First outage, then outrage in Queens, N.Y.

Large sections of the Astoria, Sunnyside, Woodside and Long Island City communities in the Queens borough of New York City have had low or no power since July 17. During a week of both stifling heat and torrential rains, some 100,000 people were affected. Like the response in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, people were left to fend for themselves for several days.

Utility workers laying new cable on Steinway Street, a normally crowded shopping hub. WW photo: Mary Owen

Queens is a predominantly working class area with a large immigrant population. Many believe that it was initially ignored because of its demographics and class background—unlike the immediate response to ritzy Manhattan areas when there is an outage.

It took four days before officials would even recognize this major outage in Queens. Residents angrily and repeatedly called the media and government offices to demand they pay attention.

Local elected officials finally called a news conference, backing residents’ demand that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg come to the area. On July 20, billionaire Bloomberg deigned to respond, likening his presence there to a “photo op.” (New York Sun, July 21) Later that same day he conceded to public outrage and held a hast ily organized news conference in Astoria.

The city’s electric company, Con Edison, had attempted to minimize the scope of the crisis by announcing that 2,500 customers were affected—a number it based only on the number of complaint calls received. Later it upped that number to 26,000. However, the term “customer” refers to electrical feeds, not actual people served—so that an apartment building containing hundreds of people is considered only one customer.

In a radio address, Bloomberg said he was “annoyed” by Con Edison’s initial estimate, adding, “We might have thrown more resources into the area.” People in Queens are saying that there is no excuse, calling the outage and the lack of response a major failure of both the utility company and the government.

Worker solidarity

Solidarity with the community has been expressed by the predominantly Black and Latin@ Con Edison workers on the ground—including workers who come from many other cities in the eastern U.S. They have been working 12-hour-plus shifts, eating and sleeping in their trucks and then going back underground to work in dangerous conditions. Workers World spoke to many, and they all expressed sympathy for the community. Some blamed Con Edison for the outage, saying it should never have happened.

One worker remembered a similar outage that affected some 70,000 people in the largely Domin ican community of Wash ington Heights, in upper Man hattan. He said Con Edison knew the electrical feed was bad and didn’t act on it. An investigation by the Public Service Com mission found that “managers had been told to reduce the operation and maintenance budget in each of the four years leading up to the [outage].” (ABC7 News)

Community supports itself

Forced to survive a crisis without government assistance, people in apartment buildings organized themselves to support each other, checking each apartment to assess needs and conditions.

Residents also organized to fight back. On July 22, affected community, labor, peace and immigrant rights activists held an emergency meeting, launching a campaign called Power for the People.

Their demands include: compensation for losses, expenses and lost wages over and above the paltry $350 being offered to individuals by Con Edison; free power for the length of time the outage lasts, and no charge for low power; a people’s fact-finding investigation into the outage, its causes, impact on the communities and plans to prevent future outages; a first alert as soon as power problems occur; and a community review board of Con Edison’s emergency response.

The group has started a community peti tion drive. For more information, visit powerforthepeople.info or e-mail [email protected]. To volun teer help with petitioning, call 718-512-5442.

Other major cities are having similar problems. In Cave Creek, Ariz., water service was disrupted for 2,300 people during a July 21 outage because the water company did not have a backup generator. A power failure in St. Louis on July 19 affected more than half a million households and businesses, resulting in the evacuation of many from their homes.

These outages raise the issue of how social needs are handled under capitalism—where services like health care and power are considered a commodity and not a necessity and a right. What many in Queens have learned is that nothing would have happened if the people didn’t speak out—and that their ongoing demands for justice will be won in the same fashion.

Mary Owen is a resident of Sunnyside, Queens. This article was co-written because the outage left her without access to a working computer.