It’s been stuck in the Atlantic Ocean for more than six months. Today, a 150-ton crane finally began pulling pieces of the Jet Star roller coaster from the water.

“You know it’s been one of those double edge swords you go through. I think it’s the thing that got us the publicity, it put the eyes of the world on Seaside Heights,” said Seaside Heights Mayor Bill Akers. “So now what we’re seeing is the next natural step in progression. So it shows that we’re progressing, we’re moving along in a good timeline too, that we’re in the next stage of the new Seaside Heights.”

Crowds gathered along restaurant balconies to snap pictures. It was emotional for Oakland resident Patricia Hurley.

“Oh it’s sad because I used to ride that roller coaster years ago when I was a kid, so it was kinda sad,” Hurley said.

“Just like the rest of the boardwalk, it means a lot to many people growing up here in Jersey. Everyone’s been pretty much to the boardwalk so it’s sad, but I mean they’re doing such a fantastic job building it back up, the memories will be there even though everything is going to be kinda new,” said Waretown resident Lucy Sutera.

“I’m glad because it shows that they’re having the progress that they need. That is a hazard. They could not open a beach with that,” said Pompton Plains resident Carmen Holster.

Casino Pier hired Weeks Marine to remove the coaster and three other rides submerged underwater. The job’s estimated to take about 48 hours. Crews will work around the clock.

Read the full story here.

On the northeastern end of former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s district, which once straddled Brooklyn and Queens, voters are not looking forward to the disgraced former congressman’s potential candidacy for mayor of New York City.

On a street corner in the Queens neighborhood of Bayside, it is hard to find anyone who would say that they would give Weiner another shot if he jumps into the race. Most residents said there was no chance at all that he would get their vote, even if he had their support before.

“He should find a job, an honest job,” said a Bayside resident named James who declined to give his last name. “He’s a ridiculous figure. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a sex fiend—but you know, once you become a butt of jokes … .”

James, who said that Weiner had done a decent job as a representative, echoed other residents in comparing him to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who also resigned from public office after a scandal involving women outside of his marriage but has since returned to the public eye.

“They’re like two peas in a pod,” James said. “They both want to crawl back into the public bosom, and the fact that they think they might have a chance speaks very poorly of the intelligence of the public.”

A part of the Queens neighborhood of Bayside used to be portion of Weiner’s congressional district. The congressman resigned in 2011 amid scandal, and the district now no longer exists, chopped up in redistricting after Weiner was succeeded for a short time by Republican Rep. Bob Turner.

But back in 2010 Weiner easily won re-election, and two thirds of voters in Queens voted for him.

Read the full story here.

In Japanese culture, the cherry blossom, or sakura, is a cherished symbol of spring, fleeting beauty, and Japan itself. The short lifespan of the cherry blossom—each variety flowers for just seven to ten days—exemplifies the Japanese concept of mono no aware, an awareness of the ephemeral nature of all things. The brief, colorful life of the blossoms makes them a poignant symbol of mortality; as such, they frequently appear in Japanese art and literature. For centuries, the cherry blossom viewing season, called Hanami, has been celebrated with festivals, picnics, and decorations throughout Japan.

Since 1982, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has fêted their cherry blossom collection with Sakura Matsuri, a weekend festival showcasing both traditional and contemporary Japanese culture. The festival is the nation’s largest annual event in a public garden and consistently draws one of the most diverse, elaborately costumed crowds in New York. This year’s festival took place on April 27th and 28th, and featured over 60 performances, exhibits, and demonstrations—from flower arranging seminars to cosplay fashion shows. Some performers traveled all the way from Japan, but many local groups—including the Brooklyn-based Taiko Masala drumming ensemble and the Japanese Folk Dance Institute of NY—also took the stage.

