[de Blasio] Living in a post-Bloomberg era

[OttoVonBismarck]

Why did he get blasted for having schools open? New York City doesn't have a lot of mountains or something that would make snowy roads truly treacherous, winter weather conditions are typically dangerous when you're driving on some country road or the interstate. Situations where you can build up some decent speed and then rapidly run into trouble and a serious accident. Inside a major city limits you shouldn't ever need to be going fast enough for winter weather conditions to truly be dangerous, and unless the city is built in a very rugged/mountainous terrain it should almost be impossible to wreck. Then add on heavy vehicles do much better in snow, and thus school buses are going to have even fewer problems than regular vehicles.

So with all that being said, I don't really see why NYC would ever cancel school due to snow. I can see canceling it due to extreme cold weather as it may not be ideal to have a kid waiting at the bus stop in -15 F temperatures.

[garbon]

Well we did just have a pregnant woman who got killed by a snow plow.

[garbon]

Thinking about it, another issue would be kids walking to school. We're all about ice.

[CountDeMoney]

After I read the statistics I became convinced stop-and-frisk is a non-issue.  Unless people contend the "fear" of it somehow suppressed crime, the number of arrests actually produced through stop-and-frisk, relative to the size of New York City, the total arrests in New York City in a year etc is essentially microscopic. It's basically an unpopular policy, that unless there is some mechanism where it has impact vastly greater than the number of arrests it produces, probably had little to do with New York's amazing reduction in crime over the past generation.

What I don't buy is all the bullshit about the SnF stats, and how the SnF statistics of minorities affected exceeds the actual NYC population of minorities. 

If Pook and Ray Ray are known shitbag slingers on my beat, I'm not padding my SnF stats by needlessly jacking up an innocent garbon walking by for no fucking reason;  I'm too busy giving Pook and Ray Ray as hard a time as legally possible, and if getting them so uncomfortable with dealing drugs in the open drives them underground by using SnF on them multiple times a week and faceplanting them on the sidewalk every time there's heavy pedestrian traffic in a non-thoroughfare alley they're hanging out it, I'm doing it. 

If people actually look at the NYPD quarterly reports, they'll see that the majority of documented incidents involve things like:

AREA HAS HIGH CRIME INCIDENCE
TIME OF DAY FITS CRIME INCIDENCE
PROXIMITY TO SCENE OF OFFENSE
ASSOCIATING WITH KNOWN CRIMINALS
ONGOING INVESTIGATION
SIGHTS OR SOUNDS OF CRIMINAL ACTIVITY

That's not harassment;  it's targeted law enforcement.  The statistics may not look pretty on the macro level, but it's what's done on the micro level--on the street, on that block, in that neighborhood--that counts. 

Bill does give me some small beacon of hope as a Republican, though. If you follow the leftist internet sphere you know there is a minority (but a loud one) of the Democrats who are seriously hard with the thought of finding some progressive Democrat in the de Blasio mold to be the party's standard bearer in 2016. Typically their dream candidate is Elizabeth Warren.

Regardless of party, it's law and order and the ability to make citizens, tourists and commuters from Connecticut feel safe in the greatest city in the world that is the key to getting elected.  Having a son with an Afro is just gravy for the liberals, but to be successful as NYC mayor, it's all about the law and order.

And for what it's worth, I hope Elizabeth Warren fucks you all in the ass with a strap-on dildo the size of Berkut's hate for unionized textile laborers, and that's one big fucking dildo, man.

[garbon]

And for what it's worth, I hope Elizabeth Warren fucks you all in the ass with a strap-on dildo the size of Berkut's hate for unionized textile laborers, and that's one big fucking dildo, man.

Please, she's a hack.

[KRonn]

Why did he get blasted for having schools open? New York City doesn't have a lot of mountains or something that would make snowy roads truly treacherous, winter weather conditions are typically dangerous when you're driving on some country road or the interstate. Situations where you can build up some decent speed and then rapidly run into trouble and a serious accident. Inside a major city limits you shouldn't ever need to be going fast enough for winter weather conditions to truly be dangerous, and unless the city is built in a very rugged/mountainous terrain it should almost be impossible to wreck. Then add on heavy vehicles do much better in snow, and thus school buses are going to have even fewer problems than regular vehicles.

