Text and Photographs by Bobby Panza
What’s the deal with the weather? It seems like we’ve been facing dismal gray skies, high winds, low temperatures, and rain for weeks now.
As the rain began to drop again on Wednesday afternoon, WSR sent me out in my trusty trench coat and rain hat to see how people are coping with the crummy weather.
Chase Pendergrass, Amazon delivery worker at West 90th Street and Broadway (from Brooklyn)
“It’s a challenge, you know, but we all got a job to do. So just take it in stride.
I enjoy my job. So, when it’s a little rough outside, it’s just a little extra challenge. The job provides us with raincoats and ponchos and stuff like that. So, you know, you just try to come prepared. I check the weather app before I leave the house; that’s important so you know what time of day it could be raining or whatever, stuff like that.
It’s New York City, it can rain one moment then the next minute it’s sunny. Shout out to New York. You know, the best city in the world!”
John DeMarco, walking out of Riverside Park by the ballfields at West 101st Street (from the East Village)
“I don’t know, it’s not that bad. As long as it doesn’t pour, I guess. I was practicing baseball with my friend. I play outfield. I don’t come to Riverside a lot but I like it here.”
Mo (rather not give last name), waiting in line at Mama’s Too! at 2750 Broadway, between West 105th and 106th Streets (from the Upper West Side)
“I try to do the best I can to stay active, even when it’s raining, whether that’s going out to the grocery store or grabbing my favorite slice. I live down on 70th and Broadway. But you know, I would make the trek up here just for Mama Too’s. That’s how much I love it.
I thought the line would be shorter in the rain. Same with Trader Joe’s; when it starts raining, that’s when I usually go out because I’m hoping fewer people are enticed to go shopping during the rain, so I try to avoid the long waits if possible.”
Maddi Lawson and her mini Dachshund, Fin, (on West 86th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues)
“I think the sunny days make the rainy days okay. You just enjoy it. You make the most of it. That’s all you can do. I love it.”
Gerald Zecker, resident of 92nd Street and West End Avenue, outside the Dakota Bar at 53 West 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue
“I had plans tonight, and I wasn’t going to let rain affect them. So, I grabbed my raincoat and my Redwing waterproof boots and hit the streets. I usually don’t use an umbrella in the city because I feel like the sidewalks are too crowded, and I’m likely to lose it after having a few drinks.”
Which person’s words and expression best describe your feelings about New York’s stretch of soggy weather? Or is your reaction unique? Tell us in the comments!
Read the first Bobby on the Street column HERE.
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Gotta love how the rain comes in from the west, pours on us, and then it goes out over the ocean and spirals back over us in a counter clockwise rotation, to dump even more rain on us. Is it me or does every single rain blob on the weather radar head straight for the tri state area?
Great timely article. For me, day starts with trying to get rain coat on the pooch to go out. Often ends that way as well. Fortuinately we are both in good health.
Is yours the dog in the red rainicoat? Very handsome — and dapper!
When I arrive at a building and someone asks me what the weather is like, I often find myself saying, “No rain rght now, just spray”.
What stands out in the article is the wonderful positivity of each person interviewed. How refreshing.
Wait, is there a way that we can see previous editions of Bobby on the Street?? More of this, please!!
https://www.westsiderag.com/2024/04/20/bobby-on-the-street-50-west-66th-street-the-future-tallest-building-on-the-upper-west-side
Thank you. Link added to article.
this is great! you can talk about anything, really. Nice range of input too.
Once you buy in to the idea that there is no bad weather, just bad clothing, you can enjoy the city any time. That includes the NYC habit of walking almost everywhere. Just suit up and ignore it.
Perfect, rain and cold anyday vs hot and humid manhattan, with stinky streets and crowds everywhere. I never understand why city people even care or have time to care about the weather anyway.
Worse than the weather (or as a consequence of it) is all the trees and other plants fooled, seemingly, into releasing pollen repeatedly and stuffing and tickling my nose into oblivion!
More of this and I’ll pull a Van Gogh on my proboscis.