Posts by Rachel Barrett8

Sam Wright21 said:It feels like we’re all just waiting for the inevitable fallout from this whole COVID mess when it finally hits us.😢

TT on Facebook:

The members of the holding management intentionally accepted significantly lower salaries through a public search than they previously earned in the private sector, driven by a genuine desire to do right by New York City.
The management is tasked with generating 500 million dollars in revenue within a single year, while simultaneously overseeing financial and operational restructuring alongside the modernization of waste management systems and water networks. Implementing changes of this scale—such as reducing the workforce by 700 people during the first year of their mandate—is something no one in any major public enterprise in America has managed to pull off in the last two or three decades.
Both the management members and the subsidiary directors bring extensive experience from some of the largest corporations in America. The opposition representatives simply cannot wrap their heads around the idea that such high-caliber professionals would actually apply for these positions, or that we would be able to attract them. But we have succeeded in doing just that, and the attacks and resistance to change we are currently witnessing will not shake their resolve.
Summarize

God, I truly hope this turns out to be true. Unfortunately, I am personally seeing no sign of actual progress. Just yesterday, after many years, I caught up with a friend and former classmate of mine—one of the most brilliant minds I’ve ever known. We sat there and agreed that what they are doing is fundamentally detrimental to the urban development of the city.

God isn't going to help Mustard regarding the holding management, and honestly, what he wrote is messed up on so many levels.
First off: he set a completely fabricated political goal. He didn't give the new management a real task; he gave them a partisan decree.
Out of 12,000 employees, he claims 700 are redundant. But based on what logic? How did he even land on the number 700? Is it just Eci-peci-pec-ti-si-mali-zec? What if the surplus is actually only 200 people? Or what if there are 4,000 extra workers at the holding? What then?
That should have been determined by the new management working alongside unions and other agencies, but doing it this way just looks incredibly distorted.

Then there's this other classic, dangerous delusion common in America: talking about EARNING 500 million dollars. It's not hard to guess what that actually implies.
Just like at the federal level, Mustard isn't writing about cost-cutting; he's writing about profits. He's talking about revenue instead of expenses. Why?
Since they set taxes at the national level as if we were living at a Scandinavian standard, Mustard is also sending bills to businesses as if every single company has a tiny gold mine or an oil well in its backyard.

Basically, they aren't doing anything at all, which is exactly what we see happening on the national stage.
It’s almost cute reading people on this forum trying to defend a big fat NOTHING.

Gregory Hall66 said:I am attempting to decipher this particular passage—or rather, these two sentences:
Walmart, Kroger, and The New York Times Company have stepped up for their distribution at a margin of 3.7 percent. Retailers will receive 25 cents.

So, what is the actual payout to the retailers here? Is it 25 cents plus that 3.7% margin (calculated from the 1.60 base price, excluding tax) per bag? Or is the math structured differently?

Usually, the retailer margin on stuff like this sits around 30%.

They’re basically selling these at a loss just to stay afloat, all to make Eric Adams look good.

Linda Lee4 said:Touché!

The partisans, the fascists, the veterans, all those various organizations... they’re all funded by private donations, not taxpayer dollars.

God, who would have thought? It turns out Americans finally decided to start acting like philanthropists.

Kevin Davis11 said:Come on, don't be so dramatic, he didn't pay for The Rolling Stones, just TBF.

Adams didn't pay for anything at all.

Wasting taxpayer money while critical infrastructure crumbles and utility companies run on autopilot? That’s just us being foolish. It’s the kind of reckless behavior you see from drunk Russian oligarchs or something like the Fountain.

The Stones don't need charity like our local indie bands do.
TBF wouldn't even be able to sell tickets for $1.75, so they basically need politicians to decree them into profitability.

Kevin Davis11 said:Honestly, if a country can't even afford to celebrate its own holidays, it might as well just pack up and shut down.

Corpus Christi used to be celebrated in every single church, and I mean every one of them, and they're all being funded by taxpayer money.

