Mother Nature showed a cruel sense of timing last week, reflooding the already washed-out homes of Queens residents while city officials held a hush-hush meeting to address the borough's water woes.Recent storm affects homes still recovering from August rain
The rainstorm last Thursday swamped several areas of the flood-fatigued borough, including apartments along Yellowstone Blvd. in Forest Hills that were defiled by a toxic mix of rainwater and sewage during a devastating storm on Aug. 8.
Since the Aug. 8 storm, countless Queens residents have blasted the agency for not doing enough to address the source of the borough's flooding ills - an outdated sewer and drainage system that is failing under the pressure of unrelenting development.
DEP officials did little to allay those concerns, however, by holding a closed-door, invitation-only meeting Thursday night with civic leaders from western Queens. The site of the meeting was initially kept under wraps.
Attendees said DEP officials provided a briefing on the city's flood mitigation task force - information reported weeks ago by the Daily News.
8 comments:
who's the chick? She's hot! (Looks like Valeri Bertinelli in her pre-Jenny years.)
Your Tax Dollars at Work.
The results from this tax paid secret meeting: Taxpaying residents were told to perform the work of DEP. Taxpayers are now responsible for inspecting catch basins in their neighborhood and then reporting the clogged ones to DEP. Naturally, DEP failed to instruct folks how they were to get down deep into the basins to look for obstructions.
What is most disturbing is the routine incompetence and impudence of the DEP, Community Board and this Community Affairs Unit.
Their only competence is standing in line on payday. After that, it's "screw you!" to the taxpaying property owners.
DEP.....the Department of Evasion and Pretense !
Another entry for the Democratic Dictionary
DEP.....the Department of Evasion and Pretense !
It is pretty obvious that the only time the public has input these days are a few small carefully scripted occasions.
But this cuts marginallizatin of the public's voice is a distrubing trends that cuts across the board pretty much everywhere, not just with city agencies.
The community boards, city-wide preservation groups, town hall meetings run by civics, pretty much everywhere one looks, you get the feeling that something is always going on behind everyone's back.
The people exist for sound bites or as background color.
The bottom line is of course, they are treated this way because everyone is afraid of them.
Hmmmm.....
Anonymous said:
"The community boards, city-wide preservation groups, town hall meetings run by civics, pretty much everywhere one looks, you get the feeling that something is always going on behind everyone's back."
If a government agency wants to have a secret meeting, it is breaking the law. Every word uttered, every page turned, every morsel eaten is at the taxpayers' expense. So, we own the meeting, its words and its morsels, and want to know everything that occurred.
If a private group wants to have a secret meeting, it is only being stupid. What use is secrecy to a private group? A private group plans only for its own next step.
You have to know how to make distinctions to keep from looking very stupid. Taxpayers own everything they pay for. All the rest is automatically private, and nobody's business.
If a private group wants to have a secret meeting, it is only being stupid. What use is secrecy to a private group?
-----------
The problem with that is simple.
Only when the myth (there are out there battleing for you) is trumped by the reality (they are protecting their little clique)
But why be angry? You have plenty of opporutnities to get involved! They always seem to find you when its time to testify, or donate money.
You can even get excited when they gear up for a new campaign --- to protect someone else's neighborhood --- while they give you the task of make work projects like peeling potatoes and the like.)
DEP is always good at watering down the issue!
Post a Comment