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Posted By: Jackie tenderloin - 09/06/05 06:20 PM
[After a district in New York City known for vice, crime, corruption, extortion, graft, etc. It received its nickname from the choicest part of the meat, alluding to the luxurious diet of corrupt police members getting an easy income from bribes.]

I certainly hadn't known this. I have to say, I think police or any official corruption, is terrible. People just shouldn't act like that. (Sorry, Helen--another reason for me to not want to ever visit New York City: for all I know, the nearest cop will have been bribed to look the other way while somebody mugs or murders me...)

Speaking of curmudgeonly opinions: I also have to say that, while I am terribly sorry that so many people from our Gulf Coast have no place to live, I hope that Louisville doesn't get the criminal types who, for ex., shot at the rescue choppers--we have quite enough criminals here already, tyvm.

We are doing a lot for them, though, whoever they all are. Even though we're 700 miles from New Orleans, we have several hundred victims who have been brought here, and donations have poured in. One lady who was interviewed on TV last night made me smile, though her situation was far from amusing. She said she'd been told it gets cold here in the winters (after being asked if she were considering relocating to here), and she said, "Cold...that means you have to put on a light jacket, right?" She'd been quite shocked to learn that we can have actual snow on the ground.


Posted By: of troy Re: tenderloin - 09/06/05 06:42 PM
NYC's history is RICH with stories of graft and coruption.. but most (not all but most) of it is a thing of the past.

NYC is one of the safest cities (crime wise). You are far more likely to murdered (by a stranger) in almost any other city in US. NYC has an incredible low murder rate. (now, pick pocketed? as you are gawking at a skyscraper?unfortunatley that is a possiblity.)

Unfortunately,tto, in the past 4 years, poverty levels have been increasing (i know, bordering on a political message here) but, all in all we are city blessed with a low level of natural disasters.
yes, we get hurricanes, (and Anges, back in 1970, was no fun for NYC--and less fun, much less fun, for upstate NY and parts of Penns.--but generally by the time a hurricane reaches NYC, its pretty mild.
we get blizzards too, but again, most are more of a pain in the neck than disasters.

same goes for our earthquakes.

thunderstorms have been known to spin off a tornado or two, but only small ones (bad, enough!)

Even the WTC and its destruction didn't shut down the city. (90% of subways were working by rush hour of 9/11! i, eventually, took one home!)--MOST people in MIDTOWN didn't even leave work on september 11th.

and while a large (a surprizing large!) percentage of Manhatanites don't have cars (mid-class and poor alike) we have lots of mass transit.. buses, subways, light rail..and most of the bridges (remember, manhattan is an island) have pedestrian paths.

More over, NYC is used to dealing with crouds.. (the daytime population of NYC is 15million..(almost double the resident population of 8 million)--so our cops are very good at the logistics of crowd management.

With the UN headquartered here, we are also used to dealing with VIP's and political threats and attempts at terrorism.


Posted By: Jackie Re: tenderloin - 09/13/05 03:02 AM
Just saw this in the AWADmail:
From: Hugh Rawson and Margaret Miner (hugh.rawsonATsnet.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--tenderloin

Some details on "tenderloin:: The New York City policeman who gave the midtown Manhattan district (the 29th precinct) its nickname was Alexander S. "Clubber" Williams (1839-1917). Previously a patrolman in Hell's Kitchen on the West Side, then a captain in the Gas House district on the East Side, Williams is said to have remarked to a friend upon learning of his transfer to midtown, where the opportunities for graft were much richer, "I've had nothing but chuck steak for a long time, and now I'm going to get a little bit of tenderloin." Williams rose to inspector and resigned (under fire) a wealthy man, with a yacht and estate in Connecticut, despite his relatively meager salary over the years. He earned his own nickname, "Clubber", through his usual method of enforcing the law, as indicated by another statement attributed to him: "There is more law at the end of a policeman's nightstick than in a decision of the Supreme Court." See Herbert Asbury's The Gangs of New York and our own Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations, scheduled for publication toward the end of this year.


Posted By: inselpeter Re: tenderloin - 09/13/05 04:42 AM
Hmm, and I thought the Tenderloin district *was Hell's Kitchen. At any rate, it seems the 29th precinct is no more:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/phone.html

Posted By: Vernon Compton Re: tenderloin - 09/13/05 07:38 AM
In reply to:

I have to say, I think police or any official corruption, is terrible. People just shouldn't act like that.


[mini-brag]Table 1: TI 2004 Corruption Perceptions Index

This table was compiled at the University of Passau on behalf of Transparency International. For information on data and methodology, please consult the frequently asked questions and the framework document.
TI 2004 Corruption Perceptions Index

Country Rank

Country

1 Finland 9.7/10

2 New Zealand 9.6/10 [/mini-brag]

http://www.transparency.org/in_focus_archive/AnnualReport04/annual_report04.htm

Posted By: maverick Re: tenderloin - 09/14/05 02:29 PM
> Corruption Perceptions Index

lemme see, that means the public are less perceptive in those states...? ;)

Posted By: Vernon Compton Re: tenderloin - 09/14/05 07:14 PM
>that means the public are less perceptive in those states...? ;)

Of course. Here, for example, it simply means they've had the wool pulled over their eyes.

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