Y2K drill stumps City Hall elevators

LOS ANGELES, May 25  A one-hour elevator blackout at City Hall during a Y2K drill Tuesday is evidence that Los Angeles isnt ready to wrestle the millennium bug.

Mayor Richard Riordan, who visited the citys emergency response center underneath City Hall for the exercise, was delayed by the elevator breakdown, and jokingly acknowledged the glitch. If we cant take care of the elevators, what can we take care of in this city? Riordan said. He said that while elevators in the 18-story building have a history of malfunctioning, he is still confident that all the citys potentially big Y2K problems have been dealt with. If there are any problems, Riordan said, we have a great team of experts that will be able to take care of them within seconds. The all-day Y2K exercise was based on a hypothetical situation in which special generators would be activated to ensure uninterrupted 911 service and other essential public safety needs in the event of a power failure on Jan. 1, 2000. Frank Martinez, who heads the citys Year 2000 Project Office, said the city has spent $110 million preparing for the Y2K problem over the past two and a half years...

-- regular (zzz@z.z), May 26, 1999

Answers

What a perfect, one-paragraph summary of the whole polly attitude. The elevators took an hour to fix with everything else working fine; however, after the rollover, with multiple other problems looming, the elevators will be fixed within seconds. That's because they have a great team of experts, who will be hanging around city hall instead of either 1. celebrating new year's eve like normal people, or 2. getting the hell out of town.

As for "uninterrupted 911 service...in the event of a power failure" -- even assuming the phones are working, how will emergency vehicles navigate LA streets -- a mess even on a good day -- with no traffic signals, at night, on new year's eve... the mind boggles.

-- thanks (for@posting.that), May 26, 1999.

L.A.: Stuck in the Middle With You. . .

xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), May 26, 1999.

I was in Denver in 1955 (+/-) when the traffic signal control (whatever it was) failed big time. At the time Denver was cycling its signals a little differently:

Street A green, Street B red, pedestrians barred from any crossing;

Street A red, Street B green, pedestrians barred from any crossing;

Streets A and B both red, pedestrians free to cross every which way, either straight across or diagonally across the intersections.

When the lights went out it became a real zoo. This went on for quite a while.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), May 26, 1999.