Typical union attitude

New York's Strongest used a variety of tactics to drag out the plowing process -- and pad overtime checks -- which included keeping plows slightly higher than the roadways and skipping over streets along their routes, the sources said.

The snow-removal snitches said they were told to keep their plows off most streets and to wait for orders before attacking the accumulating piles of snow.

They said crews normally would have been more aggressive in com bating a fierce, fast-moving bliz zard like the one that barreled in on Sunday and blew out the next morning.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/sanit_filthy_snow_slow_mo_qH57MZwC53QKOJlekSSDJK#ixzz19bylIz8l

Um.. the orders came from MANAGEMENT bosses, not union bosses.

BIG difference.

What is the difference bet Management bosses & Union bosses?

Wonder if many city employee unions will act like this due to budget cut backs. We'll probably have Greece in the streets.

here is the gist of the sitch:

And, effective tomorrow, 100 department supervisors are to be demoted and their salaries slashed as an added cost-saving move

The supervisors are union.

>supervisors are union.
Yes. I assume the "management" of the union is "Labor".

Conspiracy charges anyone? Last time I checked creation of a public hazard by willful negligence is a crime.

Criminal charges are warranted, indeed.

WHat does this have to do with unions? Management is not the same thing as a union.

I believe supervisors are also union members. They're acting like thugs like the MTA. These jobs are all overpaid for the skill levels and they want more and more. Private side workers don't get nearly the same pay and benefits.

"These jobs are all overpaid for the skill levels and they want more and more."

You would not last 2 hours as a garbageman. I bet 95% of NYers would not last 1 day as a garbageman.

"Private side workers don't get nearly the same pay and benefits."

Private sanitation companies actually pay virtually the exact same as govt. sanitation workers get.

no one on this thread is going to convince anyone else of their point of view.

perhaps pistols at dawn?

"The average hourly wage for a driver is $26.29 per hour or more than $70,000 per year with an average of six overtime hours per week."

http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/ren/news/91773974.html#

Completely in line with what NYC sanitation workers get. Overpaid public employees make for great talking points, but are not reality.

How 'bout adding a ton of work visas for our neighbors to the south? I bet they'd last more than a few days at the job.

I think union membership should be mandatory for all workers. In fact, only union members should be allowed to vote. The teabaggers think that only homeowners should be allowed to vote, so if they can mess around witht he Constitution, so can I.

I'm not sure that any of us benefit by either you or the teabaggers voting.

Y-e-s. Except that if you think you loathe politicians, I've never met rank-and-file union members who were all too happy with the union leaders either. Just saying. In practice, it doesn't always work so well for some jobs.

That's because the greatest union leaders are all dead. Rank and file union members loved Hoffa and Quill.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Brooklyn-Heights-Resident-Shocked-After-Snow--112575854.html

socialist, you are either kidding or delusional. LOTS of people could handle a basic sanitation job. Not to minimize it, because there is some hard physical work involved for those who do pick-ups, but just about any healthy person can do it.

And in this situation, we are talking about driving plows.

So you admit that city sanitation workers get the same salaries as their private industry counterparts, with far more lavish benefits. Those benefits are excessive and unaffordable. Fact.

Not to mention unsustainable.

What´s excessive and unafordable is the extension on the tax break for the wealthiest americans. Repeal the tax break extension and you´ll collect sufficient tax to cover any pension deficit.
LICC, you´re a despicable man. You cry scandal over some small people doing hard work nobody wants to do complaining about budget cut while you find totally acceptable than one guy makes several millions dollars in bonus. In other words, you want to make the small people struggle even more while the wealthiest shall reap all possible benefits at the tax payer expense. Your kind really makes me want to vomit!

The FT had a year end BANX cartoon with a pollster asking "What cuts would you like to see imposed on other people". When I hear the cries, "Tax the rich" I have to chuckle.

http://www.jbanx.com/ft/2010/june/04.html

Sledgehammer, when you say that the wealthiest reap all possible benefits at the tax payer expense, what benefit are you saying that the wealthiest are earning that exceeds their taxes paid (at the current rates)?

sledge, we live in a society that promotes individual responsibility and opportunity. If someone has or develops a skill that the market values highly, he gets rewarded for it. If someone has a skill that millions of others also have, he or she won't get rewarded as much. If you want to live in a communist, redistributive society, go move to North Korea or some other communist country. But sooner or later they will run out of other people's money and skills to support your handounts.

