If you would take the time to look at pictures that were taken of Manhattan at the early part of the 20th century you would see thousands and thousands of wires strung all over the city. The skies were cluttered with telephone and electric wires. There were several problems with that condition. The old New York Telephone company was deforesting old growth forests. The wires were an eyesore. The poles toppled by age and by the weather and wires broke under the weight of ice. To say the least, it was an ugly mess.
New York Telephone reviewed what it had done and it wound up burying the wires. The borough of Manhattan looks a lot better with telephone and electric wires under the streets. It appears that the utility that is serving Port Washington in this, the 21st century, doesn’t have a sense of history nor has it consider how unsightly huge telephone look nor does it realize that in several European countries, their utilities have buried all their wires. It is time that our wires are also buried.
The new utility that is supposed to service Port Washington is bringing an eyesore back to Port Washington and sending our area back 100 years. It hasn’t thought through the problems faced by our area and yet it came up with a cheap and ugly way to re-wire our area. Shame on them. The utility executives should sit down with the leaders of our towns and find a way to service this are in better way.
—Donald A. Peshkin
