Efficiency
I have commented on the fact the sidewalks here in Seoul, or my part of Seoul, have been torn up and rebuilt in a day or two.
How many of you have seen the Kansas City employees work on a street?
At least those of you who live in KC. Otherwise, Insert City Name Here.
Street graters.
We all love them.
They spit dust into the air, tie up traffic to who knows where, make it fun looking for manhole covers (Gawd, I hope my car clears that one), make crossing streets that HAVEN'T been grated a chore, and basically throw your car back and forth across the lanes of traffic.
Gregory BLVD., between Wornall and Ward Parkway comes to mind, but it applies to nearly every other road in the KC area.
I witnessed something in front of my school that amazed me.
FREAKIN' amazed me!!!!
Imagine, if you will, a street in NO need of being repaired and the amount of men and time put into grating it, cleaning it, laying down a coat of oil, laying down asphalt, and then painting the stripes on to the street.
How long?
Three weeks?
A month?
ALL summer?
Yep, IF you live in KC (or Insert City name Here).
Not the case here.
TWO DAYS.
C-O-M-P-L-E-T-E-D.
Two days.
First, they grated it. It looked fine to me, but what do I know, I only look at it everyday.
Second, they swept it. With the cool looking spinner thingy with the steel brush, which blows dust into the air. And a couple of guys, with BROOMS, picking up the slack the spinner thingy with the steel brush missed.
Third, the oil truck. Blowing oil only where it supposed to be, not on the curb, sidewalk, little Devan or Kaitlyn's dress, or anything else that happens to be in the way.
Fourth, the asphalt truck. Doing what it does best. I like the smell of asphalt, it reminds me of the 130 degree days at Worlds of Fun.
Fifth, the steamroller. What was the last few lines of James Taylor's 'Steamroller Blues'?
Sixth, the dudes with the brooms, again.
Done.
DAY ONE.
The next day, lines go down and this little corner of Seoul is back up and running.
Keep in mind.
I arrive at school at 2:30 every day.
MOST of the work was already done and my fellow teachers stood on the roof and watched this happen, running up between classes to see the progress.
We were more interested in the street than our classes that day!!!
Which can be the case. I can only take hearing "Axton Teacher, Axton Teacher!!!!!" sooo much.
No dudes standing around, watching.
EVERYBODY was doing something.
EVERYBODY.
There weren't six guys leaning on shovels, smoking, talking on their cells, cat-calling every female and some males who walked by.
Not one guy standing there with a STOP sign, spinning it to SLOW.
No pick-up truck sitting there with 3 supervisors in it, laughing and yucking it up.
ARE YOU GETTING THIS MUNICIPALITY EMPLOYEES?????
Or at least someone who can do something about that.
No water department, standing there wondering, "HMMMM, is there or isn't there a water line? I guess, I dunno, so I'll stand here and look important."
No KCP&L guy standing there thinking, "HMMMM, is there something else I could be doing, rather than standing in the way of traffic and collecting double-time?"
No MGE guy leaning against a post pondering, "HMMMM, GEEZ, I hope I turned off the correct line."
THEY WORK, PEOPLE.
THEY ACTUALLY WORK.
I know, I know, I was just as shocked as you are, while you sit there with your feet on the desk, large diet coke with extra ice within reach, eating your bagel with peanut butter.
And, to top this Peanut Buster Parfait off, they don't wear city uniforms.
You read that right.
They wear their own clothes and they look pretty nice while doing so.
A stretch of road, 1/4 of a kilometer, maybe 1/3, I may have hit the wrong button on my calculator, DONE, in two days.
Actually, LESS than two days.
Again, ARE YOU GETTING THIS MUNICIPALITY EMPLOYEES?????
Or at least someone who can do something about that.
We applauded them, but they were too busy working to notice.
I find it amazing this was done.
I live (when I am not in Korea) in a city which uses steel plates as a part of street maintenance and I am used to them, but I have not seen ONE in a city of 10-15 million.
NOT ONE.
There may be a few faults in the city, mostly because I am not from here, but their efficiency in their street work could be studied.
Again, ARE YOU GETTING THIS MUNICIPALITY EMPLOYEES?????
Or at least someone who can do something about that.
I have commented on the fact the sidewalks here in Seoul, or my part of Seoul, have been torn up and rebuilt in a day or two.
How many of you have seen the Kansas City employees work on a street?
At least those of you who live in KC. Otherwise, Insert City Name Here.
