Snake oil anyone????
I wrote the following a few months ago and sent copies to a few friends. People have been pestering me to publish it so here it is in all it's glory typos and all. In case you have no idea what it is about - it is in response to an editorial published in the Chicago Tribune by some conservative assclown. It's easily googled.
I almost want to start a hashtag with her name as a response to local problems/issues such as the two boil advisories the city has recently experienced. In the last 60 (maybe 90 days) the City had two massive boil water advisories due to a pump failure caused by a power failure. Power failures are a common thing in NOLA so you would think those in charge of the pumps would have a back up in place but hell no, it's on some sort of list of things to do. As for the power failures themselves you can't blame Entergy New Orleans when a crackhead decides to steal copper wire from equipment, or metallic balloons hit a contact point on wires, or a fool drives their car into a pole knocking out a transformer. However, you have to ask yourself how any of those things can knock out several thousands of customers for hours on end. The last one I went through knocked out the entire Lower 9th Ward (ok a handful of blocks on the other side of Claiborne were spared but I'm not even sure there is anything there anymore other than abandoned lots). You might think something serious happened but it was the result of a car accident. Yep, a dude, a car, a pole, and over 2,000 accounts with out power. We pay a ton in surcharges for storms and system repairs and Entergy can't seem to grasp the concept of system redundancy. I am surprised that didn't cause a boil water advisory-maybe it did and I missed it. Although it is far more likely they just didn't issue one for this neighborhood, but that is an issue all on it's own that I'm just in no mood to write about at present.
You actually believe Mitch??? Oh baby you've been jindalled!!! From Chi living in Nola
Sat, Aug 15, 2015 at 8:05 AM
To: kmcqueary@chicagotribune.com
Dear Ms. McQueary,
I am going to leave your incredibly blatent insensitivity and Trump
like non apology aside.
You really think this City is better managed than Chicago??????? I've
lived here for over 15 years and I am desperately trying to move back
to Chicago. Why? This City doesn't give a damn about it's residents
ONLY about it's visitors. Te new streetcar they are installing is one
of a hundred pieces of proof. Corruption is SO rampant that the
Inspector Generals Office of the City is in a feud with the
Independent Police Monitors Office and the Mayor is in and out of
court with the Sheriff over the funds for the new prison (all paid for
by FEMA by the way) all of this is under a federal consent decree
which is blatently ignored daily by pretty much everyone. That;s just
the local law enforcement.
Our streets have been compared to third world nations streets. No not
the ones you will see in places like Convention Center Blvd, but
Lakeview, Gentilly, Bywater. Let's not forget the Lower 9th Ward
where I currently reside (up until 5 years ago I could afford to live
in the French Quarter or pretty much anywhere else not with the rental
hikes). You think dilapidated buildings were removed ---lol---up
until two weeks ago I lived across from 3 crumbling abandoned
buildings left vacant from Katrina. One was ordered for demolition
more times than I can count but somehow the owner has gotten out of
it. My City Council person could care less, he is only interested in
building a large luxury condo complex down the block (because the city
needs more pricey luxury condos). The building I moved out of now
looks abandoned. I have been trying to contact the landlord and
property manager for 3 months (we have no landlord tenant
ordinances--the city council here won't even consider the
notion...perhaps because so many are landlords themselves). Many
properties were not repaired correctly after the storm--how would you
care to live in a building were they just put up sheet rock over
mold??? I can arrange it!
Chicago might be corrupt as all hell, it might be tweaking the edge of
financial disaster but I bet it pays it's Judgments, I bet the firemen
are paid, I bet the streets are in better shape, I bet tenants don't
have to fight over paying for water leaks at their water meter (I
never remember having to pay for water and trash in Chicago). When was
the last time a neighborhood in Chicago went without electricity for a
week or more?? Here it is all smoke and mirrors... it's all federal
money from the storm..and we are just a breath away from being Detroit
financially (btw many of our creative class have moved there they say
they are use to the lack of city services). Have you seen our bond
rating???
I wish I had Eddie Vrdolyck as a city council person instead of James
Gray. Interestingly Fast Eddie got in trouble for the same thing many
(think Jackie Clarkson) on our City Council have done for years. At
least he got the garbage picked up, the snow off the streets (here
that would be water) and the busses running on time.
I'll trade you places for a month. I guarantee you will wish there
was an L train. Oh yeah I'd like you to be without a car. No living in
luxury condos in the CBD or Warehouse District. No nice Bi&B in the
Quarter or Hotel either. Live like a local, try and manage your life
with our City services. Also try not to killed. We don't have a
"Southside" nope you take your chances block to block here.
Finally, given your unimaginably condescending response to criticism
how about a real apology? As in I am sorry I and I really don't
understand. Because you don't . If you knew what that storm truly did
or that it wasn't really the storm but the flood from the levee
failures you would never have written that piece to begin with.
Katrina is a gift that keeps on giving...in suicides, crime, mental
illness, displacement, job loss, illness (particularly cancers and
viruses such as hepatitis and a variety of respiratory auto immune and
skin disorders). Imagine being 9 years old and watching your
grandmother die because she didn't have water or medicine??? I know at
least a dozen children who went through that. They are no longer
children. They see the world differently and it's not necessarily good
for anyone. They say 1800 people died from Florida to Texas including
those at the AstroDome who passed on after evacuation. The missing
numbers tell a different story. To live here and the surrounding area
(including Mississippi) is to live with that. This is what you wish
upon Chicago????? This is what you would wish upon anyone??? Would you
have said the same about the the Twin Towers??? You my dear are
either incredibly callous or a fool or perhaps both. You show promise
as an elected official we will be needing a Mayor and a Governor soon
care to apply?