So with all that being said, I don't really see why NYC would ever cancel school due to snow. I can see canceling it due to extreme cold weather as it may not be ideal to have a kid waiting at the bus stop in -15 F temperatures.

The roads can become blocked with traffic causing school buses to be late, maybe for hours, kids stuck on buses. Look what happened in Atlanta, people and kids stuck on clogged, icy roads. Heavy buses may do better in snow but roads can often be slick and dangerous no matter what you're driving, and other vehicles pose a hazard in poor conditions. Kids walking to school have a tough time when half several inches or a foot or more of snow buries sidewalks. When I worked in Boston and commuting home during bad snow storms I've often had roads so slick that it was uber dangerous just even going slow. Traffic clogs fast then, especially as more accidents happen. Boston often closes down schools after some bad experiences, and so do more work places. My work closes, at least the financial and IT offices, but hospitals stay open for obvious reasons. I've worked from home several times this winter.

[CountDeMoney]

When I was in 7th grade, we wound up going to school on a day that surprised us that school was even open, had about 2 inches of snow on the ground by the time we got going.  About 4 miles from home, our school bus got struck by a tractor trailer with an empty flatbed that jack knifed on the ice because it didn't have enough weight in the ass, and crossed the center line at about 15 miles an hour;  I was way in the back of the bus, but the rig struck the the driver's side at an angle, around the 3rd row where my sister, who was in 4th grade, was sitting.  Drove the entire bus off the road and into the ditch, damned near rolling us. 

Parents from the neighborhood, going to work after sending the kids off, where pulling up and freaking the fuck out, including our Mom.  What a mess that morning was.  No major injuries, except the bus driver's nerves.  I think that was the only fatality.    My sister was OK, but she had some issues with oncoming heavy rigs as a passenger for a while after that.

So, sometimes it's just better to call it a day and keep the fuckers off the road.  They're big, but they're hollow and crunchy, and filled with kids with no seat belts.

[Neil]

Might as well just cancel school every day.  After all, there's always the chance of a car accident.

[Eddie Teach]

Might as well just cancel school every day.  After all, there's always the chance of a car accident.

Much higher odds when the roads are bad.

[CountDeMoney]

Might as well just cancel school every day.  After all, there's always the chance of a car accident.

I can appreciate your dismissive attitude, what with snow being the state of nature up there in the arctic circle.

You know what I miss?  Snow chains.  Now those were fun.

[garbon]

I can appreciate your dismissive attitude, what with snow being the state of nature up there in the arctic circle.

Yeah whereas this year is the first time that I've made good use of my snow boots.

You know what I miss?  Snow chains.  Now those were fun.

My family was very confused about those not being available when we moved east.

[Neil]

Might as well just cancel school every day.  After all, there's always the chance of a car accident.

I can appreciate your dismissive attitude, what with snow being the state of nature up there in the arctic circle.

You know what I miss?  Snow chains.  Now those were fun.

They're bad for the roads though.  I'm not even sure they're legal anymore.

A pair of all-season tires are all you need if you're careful.  Some people prefer winter tires, but I don't think they're necessary.

[CountDeMoney]

You know what I miss?  Snow chains.  Now those were fun.

My family was very confused about those not being available when we moved east.

FWD vehicles overtaking RWD vehicles in total sales back in the 80s is partially responsible for that, followed by the SUV craze of the 90s.

If you looked in somebody's trunk or garage in 1985, chances were there'd be a cardboard box full of snow chains.  Hell, once upon a time a "Snow Emergency" road meant that you could only be on the road if 1) you had snow tires, or 2) you had chains. 

Now an entire generation of car buyers don't even know what those two things mean anymore.  Goddamned young people.

[CountDeMoney]

A pair of all-season tires are all you need if you're careful.  Some people prefer winter tires, but I don't think they're necessary.

  Winter tires are cool and bad ass. 



re: tire chains, here's the AAA list for states.
Edit: and Canada.

http://drivinglaws.aaa.com/laws/tire-chains/

They're illegal in Hawaii.  Fucking Obama. 

[Tonitrus]

There might possibly some call for use on a muddy backroad in Hawaii. 

For a long time, it was illegal to even drive in the mountains of Washington/California(may still be there) without carrying tore chains in your car.