FDNY blizzard responses

short point on the tax thing

One of my problems is the futile enforcement of the drug and gambling laws.

If it were legalized and taxed not only generate taxes, contribute to the economy, but it would reduce cost of expense of fighting the futile drug laws.

http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php

I believe in higher tolls to subsidize mass transit. If I were driving I would happily pay more to have less vehicles on the road.

I dont mean taxing only the rich. In NYC there is a large amount of legal jobs payed off the books, there are also services provided to people in the USA unlawfully.

/sermon
 
back tio the storm

I worked at my volly all day and night yesterday.

We were getting 911 calls on our MARS radio. That NEVER happens.

I saw a rig from Vineland NJ in Brooklyn. One NJ tech, one FDNY tech.

Part of the problem was the roads, the other part the people. People just left cars in the driving lanes of major secondary roads. Vehicles on the road no need. There were furniture delivery trucks everywhere. Even food delivery. Brooklyn has too many food stores. There is enough food even after 2 days everywhere....

One hospital we could not even get to. Some jobs we had to abandon. Other jobs best we could do was get to corner.

I would say it is 1/2 the cities fault, and 1/2 people who should have left there cars where they were and stay home or walk.

Also the idiots shovelling snow from driveway into street. It caused at least one crash.
 
emt seeking first job said:
I would say it is 1/2 the cities fault...
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Does that mean you still feel, per your earlier post, that the solution would have been: (1) "tax a bit more on the upper end"; (2) "run more trains"; and (3) "keep people out of their cars"?

Just asking.
 
emt seeking first job said:
One of my problems is the futile enforcement of the drug and gambling laws.

If it were legalized and taxed not only generate taxes, contribute to the economy, but it would reduce cost of expense of fighting the futile drug laws.

http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php

I believe in higher tolls to subsidize mass transit. If I were driving I would happily pay more to have less vehicles on the road.

I dont mean taxing only the rich. In NYC there is a large amount of legal jobs payed off the books, there are also services provided to people in the USA unlawfully.

/sermon
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I agree that we should legalize and regulate drugs and gambling. Starve the gangs and organized crime of their funding. People are going to get their drugs and find their bookie regardless if it's legal or not.

As far as increasing tolls, please realize that this isn't the norm in many other areas of the country. I didn't realize this until I left NY. Why do I need to pay to get into and out of the city, and even between boroughs in some cases? If I decide to visit family, I need to take the Verrazano into Brooklyn to avoid the eight bucks or whatever. I need to take the Williamsburgh bride >Delancy>Allen>Houston>Varick to the Holland to avoid paying to get out. WTF? We don't visit much for this reason. I shouldn't have to pay that much to pass. I could see a dollar to pass, but eight bucks or so they're demanding is unreasonable. I feel sorry for the residents that need to get between Staten Island and Brooklyn, or The Bronx and Queens. The cost of living is already too high, let alone the numerous tolls. What do you think this and the various taxes on hotels, services, airports, etc do to tourism?

Yes, there are quite a few jobs off the books that could be taxed. I used to work as a Snapple delivery man. It was off the books. There are also plenty of independent distributors that pick up from beverage distributors in a rented box truck and deliver to all the bodegas. What about all the illegals working in the delis? Bouncers? The list goes on and on.
 
emt seeking first job said:
Also the idiots shovelling snow from driveway into street. It caused at least one crash.
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Where are they supposed to shovel the snow, on top of their cars? I'm not walking back and forth repeatedly halfway down the block with a shovel load of snow to build a pile in the vacant space in front of a fire hydrant or something.
 
46Young said:
Where are they supposed to shovel the snow, on top of their cars? I'm not walking back and forth repeatedly halfway down the block with a shovel load of snow to build a pile in the vacant space in front of a fire hydrant or something.
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Not everyone HAS to go out the second it stops snowing....

