This one goes up to 11
There are two guys out on Shepard street, about 20 feet from where I'm typing, cutting into the street with one of those huge asphalt cutting wheels. This is the first day of what will undoubtedly be a 15 - 20 year project to lay a piece of pipe under Carolina street.
The cutter is roughly as loud as a jet engine, and these fuckers started at 7:30 am.
Every time I see a street crew working in Los Angeles I'm reminded of a trip to Nova Scotia back in the early 90's. I was awoken early one morning by a crew resurfacing the two lane road outside the little cottage/inn where I was staying. I got up and looked out the window, saw the road work and thought, "Great, there goes my quiet and relaxing week," and went back to sleep.
Later that day I walked out of the cottage and the crew was nowhere to be seen. The road resurfacing was finished as far as I could see in either direction.
Why would the same job take a year in California? Are we just that much more thorough and quality-obsessed? Yeah, that must be it.
The cutter is roughly as loud as a jet engine, and these fuckers started at 7:30 am.
Every time I see a street crew working in Los Angeles I'm reminded of a trip to Nova Scotia back in the early 90's. I was awoken early one morning by a crew resurfacing the two lane road outside the little cottage/inn where I was staying. I got up and looked out the window, saw the road work and thought, "Great, there goes my quiet and relaxing week," and went back to sleep.
Later that day I walked out of the cottage and the crew was nowhere to be seen. The road resurfacing was finished as far as I could see in either direction.
Why would the same job take a year in California? Are we just that much more thorough and quality-obsessed? Yeah, that must be it.
27 Comments:
I saw that. It looks like you're into a mess. If you're looking for a laugh, take a look at the novel use of numbers on the dates of construction sign that's on Pacific.
A few months back I was in San Francisco, in the Mission, and I saw a road crew literally leaning on their shovels and doing nothing.
What do you want them to do, pretend that they're busy during the downtime?
If I had a job that involved a shovel, and I was aware that the public might misinterpret me leaning on said shovel as the literal symbol of taxpayer dollars at waste, I might consider how I present myself in public. I don't know if they were on downtime, or just being lazy, but I they sure as hell looked like the human embodiment of my tax dollars going into the incinerator, in the just off the center of a busy intersection, with hundreds of people looking at them.
What do you want them to do, pretend that they're busy during the downtime?
Yes. Humor me.
If I had a job that involved a shovel, and I was aware that the public might misinterpret me leaning on said shovel as the literal symbol of taxpayer dollars at waste, I might consider how I present myself in public.
So would I. But when you're working on a road crew, there's no break room to which you can retire while waiting for the asphalt to cool, or the pipes to be laid, or whatever the hell. I guess they could bring folding chairs with them, in order to avoid the iconic leaning-on-shovel pose...but then wouldn't the public (who, of course, never ever goldbrick on their jobs) just mutter something about those damned road crew guys who are so lazy that they actually bring CHAIRS to work?
I'm not trying to be a smartass here--not much, anyway-- but I just can't think of what these guys are supposed to do to make observers happy. Dance a jig? Tidy up their tools and then kick them around and tidy them up again?
Perhaps a large sign explaining some of the facts of non-office work, e.g.:
"ATTENTION MOTORIST - YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED THAT SOME OF US ARE NOT, AT THIS MOMENT, SHOWING ANY OUTWARD SIGNS OF ENGAGEMENT IN PHYSICAL TOIL. THIS IS BECAUSE WE OCCASIONALLY HAVE TO WAIT FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN BEFORE WE CAN START DIGGING, TAMPING, LAYING ASPHALT, OR MOVING THINGS AROUND; AND UNLIKE YOU, WE ARE UNABLE TO SPEND OUR DOWNTIME AT WORK POSTING CAT MACROS TO 4CHAN.ORG. THUS, THE SHOVELS. WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY CONFUSION THIS MAY CAUSE."
Bonus point: people would have to slow way down to read the sign, thus increasing repair-site safety and eliminating the need for those "Give Highway Workers A Brake" bumper stickers.
