"They don't care about Brooklyn, man."

Since I am not in NYC I dont have any tales of woe but read enough reports about travelers being stuck at airports and in trains..that would have been pretty awful I think.

I don't know if I believe that no one cares about the outer boroughs; it seems like something else is going on here. Has anyone ever known another instance when the streets were promptly plowed? When I witnessed a blizzard hit DC last year and the city basically shut down, I thought, oh mean, this would never happen in my city! Shows what I know.

@BroadwayBK apparently the sanitation workers used the blizzard as a protest against Bloomberg cutting off funds for the department. I have posted the links to the controversy on another thread.

@BroadwayBK its not only snow even garbage was not picked up during the blizzard though apparently the sanitation crews have got to work across the city now.
http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/sanitation-crews-finally-tackle-trash-piles-1.2584676

You guys think this is bad? After the insanity that happened in London after 5 inches (FIVE!) of snow, I'm grateful NYC is still functioning at all!

@ajadedidealist London is just not equipped for the snow..

@uptowngirl I heard about that but it seems outlandish to me. Also not surprised that garbage was neglected; I think the sanitation crews were otherwise busy.

@everyone Came across this article detailing problems in Brooklyn due to the snow: http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?id=40382

I'm pretty sad that I missed out on the snow day in Prospect Park featuring free hot chocolate for all. But grateful that I won't be shoveling my car out of any four feet-high drifts.

Yeah, not a big shocker that they don't care about Brooklyn. They also don't care about Harlem. If you look at the history of power outages in the city, they happen more in Harlem and Brooklyn and the outer boroughs because the put all the good Manhattan juice first! It's all about property value, guys...

@Uraniumfish even though I live in Manhattan I know what you say is true.

It seems like Brooklyn constantly gets the end of the stick. I wonder why.

@hhusted Is it because all the richie riches ( not me of course) live in Manhattan?

@Uraniumfish I'm going to go ahead and venture that they don't care about the Bronx, either.

@BroadwayBk and Staten Island as well...I think Queens gets some attention though...

@BroadwayBK Yup, I'd say that's a good venture.@uptowngirl I'm in no position to verify this, but popular wisdom has it that the mob all have family homes on Staten Island, so they might actually get taken care of pretty well over there.

@Uptowngirl: If you look at the stats, you will notice the city pays more attention to the city because not only do rich people live there, but I'll bet there are other reasons as well.

@Urainumfish There are "mob neighborhoods" in BK, too - for all the good it did us.

@BroadwayBK: What about gangs. I got attacked twice in the Bronx because of gangs.

@hhusted Nobody cares about the Bronx, yo.

@Uraniumfish: Yeah, that is the problem with this city. Nobody cares about places where minorities and low income people live at.

@BroadwayBK Which ones are the mod neighborhoods in Brooklyn?

@Uraniumfish Legend has it there is still a mob presence in Dyker Heights. But why would the city cater to mobsters? It sounds like Staten Island got the worst of the blizzard: http://www.silive.com/northshore/index.ssf/2010/12/mayor_bloomberg_meets_staten_i.html
Which gave Andrew Lanza yet another reason to call for the island's succession: http://gothamist.com/2011/01/03/blizzard_gives_staten_islands_seces.php

@Everybody: How many times have you've been to Staten Island. I'm just taking a short survey here. I've been there twice in the last 10 years.

@hhusted I been to SI only once but if you didnt have any business there why would you go?

I've been there once since I was little (when I was really young, I visited my babysitter, who lived there). I used the Staten Island ferry as a budget way of showing my English boyfriend the Statue of Liberty.

My first boyfriend had family who lived on SI and since he lived with them one summer, I was over there quite often. The area around the ferry is horrifyingly poor and awful, but up the hill there are some impressive mansions. It doesn't feel like SI is part of NY though. It's its own world.

@Uraniumfish so true I don't really seem to pay any attention to S.I. its seems so far away.

I've only ever driven through SI on the expressway on my way to the NJ turnpike on the occasion that I'm headed south.

@Uraniumfish: I agree with you when you said SI doesn't feel like a part of NY. It really doesn't have any direct connecting points. You have to take the Ferry to get there.

@hhusted The Verrrazano Bridge connects SI to Brooklyn though but youre right its a bit different from the rest of NYC..

@Uptowngirl: I wonder if that is why SI wanted to branch off and become independent.

