx, Southbound Mosholu Parkway, Van Cortlandt Avenue East to Bainbridge Avenue
• Brooklyn, Tompkins Avenue, Gates Avenue to Halsey Street
• Manhattan, Avenue B, East 6th Street to East 14th Street
• Manhattan, Broadway, East 17th Street to West 42nd Street
• Manhattan, St. Nicholas Avenue, 181st Street to 190th Street
• Queens, 34th Avenue, 69th Street to 94th Street
• Staten Island, Minthorne Street, Bay Street to Victory Boulevard

The event is held the day after Earth Day, which has been held world-wide since 1970 to educate people about the importance of fighting for a clean and green environment and to combat climate change.

Car-Free Earth Day started in NYC in 2016, however, was discontinued for two years because of COVID-19.

“This is Earth Day and I encourage New Yorkers to join us in making the world a greener place by going car-free and taking alternative transportation,” said State Senator Brad Hoylman. “Our streets are one of the largest public spaces in the city. Together, we can create a better future and more equitable use of this public space for all to enjoy.”

Rodríguez wants to use this day to reimagine the city’s streets with fewer cars and more pathways for pedestrians and cyclists.

When asked how this may affect minority neighborhoods in the long run, he explained that this can be a good thing because plazas can bring together people, and they bring a sense of community.

He also said he hopes the day educates people on how important it is to reduce carbon emissions.

“I applaud the New York City Department of Transportation’s commitment to a greener and more sustainable city with Car-Free Day,” said Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. “New York City must be a leader in the global fight to combat climate change, and this important event can act as the template for a more sustainable future.”

A couple of people shared their thoughts on this day and the future implications of the event if it was to become a permanent initiative.

“That is a good idea,” said 29-year-old Ricardo Manuel. “For less cars, there’s less fuel emissions.”

A couple sitting near him shared the same sentiment.

“I think it’s a great idea because it’s less of a negative impact on the environment,” said 24-year-old Darrell Elliot.

His girlfriend, Nicole Blake, agreed with his statement.

“I think that this is going to impede on people’s ability to park their cars,” the 22-year-old said. “But it’s for the betterment of the environment.”

However, one man disagreed.

“I think it’s a bad idea because it will cause more traffic,” Brandon Kennedy said. “It doesn’t solve the issue. It will make things worse as more cars will be stuck in one area, causing more toxic fuels to be in the air.”

Muror pulled a young boy out of the crowd to be a volunteer as he held one end of a seven-foot long row of papers Muror connected together. As Muror held the other end of the line of papers, he explained that the papers were death certificates of young adults who died from a prescription drug overdose on Staten Island in just the previous six months.

“Six months … I don’t want this business,” the funeral director said. “I want 90- year-olds, not 16-,17-, or 18-year-olds with parents crying that their kid died from a drug overdose. SO DON’T DO IT!”

Muror’s passion to stop this epidemic of prescription drug overdose stems from a recent history of tragedies in the borough — a history that is prompting not only stepped up efforts to treat addicts but also attempts to make the larger community more aware of the problem and to teach families how to deal with it.

A study by the New York State Prescription Drug Monitoring Program found that Staten Island has a higher rate of drug overdoses than any other borough, and also leads the city in filing for e high-dose opioid prescriptions. The study, based on 2012 data, found that Staten Island had 10 fatal overdoses per 10,000 people from opioid analgesics, drugs used to moderate severe pain such as oxycodone, methadone and codeine.

“Ladies and gentleman there is a war going on and we are losing it,” former Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro told the crowd in Tottenville.

Staten Island, the smallest borough in population, lost more than 30 young adults to an overdose from May of to October of this year. Molinaro says that this is nothing new. The death toll from drug overdose has been as high as 32 people a month, which happened in July of 2011.

“There’s big money in narcotics,” Molinaro said. Heroin and prescription pills such as Xanax, Vicodin and oxycodone are some of the biggest killers on the island. “This zip code is one of the highest family incomes in the city of New York,” he told the audience in Tottenville, a neighborhood in Staten Island’s southwest corner. “It’s $85,000. There’s too much money given out to kids where in other neighborhoods you won’t get that. It means that there is more health insurance and more prescription drugs in the home as well.”

During the 12 years that Molinaro was borough president, his son died from drug overdose in his twenties while living on the Island. Molinaro said that he was not ashamed of what his son did; he used his experiences to try and make a difference to the young people of Staten Island by spreading awareness.