Although Washington DC’s cherry blossom festival is probably the nation’s most famous Hanami event, the New York metro area is home to several noteworthy cherry blossom collections. Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s collection is the most diverse in the nation, with over 200 trees and 42 cultivars of ornamental flowering cherries. Because each variety begins flowering on a different date, Brooklyn’s cherry blossom display is both beautiful and relatively long lasting. The garden’s cherry blossom trees were originally planted in 1921; several years earlier, in 1914–1915, Japanese landscape designer Takeo Shiota created Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, the first Japanese garden created in an American public garden.

Sakura Park in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights also features a historic collection of cherry trees. In 1912, Japan delivered a shipment of over 2,000 cherry trees to New York City, to be planted in Riverside and Sakura Parks. The City of Tokyo donated a Japanese stone lantern, or tori, to the park, in honor of the Tokyo-New York sister city affiliation. Crown Prince Akihito, current Emperor of Japan, and Princess Michiko attended the dedication of the lantern in 1960. The Crown Prince and Princess rededicated the lantern in 1987, in a ceremony hosted by Mayor Edward I. Koch.

Branch Brook Park in Newark, NJ, boasts the largest collection of Japanese cherry blossom trees at one location in the US—over 4,000. The New York Botanical Garden, Queens Botanical Garden, and Randall’s Island Park also house impressive cherry blossom collections. Pending seasonal weather, cherry blossoms in New York can flower through mid-May. If you are planning a visit to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, you can check the exact status of its blossoms on its CherryWatch Map, updated daily.

In this edition of MetroFocus, Sandy’s long-lasting impact on Lower Manhattan, and what still needs to be done. Rick Karr reports from the southern tip of the island, where Sandy’s flood-waters met vulnerable infrastructure last October. Rafael Pi Roman follows up on what happened and what needs to be done in the greater New York area with Wall Street Journal reporter Laura Kusisto. Kusisto discusses lessons the city and its landlords should have learned from Sandy.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey hasn’t opened a new bridge since 1931, but $2.8 billion is about to change that. Mike Schneider talks to Martin Robins, director of the Alan Voorhees Transportation Center and Former Executive Director of NJ Transit about the upcoming changes and why it took so long.

On this week’s Listening In segment, we take you to The New York Times where the “Energy for Tomorrow” Conference looked at building sustainable cities.

You may have heard versions of the story of the O.K. Corral, but have you heard the story of the woman behind the story? Ann Kirschner, University Dean of the Macaulay College Honors College, joins Pi Roman to discuss her new book, “Lady at the O.K. Corral.”

And a visit to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens to see what makes their cherry blossom festival so special.

Watch the individual MetroFocus segments below and stay up to date on MetroFocus news from the New York region on Twitter.

Rebuilding NYC’s Infrastructure After Sandy

New York City thrives because of its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, but last fall Superstorm Sandy tested the man-made infrastructure across all five boroughs and some parts of the region are still reeling from the damage.

Analyst Says Port Authority’s Bridge Plan Addresses Safety and Commercial Concerns

Martin Robins of the Alan Voorhees Transportation Center said the project is way overdue.

Lady at the O.K. Corral: The Story of Wyatt Earp’s Wife

You may have heard versions of the story of the O.K. Corral, but have you heard the story of the woman behind the story?

Listening In: Building Sustainable Cities

On this week's Listening In segment, we take you to The New York Times where the "Energy for Tomorrow" Conference looked at building sustainable cities.

Celebrating Spring with Japanese Cherry Blossoms: A Brooklyn Tradition

Since 1982, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has celebrated Sakura Matsuri, a weekend festival showcasing both traditional and contemporary Japanese culture.

From LADY AT THE O.K. CORRAL by Ann Kirschner Copyright © 2013 by Ann Kirschner. Reprinted courtesy of Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Yesterday, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced its multi-billion dollar plan to restore or replace three bridges that link North Jersey to Staten Island — Goethals Bridge, Outerbridge Crossing Bridge, and Bayonne Bridge. Martin Robins is a former executive director of NJ Transit and is the founding director of the Alan Voorhees Transportation Center. Robins told NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider that the project is way overdue, considering the structural defects and wear and tear on all three bridges.

Continue reading on the NJ Today website.

