Sideways Electric Boxes, Sideways Pictures, Sideways Talk -- It's All The Same Crap From Our $123,000 DPW Superintendent!

 

HUDseen readers may recall an article from December highlighting some issues at the intersection of 6th & Columbia, one of them being the unsecure electrical box for the streetlight.  Well, DPW finally got to the box in February, resecuring it (quite poorly, I might add) to the ancient utility pole from which it was dangling for months.  But their placement of the box, in two regards, only made things worse. 

Read December's article here:  Down On The Corner

DPW could have made the effort and taken the time to secure the old graffiti-covered box to the new wooden utility pole a few feet away that National Grid put in the ground late last summer, but either it never crossed their mind to do so or Rob Perry told his crew, "don't bother, put it back on that old pole."  But if Rob wants that double pole situation gone, at some point he is going to have to transfer his electric box to the new pole, and he knows this.  Which is to say, Rob Perry doesn't give a crap about double poles (a situation in which two poles are next to each other on the sidewalk for years, one old and one new "replacement" pole, both with lines attached to them).  Hell, there's been a new and old pole standing inches from one another directly in front of our DPW Superintendent's house for the past two years.  And all of our sidewalks (except for Warren Street's!!) are increasingly loaded with them thanks to National Grid installing new poles all over the city and expecting Verizon, Mid-Hudson Cable, DPW and others to move their lines and ELECTRIC BOXES off of the old poles so that Verizon can remove the old, often ancient, poles that National Grid has deemed in need of replacement.  

IT'S TRUE:  Once National Grid installs a new "replacement" pole next to an old pole of theirs and transfers their lines to the new pole, somehow the old pole is no longer their responsibility.  Verizon, even though they do not own any poles, is expected to ultimately remove the old pole when all lines have been transferred.  Do you see why this process never happens?  It's an absurd, obscene, worsening situation that our DPW Superintendent completely ignores and never makes mention of during his DPW reports.  He simply doesn't give a shit.

Typical sloppy DPW work, straight from 
the slob at the top.

Back to that old electrical box at 6th & Columbia.  Look at how easy it would be for a car or truck to lose a sideview mirror because of it.  (Late last year during a monthly DPW report of his, Perry mentioned that his DPW vehicles were losing so many sideview mirrors around town that he had to hire an arborist to help trim trees along our streets to curtail the contact and damage.)  The electric box originally faced east, not south and directly over the curb.  In other words, DPW made the situation more dangerous and more likely for someone to lose a mirror (or worse, I suppose). 

Another issue in that article from four months ago was the then brand-new LED streetlight atop the new pole that was on all the time, also known as a "day burner."  Yeah, that day burner is still burning night and day, saving the city money and saving the planet 24/7.  Maybe the electrician who DPW was forced to hire to replace our bulbs, fix our day burners, install arms and lights and do all the other important things Rob Perry's DPW can't do on their own will be able to get to that light sometime this year.  Maybe, if we are lucky and can afford to pay the guy.

Does Rob Perry care how old this pole is,
if it is ever removed, or if it falls over in a storm
OR ON ITS OWN?

Perry did mention the streetlight issue during his report this month, with more -- much more -- to say than he has offered since DPW took over responsibility of the lights last summer.  At the end of what was a bizarre and suspicious explanation as to why he had to hire an electrician to deal with the lights 10 months after we purchased them from National Grid for "$300,000 last May," he said this: "We should get all these streetlights up and running in the next couple of months."  He did not specify or generalize how many lights were in need of attention.  A few nights ago, I noticed that all 8 streetlights on the south side of the 200 block of Warren were out, as well as the only light in that block's pocket park.

National Grid is nice enough to leave gravel at the 
base of their new poles, hoping (or not) that someone else will 
remove it and replace it with concrete.

First of all, Perry makes it sound as if once the electrician gets all the lights working properly that the city won't need the electrician's help anymore.  No, we're going to need this guy (or another electrician) FOREVER, because in Rob's own words, "we didn't intend to run a utility company of our own" when National Grid handed him the lights.  This major transformation has been at least 6 years in the making, but Mr. Perry acts as though he didn't see any of this coming until last summer.  He could have -- and should have -- been prepared for the streetlight change, but he chose not to be.  Now he's playing catch up and doing his best to blame others for the problems he brought on himself.  This should come as no surprise to anyone paying attention to how our $123,000 DPW Superintendent operates.

Second, HUDseen will update readers about streetlights in "a couple of months" to see if Mr. Perry was being truthful or, as usual, just full of more bullshit.

January 15th

During Perry's report -- as usual, done over Zoom while he was possibly lying on his sofa or sitting in a chair at a computer in his house -- he showed the council 30 pictures of DPW activity during the month of March.  Ten of them (or one of every three) were displayed sideways, one of them being a spreadsheet.  He displayed a fucking spreadsheet sideways but offered no apology for doing so.  This is typical of his reports, and he never offers an apology for not making sure all of his pictures are displayed upright and able to be easily understood by council members and the public while his voice comes through a tiny, tinny speaker and he coughs regularly.  In other words, Perry doesn't care whether his pictures are upright or not and he has zero respect for council members and the public, something the council (including the council "president"!!) doesn't seem to mind one bit.

Here is how Mr. Perry described the hiring of the electrician to fix, install and replace our streetlights:  "You know, we have a local electrician that basically we have dedicated to all things streetlights."  You'd be forgiven for assuming that the "local electrician" was the DPW's version of the fucking tooth fairy.

"We have"?  No, Rob, YOU HAVE HIRED AN ELECTRICIAN, YOU DON'T JUST "HAVE" ONE!  HE DIDN'T APPEAR OUT OF THIN AIR, DID HE?  YOU WERE FORCED TO HIRE AN ELECTRICAIN, AN EXPENSE THAT YOU DID NOT WARN ANYONE ABOUT FOR THE PAST TEN MONTHS.  AN EXPENSE AND EFFORT ON YOUR PART THAT, APPARENTLY, YOU NEVER SAW COMING!  BECAUSE YOU WERE TOO BUSY DOING WHAT?  TAKING SIDEWAYS PICTURES OF THE FERRY STREET BRIDGE FOR THE COUNCIL?