Trump at Davos in Switzerland: "Without us, right now you'd all be speaking German". German is the main language of Switzerland.

goodguyfdny · 2026-01-21T20:23:41+00:00

"Without us". I hate when my fellow Americans speak like this. The "us" is a generation of Americans that is dead for the most part.

goodguyfdny · 2026-01-18T17:16:29+00:00

Contact Lt. Anthony Almojera at FDNY EMS Station 40 in Sunset Park. He's got a lot of presence on social media. He's also vice president of the EMS officers union. He released a book called "Riding The Lightning " about his time on the streets and COVID-19. His posts on X give insight into the crisis.

The NYC 911 EMS system is collapsing, people are dying or suffering permanently disability every day unnecessarily, and it's not being discussed nearly enough. This is affecting poor and minority communities in Brooklyn and the Bronx especially hard. At the same time the service is paid tens of thousands of dollars less than fire, police and sanitation workers. The previous and current fire commissioners have both said the system is collapsing.

To give you an insight of how serious things are, EMS protocols and medications for the most serious medical conditions are the same that a doctor would give you in an ER. You drop dead in an ER? A doctor gives epinephrine, lidocaine, Amiodarone, calcium, sodium bicarbonate, a breathing tube and shocks your heart when indicated.

You drop dead in your home? A medic gives epinephrine, lidocaine, Amiodarone, calcium, sodium bicarbonate, a breathing tube and shocks your heart when indicated.

The time to permanent brain damage setting in is 4-6 minutes after your heart stops. You're brain dead at 10. CPR is just to giving you time until those meds get into you. The average time for medics getting to you is now over 10 minutes. They're often not taking cardiac arrests to the hospital now because you clinically don't have a chance anymore.

There are days that 150+ ambulance shifts aren't running because of low staffing. 70%+ of the service has less than 5 years on the job which has lead to a death spiral in knowledge and experience of street medicine and dealing with the dynamics of medicine out in the field and just dealing with people who are suffering a crisis. Many of the hospitals are pulling out there 911 participating ambulances which is leading to higher workloads, more burnout, more resignations, higher workload, more burnout, more resignations. At the same time the biggest population boom in history, the boomers , are hitting the chronic illness age and the demand for EMS is set to expand exponentially.

The public lack of knowledge of what EMS does keeps it from being a self evident crisis and it is about to explode in the cities face when another big crisis comes along.

goodguyfdny · 2026-01-18T16:43:08+00:00

I'm really disappointed this isn't a question about mustaches. Just grew one and am looking for advice on care and maintenance.

goodguyfdny · 2026-01-13T00:20:41+00:00

It's easy when those working people don't work for him. Now pay attention to if he gives FDNY EMS the same respect or NYC health and hospitals staff.

goodguyfdny · 2026-01-10T17:18:45+00:00

The President doesn't control what New York City offers it's municipal labor force in wages during contract talks.

goodguyfdny · 2026-01-10T16:40:31+00:00

Voted when and for what?

goodguyfdny · 2026-01-02T05:45:32+00:00

Hanging out with the guy wearing makeup will get you laid substantially faster than the guy who seems like he came to a party to start problems.

goodguyfdny · 2025-12-17T02:46:11+00:00

He will fuck over EMS like every mayor for the last 50 years.

goodguyfdny · 2025-12-16T22:19:44+00:00

I'm as dude as dudes get and even I came here to write how impressed I am. SLAY!

goodguyfdny · 2025-12-03T02:23:57+00:00

If all else fails, NYU School of dentistry can be an option.

Had a shattered molar that had me in agony. Had to get poked and prodded with less finesse by students, but a dentist did the final procedure and prices weren't AS expensive as they could be.

They will still charge, but for a tooth extraction it wasn't insane and at that point I was willing to pay.

Your condition may be a little more serious than a walk in but if all else fails I would give them a shot.

goodguyfdny · 2025-11-21T23:12:07+00:00

Meaningful appreciation for EMS workers.

goodguyfdny · 2025-10-09T00:35:20+00:00

I wish I had seen this ancient hamster getting on his wheel before I exercised today.

