Mayor Bloomberg finally got in touch with Con Ed to discuss understanding what caused the a woman's death when she stepped on an electrified grate on the sidewalk. But now New Yorkers are frantic about being electrocuted, adding to other worries like, as the Times's Ian Urbina notes, "falling debris, unstable scaffolding and suspicious packages." It also seems that dog owners are navigating the streets more carefully because their dogs will act up when near electrified areas. The NY Times ran a photo (right) of Michael Zorek, with his son Jeremy and dog Scooter. Apparently Scooter sensed a hot spot on West 86th Street, where many other dogs had acted oddly, and Zorek called 311. Con Ed was there the next day to fix what was a short circuit.
Now, Mayor Bloomberg is trying to face the city's fears about the issue (apparently he was "confronted" by a senior citizen during a visit; the senior citizen said she'd been complaining about live wires in Carroll Gardens for two years), but didn't have much of an answer about what could be done to prevent electrocutions, saying "I'm not an engineer, we'll have to see what we can do." However, Dahl astutely pointed out that Bloomberg actually did graduate from Johns Hopkins with a degree in engineering; further examination shows it was a degree in electrical engineering. Mayor Bloomberg, we're watching you.
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My first instinct is to wonder why ConEd never figured (before the 2002 insulation upgrade) that wires laid under the street in NYC might be subject to some environmental deterioration.
On the other hand, it electricity can be cut to the entire northeast section of the country, maybe this incident isn't so surprising after all.
So Bloomberg *is* an engineer, next thing you know, we'll find out he actually enjoys smoking in bars.
Hmm...its starting to sound like the city should get an army of dogs to just walk around the city and find these hot spots. because really, a hot spot is the only thing a dog will act weird around in NYC. ;)
There must be a way to get rid of the smoking ban through this new danger--like, say, "the insulation on the wires is deteriorating from the increased number of still-burning cigarette butts that people are forced th throw on the streets now, rather than safely stub out in an ashtray." A-ha! Allowing smoking in bars=less sidewalk electrocutions! Take that, Engineer Bloomberg!
The electrocution happened very close to one of my favorite bars (Rififi/Cinema Classics) and I smoke outside of that place all the time. Smoking outside gives you the risk of being electrocuted. Sub-zero windchills cause frostbite in 20 minutes. The smoking ban seems to be *harming* people's health, if you ask me.