In White Plains, where I used to live, they would fine people for that...
 
the thing with tolls

I have no intention to get into it. The fact of the matter is there are 25 million people in a 75 mile radius of NYC.

There just is not the space for everyone to have a car.

Some people use cars because they are under or not serviced by mass transit.

If there were a better mass transit system, less polution for one thing, less crashes, lower insurance for people who do drive.

People drive flooring the gas, that wastes money....

If someone HAD to drive, like for business, they would be better off paying a bit more in tolls to fund mass transit, less traffic, save time on the road in traffic.

I think with less crashes and less pollution, health and auto insurance would be cheaper...

Not to mention, less demand for gas, would make it less of a commodity to fight wars over.

I know it sounds directly 'unfair' to have higher tolls and free or lower mass transit, but I am talking big picture.

I am certain a traveling salesman, for example, would happily pay more in tolls if it saved even one hour in traffic each day.

Too many people drive to their static office job....

The congestion is getting more and more insane in the past 20 years..
 
getting back on topic....

FDNY is calling vollies on the MARS radio for help. That NEVER happens.

Now I know why vollie in NYC 'exist', for the one day they feel they need them.

It was bizarre yesterday.

The crew I was on could not get within five blocks of one job, so the chief decided to respond to another holding call. It became a game of greatist good for the greatest #.

Funny thing is, more than one person at my vollie unit 'hid' from there paying EMS job to work at the vollie.....
 
emt seeking first job said:
Not everyone HAS to go out the second it stops snowing....

In White Plains, where I used to live, they would fine people for that...
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How do you fine someone for leaving their home? I've never heard of such an absurdity. But then again, the Federal Gov't wants to fine you if you choose not to have health coverage, so I suppose any liberty is fair game nowadays.
 
emt seeking first job said:
I have no intention to get into it. The fact of the matter is there are 25 million people in a 75 mile radius of NYC.

There just is not the space for everyone to have a car.

Some people use cars because they are under or not serviced by mass transit.

If there were a better mass transit system, less polution for one thing, less crashes, lower insurance for people who do drive.
Go down any Brooklyn street and take a look at the license plates. What do you see? PA, PA, FL, GA, PA, NC, PA, TN, etc. The insurance companies need to charge a high enough premium to cover their claims and also make a profit. It's all those that scam the insurance companies by claiming out-of-state addresses that make it all the more expensive for the rest of us.

People drive flooring the gas, that wastes money....
That's their problem; they'll just have to cough up more each time they fill up at the pump.

If someone HAD to drive, like for business, they would be better off paying a bit more in tolls to fund mass transit, less traffic, save time on the road in traffic.

I think with less crashes and less pollution, health and auto insurance would be cheaper...

Not to mention, less demand for gas, would make it less of a commodity to fight wars over.
Check your history. Whenever there are measures or technology implemented to reduce energy comsumption, the power company inevitably raises it's rates to compensate for the loss of revenue. With the impending ban on incandescent light bulbs, we'll see this again. If your bill drops 20 bucks a month, the company will eventually raise rates the same 20% and more.

I know it sounds directly 'unfair' to have higher tolls and free or lower mass transit, but I am talking big picture.
The original intent of tolls were to pay for the project, not as a continuing source of revenue. It would be naive to think that any gov't would give that up, though. But eight dollar tolls?

I am certain a traveling salesman, for example, would happily pay more in tolls if it saved even one hour in traffic each day.

Too many people drive to their static office job....

