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In the imbroglio known as Mid-Year School Bus Re-Routing Hell, Mayor Bloomberg has recently half-heartedly apologized to inconveniencing thousands of children and parents (let's not even touch educators who have to deal with students who are arriving 45 minutes late), claiming the silver lining is savings for the Department of Education.
But clearly Bloomberg's tolerance for school bus related talk is wearing thin, given his response to a reporter's question that started "The public advocate and council members are complaining" about the consulting firm that suggested the school bus cuts:
"You're quoting people who have no experience in doing anything, so I don't quite know how to answer it. Nobody is going to be able to satisfy everybody, and if those people who haven't done anything in terms of management think that they know what to do, they should apply for jobs and we'll be happy to do it."The Mayor defended the consultants, Alvarez & Marsal, but you have to wonder if the city's Department of Education did enough due dilgence - Saturday's NY Times article about the re-routed school buses in the St. Louis that A&M oversaw sounds terrible. Also, A&M was given the $16 million job to work with the DOE in a no-bid deal.
Mayor Bloomberg said that parents should call 311, but parents who are calling aren't getting any help (see this comment). Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum says to "scrap the plan": "Making young children navigate six or eight lanes of traffic to get to school, or expecting them to take three city buses, is as dangerous as it is absurd."
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Bloomberg really looks dickish when they show this sound bite. He almost comes off as Dubya-esque. Sorry people don't like the shitty job your cronies did, jackass.
By a man's enemies shall you know him, and Betsy Gotbaum is one of the most useless people to ever draw a city salary. She really doesn't have any idea what she's talking about, beyond staying in with the Democratic base till the next primary day. I mean, she makes Mark Green look humble yet effective.
Why doesn't Bloomberg implore us to eat cake???
And what does that have to do with the botched up school bus routes leaving children out in the coldest week of the year?
Did Anna Nicole smit die?
True, I should have addressed the substance of the issue, but my hatred for Gotbaum, and her ill-informed criticisms, got the better of me.
The timing of the change was not great, but there's no denying the fact that this was a hideously complicated job, taking into account changing populations, and different school compositions. The move was also pretty well-trailed, since while I'm not even a parent I've been pretty aware its going down.
No question that Bloomberg is cranky and peevish, a man with dictatorial instincts and little tolerance for criticism. But what the man was saying was valid. We had to change the routes and the changes, while appalling for some of the children, were bound to be messy.
Gotbaum's got nothing to offer but "scrap the plan".
Mayor Bling really has to stop using Spitzer's podium.
Hey, Mike... stand up and let the people see ya! Oh, sorry...
yeah she did Hamil, weird.
"We had to change the routes and the changes, while appalling for some of the children, were bound to be messy"
That doesn't mean that children living and attending school in Manhattan should have to go home through Roosevelt Island, or that children going from the same apartment to the same school should be on different routes, or that children should be dropped off at school before the building is open, or that children should miss forty five minutes of class time every day because their bus gets them there that late.
Maybe we did have to change the routes, but the people who made the new ones obviously did not do a good job. The only solution IS to get rid of these current routes, maybe go back to the old ones, until a better overall route system can be fleshed out.
Parents should take care of their kids. It's not the city's job to take care of the kids. People want better schools, so Bloom made the buses more efficient. People should stop bitching and let Mike do what he does best: cut the fat. Rudy left the city better than Dinkins; and Mayor Mike has actually IMPROVED on that. Stop bitching.
Bloom - you're an idiot.
people have to work - especially here. most kids are coming from working families who don't have the time to escort their kids to school.
why isn't it the city's job to provide schooling?
Why is this city any different than any other major city?
Just because your mayor is so out of shape that dinkins will out live him.
By the way did you see this? go to the daily news site.
Feds shoot down Mike's gun suit
BY MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF
The federal government will not file criminal charges against any of the 15 out-of-state gun dealers accused by Mayor Bloomberg in a federal lawsuit of selling guns illegally, the Daily News has learned.
Bloom,
Of course it's the job of the City to take care of the kids, especially when it comes to schooling.
There is a web of laws that establish that fact.
Society has an interest in preventing ignoramuses like you so public schooling is mandated and that includes getting the children safely to school.
"You're quoting people who have no experience in doing anything"
Seems to me that using a consulting firm is not far from listening to someone like Gotbaum. If Gotbaum mouths off and is ineffective, there is no consequence - the silliness of her job stems from the fact that she's not responsible for anything.
When the consulting firm does a shitty job, what's the consequence? I'm sure they got paid all the same.
If this debacle had occurred as the result of someone else's actions, say an illegal strike or a breach of contract, Bloomberg and Klein would be screaming irresponsibility, incompetence and lawsuit.
Instead they are defending shelling out $16 million for the advice that led to the cutbacks.
This is winter, what a stupid time to reorganize buses for school kids.
This is not a rural or suburban system where schools and students are local and all go to the same school with low traffic routes. All the experience in the world in other locales with school transit will not help in NYC... diff place/ diff issues!
These are elementary school kids, middle school and above get train/bus passes.
The death of western civ is the notion "efficiencey" and "cost" in public works. It is about school bus SERVICE.
Get the freakin' JOB done....Bloomie. Get the kids to school and home promptly!
this azz thinks he knows it all wont pay nypd a decent salary but its okay to pay a gardener 42,000 a year but a rookie starts at 32 ,000 what the fuck he doesnt care about the working person hes a bitch know it all who hasnt given shit to the city workers .....people are realizing hes a smug azz .