@Uraniumfish So it looks as if the mob still maintains a big presence in BK, even if no one knew about it: http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=40837

http://brooklyn.about.com/b/2011/01/21/the-mob-as-in-mafia-is-still-in-brooklyn.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/nyregion/21mob.html?scp=1&sq=mafia%20arrests&st=cse

Ha..everyone around here is talking about this, crazy how we brought it up a few days earlier.

@BroadwayBK Oh I heard about this roundup! I guess I never envisioned a day when the mob would be decimated - somehow it is so much part of NYC lore that it's hard to imagine this place without "the family"! But good riddens!

@BroadwayBK And, by the way, how often can we say that there's actually some good news reported in the paper?

@BroadwayBK - I'm a born and bred New York and I had no idea about this! My goodness - thanks for charing!

@ajadedidealist No prob. When it happened it was a surprise to everyone around here, too!

@Uraniumfish If this were a movie, these wise guys would just work on their sauce-making skills in the joint until they were given an early release to return to business. There is a huge mob presence in Florida too - so much so that I can't imagine the FBI ever taking them completely out.... it's like the war on drugs or something.

@BroadwayBK Thanks for sharing, as Uraniumfish says the mob is so much of NYC lore and is always lurking in the shadows..speaking of the mob et al, I have always heard whispers of the triads in Chinatown but havent seen much news coverage.

@everyone I just read this op-ed piece today, which offers an interesting perspective on why the mob is still around - and will remain so: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/opinion/23raab.html?ref=nyregion

@Everyone here's another article that highlights the fact that the outer boroughs have a lot to cope with while Manhattan receives special attention.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/29/nyregion/29snow.html?nl=nyregion&emc=ura1

@uptowngirl I had a feeling that the Bronx would be the forgotten borough when it came to snow fall; looks like I wasn't far off.

I loved this from the article: Everyone waits as New York digs itself out of a big snowstorm. Mr. Bloomberg had to wait, too.

“I had to wait a whole minute and a half before the train came that I took downtown,” the mayor said at a news conference at City Hall on Thursday. “And everybody on the train seemed in a good mood.”

@BroadwayBK The mayor's quote was just priceless!

I don't know about the rest of you, but having done research in the past on mobs, there is one thing that I found consistent - the mob seems to find a way to get out of a bad situation, even going to jail. I wonder if we will read in the paper, on the Internet, or see on the news that a certain leader of the mob got released pending trial over some kind of technicality or loop-hole in the legal system. Whether you know this or not, there are a few members of the justice system, and I repeat the word "few' who have been paid and are still being paid under the table by the mob, to do the mob's bidding.

@Uptowngirl There are definitely some places in Chinatown I've wandered into and felt distinctly that it was a front for something else. Like the one flower shop where these old-timers are always playing mah-jong at a huge table in the center. The flowers on sale are definitely secondary, and there are very few of them to begin with. Plus they all had dusty leaves, like they'd been sitting there for the last 20 years. One thing that place was not doing was selling flowers!

@uraniumfish: there's a coffee and pastry shop in Williamsburg that I am convinced is a mob front. There are men in track suits hanging out there all day long playing chess. And, it doesn't seem like many other people do a lot of patronizing. Seems fishy.

@Uraniumfish Wow! it sounds so mysterious and exciting. You always here whispers about the Chinese Triads - found an article about them but it seems a bit dated. Don't think the Chinese are still coming to the USA in search of the American Dream.
http://irs-agency.us/chinese_triads.htm

I think pastry shops/bakeries are the perfect front - you can sit one of those Styrofoam cakes in the window for decades and no one will be the wiser.

There are so many wild little "is this the mob?" moments in Chinatown. Things go on in my building - ah, don't get me started. I think it's good not to want to know too much in this neighborhood, though everybody who comes by for a visit gets a kick out of this scene.

@Uraniumfish: Knowledge is a dangerous thing. The more you know, the more dangerous you become to those that don't want you to know. Remember the Untouchables?

@hhusted Ignorance is much scarier, I find.

@BroadwayBK so true

I want to know, it's better to know, but maybe what's dangerous is asking too many questions.

@Uraniumfish: When you become too nosy, then you do get too dangerous, at least based on the mob. They won't hesitate to rub you out if you know too much.

@Uraniumfish exciting as it sounds it could be quite dangerous