Johnny Pignatelli, a 22-year-old resident of Staten Island’s Annadale section, says he has seen his share of the negative effects of drugs on his generation. Annadale is a neighborhood on Staten Island’s South Shore, where the prevalence of drugs is highest.

“Some childhood friends have been to rehab for drug use and a few kids I went to school with have died from overdosing on drugs,” Pignatelli said. “It’s really sad.” Pignatelli said that he believes the problem has to do with the easy accessibility young kids have to drugs.

“I think it’s so easily accessible due to how well off people are on the south shore. Parents don’t think twice about giving their kids money and they don’t question it.”

John Donofrio, a 20-year-old Staten Island resident, also noted the easy access to drugs.,“Staten Island has a high density of people within such a small area,” he said. “People will always have access to drugs.”

In the neighborhoods of Staten Island’s South Shore, there are many street posts decorated with flowers and photographs as a memorial for those that have died of a drug overdose. There are even more memorials for those who have died due to accidents caused by those under the influence.

Rocco Deserto, a 40-year-old father of three children from the Bloomingdale section on the South Shore, said he was in a terrible car accident six yeasr ago that was caused by a 21-year-old man high on oxycodone. “I have three kids and thank God they were not in the car at the time of the accident,” he said. “Where I was hit was where my son sits in his car seat. My car was pretty much totaled.”

Alicia Reddy, a nurse at a drug detoxification unit at Staten Island University hospital for the past five years, said families of drug addicts have turned to her for help because of the work she does. She is now a certified interventionist on Staten Island and is known for her work as the “Addiction Angel.”

Every month, Reddy holds seminars to raise awareness of the drug epidemic on the island, as well as seminars for young adolescents for prevention. Reddy says the problem stems from the influx of heroin coming from Brooklyn and New Jersey and the fact that parents on the South Shore are wealthy as compared to the rest of the island. As a result, a lot more money is handed out to kids.

“I get phone calls all day everyday for parents looking for guidance and help for their kid. It’s mostly for heroin,” she said. “It’s going to be a long way before this gets better, because it’s a broken system. Parents aren’t being educated, resources are not available, insurance policies are not providing the right services, and the criminal law system being broken not being educated on what exactly these kids need.”

Reddy says that there are some resources out there for those struggling.

A rehabilitation program called Camelot Counseling Center plays an important role in Staten Island’s fight against the epidemic. The rehabilitation center has been serving male residents of Staten Island for over 45 years, helping an average of 500 men a year. It offers separate programs for two age groups. The first program is a 25-bed program serving males from the age of 17 and under.

“At this age we are looking at boys who are failing out of school who are generally using smoked drugs such as marijuana,” said Camelot’s executive director, Luke Nasta.

The second program is a 45-bed program is for men 18 and above who are hooked on prescription drugs and opioids.

Nasta said drug abusers need to look into programs like Camelot if they are to have any hope of bettering themselves or helping loved ones. “The problem on Staten Island is that people have health insurance, so when someone is addicted to drugs they get sent to a 28-day drug rehab in Florida covered by the health insurance,” Nasta said. “Are you really going to get better in 28 days? No.” Programs at Camelot last six to nine months.

Both Reddy and Nasta say that fixing the problem lies heavily on educating the families of Staten Island as well as the youth.

Photo, top: Staten Island Borough President James Oddo at a showing of a film aimed at stopping the drug tide on Staten Island. (Staten Island Borough President’s Office)

While Staten Island takes the “torta” as the most Italian county in America, voters beyond the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge didn’t back Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, who is proud to be the grandson of Italian immigrants.

With the U.S. census reporting that 37.7 percent of Staten Island’s residents have Italian ancestry, some call the borough “Staten Italy.”

With roots grounded in Sant’Agata de’ Goti, Italy, a small town northeast of Naples, de Blasio spoke with pride during the campaign  about his grandfather, Giovanni, and his Italian heritage. He even gave interviews in Italian, having minored in the language in college, helping him to become well known in Italy.

But while de Blasio won the city in a landslide, the ethnic tie didn’t  help him on Staten Island, where Republican candidate Joe Lhota won 53.2 percent of vote to de Blasio’s 44.2 percent.

That’s not to say there is no Italian pride in de Blasio’s victory.

“Mayor-elect de Blasio, a Brooklyn resident, is the fourth Italian American to hold the office of Mayor of New York City,” the National Italian American Foundation said in a statement, noting that re-elected New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also has Italian ancestry. Both, it said, “are proud of Italy’s rich heritage and culture and have been longtime supporters of NIAF and its mission.”

