Regional Talk > Southern California > How much life left in Adelphia?

reply to ksuki

Re: How much life left in Adelphia?

said by junco927:

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Macleech you need to go over to the city website and look for "Electrical Distribution Mechanic" in the employment opportunities section.You'll see that this position is always open.They did have a hiring freeze but it has never applied to "EDM" or "EDM" trainee or "Lineman".There is an open call for linemen across the country and there is still a need that is unfilled.And yes it is a hell of a training program,four years of OTJ training and many sessions of intensive classroom training.

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said by LA Times, March 16, 2002:

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Windsor said the explanation from the DWP and Public Works had been the same: Hiring freezes had backed up the flow of work. The firm has been asking city officials, including City Council members Jack Weiss and Cindy Miscikowski, to help Adelphia press city agencies to pick up the pace.

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said by junco927:

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I can't tell you anything about the permit process, but I have informally polled my friends at DWP who have installed power to these facilities, and they told me that many of them don't even have cable going to the boxes.(yes, Adelphia boxes)
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Mac is exactly right here. These people couldn't be trained in a month. Furthermore, Adelphia couldn't publicly blame the city, especially when Cindy M. and her clan have a vice grip on who can build what and when.... Did you see her office's response to my committee?

"I will also mention that the Above Ground Facilities Ordinance gained the most attention from telecommunication companies, such as Pacific Bell- who worked very closely with Public Works and our office to draft the language.  (Adelphia chose not to play an active role in this process.)"

Cindy M.'s actions were anti-business and discriminatory.... plain and simple. She was an unnecessary roadblock to the rollout of broadband here.... Put it this way: Would the rollout be easier without this "aesthetically-driven" tyrant? The answer is an obvious yes. Adelphia wouldn't have to answer to her.... The DWP wouldn't have to either.

If Adelphia leaves town, they should sue the City of Los Angeles for anti-business and discriminatory behavior by the city council.
--
A proud card carrying member of the Right Wing Conspiracy. "I have spoken... There will be peace in the valley."

reply to IPPlanMan
Well Em, mild amusement would be accurate, you seem to be well worked up over Adelphia's situation.i believe they have tried to pass the buck and it seems to me that lots of people just seem to accept the party line. The news outlets are all reporting about the dubious loans that occurred within the adelphia family.Also the company is restating the last two years of statements, due to "irregularities".The SEC is investigating the situation. Sounds like a company I would trust...sounds alot like Enron.Lots of people are rightfully upset by Enron but seem to approach Adelphia differently.
Em I'm glad that you are being enlightened,i also read alot here at DSLR that is enlightening.
You also believe the moratorium is all Cindys' doing,I dont see that happening.Some one called her and started to complain.I see that all the time.You proved that point by gathering up some neighbors and getting some action from her office.Is it not obvious that the same process was used by someone to get her to impose the moratorium?If some one else was in her place they would probably would have done the same thing.These council people have to seem responsive to their constituents,I see it as damned if you do damned if you don't on her part.
About the boxes,some of them simply have no coax going to them.That is, the power was hooked up for a box with no means of propagating a signal by way of a conductor to a cable system.Something along the lines of what you saw on the corner of San Vicente and 26th.I don't know anything about that location.
Yes you are right about no hold up at DWP,we really try hard to please our customers.If you go back and read the "cheery" release you'll see that some crews were pulled off of other projects and badly needed maintainence.Just for your information,LADWP was recently announced by JD Powers as having the highest customer satisfaction in the western U.S. »www.jdpa.com/studies/winners.asp···&CatID=3 that goes to show you that the delay was caused by some one else.
As Macleech pointed out the Times prints some things that they shouldn't. I often laugh at some of the things they print,even as I cringe to think someone will believe it.
Ksuki,there really isn't discontent in ganging up on a project,or the hours worked.When we worked the Alameda Corridor Project we sometimes had many crews working all weekend 16 hrs a day.(we finished ahead of schedule!)I should also add that most of the power supplies had cable ready to go ,but not all of them.

I was referring to possible DWP discontent if there was a need/call for marathon weekend sessions in order to provision equipment that wasn't otherwise ready. I know I I would resent being called upon to do something when the other parties involved weren't prepared or able to do something with what I'm being pressured to provide. As a programmer, I face this situation many times and don't like when it happens - but maybe I'm an exception to a rule.

Ken

reply to IPPlanMan
"If Adelphia leaves town, they should sue the City of Los Angeles for anti-business and discriminatory behavior by the city council."

I've watched a LOT of good businesses leave teh Buffalo Area of New York. Good Jobs with good wages due to dumb shit like Cindy is trying to pull.

In Buffalo the Pimp of the city is named "Pitts". He basically owns the city in this 1 party town.

