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I slept on my fire escape one night
last week but it wasn't due to martial strife or a daredevil
spirit. Rather, the sight of yours truly three flights up sporting
boxer shorts and a death grip on the bars came courtesy of Con
Edison (with a nod to Mayor Bloomberg).
The lights first dimmed on
Monday, July 17-smack dab in the middle of a classic NYC heat
wave. Over the next few days, as Con Ed dangerously underestimated
the number of people affected, my neighborhood of Astoria joined
Long Island City, Sunnyside, and Woodside in blackout mode. Veteran
New Yorkers know the drill: flashlights, candles, food rotting
in the fridge, neighbors sitting on the stoop swapping "where
were you when the lights went out?" tales. But this was
more than just supply and demand.
According to the New York Times,
"the electrical network for the area of Queens where 100,000
people endured a lengthy blackout had the most failures of any
of the 57 underground networks in New York City for the last
two years." Those failures numbered 71 in 2005 and 60 in
2004. By comparison, Manhattan's Upper East Side experienced
40 failures last year.
It isn't hard to imagine Bloomberg
reacting with a little more fervor if zip code 10021 lost its
juice. Astoria, on the other hand, was left literally and figuratively
in the dark. Theories abounded but no one really knew what was
going on or when it would end. Fire engine sirens sounded all
through the night, darkened traffic lights made every intersection
an adventure, manhole covers popped like champagne corks, but
most disturbing were the smoking and burning power lines. This
I had never seen. The thick black cables strung from wooden pole
to wooden pole smoldered, smoked, and burst into flames as frightened
residents looked on. News outlets, lulled by Con Ed's undercount,
focused instead on those without power due to a storm in well-heeled
Westchester.
The New York Times also explained
that several failures in the network "involved components
that were 30 to 60 years old ... One cable, which failed six
times last year, had a 67-year-old component." This got
me thinking about Astoria's sudden influx of yuppies. Starbuck's,
one-bedroom apartments going for $1500 a month, yoga classes,
a community garden-my humble neighborhood is officially hip.
So hip that my wife, Michele, wants me to get a t-shirt made
up that reads: "Born in Astoria" so no one mistakes
my shaved head as a feeble attempt at modish credentials. But,
I digress.
Astoria's gentrification has
resulted in the tearing down of houses to be replaced by small
apartment buildings. Thus, a slice of real estate that may have
once housed an aging widow is now home for a dozen or so of the
upwardly mobile...each with two air conditioners, two computers,
two televisions, and a microwave oven. It doesn't require genius
to imagine this trend impact a 67-year-old component. But then
again, no one has ever mistaken power companies or politicians
for Chomsky or Einstein.
Power has, for the most part,
been restored in Astoria and the surrounding burgs. Small businesses
are desperately trying to recoup losses and, as they say, life
is returning to "normal." But if normal means we continue
trusting those in power to do the right thing, maybe we need
a new normal. If it means overusing electricity (which is generated
by the burning of fossil fuels), taking for granted that lights
will go on when we hit a switch, or maintaining our awed trust
in technology, I'd say "normal" may be the real problem.
If the Queens blackout can help us discover a more enlightened
perspective, Con Ed and Mayor Bloomberg just may have done us
a favor.
Mickey Z. is the author of several books, most
recently 50 American Revolutions You're Not Supposed to Know
(Disinformation Books). He can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.
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