How New York Prepared for Y2K

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19991031/tc/y2k_in_nyc_1.html

Quote:

"Forget the bottled water. Dump the cases of canned soup. Save the year's supply of batteries for Junior's Gameboy. When it comes to the Y2K computer glitch, New York's techno-types say the Big Apple bit first."

Sort of happy-faced, but also alot of good specifics. Weigh it for what its worth. NYC is the most important city in this country.

-- hamster (hamster@mycage.com), October 31, 1999

Answers

Patrick,

Welcome to the wonderful world of journalism! Isn't it amazing how they can pick out one sentence from an hour's conversation, because it seems like a pithy sound bite? Several of us have decided to stop talking to the press because of experiences very similar to yours...

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), October 31, 1999.

Great...

I talked to this reporter on the phone after the NYC "Community Conversation." She quotes me here, saying probably the one thing in that conversation that I would NOT want to be quoted saying. We talked for an hour, and I laid out my case, and she has this to say:

"Concern over the possibilities have driven some New Yorkers to ... do nothing unusual. While some Midwesterners are stocking up on ammunition and The Denver Post has published a Y2K recipe section advising how to make the most of canned beans, Manhattan stores haven't even ordered extra bottled water. And no one seems to care.

'New Yorkers are used to hiding things and ignoring things and turning away from things,' says Patrick Shannon, a city resident who spends 10 hours a day collecting news for a Y2K Web site.

'It does take a certain kind of blind spot to live in a city this big, with the diversity and adversity,' he said."

I'll never talk to another damned reporter as long as I live! I mean, the implication here is that I "don't seem to care"!! Sharon Crenson, you seemed like a nice person, but you are simply a propagansist like the rest...

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), October 31, 1999.

Our sympathies, Patrick. We have met some slimey reporters. No quest for truth, for real facts, for insight. No conscience, no compunction to present unbiased balanced reporting. Ironic that you, who are so caring, kind, practical, and diligent about gathering news, gets slimed by a reporter. Hold fast to the true ideals of integrity lost in a vanishing world -- all thoughts, acts, deeds, ripples are recorded forever, and there are Those Who Watch. All things will be meted Justice.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 31, 1999.

Wait a minute, guys. You mean to tell me that the "mainstream media" has to disect research and interviews in order to "spin" a story? This is news to me. Not that they do that, but, that the "mainstream media" actually has done any research or interviews regarding Y2K...

My tongue ramains firmly tucked in my cheek...

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@Y2KOK.ORG), October 31, 1999.

Thanks for the sympathies, guys. While I'm not the least bit surprised by it, (my father spent his career at the New York Times, so I've been around the press all my life, and I worked for a small San Francisco hippie quarterly) I've never actually seen it happen like that, and to me.

So, I wonder, is this the push of information that New York City was going to begin in October? (that's what the deputy mayor said they were going to do at the Community Conversation) Amazing, isn't it? "Forget the bottled water. Dump the cases of canned soup..." ROTFLMAO!!

-- (pshannon@inch.com), October 31, 1999.

same thing happened to me when I was in local govt. never again

-- (rcarver@inacom.com), October 31, 1999.

I don't know why you people are so worried....kenny decker says that we will have all the goods and services that we need. But they will just cost more...whatsamatter??? Don't you people have plenty of dough....can't you pay $10.00 for a loaf of bread??? Hope so. Price controls coming? Would that be a pimple on the face of the free market system??? (or worse?) Energy availability rationed? Oil to fork just a doomer's view? People in all the cities CANNOT grow their own food. Availability of energy is the underlying factor in determing whether(or not) the farmers of this nation can grow the food to feed our citizens(not just NYC). Just ask a person who really went through the Great Depression.... the lucky ones lived on the farms; at least they had the ground to grow some(most) of their food. People like Decker may be able to purchase their way into a still adequate lifestyle...but the majority will not.

-- catfish joe (catfish joe@bottomfeeder.net), October 31, 1999.

The same thing happened to me. The local Y2k reporter called me every few weeks for several months, asking if she could photograph me grinding grain, picking up wheat from the co-op, and some and of those other "survivalist" activities. I kept telling her that Y2K isn't about my reaction to it, and suggested that she interview the local medical center Y2K people, or the huge electric company representative on y2k. She never did. Finally, when our township had a seminar on Y2K preparedness, she caught me in a one-minute survey of various items on a table which could be used if needed--camping supplies, canned food, etc. The second I picked up a friend's grain mill, she took her picture, and I ended up on the second and fifth pages of the newspaper for an area of 250,000 people looking like a nutcase survivalist.

-- Ann M. (hismckids@aol.com), November 01, 1999.