Bloomberg's Katrina

"If it had happened in Manhattan, it would have been over in five hours," the New York Daily News quotes Queens resident Annalisa Sacca as saying about the blackout in the borough of Queens that has been going on for five days now.

Con Edison has recently acknowledged that the blackout has affected ten times as many people as they originally estimated. 100,000 people in the city's most diverse borough are without power, and Con Ed is claming that they won't have things completely up and running until Sunday -- six days after the blackout began. Anybody believe them?

From the New York Times:

"A chorus of elected officials demanded investigation and punishment of [Con Edison], and more help for the area’s sweltering, dispirited residents. They voiced particular concern for thousands of elderly residents with no electricity, no working elevators and, in some cases, no water."

Mayor Bloomberg (who probably has never gone to Queens in his life before this when he wasn't running for office) says, according to the Daily News, that blaming Con Ed is counterproductive. "Rather than point fingers at Con Ed and vilify them and all of the people that are working for them, I want all of their employees to continue to work just as hard as they can until we get everybody back up. The sad thing is, this shouldn't have happened. We don't know why, but the most important thing - make sure nobody dies or gets hurt."

So why did this happen? Anyone who lives or has lived in Queens can tell you why.

To people in "the city" (as Queens residents refer to Manhattan), Queens is a second class citizen. The one who gets the portion only after everyone else has been served. The afterthought borough. People with long memories remember blizzards when the streets of Queens were covered in several feet of snow days after all of Manhattan was ploughed. Being treated like shit is nothing new for the people who live in Queens.

If Brooklyn has Ralph Kramden as its exemplar in the popular imagination, Queens has Archie Bunker. When you go to Queens, you see American flags on nicely kept-up lawns and signs that say "Support Our Troops." But you also hear people speaking probably every language spoken on the planet -- Queens is most likely the most ethnically diverse place on earth. The people who live there take long subway rides or endure bad traffic to get to work in "the city," pay heavy property taxes and then listen to people say "New York" when they mean "Manhattan." And they'd like a little respect.

But Mayor Bloomberg, who probably couldn't find Queens on a map, isn't giving it to them. He wants an extension of the 7 line to the Javits Convention Center when there are large swatches of the North Shore of Queens that have no subway service at all. He plays nice with Con Ed when the elderly have been roasting in their fetid apartments for almost a week due to Con Edison's incompetence.

Could this be Mayor Bloomberg's Katrina?

Tom Moran