Can I Get A Public Service Up In Here?
So Mike went to NYC this week for a conference. And I ordered some stuff from Amazon and some Netflix to keep myself occupied. Fast forward to today. I am going to the airport to pick Mike up at 4:30... and the mail has come ONCE. Naturally, with none of my stuff. I don't think it's on Amazon's end. According to the package tracker thing, my books should be here. So where is the USPS? Between Mike and myself, we get at least three pieces of mail per day. I am putting this information out there, just so you don't say, "Well, Sarah, be reasonable. Maybe you just didn't get any mail." No. I know we are getting mail. The reason I know this is that, conveniently, whenever the mail takes two days off, we get a shitload of mail, all rubber banded together. When it rains, we don't get mail. This is a pattern I have noticed over months of study. THEY DO NOT WANT TO DELIVER THE MAIL ON RAINY DAYS. I do not live in a vastly destroyed area of New Orleans, either. I live in the 70115. I don't mean to accuse the USPS of laziness, but... well, yes I do. This latest non-delivery coincides with the random blocking off of my street by some orange-painted signs and cones. I think they were just like, oops, can't go down there! I mean, I am a person with lots of bills. Sometimes I need to mail my bills. OK, so the mail doesn't come every day. I accept that. But do you think-- thirteen months after Katrina-- the Post Office could put some mailboxes back? I could just walk down to the JCC, where there HAS ALWAYS BEEN A MAILBOX. The Times Picayune put their thing back. Isn't it time we got some mailboxes SOMEWHERE Uptown?
As a matter of fact, why is my street blocked off? Is it because of the huge hole they dug in the street two houses up and haven't come back to fill in? Is it because the Landrieus (Landrieux?) live up the street and god forbid important or wealthy people drive their cars into holes? Really, you might as well just remove the blockade, because we are so used to driving around other neighborhoods' holes by now that there is really no point. And being a veteran observer of the New Orleans Pothole, I can tell you that this pothole is weak. It is only a foot and a half deep, and it is on the side of a one-way street, not the middle. This pothole is maybe a one-cone pothole, not a "block off the street" pothole. Other potholes laugh in the face of this clearly inferior pothole. I'm just saying. Anyway, since the street is perfectly clear, people are just creeping up on the curb to go around the baffling blockade. So-- this just occurred to me-- I almost wonder whether it's there because they forgot to take it with them when they finished digging the hole. It would not surprise me.
Our utilities are controlled by shoddy monopolies. Want to know how much I was charged by Entergy for a month in which the house was unoccupied and the power was TOTALLY OUT? $200! That's more than I paid when I was there! And I know people who were charged upwards of $1,000. Cox(uckers) is no better. I don't know who hires the incompetent fools who work there and try to repeatedly tell us there is no outage and we should buy a new modem from them... when there is no cable! As in, black fuzz on all the channels and no internet connection. Could you please learn how to listen to your customers? We didn't love living in Boston for 4 months, but I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to call for services and actually speak to someone polite and articulate on the phone. Every single time. It has long been the standard in New Orleans that at restaurants and hotels the service is legendary and world-class, while at the Walgreens you have to wait in line for 20 minutes while the cashier talks to her girlfriend on the phone and gives you a nasty look. Come on. This is one of those things that could stand changing Post-K. After all, we are paying employees more now. And one would think there would be more of a "we're all in this together, what can I contribute?" mindset. Let's start over and make this a city that's efficient.
Can we talk about the trash? After living here for nine months Post-K, we have finally determined that it comes on Wednesdays. Except... when it doesn't. This is a step down from our former twice a week service. There is no point whatsoever to using the blue recycling bins, because the recycling doesn't get picked up at all. Our pizza boxes and empty cans just grow bugs until we give up and throw them in the trash. There is no rhyme or reason to whether the trash comes or doesn't come. Or why they are willing to pick up some stuff, while the remains of our hedge sat bagged on the corner for months. I know there is talk about putting a new automated trash pickup system in place, but I don't feel confident about this working. Not here.
Seriously, though, what are we paying taxes for? What, exactly? (OK, this does not quite apply to me because I got all my taxes back last year due to Katrina/grad student exemptions, and I am a renter, but still!) Why do we re-elect the same tired people? Why-- even now!-- do some citizens vote to maintain the status quo? This just would not happen in the rest of the U.S. Because people wouldn't tolerate it.
< /rant>
Whew. I think that covers everything.
Edited 2:28 PM to add: Completely proving everything I said about USPS, eight pieces of mail and a package were just dropped through the slot.
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