Dominic Carielli, director of the Center for Italian American Studies at Brooklyn College, said candidates can connect to voters through shared ethnicity.

“It’s important to have a good sense of who someone is,” he said. “Especially with the distrust of politicians.”

Because New York has “such a large immigrant population,” Carielli said, it is important for these groups to know that their mayor relates to the struggle for the American dream.

Carielli said many Staten Islanders lean to the GOP.   “They tend to be a very conservative, Republican, middle class community,” he said. “It’s not a progressive kind of community.” De Blasio ran as a self-proclaimed “true progressive.”

Staten Islanders criticized de Blasio for not connecting to them on their home turf during his campaign.

“De Blasio hasn’t been out of his way to blaze the Island trail,” Staten Island Advance reporter Tom Wrobleski wrote. “The stops he made were relatively low-key and didn’t involve much retail campaigning.”

Dining at Denino’s Restaurant and Pizzeria in Port Richmond in October and boarding a 3:30 p.m. ferry from Whitehall Station in Manhattan to St. George Terminal in Staten Island in early September were two of the stops included in the candidate’s itinerary.

A few of the Democrat’s other stops included a borough Democratic dinner, a Hurricane Sandy event, and a meeting with the Advance editorial board.

“Staten Island tends to be very isolated,” added Carielli. “[Politicians] can’t have everyone in their corner so it’s important to reach out.”

While some scrutinize his efforts on Staten Island, other residents are optimistic about the Italian taking office as mayor.

Matteo Nicolosi, 50, a Staten Island resident for over 20 years with strong ties to family in Sicily and Catania, says his family “feels good about de Blasio being elected mayor.”

“It’s too soon to tell if he’s paid enough attention to Staten Island,” said Nicolosi. “I think Staten Island is happy about the change.”

Nicolosi, who heads a successful construction business on Staten Island, said that de Blasio’s “down-to-earth” personality adds to his likability.

The president of the Staten Island Democratic Association, Tom Shcherbenko, added that de Blasio has had friends in Staten Island “since he was a city councilman,” himself included. Shcherbenko volunteered for de Blasio’s campaign and has even put a photo of himself alongside the new mayor and his wife as his Twitter picture.

Showing his Italian skills at October’s Columbus Day Parade in Bensonhurst, de Blasio addressed the crowd and spoke about how proud he was of his cultural background.

“Italians feel a little ambivalent about government,” he said. “But that means we demand the government actually serve people in their neighborhoods. And that’s the right way to think about it. That’s what I’ve gained from my heritage.”

Photo: Campaign promotion for Bill de Blasio calls for Italian-Americans to back him. Most didn’t.

Last month, New York City voters declared that Bill de Blasio and his progressive agenda were what they wanted in a mayor for the next four years. Meanwhile, Staten Islanders declared that they didn’t care what the rest of the city thought.

Although de Blasio won 73.3 percent of the vote for mayor, easily defeating Republican candidate Joe Lhota, on Staten Island, Lhota won the majority. It suggests again the notion that Staten Islanders feel isolated from the rest of the city, even if they don’t want to secede from New York City anymore.

NEWS ANALYSIS

While it was expected that Lhota would win Staten Island because the borough has repeatedly voted for Republicans for mayor, Lhota’s strength of victory was surprising, as he won the borough by eight percentage points. The entire South Shore of the borough went to Lhota, and almost every voting district in the mid-island voted for him. Even a chunk of the North Shore gave the Republican candidate its votes. Lhota won every Staten Island neighborhood except for five small areas in the North Shore, all but one by double digits.

De Blasio “never really concentrated on Staten Island,” said Richard Flanagan, chairman of the political science department at the College of Staten Island.

A  New York Times interactive map shows that even though de Blasio won among white voters citywide, he lost heavily in that demographic on Staten Island. Lhota lost among homeowners, free run 5.0 citywide, by more than 20 percentage points, but he won handily among Staten Island homeowners.

Staten Islanders say their vote wasn’t only a matter of supporting conservative policies.

“There’s no special affinity between him and the borough,” Flanagan said about de Blasio. Flanagan also said that de Blasio’s liberal stances didn’t “play very well” on Staten Island, but he said that de Blasio’s lack of attention to Staten Island was more of a factor in the voting.

Lhota needed to win very big on Staten Island, and made the borough a centerpiece of both his primary and general election campaigns. When asked during a debate about the happiest moment of their lives outside family events, de Blasio said it was his graduation from NYU; Lhota said it was cutting the ribbon at the ceremony that closed Fresh Kills Landfill when he served as deputy mayor under Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Much like Giuliani, Mayor Michael Bloomberg also built strong support in Staten Island.

