New Yorkers cope with sweltering city

ASTORIA, Queens (WABC) -- New Yorkers are doing their best to beat the heat or just deal with it in most cases.

It was bumper-to-bumper on the Gowanus Expressway, an unlucky predicament for those drivers without air conditioning.

"One window's open, the other one is busted, so we work with what we got," a driver said.

You know it's hot when the sun goes down but the temperature doesn't. Or maybe it just feels that way.

In Astoria Thursday night, Eyewitness News found sweltering workers serving steaming hot food and customers lining-up for it.

And Gaelin Muskat on a two-hour run through Brooklyn.

"It's so hot! How can you run in weather like this," Eyewitness News Reporter N.J. Burkett asked.

"That's a great question," Muskat said. "Everyone is sweating it out. It's that much easier to do it, whether you are sweating on the subway, as I was on my way to work this morning, and now just looking for an excuse to shower," Muskat said.

New Yorkers are finding relief however and wherever they can. For some, being outdoors was better than being indoors.

"When I was in the house, oh my God!" a resident said. "Hot, hot," a resident said.

For others, air conditioning is overrated. Like Jahmeal Grant and Charmaine Jones, they were willing to have dinner outside.

"It's hot out, very hot, it's humid but, I just want to get out," Grant said. "Even with the air conditioning, you got to get out."

But the heat brings out frustration. Drivers stuck behind a sanitation truck started to lose their cool.

Back on the Gowanus, it wasn't much better.

"Very hot and agitated people everywhere, which makes it worse because they're agitated already!" a driver said.

WATCH THE LATEST ACCUWEATHER FORECAST HERE