In the 80s, the local FD used to attach some weird pipe/sprinkler system to the fire hydrants around my hood to prevent people from doing it themselves. It was pretty awesome, we'd be playing in that all day.
New Yorkers Have Been Illicitly Cracking Open Fire Hydrants For Centuries
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Re: New Yorkers Have Been Illicitly Cracking Open Fire Hydrants For Centuries
#22>For Centuries Forgive me, pure pet peeve: it's a tiny bit more than one century - the 1st reported issue is from 1906. Anyway, it's great to see an example of looking for a solution instead of penalizing people.
From the article: The earliest “hydrants” in New York City (dating back to the early 1700s but lasting until the late 1800s) were simply buckets of water scattered around the five boroughs, left locked by the fire department so as to keep out thieves and vandals.
But there are no reports of New York residents illicitly cracking those buckets open for fun, as claimed in the headline.
Re: New Yorkers Have Been Illicitly Cracking Open Fire Hydrants For Centuries
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the article: The earliest “hydrants” in New York City (dating back to the early 1700s but lasting until the late 1800s) were simply buckets of water scattered around the five boroughs, left locked by the fire department so as to keep out thieves and vandals.
But there are no reports of New York residents illicitly cracking those buckets open for fun, as claimed in the headline.
> left locked by the fire department so as to keep out thieves and vandals
Re: New Yorkers Have Been Illicitly Cracking Open Fire Hydrants For Centuries
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
From a native Californian perspective, it just looks insanely wasteful of water. These are fed from some non-potable source, at least? ...Read TFA, nope. OK then. It is insanely wasteful of water.
> OK then. It is insanely wasteful of water. It's only a "waste" if the water is scarce. People rarely talk about wasting air (except to call someone dumb) because the air is virtually unlimited. For example in the UK it's damn near impossible to waste water because it rains so consistently. Water isn't scarce. You can't really waste it, because there's always plenty more. Even if you could pipe the water from NYC al…
> So the only way this is "waste" is if it's depleting the aquifer faster than it replenishes. That's possible of course. But unlikely, because NYC has been huge for hundreds of years now. If they're depleting aquifers it's only very slowly.
This is exactly the case. NY/NJ are depleting the groundwater faster than it comes back, but not at a great rate and it is nowhere near a problem yet.
Re: New Yorkers Have Been Illicitly Cracking Open Fire Hydrants For Centuries
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
From a native Californian perspective, it just looks insanely wasteful of water. These are fed from some non-potable source, at least? ...Read TFA, nope. OK then. It is insanely wasteful of water.
NYC has plenty of water, brought in via aquaducts from upstate. They had the sense to build the city not in a desert.
> They had the sense to build the city not in a desert
The hubris of the people who built up the southwest United States in particular astounds me.
Re: New Yorkers Have Been Illicitly Cracking Open Fire Hydrants For Centuries
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
But there are no reports of New York residents illicitly cracking those buckets open for fun, as claimed in the headline.
> left locked by the fire department so as to keep out thieves and vandals
Some drunkard using a barrel as a toilet is hardly the same phenomenon as kids cracking open a hydrant to spray themselves.
Re: New Yorkers Have Been Illicitly Cracking Open Fire Hydrants For Centuries
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in New York, I've seen kids on our block, and their parents, playing with one of those - including a shower-head attachment! - pretty much every day this week. It looks great - it's hot and humid as hell right now, a lot of families don't have an air conditioner, and there's not exactly a lot of public pools around (and forget water parks, or swimming in the rivers.) This seems like a pretty good way of making…
From a native Californian perspective, it just looks insanely wasteful of water. These are fed from some non-potable source, at least? ...Read TFA, nope. OK then. It is insanely wasteful of water.
Somebody really needs to add aquifers and watersheds to the California public school curriculum. The amount of Californians that don't seem to understand these basic concepts is honestly staggering.
I've had Californians accuse me of contributing to their drought by leaving the sink running while washing my dishes in Seattle. Seriously California, not everyone has to share your misery.
Re: New Yorkers Have Been Illicitly Cracking Open Fire Hydrants For Centuries
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
NYC has plenty of water, brought in via aquaducts from upstate. They had the sense to build the city not in a desert.
> They had the sense to build the city not in a desert The hubris of the people who built up the southwest United States in particular astounds me.
It's especially bothersome when their choices make it impossible for the rest of us to (e.g.) buy a toilet that actually flushes.
Re: New Yorkers Have Been Illicitly Cracking Open Fire Hydrants For Centuries
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
From a native Californian perspective, it just looks insanely wasteful of water. These are fed from some non-potable source, at least? ...Read TFA, nope. OK then. It is insanely wasteful of water.
Somebody really needs to add aquifers and watersheds to the California public school curriculum. The amount of Californians that don't seem to understand these basic concepts is honestly staggering. I've had Californians accuse me of contributing to their drought by leaving the sink running while washing my dishes in Seattle . Seriously California, not everyone has to share your misery.
Right. Also, the proportion of people who think water is a one-time use thing is depressing. They don't seem to have a clue that used water evaporates and falls as rain.
(yeah, there are exceptions in regions where they're using "fossil" water, but that's not the general case)
Re: New Yorkers Have Been Illicitly Cracking Open Fire Hydrants For Centuries
#30OH my god! I've just had the greatest idea. It's like UBER for cracking open fire hydrants. See you all at the next YC pitch-day
Uber would just add a tab to their app.