NY Post: Blame the Garbage Bosses
Today in blizzard finger-pointing: “Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts — a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned. Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south…
Today in blizzard finger-pointing: “Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts — a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned. Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which was over a raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts.” The subject line of the email from a reader yesterday morn that included this photo: “This is Fulton street?”
Sanitation Department’s Slow Snow Clean-Up Was a Budget Protest [NY Post]
nss, the answers to your questions are:
1a. The council member referenced a public document that s/he was too ignorant to interpret correctly, but
1b. that did not stop a New York tabloid from running the story without checking the facts or calling me. Thankfully, no other press picked it up and it all went away in a day.
2a. I have a management title and therefore do not belong to a union, and
2b. fwiw, when I had a non-management title I found my union essentially useless.
dibs, we’re all anonymous here unless we go to a Brownstoner social event, which I don’t explicitly to maintain my anonymity. So, you’ll just have to trust me on this one–people who know me will say my integrity trumps that of the NY Post any day. (Always nice to know bxgrl consistently has my back, and we’ve never even met.)
If I can deconstruct a little bit: The OP was about a politician making uncredited accusations exclusively to the NY Post. It seems entirely on point for people to question the source and the conduit. And to do so is not to say that the city’s response to the storm was adequate or there shouldn’t be an investigation. It seems that most of the people above agree there should be hearings on why things went so bad, and so do I. I still find the story that prompted the OP very sketchy, in both senses of the word.
personally I expect it will be a combination of factors.
One will be that a new deputy Mayor wanted to save money.
Two that on a Xmas weekend a lot of inexperienced people were on(seniority)
three there is some disgruntle employees(about 200)who are scheduled to be demoted on 1/1 from supervisors back to the trucks.
Does this make this a Union conspiracy? No of course not. The Union agreed to the demotions in lieu of layoffs. Some of the employees aren’t happy with the Union either because of that.
Yes Unions are terrible they make management discuss things before they do it. Hey where do you think the 40 work week come from? or overtime. Yes I am somewhat pro union and that makes me what?
The anti-union people would just as soon have 80 weeks and child labor…and no benefits.. most of this screw up is going to be management and managers-that is what those supervisors are–not the rank and file…
By stringer bell on December 30, 2010 11:36 AM
“I will admit that Fox takes it to such extremes that even they have to laugh. LOL”
to the point of lying. the NY Times is a liberal paper, but it doesn’t do what Fox News and other conservative blogs do.
YES, it’s always the conservative blogs and papers that do the lying.
Typical left wing conspiracy theory crap.
sringer – they will all cover it – especially since Gov. Patterson has just called for a criminal probe into the allegations.
The timeline article in the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/12/30/2010-12-30_blizzard_of_2010_forecasts_were_fuzzy_buses_were_bungled_plows_were_pathetic__ma.html
says that due to the holiday, there were many rookie sanitation employees on duty who had little or no experience with snow removal.
“I will admit that Fox takes it to such extremes that even they have to laugh. LOL”
to the point of lying. the NY Times is a liberal paper, but it doesn’t do what Fox News and other conservative blogs do.
“This has absolutely nothing to do with “media bias” – the “story” is being reported by NYC Councilman Dan Halloran – the Post could be Trotsky’s paper, it wouldnt matter – since their “reporting” isnt a factor.
So while a discussion on “fair and balanced” is always fun; the only person’s/entity whose credibility is at issue here (until sources are named) is Dan Halloran.”
this is a pretty explosive story, if true: a widespread union conspiracy that resulted in deaths. so you’d think every media outlet would jump on it, no?
Benson, don’t you think Bloomberg has an interest in investigating these charges??? He doesn’t seem to be much of a fan of unions. Do you think he doesn’t read the Post? I am sure the charges will be investigated along with the rest of the investigation about the city’s poor performance during this blizzard.
This has absolutely nothing to do with “media bias” – the “story” is being reported by NYC Councilman Dan Halloran – the Post could be Trotsky’s paper, it wouldnt matter – since their “reporting” isnt a factor.
So while a discussion on “fair and balanced” is always fun; the only person’s/entity whose credibility is at issue here (until sources are named) is Dan Halloran.