What is despicable is you wanting to take other people's hard work and earnings and distribute it to others. Almost half the households in this country pay no federal income tax. The highest income earners pay by far the most amount of taxes in this country, and you want to take an even higher percentage to give away to government workers so they can retire young and live the rest of their lives without working for it.

What was George Bush's superpower? What sort of super-duper skill did he bring, apart from being the son of a former president?
Honestly, belief is the magic all-knowing hand of the market is like santa Claus for grown-ups. Don't stop believing or you'll get a lump of coal (in North Korea.) Hard work may be rewarded, if you're a white male whose parents could afford to send to private schools.

maly, only white males who attended private school can get ahead in America?

please be aware that huntersburg is hfscomm1

> You would not last 2 hours as a garbageman. I bet 95% of NYers would not last 1 day as a garbageman.

Thats fine, we don't need 5% of the city to be garbagemen.

"Almost half the households in this country pay no federal income tax."

So you want people making mimimum wage or living below the poverty level to pay more taxes?

LICComment's utopia is a late 19th century NYC which he would love until he broke his leg after getting hit by a carriage, got fired for not being able to make it to work, and got tossed into the streets for missing rent. Maybe his utopia is just France in 1788...

I am curious what LICComment's skill is that makes him so worthy of great reward.

So nobody's utopia is today. Socialist said prefers the 50s and 70s. LICC prefers driving around in a carriage.

Thanks for making things up to argue against, but let's try sticking to reality. The liberals' response to those who are against lavish, unaffordable pensions for government workers is to say the counter argument is to have no labor safety laws or government regulation. Just silly.

socialist- so you think half of the country is living below the poverty level? Because that seems to be the base of your question. Fail.

Why do you title this "typical union"?

Why not "typical New Yorker" for instance?

For some delicious reading about working conditions in the early 1900s before unions, try "Amoskeag," which is a distillation of years of oral interviewing old timers in Manchester, NH who remembered "the good old days" when they got to work 14-1/2 hours a day six days a week, and have half of Sunday off. When people thought they were really living large because the company had built housing that they rented out to them, and they even had a nurse or two per thousand employees. What's silly is people who think they are superior to mere laborers, that their way of earning their bread and roof and fire is inherently more honest and worthy of compensation than those lowlies who "only" shovel snow, teach kindergarten (stevejhx: "tenure?! the NERVE!"), etc.

Yeah, there are City and State workers who spend their time and energy figuring out ways to "game the system." And would anyone claim that there aren't investment bankers, stockbrokers and lawyers doing the same thing?

LICC wants to RAISE taxes on people making less than $20,000 a year.

"And who are the people who don’t pay federal income taxes? Again, according to the Tax Foundation:

“Broadly speaking, the 44 million zero-tax filers are: low-income, young, female-headed households, part-time workers, and beneficiaries of the $1,000 per-child tax credit.

The 44 million zero-tax filers will be largely low-income. Indeed, 75 percent of will earn less than $20,000 per year and 97 percent will earn less than $40,000. Fewer than 1 percent will earn more than $75,000 per year – a group comprised largely of business owners whose tax liabilities will be erased due to business losses, carry-overs from prior year AMT payments, or foreign tax credits."

http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2009/02/24/the-50-percent-pay-no-tax-fraud-part-ii/

So the question is, which groups that "YOU DO NOT BELONG TO" SHOULD LOSE BENEFITS OR PAY MORE TAXES? *******************************

Those with incomes over $500k.

I pick fat people.

I agree. I want to raise taxes on Chris Christie.

Democratic AG Eric Schneiderman says that people don't mind paying taxes if they feel they are getting something for their money.

But, paying oversized pensions to former municipal workers who cheated the overtime system in their last years, didn't even do their job during snowstorms or other critical times, and traded block union votes in exchange for these unaffordable benefits, likely doesn't fit into "getting something for their money".

Chris Christie, whose job security is performance-based and in the spotlight more than Tom Cruise, makes $175,000 per year. He should have his taxes raised? He doesn't even fit Obama's definition of "millionaires and billionaires".

