In Other News

Following on Paolo Timoni's letter in the New York Times yesterday, today's New York Daily News reported a pothole being filled four days, 1 hour and 35 minutes after someone from the News anonymously reported it to New York City's 311 service. Although they say that turnaround time is average, this fix happened to occur

during an all-out blitz by the city that saw some 5,746 other potholes filled with 255 tons of asphalt since Friday, officials said.

This pothole patching party is supposed to last until the middle of next month or until all the potholes are gone, whichever comes first. Since the former will most certainly come first, this is fantastic news to all New York scooterists.

Any New Yorker can dial 311 and report a pothole (or report other city-related problems, or choose from a whole menu of information choices such as alternate side parking rules). Not to bury the lead or anything but, in case you hadn't guessed, I have officially moved back to Brooklyn full time. I will miss San Francisco scootering but I have to say I love being back in the land of the greatest bagels and the crappiest coffee, reading the Daily News. I still like the New York Times sometimes, in spite of a number of reasons I won't go into here. I must confess the Sunday crossword has utterly supplanted my religious practise, and my favorite is the Science supplement every Tuesday, the day Paolo's letter arrived.