A Day of Immersion in Bloomberg Bureaucracy: Roll Out the Barrel

Any elementary school teacher could have better managed this.

This was my comment to the people from the EPA running the rain barrel giveaway at Marine Park yesterday on a cold and nasty day. What should have taken about a half hour of my time ended up using up most of the day. Okay, I know. I could have bought one for about $30. But I wouldn't have. You know the motto in the Scott family: free is better than good - or actually - free is better than anything.

photo from EPA website

The offer of a free 50 gallon rain storage unit along with the converter kit was too much for me to resist. I have 3 spots I could make use of it in my garden. So when I accidentally came across the announcement on Friday that barrels would be given away on Saturday from 9-2, I made plans to be there early before the crowd and get home in time to get to the gym by 10. So, I how did I feel when I came straggling home with my barrel after 3 trips back and forth, hacking and coughing from the cold wet day at around 3:30PM? *&*&%&%%.

I got to Ave U around 8:45 and the traffic was backed up for blocks and a massive line was formed in the parking lot. People were already walking away with barrels. Apparently most of Brooklyn have the same motto as the Scotts. But on the good side, it was nice to see how many people are interested in gardening and conservation. Or maybe since we are quickly slipping into banana republic territory in this country it was simply a case like they use to have in Russia - if you see any line join it.

I won't get into the details of how poorly this was managed. But a few quick hits. One guy has number 13 at 7:30 and was told he could leave and come back at 9 since no barrels would be given away before them. So how did he end up at the back of a long line with people like me with number 355? Of course they started giving away barrels at 8 and by 9 there were none left.

The prefect manager for rain barrel giveaway

They were giving out numbers - to cars coming in and to people on the line - total chaos. Lines forming all over the place. "Another truck is coming," they told us. So we line up to wait. In the cold (I didn't dress as warmly as I should have - just pick up the barrel and put it in the car - I figured.) An hour goes by. Where's the truck? Jersey Turnpike was one answer. Williamsburg was another.

But we all start to bond while waiting. A great slice of Brooklyn diversity. People who might never talk to each other if they were not on a line on a nasty Saturday morning waiting for a rain barrel. The guys from Jamaica and other Caribbean nations tell us how they use gravity feed systems all the time on the Islands. The guy with number 13 who got screwed is in remarkable good humor. He asks why is rain water better than tap water? The nitrogen. Much of it gets lost through filtration in tap water. Thus watering plants with rain water gives them more nutragens.

Finally they tell us to leave and come back in an hour. Everyone with a number (cars and people were still pulling in and were told it was too late.) My number was one of the last given out.

So I go shopping for my 93 year old dad who as a true Scott wants me to chase all over Brooklyn to different stores so I could save a dollar. I get the goodies up to his apartment, am questioned intently as to why I paid $4 for a tin of raisins when I could have gotten them for $2 at CVS, head over and get gas and then back to Marine Park.

No truck. But at least I have a spot in the lot. So I listen to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Finally at around 12pm the truck arrives. Ensuing chaos - they can't figure out an orderly system to give out the barrels but they say they are doing it by numbers. I stay back since I have 355. They aren't really doing it by numbers. They run out before I get to the front of the line. The truck leaves to go back to Williamsburg to get more barrels. It won't be back for at least 2-3 hours. There are about 50 of us left.

The dispatcher is a nice guy. "I'm from Wisconsin," he says. "You can trust me." Ha, I say. "I'm from Madison," he answers. "OK," I say. "You pass." He says everyone with a number will get a barrel. He's from Madison. I believe him.

I'm not giving up on this quest. I go back home, take cough medicine, eat lunch and head back at 2:30. Sit in the car for about 15 minutes and finally the truck comes. Even with this smaller crowd there is no clue on how to manage it. Sort of like the newbie teacher who tells an entire class to get their coats at the same time. I figure that every single teacher in the school system with minimal management skills could have done this better. It is raining but I wrestle the barrel into the car. (Can't wait to get home and rip open the conversion kit. I knew I shoulda been a plumber.)

Maybe it was not the fault of the poor EPA workers who have been there since 6AM. They are not trained in crowd management. But no one seemed to be in charge – the benefits of Bloomberg-style management. What was needed for this even was a top-level manager. Someone with vast experience in managing large organizations. Someone who would be available on a Saturday morning. A perfect job for Cathie Black.


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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

A TASTE FOR LUXURY

One way to make sure you don't miss dinner...

Give French cats the choice between a bowl of tap water and a bowl of Evian, and they'll inevitably choose Evian. Cachemire, silk, camel hair? These cats recognize quality right away and will curl up on the best fabrics in a second. But I never dreamed they knew anything about stainless steel cookware until I discovered Pompon, a.k.a. Guy l'Eclair and sometimes called Yo-Yo, nesting in my best French Cristel marmite.

Vocabulary
soie:  silk
cashmere:  cachemire
poil de chameau:  camel hair  
inox:  stainless steel
marmite:  stock pot


Expression
Une truite dans la marmite vaut plus que deux saumons dans la rivière.  A trout in the pot is worth more than two salmon in the river.  