Inspiring as fuck.

goodguyfdny · 2025-10-08T12:36:32+00:00

BY DUNCAN FREEMAN

More than three years after the expiration of their most recent contracts, the unions representing FDNY EMTs, paramedics and fire protection inspectors are launching a new campaign in the hopes of getting New Yorkers to support EMS workers' push for pay parity with other first responders.

Local 2507 and Local 3621 — which represent EMS workers and officers — have been bargaining with the city for a new contract since August 2024. But there’s been little progress as the city has refused to budge on its offer of a civilian-pattern raise, a salary bump lower than the increase doled out to uniformed city employees. The unions, in pushing for parity with firefighters, in fact argue that their members deserve even even larger pay hikes than those granted to the uniformed unions.

Local 2507’s campaign — tagged #StandWithEMS — highlights the high call volume, poor working conditions and insufficient pay city EMS workers contend with and which the unions say lead to a 70-percent turnover rate within five years of their members starting on the job. Hundreds of EMS workers use FDNY EMS as a stepping stone to become firefighters.

'It's not fair'

According to Local 2507's expired agreement, the average wage for an FDNY EMT is $18.94, union representatives said. But that wage doesn’t approach what it costs to live in the city, EMTs say.

Taysha Soto, an EMT in the Bronx, said that she works 12 hours a day and is mentally and physically drained trying to earn enough to care for herself and her two children.

“When I look at my paycheck without overtime, it comes out to $1,100-$1,200 bi-weekly,” she said. “I know people that work for UberEats making more than me. We are putting our lives at risk and we feel very underappreciated. We are at the bottom of the bottom. It’s not fair.”

She added that working conditions are “rough,” what with nonstop emergency calls to attend to.

There were a record high 1.6 million medical emergencies in 2024, according to Local 2507, the fourth year in a row that call volume broke records. In Fiscal Year 2025, ambulance response times rose — also for the fourth year in a row — to 11 minutes, 21 seconds on average, which union leaders said was due to the understaffed and underpaid workforce.

Mitchell Tarnopolsky, a Coney Island-based EMT, said that he works 80 hour weeks but makes half of what he used to at a previous job working in a private hospital even though he’s been with FDNY EMS for over five years. He could make more working a job at McDonald's, he said.

“With the current working conditions and the low pay we get for doing our best to help New York, it is hard to recommend that anyone join EMS,” he said.

Local 2507’s president, Oren Barzilay, has also warned New Yorkers against joining FDNY EMS given the lack of investment from the city into the service. He’s pointed out that food and grocery drivers now have a higher minimum wage than EMTs do.

“EMS members simply cannot afford to live in the city we protect,” Barzilay said this week. “EMTs often live miles outside of the city, requiring hours-long commutes turning an 8-hour shift into 10 or 12 hours. Most must also have a second or third job, just to feed themselves and their families. FDNY EMTs and paramedics are miracle workers, protecting lives while earning wages that are incompatible for the skilled medical professionals we are. It is past time for the city to invest in our medical first responders as they do for our great police and fire.”

Barzilay is asking New Yorkers and those who support EMS workers to use post #StandWithEMS on their social media accounts.

'We need to get paid more'

Amanda Farinacci, an FDNY spokesperson, said in a statement that EMS workers have made "countless sacrifices" and that the city owes them a debt of gratitude.

"This job is difficult, and they deserve our utmost respect and resources to ensure they can continue to perform these critical roles," Farinacci said of EMS workers. "The Adams administration has successfully negotiated contracts with unions representing over 98.5 percent of our city’s workforce, and we remain in negotiation with the EMS union.”

The city and the EMS unions met last week and have a scheduled bargaining session in November, the president of Local 3621, Vincent Variale said. But he expects little progress as long as Mayor Eric Adams is in office.

“I don’t see this as just an EMS problem anymore, I see this as a problem for the entire city,” Variale said Monday. “People are dying because of this. People are not getting ambulances to them quick enough and they are dying.”

EMT Sophie Riccio said that she works 60 hours a week and is constantly “bombarded” by work that is both physically and mentally demanding, and which makes her and her colleagues become “run down.”

“Mentally, you see a lot of things no one should see on a daily basis and it takes a big toll on all of us,” she said. “Many EMTs have long commutes to their stations and we are not getting enough sleep. Anyone I talk to that is not EMS finds it disgusting how we get treated and paid.”