Street graters.
We all love them.
They spit dust into the air, tie up traffic to who knows where, make it fun looking for manhole covers (Gawd, I hope my car clears that one), make crossing streets that HAVEN'T been grated a chore, and basically throw your car back and forth across the lanes of traffic.
Gregory BLVD., between Wornall and Ward Parkway comes to mind, but it applies to nearly every other road in the KC area.
I witnessed something in front of my school that amazed me.
FREAKIN' amazed me!!!!
Imagine, if you will, a street in NO need of being repaired and the amount of men and time put into grating it, cleaning it, laying down a coat of oil, laying down asphalt, and then painting the stripes on to the street.
How long?
Three weeks?
A month?
ALL summer?
Yep, IF you live in KC (or Insert City name Here).
Not the case here.
TWO DAYS.
C-O-M-P-L-E-T-E-D.
Two days.
First, they grated it. It looked fine to me, but what do I know, I only look at it everyday.
Second, they swept it. With the cool looking spinner thingy with the steel brush, which blows dust into the air. And a couple of guys, with BROOMS, picking up the slack the spinner thingy with the steel brush missed.
Third, the oil truck. Blowing oil only where it supposed to be, not on the curb, sidewalk, little Devan or Kaitlyn's dress, or anything else that happens to be in the way.
Fourth, the asphalt truck. Doing what it does best. I like the smell of asphalt, it reminds me of the 130 degree days at Worlds of Fun.
Fifth, the steamroller. What was the last few lines of James Taylor's 'Steamroller Blues'?
Sixth, the dudes with the brooms, again.
Done.
DAY ONE.
The next day, lines go down and this little corner of Seoul is back up and running.
Keep in mind.
I arrive at school at 2:30 every day.
MOST of the work was already done and my fellow teachers stood on the roof and watched this happen, running up between classes to see the progress.
We were more interested in the street than our classes that day!!!
Which can be the case. I can only take hearing "Axton Teacher, Axton Teacher!!!!!" sooo much.
No dudes standing around, watching.
EVERYBODY was doing something.
EVERYBODY.
There weren't six guys leaning on shovels, smoking, talking on their cells, cat-calling every female and some males who walked by.
Not one guy standing there with a STOP sign, spinning it to SLOW.
No pick-up truck sitting there with 3 supervisors in it, laughing and yucking it up.
ARE YOU GETTING THIS MUNICIPALITY EMPLOYEES?????
Or at least someone who can do something about that.
No water department, standing there wondering, "HMMMM, is there or isn't there a water line? I guess, I dunno, so I'll stand here and look important."
No KCP&L guy standing there thinking, "HMMMM, is there something else I could be doing, rather than standing in the way of traffic and collecting double-time?"
No MGE guy leaning against a post pondering, "HMMMM, GEEZ, I hope I turned off the correct line."
THEY WORK, PEOPLE.
THEY ACTUALLY WORK.
I know, I know, I was just as shocked as you are, while you sit there with your feet on the desk, large diet coke with extra ice within reach, eating your bagel with peanut butter.
And, to top this Peanut Buster Parfait off, they don't wear city uniforms.
You read that right.
They wear their own clothes and they look pretty nice while doing so.
A stretch of road, 1/4 of a kilometer, maybe 1/3, I may have hit the wrong button on my calculator, DONE, in two days.
Actually, LESS than two days.
Again, ARE YOU GETTING THIS MUNICIPALITY EMPLOYEES?????
Or at least someone who can do something about that.
We applauded them, but they were too busy working to notice.
I find it amazing this was done.
I live (when I am not in Korea) in a city which uses steel plates as a part of street maintenance and I am used to them, but I have not seen ONE in a city of 10-15 million.
NOT ONE.
There may be a few faults in the city, mostly because I am not from here, but their efficiency in their street work could be studied.
Again, ARE YOU GETTING THIS MUNICIPALITY EMPLOYEES?????
Or at least someone who can do something about that.
Labels: Seoul Musings
posted by Axton & friends | 2/23/2007 11:18:00 PM
1 Comments:
I think I'm envious. Do you think these people could come over here and replace the water lines along Wornall Road in Kansas City? You know which ones I mean - the ones that they repair only to have to fix again 2 feet farther up the line 2 weeks later. Or the ones that leak all year round and they NEVER get to, even when it leaves a whole lane of traffic absolutely covered in ice? Drool, drool, drool!
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