It is amazing what misleading statements liberals make to try to support their taking of other peoples' money. To show how ridiculous Socialist is, this is from the NY Times:

Focusing on the statistical middle class — the middle 20 percent of households, as ranked by income — underlines this point. Households in this group made $35,400 to $52,100 in 2006, the last year for which the Congressional Budget Office has released data. That would describe a household with one full-time worker earning about $17 to $25 an hour. Such hourly pay is typical for firefighters, preschool teachers, computer support specialists, farmers, members of the clergy, mail carriers, secretaries and truck drivers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Taking into account both taxes and tax credits, the average household in this group paid a total income tax rate of just 3 percent. A good number of people, in fact, paid no net income taxes. They are among the alleged free riders.

So if the current deal is that 10% of the population pays 84% of all federal income taxes and 48% pay 0 % and of that group 8% collect money from the federal govt because they are alive.

What is the goal? How much should this tax burden shift?
75 % pay zero?, 10% pay 95% of all taxes? What is the goal?

May be 10% pay 100% of all taxes, if we shift to this, who would be allowed to vote for this?

How many of the 10% would just take their income offshore?

Personally, I think Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Sergei Brin et.al.. should pay all the taxes and the rest of should just cruise.

Christie's wife is pulling in $500k at Cantor Fitzgerald.

"Such hourly pay is typical for firefighters, preschool teachers, computer support specialists, farmers, members of the clergy, mail carriers, secretaries and truck drivers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics."

So you want to raise taxes on priests and rabbis LICC? Is that what your saying?

And my original comments were about those who pay NO income tax. Teachers and cops are paying taxes. Your changing the subject.

"But, paying oversized pensions to former municipal workers who cheated the overtime system in their last years, didn't even do their job during snowstorms or other critical times, and traded block union votes in exchange for these unaffordable benefits, likely doesn't fit into "getting something for their money"."

It's true. You caught us. Unions, through their master George Soros, deliberately did not shovel the snow. They were also instructed to pad their overtime during their last year by the ghost of Jimmy Hoffa.

A group of on-duty Sanitation supervisors is under investigation for allegedly buying booze and chilling in their cozy department car for hours Monday night after the blizzard stranded a bus and three snowplows blocks away.

The city Department of Investigation is probing the incident after witnesses said four snow blowers blew off their duties to get blitzed, buying two six-packs of beer from a Brooklyn bodega. The workers then walked five blocks to their car, which was in 20 inches of snow in the middle of 18th at McDonald avenues near the F train entrance, passing the stuck bus and idle plows on 18th Avenue between Third and Fourth streets.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/slushed_sloshed_fX907nPJIEevDILBvlYAtK#ixzz19sTRqJl6

"Between 660 and 720 Sanitation workers called in sick for the cleanup of last week's blizzard -- more than double the usual rate, The Post has learned.

About 11 to 12 percent of the Sanitation Department's 6,000-strong force didn't show up for work on Monday or Tuesday, city officials confirmed, as 20 inches of snow brought the Apple to a near-standstill.

The spotty snow response sparked reports of a deliberate slowdown by some Sanitation supervisors angered by City Hall cost-cutting measures. The Department of Investigation is looking into the allegations."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/more_workers_catch_cold_v3XzpQhakSbrmY0LMcd6iJ

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...

They still have not picked up our Garbage. I've seen worse snow storms than this, but never worse service. I agree with he "walks like a duck" comment. At the end of the day, what I see are children not fulfilling their obligation to the city over budget cuts(demotions). If the sanitation was run by a private firm people would be fired for this stunt. Garbage piled up is a health risk, ambulances and fire trucks could not go where they needed to and the City economy was needlessly impacted.

socialist, you are not doing your cause any favors with these dumb arguments and misleading statements that you make.

Based on the above, in 2006 for federal taxpayers the 40th percentile was over $35k, and the 60th percentile over $52k. Almost half don't pay any federal income taxes. The average of the middle percentile pay at only a 3% rate.

Yes, more of these people should pay more taxes. When you get a majority of people paying hardly anything, they don't have enough skin in the game. It is too easy for them to push for more government when they have no responsibility to pay for it.

ok socialist, come up with some new lie or straw man to try to argue for redistributing other people's earnings.

The city will be sued by people who lost family members and property because of delays in ambulance service and fire trucks. We will all end up paying for it. A few will have to be fired to discourage similar job actions in the future by this department and others.

