Friday, May 1, 2009

Gianaris to the rescue!

From the Queens Gazette:

With the Floral Park gas leak explosion and fatality fresh in his mind, Assemblymember Michael Gianaris went to the aid of Astoria residents forced out of their homes following a Con Edison power outage and elevated carbon dioxide levels, the lawmaker reported yesterday.

Did he wear a Superman outfit? Why is the Gazette reporting his involvement as fact but not interviewing anyone he helped? Does anyone believe this crapola? Are we about to hear an encore by the three tenors (Gioia, Vallone, Gianaris) about Con Ed?

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

He came to my rescue when my landlord crashed my ceiling into my floor. Irene in his office called HPD repeatedly and got the Deputy Director of the HPD to supervise reconstruction.

That was in spite of the fact that the landlord was in bed with a famous woman-beating eye-cutter from Jackson Heights.

I intend to vote for him and wish him the best of luck.

Anonymous said...

The same person over and over again.

How about the other 20,000 in his district.

Half of them still think they are represented by Denis Butler.

And the other half still wish they were.

Snake Plissskin said...

http://www.qgazette.com/news/2005/0921/
features/030.html

Mike Gianaris playing softball with a Con Ed team a year before the grid fell apart.

Mike is "On It."

A Disgusted Con Ed Worker said...

http://www.uwua1-2.org/9_06%20Record1.pdf

Dennis Hughes
President
New York State AFL-CIO
50 Broadway
New York, NY 10004
Dear Dennis,
I am writing to you to express my deep concern about the events that transpired during the
recent blackout in Northwest Queens. Many of my members were held up to ridicule and scorn by the New York tabloids the Daily News and Post. My staff spoke to the editorial writers of the Daily News who later printed what was tantamount to a retraction, but as you know the N.Y. Post is a virulently anti-worker anti-union paper and the less said about them the better.

What was particularly galling was the response of the Democratic Legislators (with the exception of Cathy Nolan (D-NY)) to the crisis in Queens. In their zeal to attack the performance of Con Edison while pandering to the legitimate anger of their affected constituents, they indiscriminately attacked Con Edison and any and all associated with it. They made no distinction whatever between the managerial corps at Con Edison (the decision makers) and the everyday rank and file Con Edison unionized worker. They stoked the anger of the community to the boiling point. As a result of their actions our members
were subjected to an unparalleled vicious verbal assault by members of the community along with being pelted by rocks, eggs, tomatoes etc. along with being spit at while doing live electrical work.

Amazingly during the restoration we only had one worker severely burnt, two others overcome with smoke inhalation and one heat stroke victim while working 16 hr shifts for 14 consecutive days to restore electrical service to the community. In speaking to some of my members they felt large segments of the affected community were on the verge of riot. What these politicians did was tantamount to yelling fire in a crowded movie house. As you know our Union has had wall-to-wall coverage at Con Edison since the 40’s. To have a highly trained, highly skilled unionized work-force subjected to the scorn and ridicule of Democratic Officials is hard to take.

To this day Assemblyman Gianaris, City Council members Valone and Goia, have yet to make a distinction between the hardworking union men and women of Con Edison and the managerials who make the decisions on investments in upgrading the infrastructure. They take our money, our phone banks and our endorsements and when the chips are down often abandon us. I know at the upcoming C.O.P.E. Convention some of these same politicians will be receiving the endorsement of the N.Y.State AFL-CIO. I am asking at the very least for you to read this letter to your Executive Council before your endorsements.

Fraternally,
Harry J. Farrell
President

Anonymous said...

My sympathies to the Con Ed worker who has to stitch this ancient patch-work together. I wonder how many people are aware that commercial electrical generation started with the Pearl Street Generator over 100 years ago?

Nonetheless, Con Ed management is doing a bang-up job of blackening everyone's eyes.

I and my neighbors have been instrumental in siccing Gianaris office on your company when we were sent gas bills in the hundreds and thousands of dollars for a building that had no gas service (shut down at the main by Con Ed for safety reasons for 2 years).

Imagine, people in tiny one-bedroom tenement apartments whose correct bills, assuming they had gas at all, would be in the order of $20.00 a month, receiving such bills. We would not need carbon monoxide or natural gas explosions to kill us. The shock alone would do the trick.

A Con Ed Worker said...

I and my neighbors have been instrumental in siccing Gianaris office on your company when we were sent gas bills in the hundreds and thousands of dollars for a building that had no gas service (shut down at the main by Con Ed for safety reasons for 2 years).

----

Do you work for Gianaris? Because if you live in his district, you should be very upset that he has done nothing to change the underlying problem.

We were sending rebates - remember?

We finally put our foot down when we discovered we were sending the 5th check to the same basement in the same address.

You folks had better get after him to take care of the real problem- the illegal conversions that places a strain on the grid that it was never designed for.

Its gonna crash again.

Another Con Ed Worker said...

Sure, get rid of the Con Ed management and put in hacks that the party appoints.

NOW I can sleep at night.

Anonymous said...