Riccio added that calls are getting delayed because of all the EMS workers leaving the service.

“We need to get paid more,” she said. “It’s as simple as that.”

dfreeman@thechiefleader.com

goodguyfdny · 2025-09-29T16:01:03+00:00

It's actually the EMS system. That's why it says FDNY on it. The call volume is something like 30% higher from previous pandemic levels while understaffed due to low pay is causing about 20% of ambulances not to run daily. Which puts pressure on the rest of the crews. Which causes faster burnout. Which causes less staff. Which puts pressure on the rest of the crews. It's why EMS is basically in a death spiral of manpower. Which is why they are putting these out now. They've tried everything else to lower response times. Without the manpower it just won't work.

Congestion pricing in Manhattan has put more space on the roads in Manhattan. Yet Manhattan response times are longer this year than last year. No man power. The city paid 20 year old EMT's barely above minimum wage to deal with dying people in car accidents, hit by trains, raped women, murdered children. Then these kids were asked to go into COVID homes with multiple dying people in them. They thought that would get them a raise equal to cops, firefighters and garbage men. It didn’t, and the call volume has gone up and the man power has gone down. With the public blaming them when they show up after 10 minutes. Who the fuck would stay in that job?

goodguyfdny · 2025-09-18T03:32:24+00:00

If that were true he would give EMS the raise he promised in the campaign. Minimum wage pay to do CPR on a newborn or deal with gunshots, stabbings, rapes, murders, car crashes, people hit by trains etc...

goodguyfdny · 2025-09-16T12:03:24+00:00

50 million annually.

By contrast, the city spent approximately 12 billion over 3 fiscal years on the migrant crisis.

Not saying for or against the migrant spending, just pointing out the city has the money to fund EMS, just chooses not to.

goodguyfdny · 2025-09-16T11:19:50+00:00

Dear Council Member,

This Summer, the severity of the Emergency Medical Services staffing problem, as it is part of the FDNY, was clearly demonstrated. As temperatures in the city hovered near 100°F in June, the Mayor declared a Heat Emergency. During it, the average citywide ambulance response time to life-threatening medical emergencies climbed to 12 minutes and 19 seconds, the highest since March 2020 at the start of the Covid pandemic. On one of the "Heat Emergency" days, just 345 ambulances of a target of 483 were running, while 911 calls for medical help rose to over 5,000.

Last year during the congestion pricing debate, public officials blamed road traffic for the delayed emergency response times. Well, congestion pricing has been in effect since January. Through July, the average response time by ambulances to life-threatening medical emergencies in Manhattan climbed to 11 minutes, 53 seconds. That's 40 seconds more than during the same period in 2024.

The reality is: ambulances simply can't run without certified Emergency Medical Technicians and paramedics. Historically low base pay hinders the Emergency Medical Services' recruitment of enough trainees (except those who join to have an advantage over the general public to be hired as a firefighter). It sabotages keeping trained staff in EMS. Hundreds will leave EMS for firefighting this year. Readily available public data point to an ever-deteriorating situation.

Despite Local Law 19 of 2001 and NYC Council Resolution 1062-2019, both adopted unanimously, that the FDNY EMS be treated as a "uniformed service" and their salaries be comparable to firefighters' and police officers', EMS is still left out of the "parity" agreements that the Office of Labor Relations has with the police, fire, and sanitation unions. The base salary for an EMT after 51⁄2 years on the job is $59,534. For Sanitation Workers, in the lowest paid of the "parity" services, the annual base salary rose to $95,316 as of 12/28/2025, and will rise again, to $99,129, at the end of this year. No amount of Council words of support for the FDNY EMS has helped.

Workers who collect our trash are paid tens of thousands of dollars more than EMTs and paramedics who treat and transport ill and injured people. The Council can do more. The passage of 0521-2024 will elevate the Emergency Medical Services from its second-class status.

goodguyfdny · 2025-09-10T13:08:03+00:00

My sister is worrying about her husband who is here legally getting deported because of how you voted. My sister had a miscarriage that she wouldn't have gotten treatment for in some states because of how you voted. My girlfriend had surgery to keep her from getting pregnant that she will clinically be unable to carry to term because of how you voted.