“Staten Island was always more important to Bloomberg and Giuliani because they depended on the votes,” Flanagan said.

“His policies were very wishy-washy,” Scott Plissner, a 53-year-old Staten Island Republican, said of de Blasio’s campaign platform. “I think he’s going to be a problem.”

Staten Island’s dissatisfaction with Democratic candidates stretches much further back than this year’s mayoral election. Consistently over the last 13 years, Staten Islanders voted for Republicans in almost every one of their elections. Staten Island was the only borough that elected a Republican borough president, and it did so in six previous elections. And in the City Council races, the Island had two of the three Republican Council members elected in the entire city. v

Staten Island differs from the other boroughs, more like a town than a city. Its residents depend on the car for transportation, much more so than people in other parts of the city. Staten Island has fewer transit options; its public transportation system is mostly the Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses. The only train line, the Staten Island Railway, only covers one side of the Island. The ferry provides a link to Manhattan.

The borough was even isolated when Hurricane Sandy hit; Borough President James Molinaro charged that the American Red Cross had failed to respond as quickly as it should have and urged residents to stop donating to it.

In the mid-1990s, Staten Islanders felt so isolated from city government that they voted to secede from the Big Apple and become a separate city, with their own mayor and City Council.

“Their biggest concern was, at the time, that basically Staten Island was being ignored in reference to almost everything that had to do with the state,” Gretchen Finke Cassidy, a 55-year-old Staten Island resident, said of the seccessionists. “Other boroughs got money for improvements – road improvements and improvements for social services – while Staten Island got nothing.”

The process gained headway after the state Legislature granted the right of self-determination in 1989. Legislative leaders in Albany thought the initiative would die quietly, but the State Senate, the Assembly, and then-Gov. Mario Cuomo, who stayed neutral on the issue, failed to stifle further legislation. In 1990, residents of Staten Island opted to secede, and on November 2, 1993, in a second referendum, Staten Island residents voted 2-to-1 to approve the charter.
The Fresh Kills Landfill was a major source of concern. “When people’s voices weren’t heard about the dump, that fueled a lot of the secessionist [feelings]. You could smell the dump from where you got out of your home,” Cassidy said, noting it was near the Staten Island Mall. “And when you got over to the Mall, the smell of the dump was so bad it would knock you over.”

In 1995, the secession bill passed the Republican-controlled State Senate, free run 5.0 +3 femmes but met its end in the State Assembly, which was controlled by New York City Democrats. According to the Staten Island Advance, Speaker Sheldon Silver, from Manhattan, said that the bill must be accompanied by a “home-rule” message from the City Council, which wouldn’t give it.

The movement lost a great deal of its might after that, and no successful push has made headway since. In 2008, State Sen. Andrew Lanza introduced new legislation for secession, but nothing has happened with that movement. Even two years after the secession movement failed in the State Assembly in 1995, polls showed that Staten Islanders no longer wanted to secede from the city. Today, the calls for secession are almost non-existent; some of this may be attributed to the city’s shutting down the Fresh Kills Landfill and making the Staten Island Ferry free, two of the borough’s major demands in the mid-1990s.

Scott Plissner, a 53-year-old Staten Island Republican, said that financially, Staten Island probably couldn’t have handled being on its own. But the underlying sentiments that gave rise to the secession movement haven’t died.

“His policies were very wishy-washy,”  Plissner said of de Blasio. “I think he’s going to be a problem.”

Said Plissner: “Year-by-year it’s getting worse. You hear it every year: Staten Island, the Forgotten Borough.”

Republicans won the race for Staten Island borough president Tuesday and were ahead in two of the GOP-leaning borough’s three Council races.

With more than half of the votes counted, Council member James Oddo led with 71 percent of the vote in his race for borough president against Democrat Louis Liedy, a retired public school teacher.

Oddo took to Facebook to “thank everyone for the amazing outpouring of love on social media today.”

Council member Vincent Ignizio, the Republican incumbent representing the South Shore, faced a challenge from Democrat Chris Walsh, a city sanitation worker and former president of a longshoremen’s union local. Ignizio led with 74 percent of the vote, way ahead of Walsh, who had 26 percent.

Council member Deborah Rose, a Democrat, was well ahead with 73 percent of the vote in her North Shore district. She ran against attorney Mark Macron, the Republican candidate.

