Worm Beginning to Turn on Big Apple's Love Affair With Post-Sandy Government
Yesterday I mentioned some policy grumbling that was beginning to percolate underneath the otherwise happy notices about the Tri-State area's official handling of Superstorm Sandy. Well, this morning that has elevated to a dull but growing roar. The lowlights:
* Residents of Staten Island, where a lot of first-responder types live, are absolutely livid about the slow pace of relief and even rescue. People are pretty grumpy in similarly non-mediagenic Long Island as well.
* Public sentiment is turning sharply against Mayor Michael Bloomberg's decision to allow the New York Marathon to run on Sunday, at a time when rescuers are still looking for bodies, hundreds of thousands are still waiting for electricity, a scattering of looters are plaguing some communities, temperatures are plummeting toward the freezing level, and survivors are doing desperate things for food. The New York Post is hammering Bloomberg for diverting generators to the marathon that could (needless to say) be better used elsewhere.
* Hours-long gas lines in New Jersey are prompting non-libertarians to criticize Gov. Chris Christie's misguided campaign against "price gouging."
* Jason Sheftell of the Democrat-supporting Daily News goes ballistic against the power company: "The greatest city in the world has been brought to its knees not by Hurricane Sandy, but by Con Ed….Someone has to say it: Con Edison is to us what FEMA was to New Orleans after Katrina."
* Rescue crews are reportedly being turned away from New Jersey due to being non-union. UPDATE: That story is now reportedly a misunderstanding.
No one says this stuff is easy, and a handful of valid complaints do not indict the entirety of the massive government response here. But they do render even more ridiculous the knee-jerk impulse to uncritically and immediately cheer on big government and pillory those who have different ideas about more effectively delivering services.
