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UPSTATE CELL-OUT [New York State]
New York Post ^ | December 16 2007 | NY Post Editorial

Posted on 12/16/2007 12:35:44 PM PST by Mr_Moonlight

Nearly a year after a Brooklyn man froze to death on the Adirondack Northway because he couldn't get cellphone service, the Spitzer administration has yet to fix the life-threatening problem.

Temperatures were well below zero when 63-year-old Alfred Langner's car went off the road in a treacherous 47-mile cell-phone “dead zone" last January. Unable to call for help, he succumbed to hypothermia 13 hours later, while his injured wife waited some 20 hours more before a passing state trooper noticed the vehicle.

But with the mercury dropping again, the dead zone remains - and the Spitzer team's foot-dragging is largely to blame.

True, some progress has been made. Spitzer's folks claim credit for brokering an agreement with Verizon to cover the zone with 11 cell towers.

But the towers won't be up until the middle or end of next year - far too late to do any good this winter. Indeed, the first tower only won final approval on Friday.

Such towers, see, require thorough environmental oversight from the Adirondack Park Agency - basically to ensure they don't spoil the view. (Greenie-griping is a chief reason why service is so spotty up there in the first place.)

Meanwhile, a temporary fix that would provide partial coverage for the coming months has been creeping forward at turtle speed - despite a million-dollar state earmark secured for the project in April.

The holdup apparently has been an unholy cycle of bureaucratic inertia and corporate hesitation - the kind that effective executive leadership could break.

But Gov. Spitzer's office has essentially telegraphed its ambivalence about the project. After all, it argues, lots of Upstate highways have limited cell service. So what's the big deal if folks are left stranded and incommunicado on this one stretch?

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; US: New York
KEYWORDS: cellphone; deadzone; mobilephone; shiftyspitzer
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Dubbed "America's Most Scenic Highway" in 1967 by Parade Magazine, the Greenies and their hand-puppets in Albany want to keep the Adirondack Northway (I-87) that way, despite it being a major thoroughfare between the US and Canada. Why should they worry about a few (frozen) dead motorists when those dastardly cell-phone towers might ruin the scenery?

/sarc off

1 posted on 12/16/2007 12:35:46 PM PST by Mr_Moonlight
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To: Mr_Moonlight
Exactly. Who cares about a few freezing motorists? Keep the Throughway Green!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

2 posted on 12/16/2007 12:37:01 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Mr_Moonlight

The first new tower is being erected in North Hudson right now - fills in a whopping 10% of the “dead spot”


3 posted on 12/16/2007 12:38:50 PM PST by xcamel (FDT/2008)
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To: Mr_Moonlight

—so now everywhere in the country has to have cell phone service—????


4 posted on 12/16/2007 12:39:33 PM PST by rellimpank (--don't believe anything the MSM tells you about firearms or explosives--NRA Benefactor)
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To: Mr_Moonlight

I am ambivalent about the cellphone towers. Are we so helpless in the cell phone era that we can’t be expected to put emergency equipment in our cars when driving in rural areas the winter?


5 posted on 12/16/2007 12:40:09 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: Mr_Moonlight

New Yorkers pay the highest taxes of any state (by far) for the most incompetent government of any state.

And Spitzer may be the worst governor in the US. He certainly is the craziest.

And don’t get me started on our senators, Clinton and Schumer..... Excuse me while my head explodes.


6 posted on 12/16/2007 12:41:10 PM PST by FormerACLUmember (When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.)
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To: Mr_Moonlight
I’ve driven around on various major roads (including I-87) in Westchester County and have noticed at least a couple of cell towers that look like trees.Why can’t they use these in the areas in question.
7 posted on 12/16/2007 12:41:36 PM PST by Gay State Conservative (Wanna see how bad it can get? Elect Hillary and find out.)
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To: Mr_Moonlight

I never leave home during the winter without adequate clothing to survive for extened periods without an external heat source no matter how far I’m driving. You can’t plan how far from help you’re going to be if you have an accident.

I don’t even have a cell phone.

Too bad the gentleman succumbed to hypothermia but sometimes you need to take responsibility for your own safety and not depend on the gubbmint. Especially when the gubbmint is run by socialists.