I was in New Zealand on vacation and witnessed the same thing. Road crews working quickly and effeciently. I was shocked!
I walked by the construction about 1:30pm. It was LOUD.. but they were working.
I'm not easily offended, but the 3 weeks prior to the "construction," the surveyors sure could waste a lot of days screaming obscene jokes to one another. They started early and ended early. Sometimes 5 guys were out there "surveying" and I only saw them working a few times in those weeks. I went outside and watched them quite a lot because I had to give them the evil eye more than once for carrying on and yelling 'fucken shit" every other word, as if we were in an episode of Deadwood. I was not able to make phone calls in my house because they were so loud. They were mostly just a bunch of assholes who could care less about how they appeared, or whether or not they were working, but I suppose most people these days don't care about doing a good job in just about every trade under the sun. I don't see much pride in a job well done anymore. I'm sounding like an old fogey now, aren't I? (Don't answer that, please.)
I don't see much pride in a job well done anymore.
I couldn't agree with you more.
Isn't it ironic that a bunchof artists "working at a taxpayer funded facility are complaining that their taxes are being wasted on people fixing streets and pipelines "beneath" them.
I've been up to Angel's Gate many times and I always see everybody rushing around and busy all the time. No foul language there, and the artists are always so friendly to the wandering public who happen to come in contact with them.
It's really nice to see the pot calling the kettle something....
I don't work at a taxpayer funded facility. Angels Gate is a private non-profit. Lots of people presume that we're publicly funded, or that we work for the city, but alas, we are not.
While we do work in partnership with the city on many projects, and we do lease our buildings from the city, we receive no direct funding from the City of Los Angeles. We do receive grants and other in-kind support from various civic agencies, including city departments, but in no way that is different from any other non-profit or individual.
Personally, I cuss like a sailor.
If the government is so keen on paying for weapons of mass destruction, then it is perfectly alright for the government to also pay their fair share for the arts. If I have to pay taxes, then I want some of my money going for contructive things instead of destructive things.
More people enjoy the arts than enjoy killing or being killed, IMHO. Funding for all of the arts keeps a little more sanity in our lives, whether anybody else thinks so, or not.
When you listen to your favorite music or watch your favorite movie you are enjoying the arts. When you take a picture, you are creating art.
Supporting the arts is good for everybody because only those in a deep coma cannot really enjoy the arts, that everyone else has the opportunity to enjoy.
MW
Yes, Anonymous, you are beneath me, and I am a lazy-ass artist that sits on my hands all day inside my tax-payer funded studio at Angels Gate calling all kinds of kettles black and being mean to as many people as I can, especially the ones that visit me in my studio. I mean, what shitkabobs! How dare they interrupt my work.
My latest very important art project is rolling around nude in tax payer money and wiping my unappreciative butt with it. I poop on any kind of money that comes my way because I have so much of it that frankly I'm just tired of smelling it.
And, I'll tell you one thing: I am no potty mouth, no sir-ree bob. Fuck that. I like to use intellectual adjectives instead. My big head holds a big brain and I really like to use it.
Being so spoiled and hypocritical (unlike you, I'm sure), I suppose I deserve hearing fart jokes right outside my windows all day for 3 weeks, right? We all have had to endure it at some point, but I see what you're saying in that I, specifically, am not entitled to complain about such things like noise since I work in the visual field and visual artists are taken care of by our government. Also, our kind-hearted society, and of course the nice guys who pave our roads. I actually prefer to call them "lovers of art" instead of "road guys" since they are always looking out for my well being in the world.
Actually, I've come to assume these road guys have gone deaf from all the loud machinery they use in their work and that is why they are yelling at their co-workers standing just a few feet away from them.
Wow, that last paragraph was without sarcasm of any kind! I genuinely do feel bad for those guys. If I'm irritated with the sound of a giant saw being forced into the asphalt for a few days, just think how they must feel after 20 years of it!