I almost want to start a hashtag with her name as a response to local problems/issues such as the two boil advisories the city has recently experienced. In the last 60 (maybe 90 days) the City had two massive boil water advisories due to a pump failure caused by a power failure. Power failures are a common thing in NOLA so you would think those in charge of the pumps would have a back up in place but hell no, it's on some sort of list of things to do. As for the power failures themselves you can't blame Entergy New Orleans when a crackhead decides to steal copper wire from equipment, or metallic balloons hit a contact point on wires, or a fool drives their car into a pole knocking out a transformer. However, you have to ask yourself how any of those things can knock out several thousands of customers for hours on end. The last one I went through knocked out the entire Lower 9th Ward (ok a handful of blocks on the other side of Claiborne were spared but I'm not even sure there is anything there anymore other than abandoned lots). You might think something serious happened but it was the result of a car accident. Yep, a dude, a car, a pole, and over 2,000 accounts with out power. We pay a ton in surcharges for storms and system repairs and Entergy can't seem to grasp the concept of system redundancy. I am surprised that didn't cause a boil water advisory-maybe it did and I missed it. Although it is far more likely they just didn't issue one for this neighborhood, but that is an issue all on it's own that I'm just in no mood to write about at present.
You actually believe Mitch??? Oh baby you've been jindalled!!! From Chi living in Nola
Sat, Aug 15, 2015 at 8:05 AM
To: kmcqueary@chicagotribune.com
Dear Ms. McQueary,
I am going to leave your incredibly blatent insensitivity and Trump
like non apology aside.
You really think this City is better managed than Chicago??????? I've
lived here for over 15 years and I am desperately trying to move back
to Chicago. Why? This City doesn't give a damn about it's residents
ONLY about it's visitors. Te new streetcar they are installing is one
of a hundred pieces of proof. Corruption is SO rampant that the
Inspector Generals Office of the City is in a feud with the
Independent Police Monitors Office and the Mayor is in and out of
court with the Sheriff over the funds for the new prison (all paid for
by FEMA by the way) all of this is under a federal consent decree
which is blatently ignored daily by pretty much everyone. That;s just
the local law enforcement.
Our streets have been compared to third world nations streets. No not
the ones you will see in places like Convention Center Blvd, but
Lakeview, Gentilly, Bywater. Let's not forget the Lower 9th Ward
where I currently reside (up until 5 years ago I could afford to live
in the French Quarter or pretty much anywhere else not with the rental
hikes). You think dilapidated buildings were removed ---lol---up
until two weeks ago I lived across from 3 crumbling abandoned
buildings left vacant from Katrina. One was ordered for demolition
more times than I can count but somehow the owner has gotten out of
it. My City Council person could care less, he is only interested in
building a large luxury condo complex down the block (because the city
needs more pricey luxury condos). The building I moved out of now
looks abandoned. I have been trying to contact the landlord and
property manager for 3 months (we have no landlord tenant
ordinances--the city council here won't even consider the
notion...perhaps because so many are landlords themselves). Many
properties were not repaired correctly after the storm--how would you
care to live in a building were they just put up sheet rock over
mold??? I can arrange it!
Chicago might be corrupt as all hell, it might be tweaking the edge of
financial disaster but I bet it pays it's Judgments, I bet the firemen
are paid, I bet the streets are in better shape, I bet tenants don't
have to fight over paying for water leaks at their water meter (I
never remember having to pay for water and trash in Chicago). When was
the last time a neighborhood in Chicago went without electricity for a
week or more?? Here it is all smoke and mirrors... it's all federal
money from the storm..and we are just a breath away from being Detroit
financially (btw many of our creative class have moved there they say
they are use to the lack of city services). Have you seen our bond
rating???
I wish I had Eddie Vrdolyck as a city council person instead of James
Gray. Interestingly Fast Eddie got in trouble for the same thing many
(think Jackie Clarkson) on our City Council have done for years. At
least he got the garbage picked up, the snow off the streets (here
that would be water) and the busses running on time.
I'll trade you places for a month. I guarantee you will wish there
was an L train. Oh yeah I'd like you to be without a car. No living in
luxury condos in the CBD or Warehouse District. No nice Bi&B in the
Quarter or Hotel either. Live like a local, try and manage your life
with our City services. Also try not to killed. We don't have a
"Southside" nope you take your chances block to block here.
Finally, given your unimaginably condescending response to criticism
how about a real apology? As in I am sorry I and I really don't
understand. Because you don't . If you knew what that storm truly did
or that it wasn't really the storm but the flood from the levee
failures you would never have written that piece to begin with.
Katrina is a gift that keeps on giving...in suicides, crime, mental
illness, displacement, job loss, illness (particularly cancers and
viruses such as hepatitis and a variety of respiratory auto immune and
skin disorders). Imagine being 9 years old and watching your
grandmother die because she didn't have water or medicine??? I know at
least a dozen children who went through that. They are no longer
children. They see the world differently and it's not necessarily good
for anyone. They say 1800 people died from Florida to Texas including
those at the AstroDome who passed on after evacuation. The missing
numbers tell a different story. To live here and the surrounding area
(including Mississippi) is to live with that. This is what you wish
upon Chicago????? This is what you would wish upon anyone??? Would you
have said the same about the the Twin Towers??? You my dear are
either incredibly callous or a fool or perhaps both. You show promise
as an elected official we will be needing a Mayor and a Governor soon
care to apply?