8 posted on 12/16/2007 12:45:14 PM PST by 43north (I hope we are around long enough to become a layer in the rocks of the future.)
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To: Gay State Conservative

Well, because it would be offensive to the real trees, of course!


9 posted on 12/16/2007 12:46:22 PM PST by Emmett McCarthy
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To: Vince Ferrer

I am also ambivalent about them. I’ve heard people argue for putting them in park recreational areas as well. Once we start going down that path, there’s no end to it.

Why not just move everyone to satellite based communications? Then there wouldn’t have to be any “dead zones”.


10 posted on 12/16/2007 12:48:12 PM PST by speekinout
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To: Vince Ferrer
With the technology we have today, I see no reason why a tower couldn't be manufactured that resembles and blends into the area it is erected .... a tall, dead pine with an eagle's nest in it, f'rinstance.

Just as we must accept the global economy, we also should accept the number of cell phones and users in any part of the country.

Especially any place that is so remote (like the one mentioned) that a passing motorist would not see that there had been an accident and someone's life might be in danger.


I mean ... look at the friggin' artificial Christmas trees that are on display in any store that sells them.

11 posted on 12/16/2007 12:48:22 PM PST by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true.)
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To: Vince Ferrer; rellimpank
Are we so helpless in the cell phone era that we can’t be expected to put emergency equipment in our cars when driving in rural areas the winter?

This stretch of roadway is a major commercial and motorist thoroughfare between the US (New York State) and Canada (Quebec). it is located within a snowbelt. If one swerves off the roadway and into a deep ditch during a snowstorm, and nobody can see it, having cell-phone access can be the difference between life and death, as it was in this case.

12 posted on 12/16/2007 12:48:29 PM PST by Mr_Moonlight
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To: Mr_Moonlight

If the ditch is deep enough there won’t BE cell phone service no matter where you are.


13 posted on 12/16/2007 12:50:08 PM PST by 43north (I hope we are around long enough to become a layer in the rocks of the future.)
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To: 43north
If the ditch is deep enough there won’t BE cell phone service no matter where you are. The 'ditch' in question would be the immediate area right off the side of the road, which *would* still have cell service.
14 posted on 12/16/2007 12:51:52 PM PST by Mr_Moonlight
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To: knarf
With the technology we have today, I see no reason why a tower couldn't be manufactured that resembles and blends into the area it is erected .... a tall, dead pine with an eagle's nest in it, f'rinstance.

They do exist.

We have had them here in Colorado for over ten years.

The tourists never see them.


15 posted on 12/16/2007 12:54:38 PM PST by Uri’el-2012 (you shall know that I, YHvH, your Savior, and your Redeemer, am the Elohim of Ya'aqob. Isaiah 60:16)
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To: rellimpank

LOL.....I don’t know how the West was ever populated....what with those covered wagons without cell service!!!!


16 posted on 12/16/2007 12:56:27 PM PST by goodnesswins (Being Challenged Builds Character! Being Coddled Destroys Character!)
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To: Mr_Moonlight
But Gov. Spitzer's office has essentially telegraphed its ambivalence about the project. After all, it argues, lots of Upstate highways have limited cell service.

If this is true then I have to go with Da Spit on this one. Perfect World is just not ours to hold.

17 posted on 12/16/2007 12:59:39 PM PST by decimon
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To: Mr_Moonlight
basically to ensure they don't spoil the view. (Greenie-griping is a chief reason why service is so spotty up there in the first place.)

Around here, they disguise 'em as palm trees...


18 posted on 12/16/2007 12:59:48 PM PST by ErnBatavia (...forward this to your 10 very best friends....)
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To: Mr_Moonlight

As best I can recalll, the Donner Party had no cell phones and they made do way back before Global Warming. They even got a pass named for them


19 posted on 12/16/2007 1:00:24 PM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Moveon is not us...... Moveon is the enemy)
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To: Mr_Moonlight

Oh the Humanity! No cell phone towers! I have none where I live, we deal with it by being prepared.....blankets, full tank of gas, several coats and a pair of overalls.....
Spare me.


20 posted on 12/16/2007 1:02:30 PM PST by ScreamingFist (Annihilation - The result of underestimating your enemies. NRA)
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