Slime Beneath the City's Fallen Snow

New York City Counicilman Dan Halloran is New York's only major elected official with a libertarian background.  Last week, a major snow storm afflicted the Big Apple.  Just as in 1969 during the mayoralty of the late John W. Linday, the Sanitation Department failed to perform.  There was public snit about the lack of snow removal.  My good friend Glenda McGee forwarded a December 30 New York Post article quoting Halloran as saying that managers from within the Sanitation Department had ordered a work slowdown.  If it occurred, it lead to deaths and other serious harm.  According to informants who brought the information to Halloran, the protest concerned promotions and budget cuts.  Union officials Harry Nespoli and Joseph Mannion as well as Sanitation Department spokesperson Matthew Lipani deny a slowdown occurred.  However, the Post asserts that multiple Sanitation Department sources have said that:

"angry plow drivers have only been clearing streets assigned to them even if that means they have to drive through snowed-in roads with their plows raised...One mechanic said some drivers are purposely smashing plows and salt spreaders to further stall the cleanup effort."

Mayor Bloomberg's absurd response was to blame residents for shoveling snow into streets.  But according to Halloran, "snitches" said that:

"they were told [by supervisors] to take off routes [and] not do the plowing of some of the major arteries in a timely manner. They were told to make the mayor pay for the layoffs, the reductions in rank for the supervisors, shrinking the rolls of the rank-and-file."

It is time to privatize the Department of Sanitation.  Competition has drastically improved the dismal telephone service of the former New York Telephone (I remember when one had to restrict long distance calls because of high costs, for instance). New York's sanitation workers are paid much more than comparable private sector workers.  Here in rural Olive, New York snow removal usually is complete within a day or at most two after a storm despite higher highway mileage per capita.  The little city of Kingston, NY, 25 miles from here, also has a public sanitation department that is inefficient and in need of privatization.

Mayor Bloomberg's response to the accusations of shirking and inefficiency in his Santitation Department has been cowardly.

I wrote the following letter to Mayor Bloomberg:

PO Box 130

West Shokan, NY 12494

Mayor Michael Bloomberg

City Hall
New York, NY 10007

Dear Mayor Bloomberg:

As someone who relies on New York City to earn my livelihood, I urge you to privatize the New York City Sanitation Department.  According to Councilman Dan Halloran and the New York Post, the recent John Lindsay-like problems that you have suffered result from an illegal, irresponsible and murderous work stoppage. 

The Sanitation Department is not functioning competently or morally.  Its workers are overpaid and under-productive.  The irresponsible stoppage caused people to die. You are the person ultimately responsible to investigate and ferret out the malefactors.  But much more important action is needed.  It is time to eliminate a white elephant that New Yorkers cannot afford.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert