Infrastructure Weak

[Azrael]

goin' great

Entire City of Houston placed under boil water notice after system outage

 

[Azrael]

 

[Vombatus]

Geez. I thought your title was a reference to the beginning of bowl season.

 

[Azrael]

 

[TigerVols]

Yeah but low taxes!*


*That's a joke. Texas has the 7th highest property tax in the nation.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

I see what you did here.

 

[DanielSimpsonDay]

this is joe biden's america

 

[User 11148]

Irony?

In Killeen, residents have received 57 boil-water notices this year. Kent Cagle, the city manager, said the notices are largely related to development in the community, as fiber is being installed on every street and water lines have been hit during construction.

 

[Della9250]

this is joe biden's america

This is Greg Abbott's Texas, which is why we reelected him for four more years

 

[Batman]

A couple of questions/points to offer up:
1) How does the number of boil water notices in Texas compare to other states? That's not included in the story.
Honestly, having 2,500 in a year or seven a day for a state the size and population of Texas sounds like it's not a whole lot. If you're trying to make it sound like it is, then that is a very important comparison that needs to be in there.
And, if it's a couple of cities that are making up the bulk of those notices — especially if they're in one county or area — then that's a completely different story to write instead of painting it as a statewide issue.

2) The Killeen mayor mentioned this, but not all of these boil water notices are citywide crisis moments like the one in Jackson. Our area gets boil water notices all the time for relatively minor things like a power failure at the treatment plant that dropped the pressure for a few minutes. The notice lasts a day or so because they can't give the all clear until they test the water a certain number of times over a certain number of hours. Doesn't mean it's unsafe to drink.
Other times it's related to sewer or line work where they have to shut off water to a neighborhood for a couple of hours, and most of the city is unaffected.
Point being, 99 percent of these things are more advisories than an "OH MY GOD WE'RE GOING TO DIE!!!!" moment.

3) This story eventually gets around to making the point that it's really the poor, rural water districts that are having issues, and that they need more money to revamp their systems. When the Jackson water crisis happened during the summer, people tried to hammer the Mississippi state government as racist for funding projects in rural and suburban (and supposedly white) communities rather than the more populous (and Black) Jackson.
So which is it? Do the small, rural communities deserve to have their projects funded or not?
Seems like there are people trying to have it both ways just so they can criticize the Republican governors of these states no matter what they do.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

There are about 1,350 rural water districts and what are called "municipal utility districts" in Texas. Odds are good that each of them will have a water main cut or a power outage over the course of a year. So I wouldn't freak out over boil notices, most of which get resolved in 48 hours. What happened in Flint and Jackson is much, much more serious.

 

[tapintoamerica]

A couple of questions/points to offer up:
1) How does the number of boil water notices in Texas compare to other states? That's not included in the story.
Honestly, having 2,500 in a year or seven a day for a state the size and population of Texas sounds like it's not a whole lot. If you're trying to make it sound like it is, then that is a very important comparison that needs to be in there.
And, if it's a couple of cities that are making up the bulk of those notices — especially if they're in one county or area — then that's a completely different story to write instead of painting it as a statewide issue.

2) The Killeen mayor mentioned this, but not all of these boil water notices are citywide crisis moments like the one in Jackson. Our area gets boil water notices all the time for relatively minor things like a power failure at the treatment plant that dropped the pressure for a few minutes. The notice lasts a day or so because they can't give the all clear until they test the water a certain number of times over a certain number of hours. Doesn't mean it's unsafe to drink.
Other times it's related to sewer or line work where they have to shut off water to a neighborhood for a couple of hours, and most of the city is unaffected.
Point being, 99 percent of these things are more advisories than an "OH MY GOD WE'RE GOING TO DIE!!!!" moment.

3) This story eventually gets around to making the point that it's really the poor, rural water districts that are having issues, and that they need more money to revamp their systems. When the Jackson water crisis happened during the summer, people tried to hammer the Mississippi state government as racist for funding projects in rural and suburban (and supposedly white) communities rather than the more populous (and Black) Jackson.
So which is it? Do the small, rural communities deserve to have their projects funded or not?
Seems like there are people trying to have it both ways just so they can criticize the Republican governors of these states no matter what they do.

Context would be nice. Absolutely. What’s a big number in this sort of thing?
Also helpful: definition. What is a boil notice? Why is it issued?

 

[Neutral Corner]

No clue on the numbers.

It's a "boil your tap water, it may be contaminated" notice.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

Boiling water won't help you if it's chock-full of lead like in Flint. It won't help you either if you can't get it at all like in Jackson.

 

[ChrisLong]

Just remembered an old story about George Maguire (RIP), the gruff former GM of the L.A. Kings. Butch Goring missed a road trip. Maguire was asked what was wrong. "He can't sit down on a plane, he's got a boil on his arse."

Maguire was a gem. The press box was carved into the stands at the Forum at the L.A. Forum. I think it was goalie Mario Lessard who lost his stick and it slid into the corner. The opponent immediately scored a goal. Somebody next to the press box shouted: "Lessard, get off the ice." Maguire got up and shouted back, "What do you want him to do, stop the puck with his pecker?"

 

[Azrael]

A couple of questions/points to offer up:
1) How does the number of boil water notices in Texas compare to other states? That's not included in the story.
Honestly, having 2,500 in a year or seven a day for a state the size and population of Texas sounds like it's not a whole lot. If you're trying to make it sound like it is, then that is a very important comparison that needs to be in there.
And, if it's a couple of cities that are making up the bulk of those notices — especially if they're in one county or area — then that's a completely different story to write instead of painting it as a statewide issue.

2) The Killeen mayor mentioned this, but not all of these boil water notices are citywide crisis moments like the one in Jackson. Our area gets boil water notices all the time for relatively minor things like a power failure at the treatment plant that dropped the pressure for a few minutes. The notice lasts a day or so because they can't give the all clear until they test the water a certain number of times over a certain number of hours. Doesn't mean it's unsafe to drink.
Other times it's related to sewer or line work where they have to shut off water to a neighborhood for a couple of hours, and most of the city is unaffected.
Point being, 99 percent of these things are more advisories than an "OH MY GOD WE'RE GOING TO DIE!!!!" moment.

3) This story eventually gets around to making the point that it's really the poor, rural water districts that are having issues, and that they need more money to revamp their systems. When the Jackson water crisis happened during the summer, people tried to hammer the Mississippi state government as racist for funding projects in rural and suburban (and supposedly white) communities rather than the more populous (and Black) Jackson.
So which is it? Do the small, rural communities deserve to have their projects funded or not?
Seems like there are people trying to have it both ways just so they can criticize the Republican governors of these states no matter what they do.

This is just a thread for what's broken.

NYC nixes $157M 'Internet Master Plan' for universal public broadband access | 6sqft

NYC Digital Redlining: a Tale of Woe

 

[Azrael]

broken system

When Child Welfare Investigations Are a Constant Threat — ProPublica

 

[Batman]

This is just a thread for what's broken.

NYC nixes $157M 'Internet Master Plan' for universal public broadband access | 6sqft

NYC Digital Redlining: a Tale of Woe

Not for pointing out that something that's portrayed as broken, might not be broken?

 

[Azrael]

Not for pointing out that something that's portrayed as broken, might not be broken?

No, no. Feel free to correct misunderstandings or misimpressions.

I meant that it's not strictly political, or attributable to one party or another.

Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Azrael]

A backgrounder from a few years ago.

It's Disturbingly Common For Americans To Go Days Without Safe Drinking Water