Atlas Traffic Management Systems - Product and Attitude Stinks

Atlas Traffic Management Systems pulled a fast one on Naples, Florida. They contracted years ago to replace ~50 high profile traffic light poles and lights in Naples, and installed ugly, substandard, improperly galvanized painted poles, which have been peeling and rusting for several years. I worry that light poles will fail from cracks, and collapse onto the streets during a storm. Why? "Beauty is skin deep, but ugliness goes to the bone". The company "lies like a rug", by promising over the past two plus years to fix their blatant screw ups, and never delivered on their empty promises. The City of Naples sued them, Atlas got arbitration, and promised to fix at least one intersection by Jan 1, 2009. They never even did that! Atlas Traffic's faulty products and lack of service is a traffic stopper, a , bright red light's warning to other cities of the broken promises, faulty product, and lousy service to expect.
Thinking about hiring proven unreliable Atlas Traffic, with substandard products and 2+ year lack of service exhibited in Naples? Think again! Contact Florida Department of Transportation or Naples Mayor Bill Barnett . http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/jan/17/still-ugly-after-all-these-years-deadline-missed-p/ Atlas Senior VP John Coyne cowardly ducks NDNews phone calls, exhibiting no sense of responsibility for his company's failures. Take the money and run, eh, Mr. Coyne?

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Buyers Beware of what I call "Atlas Traffic Mismanagement." Who else is suffering from Atlas' corporate bad faith and bad products?

Sysco Gigged for Selling Bogus Grouper

I've caught and cooked grouper over the years, and was bewildered when ordering it in restaurants, many stocked by Sysco, and didn't recognize the fish as grouper. Figured ya learn something new everyday. I stopped buying it, as the texture was no longer recognizably uniform as, say salmon. Sysco, the supplier for perhaps 70% of Florida restaurants and a Gargantuan provider of a good portion of restaurants nationwide, had something fishy going on for years.

The Associated Press reports that "Florida's Attorney General has reached a Sept 3rd settlement with Sysco Food Serices, the national food distributor over allegations it was providing Tampa-area restaurants with phony grouper.Bill McCollum's office announced Wednesday that Sysco Food Services - West Coast Florida, Inc. will refrain from marketing items as grouper without taking reasonable steps to make sure they're not another, less expensive fish. The company will also donate $100,000 worth of food to local soup kitchens and reimburse the state's $200,000 investigative fees.The Attorney General's Office began investigating allegations in October 2006 that Tampa-area restaurants were passing off fish such as Emperor, Sutchi and Bream as grouper. Sysco was the supplier for 14 of the 17 restaurant found to be doing this".

Reading this, only the West Coast Florida Sysco branch got gigged, and Sysco's phoney grouper and other lucrative phoney fish sales are happily continuing across the country. Who will do expensive DNA studies on Sysco's alleged grouper, and other suspect fish in each of hundreds of local jurisdictions, to identify and stop their profitable scams?

A good deal of the expensive sushi, aside from obvious salmon, is questionable, too. Who, besides Sysco's clever experts, is crafty, slick, and so knowledgeable about other inexpensive fish substitutes? Funny how pricier fish are never substituted!

Boo, Hiss, Sysco.

Shame on Sysco, charging high prices and supplying lesser quality fish, ripping off trusting people across the USA.

Buyer beware.

Thanks Giving, part 2.

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I got out of bed on two strong legs.
It might have been otherwise.

I ate cereal, sweet milk, ripe, flawless peach.
It might have been otherwise.

I took the dog uphill to the birchwood.
All morning I did the work I love.
At noon I lay down with my mate.
It might have been otherwise.

I slept in a bed in a room with paintings on the walls,
and planned another day
just like this day.

But one day, I know,
it will be
otherwise.

-Excerpted from "Otherwise" by the late Jane Kenyon

Thanks Giving, Every Day.

Today, I had lunch at a Maria's Mexican restaurant, seated with one friend whose church offers affordable housing; and another friend is active in building affordable housing- homes for $90K earmarked for those earning a fraction of that; similar homes cost $300K -400K. At the next table, a prominent local elected official "walks the walk"- focusing builders on creating more affordable and “green” homes.

I then napped, changed from jeans to tie and jacket, and joined the enjoyable warm fellowship of a friend’s birthday dinner table for 22, at an old private club on Naples' beach. Several birthday guests actively raise millions each year for local charities through the auctions at the Naples Winter Wine Festival. Some write checks , others hammer nails for Habitat for Humanity. One guest’s young daughter, a Peace Corps worker, spent three years in Africa in a dusty village, bringing healthy changes through education- one family , one water well, one village at a time. Whatever people's financial status, or health, they unite in their focus on giving, and making a difference. It is truly "healing the world", often quietly done, one kind deed at a time.

On the other hand, I know those who are losing business accounts, jobs, and some can no longer afford rent or mortgage. Times are tough, and I fear getting tougher.

Reflecting on the positive energy of the kind people I was with at lunch and at dinner, I am thankful that people’s consciousness, (however secure or precarious in their own financial state), is focused frequently, constructively, and effectively on assisting those in a less fortunate position in life. Many people are one paycheck or one crop away from losing their decent lifestyle and or home, others are in a financial abyss, needing to ask for assistance. Good health can change to chronic illness.

Americans are more generous now than ever in assisting others in so many places and ways- in Florida, in Appalachia, New Orleans, Asia and Africa. Giving does not seem to discriminate along geography , religion, color or creed. We are our brother's keeper, he/she is our keeper when fortunes and health may change. Compassionate giving can relieves much of another person's pain.

Let us give thanks for those with compassionate giving hearts, and feel empathy for those who may do without, as Christmas, Hannukah, and New Years draws close. I am thankful that you and I, collectively, care to make a difference and assist others. With gifts of time, skills, goods or with a check, we can make life a little kinder, and times a little less stressful, for those in need.

Thank you.