I'm just glad I don't pay taxes (I'm much too VIP for that) so I won't be worrying about my working dollars going towards their pensions when they get to retire after JUST 20 years of work. I'll be sure to spend those dollars on funding my fine cars and furs in my "retirement" since my art supplies and advertising is paid for by the City of LA and the State of California, Texas and Nevada, oh and the San Pedro Home Owners Association and the Rotary club. The Port pays for my Internet connection, thank God.
...I can go on forever here. Boredom and Ambein just does this to me sometimes. It seems funny at the time, but I will erase this in the morning. My apologies.
Isn't it ironic that a bunchof artists "working at a taxpayer funded facility are complaining that their taxes are being wasted on people fixing streets and pipelines "beneath" them.
You really ought to learn to read. Or is that how they get so many of you to vote Republican, by keeping you illiterate?
I made the post and I am not a papered Angel's Gate artist growing wealthy at the glorious, free flowing trough of public money that rains down on the Gate, making everyone who works there wealthy beyond belief.
I'm just an idiot who lives on the noisiest fucking street in Los Angeles, road crews or no road crews. So I complain about noise a lot. You would too. Or maybe you wouldn't. Having your head that far up your ass probably muffles a lot of noise.
And IMDB, CBGB, whoever the fuck you are (every one of you dime-a-dozen anonymous posters are cowards, lackeys and bootlickers, or some combination of all three), I complain about many people these days not doing their jobs very well - if they do them at all - because that is a true and actual fact. Prove me wrong.
If I said that I thought that Idi Amin was a bad guy you'd have some snarky comeback about how he was really misunderstood and pro-union, and somehow you would get a line or two in there demonstrating how superior you are - you educated savage, you - and you would giggle and giggle as you posted it.
We're so lucky, in this age of infotainment, to have all of you anonymous cocksuckers chiming in with your little anonymous ideas.
For what it's worth, MJ, I like your "irreverent, caustic social observer guy" Internet persona a lot better than your "peevish, all bent out of shape because somebody disagrees with him on a blog kind of dude" one.
And that's a true fact, because I said so. Prove me wrong! Prove a negative! Divide a number by zero! Do my laundry!
we are all so lame. all of us. spending our time typing on blogs. it's pretty silly when you think about it. why don't we all get a life?
How dare you!
"(every one of you dime-a-dozen anonymous posters are cowards, lackeys and bootlickers, or some combination of all three)"
"We're so lucky, in this age of infotainment, to have all of you anonymous cocksuckers chiming in with your little anonymous ideas."
Did I miss something? Is this sarcasm? Who is MJP? Sounds like an anonymous to me. Just because somebody said something you don't like, you attack all your readers?
BTW - I do agree with your post. Anonymous 3:44 is an idiot and deserves to be flogged.
Life is tragic. Everything you love in life will be taken away from you in the fullness of time. The people you love in life will die and make you sad, or you will die and make them sad. Ultimately, your life and everything in it will be forgotten.
And you actually want me to go out and GET one of these things?
I just love reading this.
you get off the point so fast.
the city of "bullshit" Los Angeles.
the city promise for over five years to get this fix.
thare starting 90 days from whan the job was to start on april 1.
you know the city hates spending money on san pedro.
but it loves all the money it makes from us. FUCK THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES!
>coolhand<
imbg - you totally remind me of this guy i once dumped. brilliant but a complete sociopath. imagine how dangerous you'd be if you could actually get people to like you.
keep submitting. your posts get me hotter than the latest issue of Passport magazine.
(*does Google search in order to pretend to know what Jackie is talking about*)
OK, I give up. Are you talking about the gay and lesbian one or the Russian one?
they have it in Russian too? oh, hunny!
Strawberry Pancakes!
I only made it to population 418, but I see the potential.
Cutting away for a second from strawberry pancakes, and gay magazines and going back to the original topic, I share MJPs sentiments about how our local road workers are lazy and inefficient, if not completely opportunistic and self-entitled. Go to just about any other state in the Northeast and you'll see crews that take pride in their work.
re strawberry pancakes: got to 415...does it go all the way to zero?
If I told you, I would be depriving you of the experience.
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