I'm seeing a mirror image here of our 2 cities councils. Least ours is open with the 'garbadge' tax ( literally ).

Sincerly
Jackson.

reply to junco927
I am well worked up about this situation with Adelphia and Cindy M.

Adelphia had to pass the buck here because Cindy M. was in a position to block "non-aesthetic" telecom boxes.... Isn't that absurd? If you read the city council documents you'll see that Cindy M. spearheaded every single extension of this moratorium for the last 39 months! Only when put on the spot by me and the LA Times, when her office refused to comment, did the DWP work begin and the moratorium disappear soon after.

Cindy M. ran the show! From her office's response to my letter:

"....However during the moratorium Adelphia and any other company wanting to build in the public-right-of-way could come to the Council Office and work-out a proposal for their upgrades/ new infrastructure.  Companies that were willing to work with their neighbors and our office were granted exceptions.  We have, over this past year, worked diligently with Adelphia to give them relief from the moratorium, however Adelphia waited quite sometime to get in touch with our office."

Hmmmm.... notice how many times she said "our office"..... That means: "my office."...... or "her office" to you. The mere fact that her office used the term "proposal" means that she put herself in a position to be a roadblock, or as I like to call it: the fashion police of broadband..... which explains one reason why we don't have it.... If it wasn't for Cindy M., that wouldn't guarantee us broadband.... but it would enable Adelphia to do what it needs to do to implement the necessary infrastructure without answering to this aesthetic-tyrant.

I'm not sure anyone called Cindy M. to complain. If you do a quick google search on her as I did in a prior post, you will see that she doesn't like billboards either.... How about a moratorium? That's what she did....go figure.

My beef here is that she's put herself in charge here with this BS moratorium, which has now expired, thank goodness. Actually, I haven't gotten most of the neighbors to complain yet as I have yet to distribute a handy letter to them.... I can take credit for these recent events myself.

You'll see in a prior post of mine, (not in this thread) that I gave a lot of credit to the #1 ranked JD Power DWP! I have absolutely no belief whatsoever that DWP is to blame here. In fact, they are completely blameless. Cindy M. and Adelphia can be "blamed" for this workaholic weekend. This is work that could have occurred on DWP's and Adelphia's schedules if they didn't have to answer to Cindy M..... With that moratorium pushing up daisies, I think that's the case now. Yay..... Now about "How much life left in Adelphia?"

One week from this Friday... Chapter 11.
--
A proud card carrying member of the Right Wing Conspiracy.

"I have spoken... There will be peace in the valley."
[text was edited by author 2002-06-13 03:36:37]

I don't think Adelphia will have the finances to build your area .. BUT...

I _do_ believe this will open the door for other ( maby even better ) broadband marketing in your area.

Maby Verizons will start working on DSL or IDSL infrastructures or possibly some competitive forms of wireless will emurge.

Glad to see you exposed an enemy of the city for yourself and your neighbors. More people should do the same as you have.

Sincerly
Jackson

Cindy M. certainly is an enemy of Adelphia.... There is not one thing that she's done to make it easier for Adelphia to rollout broadband to our area.

If that still doesn't make sense to anyone, lemme put it to you this way: Would Adelphia have been better off if they didn't have to answer to this aesthetic-bureaucrat? YES!

I don't think it's a coincidence that the weekend workaholic construction project and the moratorium expiration date occurred after the March 16th LA Times article, in which Cindy M. had "no comment" on the delay.

Disgusting.
--
A proud card carrying member of the Right Wing Conspiracy. "I have spoken... There will be peace in the valley."

What you may be missing or ignoring is that, as someone else pointed out, this 'aesthetic bureacrat' is likely representing a group of constituents that feel aesthetics should take precedence over broadband. She has an obligation to represent the wishes of her constituency - if she isn't doing that, then yes, it is disgusting. It appears you feel differently and that where there is a conflict, broadband should take precedence over aesthetics. Then, there is another (more moderate?) group that may feel broadband can be delivered without negatively affecting aesthetics - but this can take time and compromise.

Also, she may be spearheading this campaign, but I don't think one council representative can impose a moratorium singlehandedly - the other council members who either supported her or allowed this to happen should be held accountable as well. Unless she is your representative, did you ask your council representative where they stood on this issue and what they did, if anything, to oppose the moratoriums? This would appear to be one of your best paths to pursue - find council representatives who feel like you or are more sympathetic to your goals and give them your support and encouragement. If there are none, then get some elected that do agree with you.

Ken

reply to IPPlanMan

said by emhinkes:

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Cindy M. certainly is an enemy of Adelphia.... There is not one thing that she's done to make it easier for Adelphia to rollout broadband to our area.

If that still doesn't make sense to anyone, lemme put it to you this way: Would Adelphia have been better off if they didn't have to answer to this aesthetic-bureaucrat? YES!