New York City thrives because of its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, but last fall Superstorm Sandy tested the man-made infrastructure across all five boroughs and some parts of the region are still reeling from the damage.

Even in affluent sections of Lower Manhattan, emergency generators flanked some office buildings months after the storm and small shops remained shuttered from sustained storm damage.

William Solecki, director of the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities and professor at Hunter College, explained that although scientists can predict storm trajectories, what happens after a storm makes landfall can be an unknown.

“We know relatively little about what happens to that water once it hits the shore,” Solecki told correspondent Rick Karr. “[T]he built environment that we’ve created provides pathways for moving water in and around the built environment, so into tunnels, you know, around highway entrance ramps sort of diverting water in lots of different places.”

In Manhattan, water cascaded into subway tunnels and into power substations, cutting off transportation and electricity for half the island. The historic Verizon Building also sustained flooding. Built in 1926 in the art deco style and living in the shadow of One World Trade Center, the Verizon Building still houses a substantial portion of Lower Manhattan’s telecommunications infrastructure in its basement floors.

On the night of Sandy, representatives from Verizon told us their lobby flooded with water that eventually drained down to the basement cable vaults. Flooding peaked at 5 feet in the vault. Even months after the storm, dried leaves littered the floor and a brown line marked how high the water had been in the vault.

According to Chris Levendos, Verizon’s executive director of national operations, the antiquated copper wiring in the vault sustained the most damage from the water, whereas newer, fiber optic cables fared well.  As a result of the storm, Verizon is speeding up its efforts to update their telecommunications infrastructure for the city.  “We’re moving as much service, if not all services, as quickly as possible to fiber optic based infrastructure,” Levendos said.

Laura Kusisto, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and covering post-storm rebuilding in the region, spoke with MetroFocus host Rafael Pi Roman about the wider implications of the storm’s damage on the Greater New York region.

“[A]s many people know if you went to Lower Manhattan in the first week after Sandy, it was a different world. It was […] pitch black, there was no electricity, many, many buildings were closed,” Kusisto said. “Maybe what fewer people know is that even in the months after Sandy, about a third of the office space in the financial district was still closed.”

According to Kusisto, three large office buildings are still out of service and many small businesses at ground level have yet to re-open as of early May. Many businesses, Kusisto said, are investing in raising their most critical systems out of basements.  However, compared to other sections of the city, the financial district is doing relatively well.

“One of the areas that I looked at that is struggling more is Breezy Point,” Kusisto said. A fire destroyed more than a hundred homes there the night of the storm.

Kusisto also has been reporting on the Rockaways where developers and designers are competing to rebuild certain sections of the neighborhood. “Even when you went out to the Rockaways before the storm it looked sometimes in some ways like a second world country,” Kusisto said. “… people have realized that there were not jobs there, there were not small businesses, a lot of the housing was sort of in poor repair.”

Federal funding will offset some costs of rebuilding, according to Kusisto, but private landlords and homeowners will also have to pay for many of the adjustments.

In order to gain a microcosmic perspective on the actual opinions of New Yorkers about the upcoming election, City & State and City Limits, in partnership with MetroFocus, present a new series: “The Five Borough Ballot.”

Customers on the Upper West Side know what they want when they take a seat at Artie’s Deli.

They order the matzo ball soup, a pastrami or turkey sandwich on rye with coleslaw, and maybe a little chopped liver.

But when it comes to picking the next mayor, many haven’t made a choice–and they’re not thrilled with what’s on the menu.

“Everyone is picking the one they find least objectionable,” said an Artie’s customer named Beatrice, who declined to give her last name. “That’s the way it is. It’s very sad. This is a great city and I love it with a passion. We deserve better than the candidates that are running. Politics being what it is today, I understand why people are reluctant to run.”

Former Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Jewish, Queens-born media savvy Democrat, might have been a natural choice for Upper West Side voters who have cast their ballots before for similarly progressive candidates to represent them.

Continue reading this week’s Five Borough Ballot coverage on the City & State website.