Here's something you might be interested in.
Thursday the water went off for no apparent reason whatsoever. It happens a lot at this particular apartment building, where the pipes and plumbing are 60s-style and disintigrating, and the owner, a hateful, greedy little Filipino woman, refuses to give the place a once-over to fix them permanently. But it wasn't her fault this time, I discovered. It was the city's.
They'd dug a hole in Thirteenth Street, and hadn't bothered to inform all citizens that would be affected, including my building. My landlady informed me the water would be off "until 4 AM tomorrow," that I would have to "just rough it."
I don't think so.
I called the Imperial Beach's Public Works department and was instantly shunted to their voice mail. Uh huh. That was my first clue. The IB Public Works department isn't exactly, er, busy--ever--which means during business hours, they should be there. They most assuredly were; they just weren't going to pick up the line.
I called the City Manager. He wasn't taking calls; and his secretary, after listening to my threats to sue (water is, after all, a basic human need and they were negligent in informing us that they were going to deprive us of it), tried patching me through "to someone who could help." I waited five minutes, then hung up the phone.
Miraculously, at that very instant, the water gushed back on. Voila! Just threaten to sue these incompetents, and the service is back on!
Speaking more on incompetence ...
The annual "Christmas Comes to IB" event at Pier Plaza Park is going as I type this. Of course, no one near the Pier, the businesses or the citizens of IB, had any idea it was happening. The city doesn't even list it on its Web page, and it's a city-sponsored event! If you think this is an oversight, it's not: the city of IB does this constantly, driving residents and businesses crazy. The City Council claims it cares about both, but, as with the case of the stifled water, its actions expose the lie.
And there you have it.
~~*~~
Thursday the water went off for no apparent reason whatsoever. It happens a lot at this particular apartment building, where the pipes and plumbing are 60s-style and disintigrating, and the owner, a hateful, greedy little Filipino woman, refuses to give the place a once-over to fix them permanently. But it wasn't her fault this time, I discovered. It was the city's.
They'd dug a hole in Thirteenth Street, and hadn't bothered to inform all citizens that would be affected, including my building. My landlady informed me the water would be off "until 4 AM tomorrow," that I would have to "just rough it."
I don't think so.
I called the Imperial Beach's Public Works department and was instantly shunted to their voice mail. Uh huh. That was my first clue. The IB Public Works department isn't exactly, er, busy--ever--which means during business hours, they should be there. They most assuredly were; they just weren't going to pick up the line.
I called the City Manager. He wasn't taking calls; and his secretary, after listening to my threats to sue (water is, after all, a basic human need and they were negligent in informing us that they were going to deprive us of it), tried patching me through "to someone who could help." I waited five minutes, then hung up the phone.
Miraculously, at that very instant, the water gushed back on. Voila! Just threaten to sue these incompetents, and the service is back on!
Speaking more on incompetence ...
The annual "Christmas Comes to IB" event at Pier Plaza Park is going as I type this. Of course, no one near the Pier, the businesses or the citizens of IB, had any idea it was happening. The city doesn't even list it on its Web page, and it's a city-sponsored event! If you think this is an oversight, it's not: the city of IB does this constantly, driving residents and businesses crazy. The City Council claims it cares about both, but, as with the case of the stifled water, its actions expose the lie.
And there you have it.
~~*~~