Culture

Power Outlets for the People

Thanks to Sandy, New Yorkers have created an informal network of public phone-charging stations. But why did they have to?
Carlo Allegri/Reuters

New York is in the midst of two energy crises: the old-fashioned, Carter-era gas-shortage kind, and a very Millennial kind, in which personal gizmos are dying as their owners helplessly cradle them.

The fuel emergency is for the officials to solve. But the question of how to revive ebbing smart-phones and iPads in a city where hundreds of thousands remain without power has largely been left to the public. In Midtown Manhattan, where the lights are still on, residents have strung extension cords out to their stoops. A pizza shop made power strips available, whether or not you were buying a slice. Con Edison's 14th Street headquarters opened its doors and its outlets to the public. "Now we're standing around the electrical plugs like cavemen around fire," one iPhone charger told Vice magazine.