Letter to the President ,Socialist, et al

FOCUS ON THE LONG RUN Charles L. Schultze, chief economist for former President Jimmy Carter, once proposed a simple test for telling a conservative economist from a liberal one. Ask each to fill in the blanks in this sentence with the words “long” and “short”: “Take care of the ____ run and the ____ run will take care of itself.”

Liberals, Mr. Schultze suggested, tend to worry most about short-run policy. And, indeed, starting with the stimulus package in early 2009, your economic policy has focused on the short-run problem of promoting recovery from the financial crisis and economic downturn

THINK AT THE MARGIN Republicans worry about the adverse incentive effects of high marginal tax rates. A marginal tax rate is the additional tax that a person pays on an extra dollar of income.

From this perspective, many of the tax cuts you have championed look more like tax increases. For example, the so-called Making Work Pay Tax Credit is phased out for individuals making more than $75,000 a year. That is, because many Americans lose some of the credit as they earn more, the credit reduces their incentive to work. In effect, it is an increase in their marginal tax rate.

From the standpoint of incentives, a tax cut is worthy of its name only if it increases the reward for earning additional income.

STOP TRYING TO SPREAD THE WEALTH Ever since your famous exchange with Joe the Plumber, it has been clear that you believe that the redistribution of income is a crucial function of government. A long philosophical tradition supports your view. It includes John Rawls’s treatise “A Theory of Justice,” which concludes that the main goal of public policy should be to transfer resources to those at the bottom of the economic ladder.

Many Republicans, however, reject this view of the state. From their perspective, it is not the proper role of government to fix the income distribution in an attempt to achieve some utopian vision of fairness. They believe, instead, that in a free society, people make money when they produce goods and services that others value, and that, as a result, what they earn is rightfully theirs.

This view also has a long intellectual tradition. The libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick has suggested revising the old leftist slogan “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” to “From each as they choose, to each as they are chosen.”

SPREAD OPPORTUNITY INSTEAD Despite their rejection of spreading the wealth, Republicans recognize that times are hard for the less fortunate. Their solution is not to adjust the slices of the economic pie, as if they had been doled out by careless cutting, but to expand the pie by providing greater opportunity for all.

Educational reform, therefore, should be a high priority. To be sure, this is easier said than done. But research suggests that one key is getting rid of bad teachers. In a recent study, the economist Eric Hanushek says that “replacing the bottom 5 to 8 percent of teachers with average teachers could move the U.S. near the top of international math and science rankings.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/business/02view.html

Sunday, Bloomberg said he would investigate, but did not believe The Sanitation Union had an organized "slow down". I predict the investigation will take long enough for memories to fade and then a whitewash for fear of agitating the union further and promoting another civil disobedience against the city

No amount of time will make people forget about this. This is a huge deal. In fact, in time, it will only be exaggerated. People will say they were stuck for the whole week instead of 3 or 4 days. They say half the sanitation department called in sick instead of double the usual number called in sick, etc...

I hope I'm wrong.

Well, at least this thread hasn't deteriorated into the argument that no one should pay any taxes at all. When I hear THOSE I fear what the world has come to, but thankfully people still have a few brains left.

Actually, as Ron Paul has pointed out, we could eliminate federal taxes for individuals altogether and the federal budget would have to be dialed back to the size it was waaaaay back when in ... 1997.

I believe the point is that government provides essential needs and services. Not everyone believes every "service" our government provides is needed or essential, or that in all cases Government is the natural provider of such service or that it's doing so efficiently and cost effectively.

"They still have not picked up our Garbage."

By orders of His Majesty George Soros, libertarians are not to have their garbage picked up until further notice.

Why are we supposed to listen to Jimmy Carter's chief economist? What happened? Was Herbert Hoover's economist not available?

"STOP TRYING TO SPREAD THE WEALTH"

Too bad the Republicans have not gotten this message. For years, they have bene spreading the wealth from the bottom to the top. No wonder the economy stunk under Carter. He was taking advice from a Republican shill.

Socialist, does the wealth need to be made before you spread it out? Or is it better that no wealth is made, but everyone has the same amount?

QUESTION: When is a hunch-back happy?
ANSWER : When he sees another hunch-back.