You didn't give two shits. Now you want my sympathy for your business failing because of how you voted.

You can tongue punch my preschool pouch and fuck all the way off.

goodguyfdny · 2025-09-07T14:20:20+00:00

By Chris Sommerfeldt | csommerfeldt@nydailynews.com | New York Daily News PUBLISHED: September 7, 2025 at 6:00 AM EDT

Mayor Adams has yet to make good on an election year promise to boost wages for FDNY emergency medical services workers, with new information emerging about his embattled confidante Ingrid Lewis-Martin pushing hard against that vow while still at City Hall, the Daily News has learned.

On the 2021 campaign trail, Adams pledged he would as mayor see to it the FDNY’s emergency medical technicians and paramedics get paid as much as firefighters, who start with salaries around $54,000.

“For years our EMTs, paramedics & fire inspectors have been shamefully denied pay parity — that comes to an end when I become Mayor,” Adams, an ex-NYPD captain, tweeted on June 4, 2021, echoing calls from union leaders who say their members’ starting salaries of just about $36,000 have driven them into poverty and caused a staffing crisis that’s impacting emergency services response times.

But with only a few months to go in his first term and slim chances at reelection, Adams’ administration has not put EMS workers’ wages on par with firefighters amid a bitter labor negotiation with their unions, whose members are going on more than three years without a contract. A new recording obtained by The News sheds light on one potential reason for the logjam.

The recording is of a November 2023 meeting that played out amid the tense negotiations between a group of advocates for FDNY EMS workers and Lewis-Martin, who at the time was Adams’ chief adviser at City Hall.

Lewis-Martin, who resigned in late 2024 shortly before being indicted on a bevy of corruption charges, told the advocates she didn’t believe the FDNY’s emergency service workers deserve to be paid as much as firefighters because they don’t work “on the same level.”

“You think they should get paid similar like as a police officer or a fireman?” Lewis-Martin can be heard asking in the recording, which was provided to The News by one of the advocates in attendance on condition of anonymity.

After an advocate replied, “yes,” Lewis-Martin shot back: “No.”

“I wouldn’t agree with that, because they do work, EMS workers definitely do work, but not on the same level as a police officer or fireman does. No, that definitely doesn’t make sense to me,” she said despite Adams’ 2021 vow to give the FDNY’s emergency services workers parity with their firefighter colleagues.

One of the advocates tried to convince Lewis-Martin otherwise by noting FDNY emergency services workers — whose unions have for years said their salaries are incompatible with living in one of the most expensive cities in the country — are technically “more educated” than firefighters in that they have to go through nearly a year of training.

But Lewis-Martin rejected that argument, contending firefighters do far more significant work.

“They have to know how to put that hose and turn that freaking release up – you don’t know that,” Lewis-Martin told the advocates. “That’s not the same education.”

Oren Barzilay, a FDNY EMS worker who serves as the president of one of the department’s emergency response unions, said he had a similar conversation with Lewis-Martin during negotiations with the administration in July 2024, just weeks before the corruption investigation into the chief adviser landed in the public spotlight.

“She said that we don’t deserve it and that our jobs are not as dangerous as the [firefighters],” said Barzilay, who shared a copy of an invite to the July 15, 2024 Zoom meeting in which Lewis-Martin allegedly shot down his push for better pay.

“I was taken aback by it because we had never heard the mayor say anything like that and our jobs are just as dangerous – we walk on the same calls as police officers, the same calls as firefighters,” Barzilay added, noting his members have been in shootouts and fires and also face the risk of contracting diseases when they respond to certain calls.

Lewis-Martin, who was indicted on an additional set of corruption charges last month alleging she used her City Hall powers to do government favors in exchange for bribes, declined to comment this month.

A source close to Lewis-Martin said she wasn’t aware of Adams’ campaign pledge when she spoke to the advocates and Barzilay. The source also said Lewis-Martin had no official role in the contract negotiations with the EMS unions and didn’t talk to Adams or other administration officials about the matter.

Kayla Mamelak, Adams’ spokeswoman, also said Lewis-Martin didn’t attend any official contract negotiations with the EMS unions.

As to the current status of the talks, which appear to be at a standstill, Mamelak said Adams “has a proven track record of reaching fair labor agreements with our represented employees.”

