Not Much to Report

Kind of an uneventful Wednesday. Settling into the job and all. The heat finally broke last night. When I got home yesterday it was 98 degrees, 24 hours later its in the low 70s. Summer in New York.There's something wrong with the new Staten Island Ferries. They've been trotting out the Lehman and the Kennedy to fill the gap. Those ships were supposed to be decomissioned a year ago but the new boats are apparently beset with mechanical problems. The ferryboat John J. Marchi died in the middle of the harbor yesterday. The lame new ferryboats are simply another example of New York City taxpayers being ripped off and then being told that they are getting a great benefit. Am I alone in thinking that the new ferry terminals are constructed out of crappy materials that look like the place is going to fall apart within five years? The City has got a great PR machine but it is so short on substance. Not only are the new boats crappy mechanically but they also seem carefully designed to strip any any warmpth or pleasure out of the daily commute. The JFK class boats were designed with wooden benches positioned so that the maximum number of seats faced the water. No matter how crowded those boats got they always felt spacious. The new boats have cold metal seats haphazardly plopped down so as to make one feel as if they are riding in a large waiting-room at the DMV. Its tragic that people with no sense of asthetics are allowed to make lifestyle choices for the rest of us. And as long as I am ranting about the ferry, who on God's green earth is responsible for giving out the food service contract on those boats. The only, and I mean only redeeming virtue of the snack stand is that the beer is reasonably priced. Ok, in the interests of full disclosure I have occasionally choked down a "hotdog" on the late boat and didn't end up in the hospital, but com on, the quality of the food wouldn't even meet the standards of a 7-11 in Newark. Shame on the DOT for having no quality control oversight.