The Truffle

Hooooooo-boy…

This blog has just GOT to be bogus. (Via Running Scared)

This is gonna be a loooooooong week…

There’s another heat wave rolling toward the northeastern US. Why should California and the midwest have all the fun? Surely NYC is up for a few more days of 100-degree weather. Right?

Man, am I nervous about the coming week. Especially with Kevin “Denial Ain’t a River in Egypt” Burke as the man ultimately responsible for this city’s power grid. Note this little nugget of comedy gold:

Burke says despite the failure of 10 out of 22 feeder cables in northwest Queens, the area’s power network has a better performance record than others around the city.

“Despite the failure of 10 out of 22 feeder cables.” BWAH!

The NY Daily News weighs in on the matter, faulting the Public Service Commission along with Con Ed. It points to a report by attorney general Eliot Spitzer that Con Ed’s feeder cables have had a tendency to fail; seven cables went down in 1999. Spitzer has said that if elected governor, he’d whip the Public Service Commission into shape, and he’d have the authority to do so. Bloomie notwithstanding, New York politicians are hopping mad at Con Ed.

"I was a Republican until they lost their minds"

So sayeth Charles Barkley, who wants to run for governor of Alabama in 2010 as a Democrat.

Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten the blackout…

Kevin Burke, Con Ed’s CEO, is trying to do damage control. Uh…Kevvie? It’s nice that you want to win back our trust, but don’t you think you should try to UPGRADE YOUR COMPANY’S INFRASTRUCTURE first?

Back from the Poconos!

Yes, I needed that extended weekend. Le Sweetie and I joined friends at their cabin and spent the time hiking, horseback riding, swimming, and visiting an amusement park. The hiking, swimming, and horseback riding were cool. The amusement park…well, it wasn’t Great Adventure, but hey. Last time we were there, we went to a different water park that was really nice, so perhaps one day we’ll go back there. I came home to find that the electricity was still here. A good sign!

One bright side to this whole week

On Thursday, I leave for the Poconos, where friends have a cottage. Out in the picturesque wilderness, where things are usually dark for a reason (i.e., it’s night and you’re out in the middle of nowhere). After camping out at Le Sweetie’s for four days, I get to spend more quality time with Le Sweetie (and friends) without having to follow the Con Ed follies on NY1. Yaaaaaaaaaaay!!!

Okay, time for some perspective…

Northwest Queens may have spent a whole week suffering in the heat and darkness, but it seems we’re not alone. See Parenthetical Remarks for more. Meanwhile, Dusty over at It’s My Right to Be Left of Center is experiencing brownouts and oppressive heat over in central California.

Misery shore loves company, don’t it?

Dear Con Ed: You suck.

Yes, NYC’s power company, Con (Artists) Edison spent about a week bungling and lying and bungling some more before they finally got all the power back up in northwestern Queens. For some, the power first went out on Monday, 7/17. As mentioned earlier, this blogger gal noted that something was, well, not right on Tuesday as her AC grumbled its way through the night in 100-degree weather. Boy, was that fun. As it turns out, my apartment was experiencing a brownout, and the power grew dimmer and dimmer and dimmer.

Wednesday, the power was almost gone, Astoria was in the dark, and I came home to a fridge full of spoiled food and melted frozen spinach. With cooking not an option, I found one restaurant that was still open. I walked there and back with a flashlight in hand. It felt like camping, only without the s’mores and Girl Scout leaders singing folk songs.

No, there was no looting or burlary. Just a lot of really pissed off people walking around on a humid summer night.

Oh yeah, I should add that at one point I called Con Ed to get some automated message telling me that they were working on the problem and to call back tomorrow. Con Ed claimed that 2,500 people were without electricity. Who were they trying to kid? Five neighborhoods–Astoria, Woodside, Hunter’s Point, Long Island City, and Sunnyside–were without power. Only 2,500? There’s a Con Ed plant right in Astoria. Couldn’t they have just looked out the window?

It wasn’t until Friday that the company admitted that–WHOOPS!–the number of people without power was closer to 25,000. They’d based their initial count of 2,500 on the number of people who called them. They conveniently ignored the people who’d tried to call but couldn’t get through because the lines tied up with other irate customers. Meanwhile, city councilmen Eric Gioia and Peter Vallone Jr. and Assemblyman Michael Gianaris were fuming. Forget able-bodied, healthy folks like yours truly. As Gianaris pointed out, the loss of power was actually life-threatening for some.

“They [Con Ed] acted recklessly by releasing numbers the knew were false, and people’s health was put at risk….We had diabetics who couldn’t keep their insulin in the refrigerator. We had seniors in highrises who couldn’t get food and water.”

There was also the risk of accidents because the traffic lights weren’t working. Con Ed is very, very lucky that nobody suffered heatstroke or was hit by a car.

Although Bloomberg seems miffed at Con Ed for playing coy with the numbers, he still praised the president, Kevin Burke. Burke, meanwhile, kept a low profile until the following weekend. Power wasn’t even fully restored to all of Queens until today.

Angry? Me? Hell yes. Con Ed has been dishonest and inept through the whole crisis. Bloomie, though he tried to play nice, admits that if he’d known the true extent of the blackout, he would’ve devoted more resources to it sooner.

At one point, I called the office of Queens Borough President Helen Marshall and spoke to a very nice man. According to him, Con Ed had been given 3 billion dollars to upgrade their systems. So what did they do with the fucking money, anyway?

Seriously, they should bring criminal charges against the company for reckless endangerment and, possibly, criminal negligence. Yes, I got my power back over the weekend and I’m still pissed off.

Well, as of today, Queens has all its power back…just as Staten Island suffers a power outage. This time, Con Ed says 10,000 people are affected, which no doubt means the actual number is much, much higher.

Hang in there, S.I.! With any luck, your electricity will be restored before Labor Day!

Why there’s never any blackout blogging…

For one thing, there’s no electricity to make said blogging possible. That said, my neighborhood of Astoria, Queens was in the dark for about a week. I had a brownout in my own apartment starting on Tuesday, meaning that my 60-watt light bulbs were operating at 10 watts and all my food was ruined. And this dragged on from Tuesday until Sunday or so. AAARRRRRRRGGGGGGH! There are still about 3,000 people in Woodside who still haven’t gotten their power back, and it’s been over a week.

Luckily, I had Le Sweetie to provide me with a place to sleep that had electricity and A/C, but it still sucked to see my neighborhood (along with four others) in the dark. I’ll offer more opinions on the con artists at Con Ed and the mayor’s response to this fiasco later…

GRRROOOOAAAANNN…

Can’t Bush just keep his mouth shut for the rest of the presidential term?

Here’s the scoop from CNN:

During a joint news conference Saturday in St. Petersburg, Bush said he raised concerns about democracy in Russia during a frank discussion with the Russian leader.

“I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world, like Iraq where there’s a free press and free religion, and I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia would do the same,” Bush said.

To that, Putin replied, “We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy that they have in Iraq, quite honestly.”

I imagine Putin desperately trying to keep a straight face as he spoke.

Via Mockingbird’s Medley.