The congestion is getting more and more insane in the past 20 years..
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If the residents are unhappy with the increasing overpopulation, excessive taxation and traffic congestion, then they can vote with their feet. They're free to leave. If you move to a major metropolitan area, then you need to expect these things. More and more money leaves NY with each passing year. Meanwhile, the entitlement crowd (mainly welfare, illegals, people working off the books while they get food stamps and subsidized housing, to name a few) continues to grow. It's going to get very ugly in about 20 years, perhaps much sooner. The number of residents that don't contribute to the system, but continue to use resources, will continue to grow. Meanwhle, those that work will continue to have more and more of their money confiscated through taxes, tolls, increased prices of goods and services passed on through regulations, increased fines for traffic and parking, etc. They'll leave if they can, too. How many retirees left for FL, the Carolinas and such? How many of the gainfully employed left the city for LI, upstate, and NJ? 20 years or less. Each individual takes their potential contribution to the local tax, property tax, and contributions to the local economy with them. The more money that's confiscated by the gov't, the less that can be invested, or be used to support the economy and job growth. Unless you believe Pelosi when she said that continued unemployment benefits will stimulate the economy and job growth. Look at California, that's where NY is headed.
 
Part of the problem which no one has mentioned yet was that a state of emergency was not called in the city. Meaning that the community and city employees respond differently. People are more likely to go out, and people are less likely to plan on going into a man power pool (unless their boss tells them they have to). Resources were not adequately mobilized and emergency snow routes weren't kept clear of cars.
 
Motojunkie said:
This may have also been part of the problem
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It's too bad that they can't privatize DSNY. If the city were more like other areas of the country, there would be subdivisions, and they could hire their own sanitation & road maitenance for pennies on the dollar. In my subdivision, for example, we pay an annual assessment of around $600. Included in that is our sanitation and road maitenance, among many other things. We have different companies competing for contracts, so they do a really good job.

These DSNY guys would work around 5 hours a day on the average, and jerk the gherkin for the other three. They don't work hard at all. Now they're doing a work slowdown? We've had a dramatic hiring slowdown in my county in all areas, and also wage/COLA freezes the past two years with dramatic increases in medical insurance premiums. What are these prima donnas complaining about?
 
silver said:
Part of the problem which no one has mentioned yet was that a state of emergency was not called in the city. Meaning that the community and city employees respond differently. People are more likely to go out, and people are less likely to plan on going into a man power pool (unless their boss tells them they have to). Resources were not adequately mobilized and emergency snow routes weren't kept clear of cars.
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Thats true about the resources. Bloomberg pretty much admitted that to cut costs, they didn't do some of the preparation, staging, and extra hiring that they normally would with a storm this big coming through.
 
jjesusfreak01 said:
Thats true about the resources. Bloomberg pretty much admitted that to cut costs, they didn't do some of the preparation, staging, and extra hiring that they normally would with a storm this big coming through.
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That's the thing. It would be costly to prepare for the worst case scenario each and every year. This is especially true considering that hiring has been depressed due to budget constraints. Here in VA, we had those two winter storms, one of which was the same one that caused that Pittsburgh EMS controversy. Our state gets maybe one of those every ten years, let alone two back to back. The state doesn't keep enough staff and resources to handle that type of incident from year to year, since it would be a waste of money. Regarless, it's naive to think that 20" of snow or such can magically disappear in a day or two. Everyone likes to complain, but I don't seeing everyne on the block pitching in and shoveling each other out, and off the block.
 
46Young said:
That's the thing. It would be costly to prepare for the worst case scenario each and every year. This is especially true considering that hiring has been depressed due to budget constraints. Here in VA, we had those two winter storms, one of which was the same one that caused that Pittsburgh EMS controversy. Our state gets maybe one of those every ten years, let alone two back to back. The state doesn't keep enough staff and resources to handle that type of incident from year to year, since it would be a waste of money. Regarless, it's naive to think that 20" of snow or such can magically disappear in a day or two. Everyone likes to complain, but I don't seeing everyne on the block pitching in and shoveling each other out, and off the block.
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I'm actually referring to prep directly before the storm.
 
emt seeking first job said:
FDNY is calling vollies on the MARS radio for help. That NEVER happens.

Now I know why vollie in NYC 'exist', for the one day they feel they need them.
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FDNY Command thinks Vollies are useless... because they forget that they call during blizzards, MCIs, NYC Marathon and horrific events like 9/11.
 
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