Text & photos ©2011 P.B. Lecron

Cathie Black to Head Ed Notes Expansion to Russia

Published in The Wave Friday, April 15 - www.rockawave.com

Phee-Asko
by Norm Scott

If you don't know what the title of this column refers to you have not been a regular reader. Just consider it your phonics lesson of the day. But all is not lost for Cathie Black. I have decided to hire Black as the publisher of my blog Education Notes, thus giving her an opportunity to combine her vast experience in publishing with all she learned in her three months in the world of education. Cathie and I have a lot in common – we're both 66. She asked, “If I were a guy, would I have had the pounding that I did?” I assured her she would be treated just like a guy. And when she complained about all those unflattering shots of her that appeared in the press, I was careful to tell her she could pick any photos she wanted to use. When she compared the experience as Chancellor to trying to learn Russian in a weekend, I jumped at the opportunity and put Black in charge of translating Ed Notes for the Russian market.

The same people who praised Bloomberg for appointing Black are giving him credit for acting quickly once he realized he made a teeny-weeny mistake by dropping an atom bomb on over one million school children – Bloomie, our own Dr. Strangelove. Want to see a list of people who jumped on board? Check out this link on my blog: http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-oppose-walcott-waiverlist-in.html. We haven't heard from Opra or Whoopie since Black left.




Rather than get into the details of the Black/Walcott switch, here is a selection of headlines from Gotham Schools with the publishing source in parentheses.

· Once tightly organized, the city Department of Education after Cathie Black’s tenure is in disarray. (Times)
· Black’s downfall highlights the reality that the education reform debate is deadlocked. (Times)
· City government employees had bets placed on when Bloomberg would fire Black. (Post)
· Dennis Walcott was part of all of Bloomberg’s education decisions except the one to hire Black. (Post)
· Walcott fielded the City Council’s questions but didn’t impress the UFT’s Michael Mulgrew. (Times)
· The city is positioning Walcott as Black’s opposite, but their policies are no different. (Daily News)
· Walcott spent part of his first day fielding questions on teacher layoffs. (Wall Street Journal)
· Congregants at a Brooklyn church backed Walcott, but worried about their local schools. (Times, Post)
· Having to reprint diplomas twice this year because of the chancellor switches is costly for the city. (Post)
· Michael Goodwin: Bloomberg is dismissive of public opinion, so Black’s firing was a good step. (Post)
· Andrew Wolf: Walcott represents just a continuation of Klein’s and Black’s policies. (Daily News)
. A city education reporter says schools chancellors aren’t relevant under mayoral control. (City Room)
· Mike Lupica: Black’s hire was like when George Steinbrenner hired a football coach. (Daily News)

I particularly recommend the Lupica piece where he reminds us, "It's easy to forget that before [Bloomberg] spent a fortune buying his job in City Hall, people thought of him as a kind of a jerk. Rich and successful, but a wise guy with a big ego who thought he was the smartest guy he ever met."

That about sums up the entire Black'nBloom Phee-Asko.

Co-locos go on and on
I go to many co-location hearings where the DOE attempts to shoehorn a favored charter school into a public school building. Then a month later, the Panel for Educational Policy meeting ignores public school voices and rubber stamps whatever Tweed wants them to do. These hearings and meetings all run together — sort of like being stuck in the Tweed version of the movie "Groundhog Day." (At least Bill Murray gets the girl in the end.) The advocates for the charter school are often bused in, given scripts and sometimes food and signs that claim they are public schools even though profit-making corporations often manage them. And they all wear the same tee shirts. And of course, the entire neighborhood has been inundated with posters, doorknob hangers, fliers and direct mailings promoting the charter school so they can claim there is so much demand. You just have to watch the charter school overseers (I've heard the term "plantation" used in conjunction) scurry around with their Blackberries in hand - funny how they and the Tweedies all look alike - but then again....

The defenders of the public school try to rally their troops. In some neighborhoods they are severely outgunned. But once in a while I go to a hearing where there is serious pushback. On April 4 I attended a hearing at Lincoln HS where the parents and teachers of the 3 current schools occupying the IS 303 building (IS 303, Rachel Carson HS and a District 75 Special Ed school) came out in force to fight the DOE attempt to add Coney Island Prep Charter as a 4th school in the building. They marched with a big crowd to Lincoln, where of course they found that the charter school people were already on line to get first dibs as speakers. I taped much of the meeting and have put videos up on my blog. It really is like being in a science fiction movie.


The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman
Speaking of movies, we are reaching the final stage of our response to the anti-teacher, anti-union film, "Waiting for Superman", directed by Academy Award winner Davis Guggenheim of "The Inconvenient Truth". Our premiere will be at Riverside Church on May 19 and we are proud to have Diane Ravitch on our panel. (Diane was gracious enough to grant us an exclusive interview for the film.)

We are still editing the most recent interviews we did with former charter school parents who have left their schools with harrowing accounts of how they and their children were treated. Our no-budget movie has been created solely by teachers and parents and we are offering copies for people to use in house and school parties as a way to counter the propaganda juggernaut of WFS, which was funded by Gates, Broad and other corporate ed deformers. Both movies were shown in Harlem at the Maysles Cinema a few weekends ago and I finally got to see WFS and thought it was a poorly made film beyond just the content and misleading information – millions of dollars that could have gone into school classrooms instead of being used for propaganda purposes.

So far our one-hour film has had a very positive response. It cost us time and energy but no one wants to make a dime off it. Basically, we are saying, "Steal our film and go forth and propagate it."

Norm blogs at http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/