New York City to Sell 700 Cars From Government Fleet
“For many of these employees, mass transportation may add hours to their travel schedule.” Shock horror! Is The New York Times defending private transportation over public? Maybe. And you sure gotta look for it; the statement is buried in the middle of Michael Barbaro’s story about Big Apple Mayor Bloomberg’s latest executive fiat, “ordering city agencies like the police, parks and health departments to give up nearly 700 city-owned cars, a cherished perk for their workers.” (I think Barbaro added that last bit.) Hizzoner’s beancounters reckon the move will save the City $20m over two years. The Gray Lady says that an indeterminate number of the vehicles being shipped off to the worst resale market since the Paleolithic Era will be Toyota Priora. In fact, “The city estimates that most of the cars have a resale value of about $2,000 at auction.” Despite the aforementioned loss of bureaucratic efficiency and a depreciation hit that makes John Gotti look like social worker, the paper welcomes the move. Kinda. “It would help blunt criticism that City Hall practices a form of vehicular hypocrisy, telling ordinary New Yorkers to use mass transportation while at times clogging the streets with its own city-issued cars.” Amen. I think.
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Bravo, Nick2NY. Landcrusher, your statement is pretty sweeping in its generalizations. The commissioner in charge of the NYC streets, Department of Transportation, is a bicyclist whom I've ridden with. She's also a realist. The DOT knows that trucks and commercial vehicles are what keep the city going and have no interest in seeing the infrastructure deteriorate further just because of how they get to work.
Anybody else divide 10 million dollars pa by 700 cars? Ouch.
Yo, NY guys, Do what you want, it's your city. I made a sweeping generalization because I was talking about a large group of people. There will obviously be a few with positive attitudes and mission orientation. However, when you stated that it may make the subway's run better, you essentially made my point. The 10% dirtbag rule is the norm, 20% is bad, and 30% will kill you. What that means is that if 30% of the workers stop caring about the streets, you will see your streets deteriorate to a disgraceful level. I will be happy to be proven wrong. However, I am not a cynic without cause. TINSTAAFL applies to everything.
I wonder if hizzoner has thought about asking around at the used car lots? There's plenty of places to sell cars fast in NYC, surely they could get a better price than that. And not have to worry about title, tags, etc etc.