Gianris doesnt give a shit. He doesnt connect with the community at all.

Anonymous said...

I had a problem with my bill. Called customer service and it was taken care of the next billing cycle.

Maybe I should have written to the Gazette.

Anonymous said...

Why don't these media-sucking phonies start cracking down on all the illegal tenants using more electricity than the infrastructure can provide instead of calling for the the firing of Con Ed management every summer?

What do you think? said...

Why don't these media-sucking phonies start cracking down on all the illegal tenants using more electricity than the infrastructure can provide instead of calling for the the firing of Con Ed management every summer?

1. the people are village greeks and italians, clueless kids from kokomo

2. never avoid a chance at cultivating a community of tweeders - drives out the complaining edith bunkers

3. who pays for advertising in the press and gives campaign money (used not to run as its a lock) but funding for lollipops to buy a chorus.

Anonymous said...

Rebates? For what. My neighbors and I never saw rebates and we called Con Edison's offices repeatedly, had people acknowledge that we had no gas for 2 years and then send enormous bills anyway.

It's pretty tough to use any type of gas when it was turned off at the main by Con Edison, and how exactly would you spend a credit to your bill that simply offsets an existing error?

Anonymous said...

Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention. Con Ed worker feels that there should be no connection between the one getting the electric/gas service and the one getting the bill. This must explain their excellent customer service.

Laughing At You said...

Rebates? For what. My neighbors and I never saw rebates and we called Con Edison's offices repeatedly, had people acknowledge that we had no gas for 2 years and then send enormous bills anyway.
-----

Bullshit! Does this happen anywhere besides Astoria?

Give us evidence - scan and send it to Crappie or keep your traps shut. This ain't some Queens weekly were the storylines are written before some underpaid clerk gets the assignment.

Just think when a party hack takes over - you will get really great records then.

If you people in that community were not so stupid, they would have never parked those plants there in the first place. Do you see them in Douglaston?

Did anyone of you have the brains enough to wonder why the lights were on by DeMarco Park, or the Tower People were sitting in air conditioned comfort paid by your rates - while you sat in the dark?

Like a bunch of puppets with head filled with straw and strings pulled by the clubhouse.

Why don't you put the walls back on those sleezy eurocafes that passes for 'culture' in your community instead of pumping air conditioning on the sidewalk?

Or do you have to vent them with to clear out all that Balkan bullshit and illegal hookah pipe smoke?

Anonymous said...

Those plants were there since before you were born. Get in a time machine and complain to the dead.

In the meantime, how do I photocopy the checks that I did not receive? I don't have to prove anything to Crappy, because I am not the only person Con Ed has done this to. Their track-record speaks for themselves as does the attitude that they can send out random bills to people who have not used their purchases and expect to be paid. This is known as fraud.

Anonymous said...

Those plants were there since before you were born. Get in a time machine and complain to the dead.
-------

Poletti and Big Alis are both less than 50 years old. Notice how they are being torn down in Manhattan and built in Astoria.

Who do you think you are talking to - the Gazette?

Anonymous said...

I don't have to prove anything to Crappy, because I am not the only person Con Ed has done this to.

Funny, how this only happens in Astoria.

You don't see problems around DeMarco Park or with the Tower People.

Con Ed Worker said...

Con Ed worker feels that there should be no connection between the one getting the electric/gas service and the one getting the bill.

_______

No "the three tenors" made it a free for all, send in your form and get the money.

And of course they chuckled and winked to us because everyone knew the money was coming back to us in rates.

How freaken stupid can you be?

Anonymous said...

They stoked the anger of the community to the boiling point. As a result of their actions our members were subjected to an unparalleled vicious verbal assault by members of the community along with being pelted by rocks, eggs, tomatoes etc. along with being spit at while doing live electrical work.
---

Well "boys" what do you have to say for yourselves?

Anonymous said...

Will someone explain to me what this god#mn checks are? I live in Astoria and no one gave me zippo. Instead I got charged for phantom gas.

Anonymous said...

Polletti and Big Allis were well established when I was a child in the 1960's and the Polletti site was a gasworks before, undoubtedly polluted. I cannot swear to the exact age of either, having never known a time when they were not around, and I am 49, but 50 year old plants are hardly "new".

Anonymous said...

Big Alis is the late 60s, Poletti in the 70s, and the two big new ones just built at the end of Stienway Street jus opened.

Manhattan and Brooklyn are losing plants - they are being sent to the areas of most need because of new development - western Queens.

Anonymous said...

Will someone explain to me what this god#mn checks are? I live in Astoria and no one gave me zippo. Instead I got charged for phantom gas.

---

Oh pa-lese, the story is getting a bit tiresome - this only this seems to happen in Astoria and no one can ever back it up with hard evidence.

The only hard evidence, illegal conversions, everyone acts like its invisible.

Anonymous said...

How was Big Allis built in the late 1960s when the failure of Big Allis in 1965 caused the entire Northeast to be plunged into darkness.

I remember it well, because I was a kindergarten child and I thought I caused the blackout by jumping up and down on my parent's bed.