New York ? One year ago today, a large swath of the eastern United States was brought to a shuddering halt by the nation’s worst ever blackout: Stoplights went dark. Trains stopped cold. Stranded commuters by the thousands were left wandering the streets of New York.

The blackout also revealed glaring weaknesses in the nation’s power grid and in emergency preparedness in hard-hit cities like New York. A year later, utilities have made improvements such as trimming more trees and installing better computers and software to monitor problems in the power system. New York has spent millions of dollars on new high-tech gadgets to avert the chaos that followed the blackout.

But for New Yorkers like Christine Collins, not much has changed. She says last year’s blackout wasn’t so bad — so why stock up on flashlights and bottled water for the next one?

“It’s just not something that I’m going to allot the time in my day to,” said the 26-year-old chocolate shop manage. “We walked around in complete darkness and went to bars and had warm beers. It was great.”

Unlike New York’s 1977 blackout, with its arson and looting, last year’s blackout generated many fond recollections.

“It was fun for me, man,” said Johnston St. Louis, 41, as he walked home through Brooklyn this week. “I’m just not prepared. Take it as it comes.”

Some New York restaurants are even holding blackout anniversary parties, with menus featuring all-black food and cocktails. Eighty people have made reservations to eat blackened swordfish, fettuccine dyed in squid ink and a blackout cake by candlelight at a Brooklyn restaurant.

Meanwhile, the city has completed, or is close to completing, most of three dozen improvements recommended by a task force that studied the city’s response last year, according to Emergency Management Commissioner Joseph Bruno.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg now has direct radio links to his agency heads if cell phones fail, as many did last August. The city also has issued ID cards to employees of private firms, so they can move quickly across police lines to bring their companies back on line in a crisis.

Critics believe more can be done to prevent future blackouts, including stricter rules to ensure a more reliable power system. Some say the biggest obstacle to such changes is political bickering in Congress over the energy bill.

“That is probably the biggest gap out there. Every time it comes up, it kind of takes a back seat to tax breaks for the energy companies,” said Robert Burns, senior research specialist for the National Regulatory Research Institute.

People try to board the back of a crowded New York City bus during the blackout that left U.S. and Canadian cities in the dark last year. A year after the nation's worst-ever blackout, utilities have made improvements and New York has spent millions of dollars on new high-tech gadgets to avert the chaos that followed.