Thursday, August 09, 2007
How Come?
Mayor Moneybags Bloomberg plans on running for president as a highly competent, highly organized business manager who can solve the nation's problems by utilizing the common sense and ingenuity that helped him make billions.
And yet, nearly every time there is a heavy rain these days, parts of the city go dark for hours or days, huge sections of the NYC transit system flood and shut down, and other parts simply explode hundreds of stories into the air.
So what is the mayor doing to fix the infrastructure problem here in NYC?
As far as I can tell, just trying to make it worse.
Bloomberg wants to add hundreds of thousands of riders to an already massively overcrowded subway system by charging car drivers $8 and truck drivers $21 to enter Manhattan below 86th Street. He does not plan to have any track added in order to take care of the additional riders although there was some talk about expanding subway stations and adding additional cars. Unfortunately, that work will take years to complete and will not be finished before Bloomberg's traffic congestion plan goes into effect and adds hundreds of thousands more people.
In addition, Bloomberg insisted that the #7 train be expanded 8 blocks on the West Side so that the rezoned West 30's will have a subway stop for all those luxury buildings the mayor's real estate cronies are already building over there. That money should have been used to fix the current infrastructure, but let's face it, fixing infrastructure is neither sexy nor profitable while rezoning huge swaths of the West Side for real estate cronies and providing a subway expansion to their Shangri-Las is.
Bloomberg has never once mentioned fixing the pipes under the city (you know, the ones that periodically explode and spew toxins and asbestos into the air) and always takes the side of his pal, Con Ed CEO Kevin Byrne, every time there is a blackout.
And let's not even mention the school system which is currently at 250% capacity and getting worse by the year.
If Bloomberg is such a highly organized, highly competent manager, how come he continues to try and add millions more people to the city's population while he continually ignores the infrastructure these millions of people will need to use? How come he can't get Con Edison to anticipate grid problems, how come he can't get the trains to run in rain storms, and how come he can't lower school populations to below 250% capacity?
How come?
And yet, nearly every time there is a heavy rain these days, parts of the city go dark for hours or days, huge sections of the NYC transit system flood and shut down, and other parts simply explode hundreds of stories into the air.
So what is the mayor doing to fix the infrastructure problem here in NYC?
As far as I can tell, just trying to make it worse.
Bloomberg wants to add hundreds of thousands of riders to an already massively overcrowded subway system by charging car drivers $8 and truck drivers $21 to enter Manhattan below 86th Street. He does not plan to have any track added in order to take care of the additional riders although there was some talk about expanding subway stations and adding additional cars. Unfortunately, that work will take years to complete and will not be finished before Bloomberg's traffic congestion plan goes into effect and adds hundreds of thousands more people.
In addition, Bloomberg insisted that the #7 train be expanded 8 blocks on the West Side so that the rezoned West 30's will have a subway stop for all those luxury buildings the mayor's real estate cronies are already building over there. That money should have been used to fix the current infrastructure, but let's face it, fixing infrastructure is neither sexy nor profitable while rezoning huge swaths of the West Side for real estate cronies and providing a subway expansion to their Shangri-Las is.
Bloomberg has never once mentioned fixing the pipes under the city (you know, the ones that periodically explode and spew toxins and asbestos into the air) and always takes the side of his pal, Con Ed CEO Kevin Byrne, every time there is a blackout.
And let's not even mention the school system which is currently at 250% capacity and getting worse by the year.
If Bloomberg is such a highly organized, highly competent manager, how come he continues to try and add millions more people to the city's population while he continually ignores the infrastructure these millions of people will need to use? How come he can't get Con Edison to anticipate grid problems, how come he can't get the trains to run in rain storms, and how come he can't lower school populations to below 250% capacity?
How come?