By orders of His Majesty George Soros, libertarians are not to have their garbage picked up until further notice.
---------------------------------------

According to the National Volunteer Fire Council, 73 percent of firefighters in the United States are members of Volunteer Fire Fighters. Why not sanitation workers too? Either do the job or stop charging, but don't pretend municipal trash collection is the only way to keep the city clean.

What does that have to do with NYC?

"Why not sanitation workers too? Either do the job or stop charging, but don't pretend municipal trash collection is the only way to keep the city clean."

Actually, you should thank the santitation workers for not picking up garbage. They are saving peoples'' lives!

Garbage breaks suicide jumper's fall

The blizzard saved his life.

A despondent West Side man took a leap out of his ninth-floor window this afternoon — but was saved when he landed onto a huge pile of garbage that’s been collecting since New York’s devastating post-Christmas blizzard, officials said.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/garbage_breaks_suicide_jumper_fall_Cpt0tOWKjjAChfu5GVkWoL#ixzz19vF5nt5M

of course, unions NEVER get credit for saving peoples' lives. The next time a train is late, everyone will blame the transit union. Never mind the fact that soemone fell in the tracks and was able to be pulled out in time BECAUSE the train was late.

huntersburg
3 days ago
>The 4/5 line today had a lost 12 year old child. The motorman helped out the father, and the train experienced probably no more than 2 minutes delay with all being resolved for the family.
If we cut the train to 1 live operator, was it the motorman or the conductor who should be eliminated?

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/20753-pensions-killing-ny?page=9

Hfscomm1 should be eliminated.

huntersburg - They should both be eliminated and the line should be automated. We could then save the salary and benefits we pay plus the crazy pensions that these guys get. Not sure about the MTA, but the cops complain they don't make enough money. While salaries may not seem high, the reality is they work 20 years and then get a pension for something like 80% of their last year salary. So a kid starts with the police force at 20 can retire at 40 and we are paying him a pension for another 40 years? Crazy. Plus, many game the system by volunteering for overtime their last year so that their last year of earnings is high (you see the cops at department stores - theey are on overtime and that overtime factors into their wages that are used to determine their pension).

downtown1234, would you encourage your kids or relatives to become cops? I personally would not.

Socialist - "of course, unions NEVER get credit for saving peoples' lives."

Like in the NYT article of Union snow plow drivers who didn't bother to let down their plows to send NYC a 'message' about budget cuts??

Wonder how many lives were endangered during the blizzard when EMT workers couldn't get to their patients due to unploughed street.

Hypocrite much?

"While salaries may not seem high, the reality is they work 20 years and then get a pension for something like 80% of their last year salary."

um, NO! They get 50% of their last year's pay.

"They should both be eliminated and the line should be automated. We could then save the salary and benefits we pay plus the crazy pensions that these guys get."

And the lawsuits from the families of dead track workers will wipe out any money you save!

The Pensions, not the salaries are the killer. Also with regard to the alleged safety issue and MTA staffing. This is clear MTA union talking points. If the union wants this to stick and not appear as self-serving rhetoric, they need to back this claim up with real studies.

"The investigation found that the specific cause of the June 2009 accident was a failure of the automatic train-control system, which did not detect one train and instead directed another to advance toward it at full speed. Metro has known since the 2005 Rosslyn near-crash that the automatic train-control system had experienced dangerous breakdowns but had not widely implemented a track circuit test developed after that incident, the NTSB found."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/27/AR2010072706080.html

"The National Transportation Safety Board today determined that last year's fatal collision of two Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) trains on the Red Line in Washington, D.C., was a failure of the track circuit modules that caused the automatic train control (ATC) system to lose detection of one train, allowing a second train to strike it from the rear."

http://www.ntsb.gov/Pressrel/2010/100727c.html

"The National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation found that the Metrorail automatic train control system stopped detecting the presence of train 214 (the struck train), which caused train 214 to stop and also allowed speed commands to be transmitted to train 112 (the striking train) until the collision."

"The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the June 22, 2009, collision of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Metrorail train 112 with the rear of standing train 214 near the Fort Totten station was (1) a failure of the track circuit modules, built by GRS/Alstom Signaling Inc., that caused the automatic train control system to lose detection of train 214"

The DC Metro also had another major crash back in 2004. Cause of the crash? The automated train did not stop:

The Metro system also is designed with something called rollback protection, in which electronic signals built into the track are supposed to recognize that a train is moving backward and notify computers on the train to engage the brakes automatically. It is unclear why the rollback protection did not stop the runaway train from striking the train in the station."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22466-2004Nov3.html

Wrong, accidents are caused by human error as well.
A correct study needs to address that.