In the Mid-Island district, roshe run an area hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, Democrat John Mancuso and Republican Steven Matteo went head-to-head in the Island’s tightest council race, pursuing the seat that Oddo now holds. With 56 percent of the precincts reporting, Matteo pulled ahead of Mancuso with 62 percent of the vote to 38 percent.

A big part of Mancuso’s campaign called for adding cameras to all police cars. “When they [arrested persons] go to court, police will have proof as to what crime was committed,” he said, adding that the public would also benefit “if a police officer does step out of line.”

Matteo, who is chief of staff to Oddo, has focused, alongside his boss and Ignizio, on cleaning up the Island. He has said that the litter problem has become more “noticeable.”

“Litter is a black eye to our neighborhoods that diminishes our quality of life,” Matteo said. “We have to work together to fight this ugliness.”

Hot topics across all three races in Staten Island circled around deteriorating roads/traffic issues, education, transportation, and Hurricane Sandy recovery.

In a series of heated debates hosted by the Staten Island Advance, Rose and Macron sparred over issues concerning the North Shore’s New York Wheel and Empire Outlets Project, crime, stop- and-frisk in particular, and education. Macron charged that the councilwoman’s efforts to stop crime have been “soft and weak.”

While Staten Islanders sometimes say they live in the “forgotten borough,” their political scene is noteworthy because of lively local races between Republicans and Democrats.

Council member Vincent Ignizio, 39, is defending his seat in the Island’s Republican-friendly southern half against a challenge from Democrat Chris Walsh, 51, former president of International Longshoreman’s Association Local 1730. In interviews with the Staten Island Advance, Walsh has campaigned against prescription drug abuse, deteriorating roads, and “uncontrolled over-development.”

Ignizio served as chief of staff to Council members Stephen Fiala and Andrew Lanza before being elected to the Council as a Republican in 2007.  While on the Council staff, Ignizio took part in five downzonings on Staten Island’s South Shore, an effort to reduce housing density.  He also credits himself with helping to bring more parkland and amusement facilities to the South Shore, and with the addition of park-and-ride parking spots.

In a recent meeting with the Advance editorial board, Walsh and Ignizio sat down to discuss their positions on the borough’s drug problem, traffic issues, and the upcoming mayoral race.

“The biggest issue for this area is likely infrastructure,” Mark Stein, reporter for the Staten Island Advance, said in an interview. “There are a lot of traffic and road issues that need to be finalized to allow for proper vehicular flow in some portions of the South Shore.”

The candidates addressed this particular issue during their meeting with the editorial board, with Walsh supporting construction of truck lanes on the West Shore Expressway to alleviate congestion and Ignizio calling for synchronized traffic lights and continued intersection improvements, and HOV lanes on the Expressway.

Additionally, the consensus throughout Staten Island, according to The Advance, is that Democratic politicians have begun to pay “more attention to the borough than they have in years past” and that “Democrats are looking to retake City Hall for the first time since 2004.”

Chris Bauer, former president of the Staten Island Democratic Association and editor of its newsletter, said Walsh, a Tottenville resident, “has a strong labor background,” with 30 years as a longshoreman and current work in sanitation.  He “understands the role unions play in creating a strong middle class and thereby a strong economy,” Bauer said.

Still, experts see his campaign as a long shot.  “It’s always an uphill race against an incumbent,” Bauer said in response. “But if people hear his message, he stands a chance.”

Ignizio, a well-liked Republican in a mostly Republican borough, is an Annadale resident who has served six years as a city councilman. He is a member of the Finance, Ethics, Education, Transportation, and Land Use committees.

Expanding express bus service, supporting the establishment of a K-12 complex in the Charleston area of Staten Island, and awarding the borough’s Eden II school—a school for autistic children—a $10,000 grant, are some of the strides Ignizio has made throughout his campaign.

Thomas Brady, a graduate student at the College of Staten Island, said that Ignizio’s success at a young age had sparked his own interest in politics. Like Ignizio, Brady is an alumnus of St. Joseph by the Sea High School in Huguenot. He said he admired how “well-spoken” and “approachable” he was.

Retiree Frank De Santis, a Staten Island resident for 27 years, commended Ignizio on his ability to “make strides on the forgotten side of the city.”

By NICK LOPEZ

The 2012 congressional race between Republican incumbent Michael Grimm and Democrat Mark Murphy won’t be remembered as a tightly contested campaign, but rather as one shrouded in possible scandal on Grimm’s side and shortcomings on Murphy’s.

