Wednesday, January 07, 2009

One More Reason Brooklyn is a "Hot" Neighborhood

According to Brownstoner, there are a number of electrified lampposts in certain areas of Brooklyn. These can be quite dangerous-- every so often you hear about a dog being electrocuted by touching one. But who knew that they're a source of fairly lucrative employment:

In New York City, Con Edison is hiring livery drivers, at $35 an hour, to shoo people away from about 1,500 electrically charged manholes, streetlights and other objects until repair crews arrive. Joe Flaherty, a spokesman for Local 1-2 of the Utility Workers Union of America, blames Con Ed for bare-bones crews that can't adequately prevent and fix the so-called hot spots, which are caused by nearby exposed wires. [from USAToday.com]
I'm shocked!

4 comments:

Gord said...

Even in Vancouver this happens from time to time. It's not easy shooing people away. I deal with trolley bus overhead wire (600 volt, 20,000 amps) most of my days at work. The problem being, of course, is that it doesn't always stay overhead. One night a section of it fell down and was resting on a 60ft long steel handrail just outside an senior's care home.

The seniors of course were safely tucked in but, just my luck, it was shift change for the staff.... Not easy to keep them from touching it because they didn't speak english very well. On another occasion a bus shelter was electrified with a/c because the shelter crew had removed the damaged (vandalized) portion that had lights for the advertising in it. They didn't see the exposed wire that was resting on the shelter frame.

It's well worth paying people to keep the unsuspecting public away, the cost of litigation is much higher. Fortunately in my case, when I call for the Overhead Crew, they are with me within 2 hours at most. The must really be short of trained people at Con Ed. There ya go, a job for all those unemployed Wall St people. : )

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Brooklyn, has anybody heard about the cohousing project that a group of owners is trying to build there (brooklyncohousing.org)?

This is a group of people who have gotten together who plan to build their own mini-neighborhood together (with some shared extra amenities like a group dining room, children's play areas, etc.)

I hear they are being courted by failing developers who are eager to unload their projects.

I'm rooting for these cohousing folks to benefit from the housing downturn and build a great community for themselves. If they time things right, they can benefit from lower land prices, lower materials costs, and lower labor when they finally do build.

frugal zeitgeist said...

Happy birthday, Madame X! You and I are even closer in age than I thought.

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