With elevators down, high-rise residents suffer

New York by Gehry at 8 Spruce Street, one of many buildings that lost elevator service during Hurricane Sandy
New York by Gehry at 8 Spruce Street, one of many buildings that lost elevator service during Hurricane Sandy

With Hurricane Sandy knocking out power to much of Lower Manhattan, the downside of living near the top of a glittering new skyscraper was made clear. As elevators shut down, the journey to the ground floor — and back again — by darkened stairwell has some reconsidering reaching for new heights, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Currently tens of thousands of high-rise dwellers accustomed to riding elevators are being forced to hoof it. And it is hitting the elderly, those with young children  and superintendents — who in some cases are having to climb their buildings dozens of times a day — particularly hard.

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The New York City Housing Authority has said that some 436 elevators were still not functioning in its buildings as of Wednesday evening, an agency spokesperson told the Journal.

“It was a little creepy walking upstairs,” Jacob Senker, a resident of Liberty Plaza,  a high-rise building in the Financial District, said. “You can’t really see anyone until they’re right in front of you. I said ‘Happy Halloween’ to everyone I passed.” [WSJ]Christopher Cameron