Yo, El Diario, Kiss My Gumbo-Eatin, Two-Step Dancin, Seafood-Lovin', Where Y'at, How's Ya Mama 'Nem, New Orleans Ass

Dear El Diario,
I got nothing against New York City. In fact, I used to live there and love the place. Besides N.O. it's the only other place I'd live. LOVE LOVE LOVE NYC! So what's with the hate in the editorial today? If you couldn't tell from the title, you guys printed a few things I take issue with.

Yup, we had alot of money ALLOCATED to us that hasn't gotten down to most folks yet. So if some of us seem a little stuck, that's one reason why. Also, the insurance companies fucked us. And now FEMA continues to fuck us, as our Pulitzer award-winning newspaper just wrote an editorial about.

The other thing I took issue with was the comment about some of us "waiting for the gravy train to end." As most people who insinuate we're getting too much money, I'm guessing you haven't been here to see the place for yourself. Again, the gravy train hasn't quite gotten here yet -- probably because it's stuck in NYC:

• President Bush’s FY ’04 Executive Budget recommended the East Side Access Project for a "Full Funding Grant Agreement" (FFGA) and for $75 million in FY ’04 appropriations.

• In FFY 2002, New York State transit systems will receive approximately $349.6 million under this program, 30.8% of the $1.1 billion national total;

• a comprehensive list of all highway (state or local) and all transit (capital or operating) projects in urban and rural areas that propose to use Federal funds. The current three year program totals more than $11 billion in Federal funds.

• The project will cost a total of $7.74 billion. The President’s budget includes $390 million for the project in FY 2006.

• ...ineffectiveness and waste that characterized the implementation of the Summer Meals Program in New York City...The Summer Meals Program is funded entirely though federal dollars at no cost to the city...
  

• New York, with 7.9 percent of the nation’s poverty population, received almost 13 percent of federal Medicaid dollars.

You said it's "crazy" to spend so much tax payer money to fix things that never should have been there (i.e., below sea level) anyway. Seems equally crazy that we should pay for your transportation system and your Medicaid patients.

Oh yeah, another thing -- you assholes are in the same boat.

• Experts now believe that after Miami and New Orleans, New York City is considered the third most dangerous major city for the next hurricane disaster. According to a 1990 study by the US Army Corps of Engineers, the city has some unique and potentially lethal features. New York's major bridges such as the Verrazano Narrows and the George Washington are so high that they would experience hurricane force winds well before those winds were felt at sea-level locations. Therefore, these escape routes would have to be closed well before ground-level bridges (Time, 1998). The two ferry services across the Long Island Sound would also be shut down 6-12 hours before the storm surge invaded the waters around Long Island, further decreasing the potential for evacuation.

• A storm surge prediction program used by forecasters called SLOSH (Sea, Lake, and Overland Surge from Hurricanes) has predicted that in a category 4 hurricane, John F. Kennedy International Airport would be under 20 feet of water and sea water would pour through the Holland and Brooklyn-Battery tunnels and into the city's subways throughout lower Manhattan. The report did not estimate casualties, but did state that storms "that would present low to moderate hazards in other regions of the country could result in heavy loss of life" in the New York City area (Time, 1998).

• Though it sounds like science fiction, the above scenario is all too plausible. "Try to tell someone in Sheepshead Bay that they have to evacuate immediately because within the next 24 hours they'll have 30 feet of storm surge on their neighborhood," says Mike Lee, before pausing to let you think about three stories of ocean water roiling through your own neighborhood. "They'll laugh at you—absolutely laugh at you," he says. "I mean, I barely even believe it."

• If a storm like the Long Island Express makes a direct hit on the city, everything below Broome Street will be inundated, some parts under as much as 20 and 30 feet of water. Chelsea and Greenwich Village are completely flooded, with the Hudson spilling over all the way to 7th Avenue. Likewise, the East River and East Village become one, with ocean water surging all the way to 1st Avenue. If you haven't evacuated before the storm, forget it. During the storm, Manhattan's east- and west-side highways vanish. Tunnels and bridges become unusable.

And the Corps of Engineers did the study for this? Let me warn ya, cuz I still LOVE NYC, y'alls asses is in T-R-O-U-B-L-E!!!!

Assholes.