I linked to the NTSB study. Is that not good enough? The NTSB is the ultimate authority when it comes to transit accidents.

Actually NO.
We all know that automated systems can fail, that's why back-ups are created.
We also know that humans fail too, they fall asleep, exercise poor judgment, drink on the job, etc

A good study would prove which system or combination of systems provides the lowest cost and/or highest safety.
While I appreciate your diligence in posting the many anecdotal reports of system failures, those same reports don't address human failures which also occur.

Computerized systems have the potential to increase human error because it results in over confidence. Many will say "I don't have to worry about anything because the computer takes care of it all."

I remember seeing a report about an intersection where people keep getting into accidents. To fix the problem, they removed all the traffic lights.

I "feel" safer with one MTA employee in the front and another one in the middle of the train. The cost of therapy to change how I "feel" will be much higher than the extra fare/taxes that go into paying for these MTA employees on the train.

Riversider, do you take the subway regularly? Have you or a family member ever been a victim of a crime on the trains?

What happens if a train it needs to be evacuated in a tunnel? Is the computer going to do that? Or will the invisible hand of the free market evacuate the train?

Sunday , I took the N train the other day, I'm convinced the conductor was high and/or whacked. I'd prefer a cop arrive on the scene. That said , I would not be surprised if some combination of technology and better use of people is what actually occurs.

What an example of a stupid argument- one in a million anecdotal story justifies having a wasteful, unnecessary worker on EVERY train and spending the millions and millions of years worth of unecessary costs to maintain those extra union jobs. Ridiculous.

"Sunday , I took the N train the other day, I'm convinced the conductor was high and/or whacked."

Care to elaborate? That's a strong accusation with no proof.

"What an example of a stupid argument- one in a million anecdotal story justifies having a wasteful, unnecessary worker on EVERY train and spending the millions and millions of years worth of unecessary costs to maintain those extra union jobs. Ridiculous."

I know. So what if 9 people die when an automated train malfunctions? At least none of those 9 people were your relatives, right? That's the only thing that counts...

I guess Riversider and LICC will have no problem navigating the tracks by themselves when there is a fire on the train and they need to get out. I hope you guys know what the 3rd rail looks like. Oh no, wait a second, you won't be able to get out. All the doors will be closed and by the time you kick out the re-enforced windows, you will have died from smoke inhalation.

Faced with growing budget deficits and restive taxpayers, elected officials from Maine to Alabama, Ohio to Arizona, are pushing new legislation to limit the power of labor unions, particularly those representing government workers, in collective bargaining and politics.

“We can no longer live in a society where the public employees are the haves and taxpayers who foot the bills are the have-nots,” Mr. Walker, a Republican, said in a speech. “The bottom line is that we are going to look at every legal means we have to try to put that balance more on the side of taxpayers.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/business/04labor.html?ref=business

socialist- thanks for proving my point.

LICC,
Please comment on the subsidized housing to be built on the LIC waterfront. Please address that the target audience for said housing comprises working class city residents, many of whom work for the city, and are members of unions.
Thanks

I'm against it. The property should be zoned appropriately, the city should develop the infrastructure, school and parkland, and sell the rest to private developers for market rate condo and apartment buildings. The city can use the proceeds from the sale to pay for the infrastructure and improve its budget.

"Faced with growing budget deficits and restive taxpayers, elected officials from Maine to Alabama, Ohio to Arizona, are pushing new legislation to limit the power of labor unions, particularly those representing government workers, in collective bargaining and politics."

So Arizona wants to bust the unions? Shouldn't be that hard to do considering they have death panels there.

LICcomm writes as if he's from Arizona, using the word "apartment" as if it means "rental".

Socialist, how many people were killed by the death panels in Arizona that you talk about?

You keep forgetting the rule.

Even the dead can't escape the ineptitude of the city's Sanitation Department.

Sanitation crews dumped tons of dirty snow from the Christmas-weekend blizzard into the city's biggest Jewish cemetery, toppling 21 gravestones and wrecking an iron fence.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/plowers_in_grave_mistake_b40g20qRLQtLuhH6xXnILP#ixzz1ABD19yFZ