12.09.2005

Gold At $530 An Ounce?

The way the City of Pittsburgh/Allegheny County uses it's road salt, you'd think that road salt futures were selling for $530 an ounce!

Last night, we got our first snow storm of the season and a simple 4-6 inch storm turned into a fiasco because the absence of snow plows/salt trucks. The Parkway West was a graveyard of cars and 18 wheelers due to 3 inches of snow laying on the upgrade to Greentree Road that was unsalted and untouched by a plow.

Returning with my youngest daughter, Kitty, from the Penguin game, we watched cars and trucks helpless to climb the grade and slide off the road. Kitty was in tears from the experience. Needless to say, I returned her home to her mom and spent the night in a hotel because I was hesitant to approach Pittsburgh a second time in one night.

The Washington County roads were fine. The left lane of I79 got a nice scrape and the right lane was salted and was melted down to blacktop in the wheel ruts. Funny how they managed to keep the roads passable.

Which leads me to think that there is some hapless Allegheny County bean counter who sits and tries to conserve every penny at the expense of us taxpayers. How I would have loved to just backhand that guy in the mouth last night. I grew up in NYC and if this ever happened there, someone in public office would have been whacked while he slept.

Salt and plow the goddamn roads already, Allegheny County and City of Pittsburgh. Why do we have to wait until 4 hours into a storm before anyone is sent out? The main arteries should have been pre-salted before the storm and the plows should have already been dispatched, waiting for the snowfall.

You cheap fucking bastards.

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