I don't think it's a coincidence that the weekend workaholic construction project and the moratorium expiration date occurred after the March 16th LA Times article, in which Cindy M. had "no comment" on the delay.

Disgusting.

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reply to IPPlanMan
Given the recent news of the unpaid interest payment, how much life does Adelphia have left in it now?

This is disgusting... Absolutely disgusting.... How long can a company continue to miss payments? I'll tell you.... As long as the banks let them.... And the banks are continuing to let them miss payments in the hope that they'll get paid something.... Adelphia's will be able to hold the banks hostage (ie: not pay back the entire debt) using Chapter 11 and the fact that they're broke.... That's disgusting.... Chapter 11 is not an effective deterrent to the criminal behavior that the Rigas family engaged in along with Deloitte.... Jail time and Billion dollar fines to the individuals (not the companies.... I repeat.... NOT the companies) are a better means.

I mean... why worry when you don't have to pay all your debts? If you owe someone 100 bucks you have to pay.... If you owe them a Billion, then that's negotiable.... disgusting.

This new board isn't any better than the old board....

Of course, since the Rigas family ran the company into the ground and have now left, why should the Rigas family care? They don't.... And they're in a position not to...for right now at least....

Send the Rigas clan to Jail....and anyone else that follows in their footsteps.

Ladies and Gentlemen.... We've been taken for a ride on this one. And when the music stopped, we've been left holding the bag and picking up the slack.
--
A proud card carrying member of the Right Wing Conspiracy. "I have spoken... There will be peace in the valley."

And, this is a new concept for corporate America because....?????

It's not new....

But answer me this: How much longer will Adelphia be able to keep up this charade?

How much life do they have left?
--
A proud card carrying member of the Right Wing Conspiracy. "I have spoken... There will be peace in the valley."

As long as you have cable service does it really matter?

Exactly what does Adelphia's financial situation mean to you as far as the service your recieving?

Adelphia has been in billions of dollars of debt for years, as have many of the other telecommunications companies, it was only recently when investors got cold feet and wanted their money that things really started to go downhill for most of them, Adelphia included. Yes Adelphia's situation was made even worse by all the private internal deals going on, but even without the deals Adelphia's debt levels would have been high and taken years to pay off.

The whole financial model for most telecommunication companies was to get millions and billions in loans, credit, and capital investment money from different sources to build the networks. Then spend the next 5-15 years paying off the investors. Adelphia wasn't any different in that respect...

What do you expect the banks to do? Seize Adelphia's assets and sell them to get pennies on the dollar for the money they invested? Seize control of the operation only to realize they know even less then the board of Adelphia on how to run a cable company? Or let the Adelphia's management team take time to work out the deals with banks necassary to keep as much money flowing toward investors as possible while it works out the terms of a financial reorginization?

By the way, what bag are you left holding? do you still have the service your paying for?
--
PingPlotter, CableFAQ; Cisco: CableTAC, Network HB.

[text was edited by author 2002-06-18 14:55:11]

reply to IPPlanMan
W00t!!! I don't give a rat's butt now if Adelphia lives or dies. I have my DSLExtreme connection now, and baby, it rocks. It's rated at 768/128 and I just got these results here:

2002-06-18 16:07:05 Speed test (wc) 730/133 kbps

reply to MacLeech
"As long as you have cable service does it really matter?"

Yes it matters.... When the spigot turns off, the lights go out.

"it was only recently when investors got cold feet and wanted their money that things really started to go downhill for most of them"

Um.... That's the idea. Investors should get their money back. There's obviously a risk in investing. However, that risk should be attributed to market failure, and not self dealing criminal behavior.... Problem is Mac, that you consider that a valid market risk factor... Well I do too... But I think we differ in how to mitigate that. I don't think that the answer is chapter 11. The answer is an unreal amount of jail time and fines for everyone involved.... not for the company.... but for the people.

"What do you expect the banks to do? Seize Adelphia's assets and sell them to get pennies on the dollar for the money they invested? Seize control of the operation only to realize they know even less then the board of Adelphia on how to run a cable company? Or let the Adelphia's management team take time to work out the deals with banks necassary to keep as much money flowing toward investors as possible while it works out the terms of a financial reorginization?"

This is your classic Ponzi scheme....
Borrow from someone else to pay somebody else back.... keep passing the buck. This isn't the high flying 90's... The party's over. The banks are just as responsible for this debacle.... Lending money without really paying attention to where it was going... Oh wait... The auditor should keep track of that....

What you're seeing now is the darkside of what happened in the 90's.... difference now is that the investors want their money back. I guess that didn't matter to the Rigas clan.
--
A proud card carrying member of the Right Wing Conspiracy. "I have spoken... There will be peace in the valley."