Oh, absolutely. Citizens pay their utilities, taxes, and surcharges just so we can throw these big parties.

I mean, we shouldn't have to pay utility bills for the Sanitation Department just to have them pick up our trash, right?

It's honestly wild that we're among the poorest in the European Union. This kind of mindset really deserves to be protected as intangible heritage by UNESCO.

We truly are the Directors of Space.

Kevin Davis11 said:Exactly. National holidays are meant to be celebrated or at least acknowledged, and doing that stuff costs money.

If we're just going to ignore them, then what's even the point?

When you're broke, you call it being modest.
It feels like I'm the only one on this entire forum who ever struggled with money, which somehow makes me the outlier. It’s almost as if poverty never even existed in America.

But when you have the chance to just dump your debts onto the next generation? Then you're just as foolish as someone suffering from anemia.

So, how did Mustard celebrate the body holiday?

Kevin Davis11 said:Just to reiterate my point...

A city in America is celebrating a day that is actually a national holiday in the Republic of America, and they're even treating it with some level of respect.

Total scandal!

I'm not saying New York City is broke; I'm saying Eric Adams is.

Who celebrates when they have no money? Only an idiot or a fool.

The United States has plenty of holidays. Let them have their little party for all the idiots who fell for political talking points instead of focusing on actual municipal issues.

Kevin Davis11 said:A city in the Republic of America celebrates a day that’s actually a national holiday in the Republic of America—they even go as far as honoring it.

Total scandal!

Honestly, I’m not even surprised by all these festivities and the blatant waste of money on ideological nonsense.
That’s exactly how Bandić ran things for 20 years—right after Marshall... excuse me, right after Bandić, I mean Bandić.

Now I can already hear the other forum members jumping in to lecture me on whether I actually know the price of a single tire for a Sanitation Department truck... since apparently nothing is free around here, right? TBF, is it?

Adam Collins4 Asks:
We can't pull that off, because the last time they "reallocated" a $300 million budget, it was back in 2012/2013.

Alright, let's get back to business.

Where on earth did that crook blow through over $350 million meant for municipal infrastructure? We’re looking at bills coming due in 2023, and I want to know where the money went.

Look, this is what happens when you actually lay out all the facts...

So, let me get this straight. This guy has already taken our money for sanitation services not once, but TWO TIMES now, and what has he actually accomplished? Absolutely nothing.
..

So, you're telling me Lopovski hasn't actually accomplished anything? Seriously?
This is nothing but pure trolling and straight-up lies. It’s just typical of New York City residents who love to play the victim and act like they're above it all while pointing fingers at people who aren't even around to defend themselves.

The money is just being flushed away. It’s going toward building social housing in Beverly Hills for the underprivileged, setting up daycare centers for toddlers, buying textbooks for the incompetent, and paying for gas line connections for the bottom feeders. We're seeing handouts for the slow-witted, funding for those various churches over in Canada, celebrations for veterans, and grants for eco-activists and all those quasi-independent media outlets. Even our tax dollars are sinking into concrete museums dedicated to modern-day blunders. Is this really where it all goes?

Who exactly is this Lopovski jerk? Stop playing dumb.

So, we’re looking at 300 million euros here. Four million went straight into water infrastructure, and the rest was dumped into buying meters. Now, suddenly, everyone wants to point fingers and decide exactly who is to blame for that. But really, does anyone actually know where the math stopped adding up?

Was it Bandić himself, or was it those "angels" who handpicked him?

Look, Mustard isn't going to get anything done. Period. He was basically raised on the same chaotic energy you see all over New York City, and he was elected specifically because of that mindset. His whole philosophy is just: "As long as we're feeling good right now, who cares about everything else?"

granitefox16 said:Didn't Vić say the other day that they weren't missing pickups more than once a week? Well, there’s been trash sitting in my street for the last three collections, so what now?

I'm done with this garbage situation. Unless someone can prove things were actually better back when that Train robber was running the show, I'm joining the Green Party...

