conuly

When government works, we are surprised. It has been ingrained in our psyche that public services are useless at best. But I've got a story that could make even an anarchist cheer. At the corner of 33rd and Broadway in Astoria, a smell developed. A rank mixture of fish heads and rotten fruit and used oil. The culprit was obvious: a sewer grate had backed up, and a cesspool of bubbling waste, emitting fumes, sat for days. I noticed the smell buildup on a Friday. By Tuesday, my roommate and I just couldn't take it anymore. We were sitting on our front stoop, waiting for a ride. We had time to kill.

So my roommate called 311 as a joke, to see how long it would take to talk to a human, let alone report the problem to someone in charge of rank sewage smells. Three minutes later he was off the phone. He looked at me and shrugged, saying, "I was the first one to call it in."

"After five days?" I asked, aghast. We couldn't believe the multitudes of people holding their nose wouldn't bother to call the city. But as I said, no one believes government works.

Well, even before our ride showed, there came a large truck, flashing lights, barreling down Broadway. It stopped at 33rd, and two men jumped out ready to send those nauseating fumes down the well. Unbelievable, to say the least.

http://nytimes.com/2004/09/20/nyregion/20diary.html

Where nobody takes action because they think somebody else will?