My city, how I love you....

[lagilman]

Breaking news: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/manhhole-fires-in-midtown/

Okay, exploding manhole covers, not the usual thing but not wildly unusual either, especially when it starts to warm up AND we just had major rain. Best line of the article, tho:

After the explosion, a firefighter yelled: “It’s not Disneyland, people. Get the hell out of the way.”


Amen.

Seriously. Are we going to have to have a refresher course on How To Behave in Emergencies, people? Are we going to have to start checking survival IQs at the door? Because there WILL be a fee imposed if you fail.


(this goes with the Tweeted joke that clearly the car bomb had been set in Times Square in order to kill as few New Yorkers as possible...especially since this happened near Port Authority. duck season! wabbit season! tourist season!)

Comments

[saladinahmed.livejournal.com]

"(this goes with the Tweeted joke that clearly the car bomb had been set in Times Square in order to kill as few New Yorkers as possible...especially since this happened near Port Authority. duck season! wabbit season! tourist season!)"

Zing! Clearly, someone is fightin' mad at the good people of Minnesota and Japan.

[stef94.livejournal.com]

Suddenly I realise why I felt so at home in NYC.

Cos this?

After the explosion, a firefighter yelled: “It’s not Disneyland, people. Get the hell out of the way.”

Is =exactly= (with an appropriate Dutch reference of course) how the emergency services people in any of the larger cities in Holland react to annoying crowds that are in the way :-)

Also LOL @ the hunting season joke *giggles*

[lagilman]

Several years ago an ambulance gave up on its siren (while caught in a traffic snarl) and instead you heard a very laconic voice over the loudspeaker saying "it would be NICE if you got the hell OUT of the WAY."

People got.

[nycdeb.livejournal.com]

classic!

[terri-osborne.livejournal.com]

The Disneyland line slayed me when I read that. I love this city sometimes. You can pretty much always tell the NYers from the tourists. The NYers are the ones blase about the things the tourists are freaking out over.

[lagilman]

Especially, come on. Exploding manhole covers. I understand we're a bit on-edge after the Times Square thing, but how many years does that NOT happen?

[terri-osborne.livejournal.com]

Especially with the ancient infrastructure crazy quilt under these streets. It's a rarer occurrence when we get a year where that doesn't happen.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Okay, now I'm confused. Is tourist season before or after Fudd season?

[spiziks.livejournal.com]

Me, I've never been thrilled at stupid tourist jokes, since the people who make them often become tourists themselves elsewhere and do what the locals there consider stupid or foolish things out of innocent ignorance.

Not only that, but tourists bring in enormous amounts of money. New Yorkers snicker at the people who visit Times Square, but as I recall a few years ago, TS tourism was drying up because New York, while sniggering at tourists, was pushing its own crime rate so high, everyone was afraid to go there. No tourists at Times Square = no money in New York's pockets. So the city cleaned the place up, pushed out the sex workers and adult bookstores, and made it family friendly with shows like THE LION KING.

Come to Michigan, tourists! We love all of you!

[lagilman]

When tourists gawk at the bomb squad and make themselves part of the problem, they get mocked. If they get the hell out of the way and let the emergency responders do their job, they don't.

I am sorry if you feel offended by that.

Gah, I hate that phrase. I'm sorry if you feel that I've unfairly offended tourists with that comment. Me, I think they earned it.

[lagilman]

also, "a few years ago?" Your timeline is off, considerably...

[spiziks.livejournal.com]

"A few years ago" sounds better to our egos than "a couple decades ago."

[lagilman]

Yeah, but it misrepresents the entire situation, as it wasn't crime at the time that was a problem (Times Square is surprisingly safe: it was Central Park that was dangerous after dusk/before dawn) but the OMG Must Protect Teh Children "Moral Majority" forces that got Times Square cleaned up and Disneyfied.

And there are still plenty of sex shows and "adult" stores around. They're just a little less obvious about it.

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

That's okay. I just wait for the people who think I'm a stupid tourist to come to my home turf and start doing stupid stuff in the mountains and suchlike.

That said, Stupid Tourist Stuff around here could get you killed. Has killed people. Crime rates aren't the only killers, and we lose people in the Columbia River Gorge and on Mt. Hood every year.

OFFS

[lagilman]

Generally speaking, people who are aware of danger/don't obstruct emergency personnel aren't "stupid tourists" wherever they go -- but the clueless are clueless everywhere.

See: bears, feeding thereof.

And I'm going to go offline for a while before my urge to snark really does overwhelm my usual sense of zen.

Re: OFFS

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Heh. Not just bears, though.

Bull elk, in rut, with antlers approaching what the hardcore hunters classify as "royal" elk (7, 8, 9 points per side). Rocky Mountain National Park. People walking up to them.

I shuddered every time I saw it.

Re: OFFS

[lagilman]

oh hell, I shudder when I see people gleefully feeding raccoons or skunks out in the suburbs, out their back doors. Yes, they are very cute. And your cats may lose all fear of them, and them of your cats/dogs. And then, when rabies hits the community...

Ever had a rabies shot? Still not fun.


But I still say gawking when the emergency responders (especially those who deal with 'splodey or bitey things) are doing their thing is pretty much Stupid Tourist Behavior. Locals and Smart Travelers* watch from the Suggested Safe Distance.


*reporters and/or photographers have a separate category of "Stupid for Professional Reasons

[barb-krasnoff.livejournal.com]

And those of us who know that we're stupid tourists when we go out of our native environments try to be smart enough to pay attention when we're told where not to go and what to do and not to do. My best friend grew up in upstate NY state, and I spent a lot of time up there. When my visits coincided with hunting season, I was told in no uncertain terms that, even if somebody reported an ivory-billed woodpecker in various very specific areas, you didn't go there, because of the guys with guns. Some of whom were stupid tourists themselves.

[lagilman]

see above re: Stupid-in-general behavior.

And oy, the stories I have about going to college on a wooded, posted-no-hunting campus in upstate New York.... Idiots With Guns is an entire rant I can do in my sleep. I'm (former) NRA, and I'm pro-gun-control.

[black13.livejournal.com]

"Are we going to have to have a refresher course on How To Behave in Emergencies, people? Are we going to have to start checking survival IQs at the door? Because there WILL be a fee imposed if you fail."

Why bother? Evolution in action.