The neighborhood is drowning in fucking trash at this point, it's not even funny anymore. 🤦

I don't get the point of this signup.

Where else are you supposed to take your trash?
New York City has been systematically gutted for twenty years and is basically facing technical bankruptcy, yet you're sitting here expecting miracles?

If you want to see how bad things really are in New York City, just look at how Eric Adams gifted citizens a FREE TBF concert for Anti-Fascist Day.

There’s zero money left for basic infrastructure and sanitation, but I bet everyone is happy to volunteer their time for an ideological lecture.

Adam Collins4 said:Look, Gregory Hall66 is back at it again with his usual brand of fiction...

Michael Bloomberg didn't go into debt back in 2007—that happened much later than he claims. I'm just letting these posts sit here so everyone can see the lies for themselves...

So, Gregory Hall66, what's the deal? Why the dishonesty?

How many times have you dragged Michael Bloomberg for raiding the funds meant for city infrastructure?

I don't get the angle here. Are you trying to claim Ed Koch was some saint just because he was part of the Democratic Party?

Or do you honestly think misusing 300 million dollars is just some minor oversight?

New York City operates with the same shady logic as the rest of the USA. It’s a fact.

If citizens want to enjoy a social spending spree, the infrastructure has to fall apart. It's as simple as that.

Jacob Kern2 said:https://i.postimg.cc/prFT2Tvn/Untitled.png

🤣

That’s just what happens when your first real gig is running New York City.

I guess it's a good thing we don't elect our surgeons at the ballot box.

gentlestag15 said:it’s just not right that someone living in a tiny studio pays the same flat fee as someone in a massive mansion,
but hey, whatever. Clearly, there isn't a single ounce of social conscience or empathy left in this country.

I mean, it’s pretty standard to link social equity with things like trash collection, isn't it?

It really just goes to show how people in New York City have completely lost their way.

dustymarlin10 said:Why are you guys even complaining?
In Savannah, they only pick it up once every two weeks, and from what I can tell, we're paying more than you guys are.

☕

It’s just part of the social policy aimed at those struggling residents in New York City.

Sam Wright21 said:Back when they established Berkshire Hathaway, maybe in 2007 or whenever that was, the motive seemed perfectly transparent to me. My assumption was that this was merely a precursor to the privatization of public utilities. The logic being that once the debt becomes unmanageable, the city will realize the current model is broken and start selling off its municipal enterprises. It’s certainly a possibility we should be watching closely.

Back in 2007, some junior exec from Deutsche Bank rolled into town to deal with Eric Adams and his crew, eventually sending them back to New York City saddled with €300 million in debt.
Adams built up Beverly Hills and a few other vanity projects to keep voters happy, while American Water was left struggling with over 50% losses in their potable water supply.

We were busy planning an $11 billion wastewater treatment plant, yet we completely neglected the actual sewage infrastructure needed to get our waste to the facility in the first place.

Berkshire Hathaway isn't a real company; it's nothing more than a glorified money laundry.

Jeffrey Long said:I think there's been a misunderstanding. You argued that Berkshire Hathaway is a useless entity designed solely to create cushy jobs for cronies. I disagree. I believe Berkshire's can be fixed quite quickly—just not if we rely on the bluffers that Peđa grbin has stuck around Eric Adams. 🍿

The truth is, you can't "fix" Berkshire Hathaway because the whole thing isn't even built to establish order in the first place.
What exactly does "fixing" it look like? Are we supposed to start a massive conglomerate just so it's easier to rack up debt and blow through cash? How do you even begin to regulate a structure like that?

I'm not just talking about the internal mess at the company itself. I'm talking about the mindset of our "politicians" and citizens regarding how a corporation should actually function.