Grimm first won the seat in 2010, a big Republican year, when he defeated incumbent Mike McMahon, 51 percent to 48 percent, using his background as a former FBI agent and a U.S. Marine to appeal to the Staten Island-Brooklyn district’s voters.

Grimm’s campaign for re-election focused more on his actions as a congressman since 2010, as he made efforts to win legislation against toll hikes for the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, saved the Fort Hamilton WMD Response Team from federal cuts, supported the House Republicans’ proposed budget cuts and opposed the Affordable Care Act, which he wants to repeal.

Grimm also sponsored a measure to build a natural-gas pipeline from Rockaway to Brooklyn, recently signed by President Barack Obama.

Grimm faced scrutiny because of a federal probe of his former top fundraiser and stories  and editorials in The New York Times  that criticized him.

The existence of an FBI investigation was a difficult political matter, as Grimm has often cited his 11 years as an FBI agent as an important part of his resume.

At first look, Murphy seemed to be a candidate capable of beating Grimm under these circumstances.

He served as an aide to city Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, worked for Merrill Lynch & Co. and founded Milestone Media Partners, a media finance company. He was also vice president of The Irvine Co., a real estate firm in Los Angeles.

His father was former Rep. John Murphy, who represented Staten Island for 18 years and lost the seat after his indictment in a bribery scandal.

Mark Murphy ripped Grimm on his vote to cut federal education spending, which Grimm supported by saying that money can’t be thrown at schools without results.

He also supported bridge-and-rail investments for more middle-class jobs, but it wasn’t very popular among voters. Murphy in general wasn’t popular with voters.

Even with that, Murphy had the endorsement of The Times  behind him as well as former Mayor Edward I. Koch.

A chance for Murphy to gain momentum was for naught in an Oct. 25 debate before the Staten Island Advance editorial board. The Advance supported  Grimm, who had said he was confident he would be “exonerated” through the federal investigation.

Murphy had no campaign presence in the Brooklyn portion of the district – not even posters. A majority of voters were unaware of who he was.

Election Day was unlike any other for the district, coming so close after Hurricane Sandy caused heavy damage in Staten Island.  Many poll sites were relocated, including two in Staten Island. This didn’t directly affect the Grimm/Murphy race, but it didn’t help matters either.

“That makes confusion,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a political consultant. “Voters don’t like confusion, they like consistency.”

Grimm and Murphy stopped their usual campaigns to help out whoever they could to get to a voting site, as they sent supporters out with iPhones to direct people who needed help so that they could vote.

Aura Bogado, of Voting Rights 2012, an organization that opposes voter suppression,  said that Hurricane Sandy could be a real eye-opener for future elections, from national to local.

“It’s about making people have more access,” said Bogado. “I think that some of what came about on Election Day because of Hurricane Sandy is what we should look to be placing permanently so that people do have access to the ballot.”

When it was all said and done, it was Grimm who edged Murphy out, 53 percent to 46 percent, with a margin of 11,701 votes.

Staten Island has heavily favored Republicans; even with lots of bad press, Grimm’s Staten Island neighbors were not persuaded to vote him out of office.

“Like Chris Christie in New Jersey, he was a local guy and those are two places where being a local guy really counts,” said Maurice Carroll, a Quinnipiac University pollster. “Usually, if you’re going to knock off a congressman, you have to do it the first time around and Grimm ducked that.”

Since Grimm’s re-election, he’s faced yet another probe, this time by the House Ethics Committee, which is deferring to a separate inquiry by the Justice Department.

As is the case for any election, you can’t win behind a lackluster campaign and that’s just what it comes down to.

“Grimm’s the local fellow-done-good who won the race,” said Sheinkopf. Murphy ran a lackluster campaign he said, adding that the candidate “did not appear frequently, did not have enough money and that was that.”

In this episode:

1. Finding the Bright Side of Hurricane Sandy Recovery in Staten Isnad
2. Women’s Studies: Where the Boys Aren’t
3. First-Generation American Students Juggle Cultures on Campus
4. Holiday Consumption and Advertising

Reporters/Producers: Endeshia Bryan, Aurelie Diese, Sophia Molieur, Melanie Montalvo, Shereeda Nelson, Mustapha Olatilewa, Jonathan Pariente, Emmy Perry, Nila Popal, Fatima Qadeer, Ashley Ramsay, Namik Revinov, and Kristina Rivera.

Production assistance provided by John Anderson, Rob Weinstein and Bernice Wooden.