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CNN Live Saturday
New Yorkers Go Back To Their Lives Today
Aired August 16, 2003 - 18:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to this week's blackout. In New York, the term, nightlife, took on a different meaning during the outage, but now things are finally getting back to normal. And that means restaurants, the Big Apple's night life essentials, have opened their doors again. For a look now, let's check in with our Jason Bellini whose in the Village. And I'd have to imagine, Jason, on a Saturday night in August is probably hopping.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is. It's getting that way. It's still a little bit early in the evening. I'm on avenue A in the east Village. Now the East Village was one of the last neighborhoods in all of New York to get it's power back. We just spoke with some people who said that it was until around 9:30 last night that we finally got their power restored.
But as you can see around me, the streets are very busy. There was someone who was just walking by with his laundry. Most of the restaurants and shops are open. People are out on the streets getting ready for a busy night here on Avenue A.
Earlier we spoke with some people who were already sounding a bit nostalgic about the experience of the blackout.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What can you do. We are alive. We are ail free. We have good food. We live a lifestyle, good mostly, so business is not everything. We have time to make business, I hope, today.
BELLINI: It looks like you are doing ok today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some food, someone is starting with.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't have hot water and I'm desperately looking forward to a hot shower.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just calling home last night and getting an answering maching, knew that our power was back on. And it was -- it's not an experience I want to go through once a month, but it was ok.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BELLINI: Andrea, during this blackout, many neighborhoods around New York really expressed their true characters. Here in the East Village, they had their own peculiar way of celebrating, people wen to Thomkins Square Park, a historic park. And someone started a bonfire, not an authorised bonfire by the police, but people gathered around and celebrated, as they described it, tribal style. The West Village people said, really felt like a village without the power on.
People here said they didn't suffer terribly by not having electricity. It came on just soon enough for the experience to be a novalty.
KOPPEL: Well I have to believe, Jason, if you saw somebody going by with their laundry that there really no restrictions anymore in the city in terms of how people can use their electricity.
BELLINI: Well people are being encouraged to hold down on their electricity, to not use all the electricity they would. But if you have seen pictures of Time Square, you see that all the lights are up, all billboards are flashing, it's as bright as it ever was. People are going back to doing the things they wanted to do. Some people they spoke with said they don't have hot water yet, so that's held them back from having showers and from doing their laundry, but overall, there no real restrictions, there's no one policing people use of electricty here -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: Well if nothing else, it's taught a lot folks not to take anything for grants. Jason Bellini, in New York, thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 16, 2003 - 18:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to this week's blackout. In New York, the term, nightlife, took on a different meaning during the outage, but now things are finally getting back to normal. And that means restaurants, the Big Apple's night life essentials, have opened their doors again. For a look now, let's check in with our Jason Bellini whose in the Village. And I'd have to imagine, Jason, on a Saturday night in August is probably hopping.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is. It's getting that way. It's still a little bit early in the evening. I'm on avenue A in the east Village. Now the East Village was one of the last neighborhoods in all of New York to get it's power back. We just spoke with some people who said that it was until around 9:30 last night that we finally got their power restored.
But as you can see around me, the streets are very busy. There was someone who was just walking by with his laundry. Most of the restaurants and shops are open. People are out on the streets getting ready for a busy night here on Avenue A.
Earlier we spoke with some people who were already sounding a bit nostalgic about the experience of the blackout.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What can you do. We are alive. We are ail free. We have good food. We live a lifestyle, good mostly, so business is not everything. We have time to make business, I hope, today.
BELLINI: It looks like you are doing ok today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some food, someone is starting with.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't have hot water and I'm desperately looking forward to a hot shower.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just calling home last night and getting an answering maching, knew that our power was back on. And it was -- it's not an experience I want to go through once a month, but it was ok.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BELLINI: Andrea, during this blackout, many neighborhoods around New York really expressed their true characters. Here in the East Village, they had their own peculiar way of celebrating, people wen to Thomkins Square Park, a historic park. And someone started a bonfire, not an authorised bonfire by the police, but people gathered around and celebrated, as they described it, tribal style. The West Village people said, really felt like a village without the power on.
People here said they didn't suffer terribly by not having electricity. It came on just soon enough for the experience to be a novalty.
KOPPEL: Well I have to believe, Jason, if you saw somebody going by with their laundry that there really no restrictions anymore in the city in terms of how people can use their electricity.
BELLINI: Well people are being encouraged to hold down on their electricity, to not use all the electricity they would. But if you have seen pictures of Time Square, you see that all the lights are up, all billboards are flashing, it's as bright as it ever was. People are going back to doing the things they wanted to do. Some people they spoke with said they don't have hot water yet, so that's held them back from having showers and from doing their laundry, but overall, there no real restrictions, there's no one policing people use of electricty here -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: Well if nothing else, it's taught a lot folks not to take anything for grants. Jason Bellini, in New York, thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