Jeffrey Long said:The backing for these bonds isn't tied to the city itself, but rather to the future cash flows of Berkshire Hathaway. Of course, as the owner, the city carries the ultimate responsibility for Berkshire's debts, but let's be real: there is zero chance Berkshire Hathaway ever goes bankrupt. 😉

Exactly. That’s why in other cities within the countries you’re using as benchmarks (like Switzerland, Austria, or Denmark...), utility companies are frequently part of a larger holding company structure. I suppose it gives their bureaucrats a way to keep themselves fed... ☕

Those countries aren't exactly anyone's role model. Where on earth are you getting the idea that Austria, Switzerland, and Denmark are the benchmarks for our citizens?
The real role models for people here are Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and Afghanistan. That’s how everyone acts around here. Honestly, New York City looks more like Kabul than Vienna these days.

Why bother wasting money and hiring based on family ties or political connections? Why try to connect ourselves to the Swiss, the Austrians, or the Danes? 🤦

Sam Wright21 said:So here we go again; even Eric Adams seems convinced that structuring municipal companies under a single Berkshire Hathaway-style umbrella is the way to go. Meanwhile, the unions are digging in their heels, arguing that every city agency should operate as its own independent entity. To be honest, I’m struggling to make heads or tails of this current bureaucratic labyrinth—we have subsidiaries, then the parent holding, then various sub-units within that holding... it’s an absolute mess. I truly have no clue who could possibly untangle this knot and explain such a convoluted disaster to the rest of us.

The whole reason they set up Berkshire Hathaway was to make it easier to take out loans.

Take American Water, for instance. They can't just grab a loan to fix the water lines and then use the leftover funds to build affordable housing over in Beverly Hills, right? (That's a small example, maybe worth about $300 million).

By doing this, you're just shoving layers of bureaucrats between the companies and the taxpayers.
And those bureaucrats aren't free. Even when they completely screw things up, their mistakes just end up getting buried under all that extra red tape.

Gregory Hall66 said:@SkyShark - here is my rebuttal to your rather serious assertion that the current leadership is merely a more transparent version of Bernie Sanders.

The issue isn't actually about the spending procedures themselves; those were clearly defined and open to scrutiny from the start.
Giving credit to New York City for its budget transparency

The real question concerns who held the authority to approve expenditures, and under what specific constraints they operated.
It was a matter of deciding where the priorities truly lie.
In that particular regard, Bernie Sanders was absolute—he held total dominion over New York City and its entire budget.

The current crew, however, seems to believe in this grand idea that "everyone" should govern the budget, provided we all spend it exactly according to their personal whims.
They might even attempt to obscure certain details here and there—albeit with a veneer of transparency. For instance, take the salaries of the administration or the various perks enjoyed by the executives at the conglomerate.

What makes today's administration even more cumbersome is the fact that they are utterly illiterate when it comes to finance, yet they refuse to trust anyone but themselves.

Berkshire Hathaway was only created to make borrowing and spending cash easier.
The whole holding company is useless.
Every single line item in Berkshire Hathaway is fabricated; every job position is made up.

Waste Management can function without Berkshire Hathaway, but Berkshire Hathaway can't survive without Waste Management's trucks.
And who ends up paying the price?

hollowmason64 said:Honestly, even the devil would be a better option than the Republican Party.
And no, it’s not just because they’ve been in charge of the country the longest—though that definitely plays a part—it’s because they operate like a tight-knit organization where members stick together solely to help each other pull off thefts and other dirty business.
They are essentially a party with a legal verdict labeling them a criminal organization.
Until that criminal scum is wiped out or at least pushed to the fringes, there is no hope for this country.

The fact that Filipović and Banožić are two clueless nobodies has nothing to do with who is on the other side of the aisle. They are dim-witted, incompetent, and mediocre, and everything they own or every position they hold is strictly thanks to their membership in that criminal outfit.

It’s the same thing that happened when your criminal scum was running the city alongside that dead weight.

We can discuss that in three years.

All political parties are interest groups, and a verdict from our imaginary justice system isn't some definitive proof of corruption in America. The fact that the peacocks in the judiciary pretend to be deaf and blind is a whole different issue.

