Con Ed Ripped At Board 1
BY RICHARD GENTILVISO

Assemblymember Michael Gianaris and City Councilmember Peter Vallone, Jr. roundly condemned Con Ed's report in which the utility investigated itself.

"Con Ed said they did everything right," said Gianaris. "If they did everything right and 100,000 people were without power, I hate to think of what would happen if they did something wrong."

"It was a joke," Vallone, Jr. said "they blamed everything but themselves."

Gianaris and Vallone spoke at the October meeting of Community Board 1 in Astoria.

The 600-page report, released on October 12, pointed to an underground fire, failing equipment and high electric usage because of very hot weather as reasons for the loss of power. Con Ed would not attribute the outage to a lack of maintenance or upkeep of infrastructure.

"Why did the fires happen? Why did the substation fail?" Gianaris said. "They did not put the money into the infrastructure."

According to the Con Ed report, as reported in the October 13 New York Times, the blackout began on July 17 after an "unprecedented set of circumstances" overburdened the Long Island City network serving about 115,000 customers. A customer can be a household or a business and is considered to be equal to about four people.

Con Ed also did not directly address criticism that it failed to accurately state the number of people affected by the blackout. It wasn't until the fourth day of the crisis that Con Ed acknowledged the number of people without power was around 100,000 and not 6,400 as it had said earlier.

"They lied to us," Gianaris said. "No neighborhood should have to go through what we went through."

Gianaris said he would introduce legislation calling for more accountability and penalties when the Assembly next convenes in January. "Businesses are still closed," he said.

The City Council has also held hearings on the matter. "We're going to keep fighting," said Vallone.

Board 1 Chairman Vinicio Donato said the Public Service Commission, which is also conducting an investigation into the Con Ed July power failure, is holding educational forums and public statement hearings as follows:

On Wednesday, October 25 from 1 to 2 p.m. (educational forum) and 2 to 3 p.m. (public statement) and again from 7 to 8 p.m. (educational forum) and 8 to 9 p.m. (public statement) at The Hellenic Center, 22-51 29th Street in Astoria.

On Thursday, November 2, from 1 to 2 p.m. (educational forum) and 2 to 3 p.m. (public statement) and again from 7 to 8 p.m. (educational forum) and 8 to 9 p.m. (public statement) at P.S. 11, 54-25 Skillman Ave. Woodside.

Gianaris and Vallone also spoke on their continuing efforts to regulate the placement of cellphone towers.

"We have the weakest regulation for cellphone towers but we're going to change that," said Vallone Jr. "They continue to go up," Gianaris agreed.

Noting that a permit is needed to put café tables out on the street, Gianaris said, "All we want is to have a voice in the [cellphone tower siting] process."

The city avoids a permit process for cellphone towers because of a decision by the Department of Buildings that does not classify them as "communications equipment".

"It's like saying an apple is not a fruit," said Vallone who has appealed that decision.

Vallone also announced that he has asked the Department of City Planning (DCP) to do a rezoning study in Astoria. he said DCP has approved his request.

"I ask for your assistance," Vallone said to the community board members. "Let us know what you think, what areas should be rezoned and howup down-sideways. There are people who want to develop every two-family home into six-family homes and there are people who want no development. It's a very controversial issue."