Will Bloomberg Open Schools Thursday? SECOND UPDATE

Much of downtown remains without power.

Trains will not be running below 42nd Street on Thursday.

Traffic was gridlocked in Manhattan today as people tried to get around.

The PATH trains are still down.

NJ Transit and the LIRR have limited schedules for tomorrow.

A second hospital just had to be evacuated because of power loss.  First NYU Medical was evacuated, now Bellevue is being evacuated.  ABC News reports Bellevue is actually "Katrina-esque".

Things are not so good out there.

People not dealing with the power outages, the water outages or the destruction aftermath may not realize how dicey things still are in many places.

Given all of this, can Bloomberg open schools tomorrow.?

You know he wants to.

But can he?

He'll add a week of school at the end anyway, and really, given how bad things are, he should call school for at least Thursday and probably Friday as well.

Monday sounds like the day when most things will be back up and running as close to normal as is possible after the Hudson and East Rivers and Atlantic Ocean destroyed tons of New York City infrastructure (as well as homes and possessions.)

But just because something is common sense and even the right thing to do, that doesn't mean Mike Bloomberg, billionaire extraordinaire, will heed that call.

Mike makes his own calls and when you have two SUV's ever gassed up and idling wherever you go, you don't really think too much about how people are going to get somewhere.

I won't hazard a guess as to whether school is opened tomorrow but if it is, I wonder how I make it from where I live.

I can swim, but the Hudson is pretty treacherous and I bet there's a lot of spilled sewage in their right now.

There's always the Goldman Sachs ferry from Paulus Hook to midtown, but that'll cost me 16 bucks and I'll still have to walk a mile after that.

Better than swimming though.

I guess that's just what I'll have to do if he makes the open call.

Dunno how we'll open since our school still has no power and many students come to school from Brooklyn via the subway, which won't be running that way except for the lines that go over the Manhattan Bridge (if those lines actually run.)

I guess we'll just have to see what the Mayor of Money does.

It doesn't make sense to open schools tomorrow.

But as I noted above, common sense and Mike Bloomberg do not meet very often.

Remember, he said last week that schools would be opened on Monday during the storm even if the MTA was shut down.

That's the kind of nonsensical and insane thinking you get out of the Little Mayor.

UPDATE: No train service from Brooklyn at all - just bus shuttle service. 

SECOND UPDATE: - Missed this earlier, from Gotham Schools:

Schools will remain closed for students for the rest of the week following Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Bloomberg announced this afternoon.

But he said the city is asking teachers and school staff to report to schools on Friday.

Chancellor Dennis Walcott, who appeared with Bloomberg at the afternoon press conference, said 200 of the city’s 1,400 school buildings had suffered some damage because of the storm. Most of the damage was minor, Bloomberg said, but other schools were hit harder.

“There’s an awful lot of schools that have received damage or don’t have power,” Bloomberg said. He added, “Hopefully by Monday everything will be back perfect.”

The 200 damaged schools are currently “not operational,” according to Erin Hughes, a Department of Education spokeswoman. Eighty-six schools currently do not have power, she said.

 ...
Bloomberg said the Friday teacher workday would allow teachers and school staff to prepare for students’ return after an interruption of unprecedented length.

In a press release, Walcott said the department would “provide more information to our staff, including those who may be required to report to a site other than their school.”

 So no students, but teachers on Friday for PD.