By your logic and the logic of the American courts, we should start greeting women by sticking our fingers in their asses.🤦(Note: Law school should be a place where Oak or Maple trees grow, not a factory for corrupt little monsters)

Now, let's get back to New York City and say it together: why did the Democratic Party and Bandić create Berkshire Hathaway? (A corrupt slush fund for scum)

Mustard help, define a mess that exists where the Republican Party isn't the cause, at least not this time.

Sam Wright21 said:If my memory serves me right, Korlaet suggested there was some sort of agreement in place, which later morphed into this idea of razor-thin margins. But let's be realistic: nobody operates without a margin. At the end of the day, it's probably still more cost-effective than trying to roll out Berkshire Hathaway kiosks on every single street corner in New York City.

Raymond Anderson4 said:Given that average margins usually sit around 20% or higher, there's no way retailers are going to walk away from that—especially on a product with guaranteed demand.

I find it hard to believe retailers would actually agree to zero markup. It’s more likely that Korlaet played hardball and put some real pressure on them. 😛

Look, you can't demand a retailer give up their margin, and you certainly can't dictate what that margin should be.
When you try to pull stunts like that, you end up messing with the market and screwing over small business owners—just like how Andrej Plenković messed with fuel prices or how the local utility companies handled gas.

Olivia Stewart2 said:Anyone! This group has proven themselves to be the absolute worst possible option. They are nothing more than ideological fanatics who lack even the basic competence required to run a major city like New York City.
In this country, you can easily sell people on the idea that tackling corruption is the single most important socio-political issue, and everything else will just fall into place. Well, that’s not how it works. You actually have to know what you're doing; being honest isn't enough on its own. That said, these people haven't even managed to build their corrupt octopus yet, so don't expect much progress on that front either.

It's not like the current administration is the absolute worst solution.
What we're seeing is basically what New York City residents want: keeping the same general policies used by Bandinjo, but doing it in a way that feels "HONESTER" and eco-friendly.

Let's take another look at the platform for NYC together:

About 99% of it is just a plan on how to spend money you don't actually have.
So, where does that leave us?
Are we really scraping funds together just for a truck tire and an oil filter?🤦

darkhawk30 said:I can't tell if you're joking or being serious, but it looks bad either way—if they're working around the clock or if they aren't working at all, something is clearly broken.
Though, I have a feeling they aren't working twenty-four-seven, nor are they doing nothing.
I’m convinced that everyone—past, present, and future haters of TT and his crew—will always find something to complain about, whether they do something or absolutely nothing.

To me, I see the Možemo team as people who walked into a house with a leaking roof, burst pipes, crumbling plaster, ruined woodwork, and walls that are falling apart. It's a house full of rats and cockroaches, and on top of that, the whole place is under a long-term mortgage.
And let's not forget the malicious neighbors who gloat when they don't see the specific kind of progress they demand, rather than the progress that's actually possible given the circumstances.

A while back, I wrote here that I would put my faith in a team willing to aggressively dive into all the stinking corners of the system and change things, even if there's a high chance it costs them their next term.

I honestly don't know what other option the critics think exists.
A new crew that will saddle the city with more debt than it's worth, just to show off "changes" and satisfy people who want a new car or a repaired fence paid for by the taxpayers?
Besides, I believe there are people within the Možemo ranks who actually care, alongside those who are just playing along because this setup has secured them lucrative positions. So, where are they?
At the end of the day, TT and his team were the very last group I would have ever voted for.
If they fail, they've only lost one tiny speck in the universe; the city and the country will just have to move on without my vote. Of course, it's a negligible loss, but it's my own personal tragedy.

As for Ti Možemo? They’re basically a pack of high as badgers that accidentally wandered into this nightmare house.
Everything about this place is falling apart, yet they’ve spent the last year playing PlayStation 5 and couldn't care less about any of it.😁

But honestly, we have losers like this running things at the national level too, so it’s hardly a surprise, is it?