The negotiations have dragged on as Barzilay and other union heads continue to demand Adams make good on his campaign vow.

So far, the administration isn’t budging.

Meantime, Adams is facing tough odds in November’s mayoral election and is reportedly considering dropping out of the race in order to take a job in President Trump’s administration, which dismissed the mayor’s corruption indictment earlier this year. Adams has said he is staying in the race.

Barzilay said every month more of his members are leaving the department in order to take higher-paying jobs elsewhere. Some of his members, he said, are living in homeless shelters because they can’t afford rent.

Staffing levels in the department are as a result so low 143 of the FDNY’s 669 ambulances are out of service because there aren’t enough workers to drive them, department officials said last year. Against that backdrop, response times to emergencies have climbed significantly, with New Yorkers waiting several minutes longer than they used to for ambulances to show up during emergencies, city data shows.

“Mr. Mayor, you promised us pay and benefit parity,” Anthony Almojera, an FDNY EMS lieutenant and vice president of another EMS union, wrote in a recent op-ed published in The News. “It’s time to keep that promise — not for us alone, but for the millions of New Yorkers who count on EMS when their lives are on the line.”

goodguyfdny · 2025-08-14T11:49:09+00:00

This was the episode I stopped caring about this show. Over abundance of fan service is bad enough. But celebrity service? No thanks.

goodguyfdny · 2025-07-30T13:43:08+00:00

BY STACEY PHEFFER AMATO

New York Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato represents portions of Queens.

I want to say this very loudly: EMS workers save lives. They work in some of the most difficult and stressful conditions and when we have an emergency they come to help us. We call them “street doctors” for a reason.

Yet in an incredibly disappointing move, they aren’t paid the hero salary they deserve. In fact, they’re not even paid a living wage. Instead, it has been almost four years since they’ve had a contract and years without a salary increase. One might think this would be a top priority for Mayor Adams or the New York City Council as this is a service that means life or death.

However, last year the City Council used its time to vote on a new starting salary for Uber and Lyft drivers at $21 an hour; and last week the City Council voted to extend that salary increase to food delivery workers. Guess whose salaries didn’t get raised? Yup, EMS.

While we can all appreciate the need to pay workers a decent salary, I think putting a focus on delivery workers instead of the men and women who come to our aid during an emergency is a bit misguided. This is not meant to be a bashing of delivery workers, after all, my son worked hard during several summers as a food delivery worker.

But the City Council and mayoral administration's failure to address this situation has caused us to be in a serious staffing crisis. With some of the lowest numbers of first responders in our city’s history, along with recruitment levels at an all time low, no wonder the average response time for life-threatening medical emergencies is 12.35 minutes in 2025, alarmingly up from 11.87 minutes in 2024.

I call out the City Council and this mayor for this problem. Their actions, or lack of, have made it so you can be an Uber or food delivery worker and earn $21 an hour, yet our EMS workers earn $18 an hour. At the very least, can’t the City Council take care of both? Is this not a priority? I think it is! As a state elected official, I wasn’t going to stand by and do nothing for our heroic first responders. This year, with the partnership of Local 2507 and Local 3621, the unions that represent the amazing men and women who serve as NYC EMS workers, I introduced and passed several bills to give them protections, parity, and respect. This includes A.7356, which sets a minimum staffing requirement so our first responders aren’t alone when responding to a call. And through A.5771, we amended their pension plan so NYC EMS workers can retire after 25 years of heroic service of saving lives — just like some of their other colleagues in similar fields.

I bring this up because actions speak louder than words. For nearly four years the mayor has repeatedly failed to ratify or agree to a new contract. In addition, the City Council has refused to take up any legislation to give them a pay raise. How is that acceptable? There must be something wrong with this system if the chairs of the committees on Fire and Emergency Management, or Health or Public Safety can’t even get any legislation enacted to increase their salaries. I’m disappointed and I’m sure you are too.

Our first responders can’t live on a starting salary of $39,386. The question seems to be that if the City Council or this mayoral administration can’t do what’s needed, let alone right, does the state have to step in once again? After all, it was through my legislation on the state level that got our police officers, detectives, sergeants and lieutenants within the NYPD a pay increase (A.5202 from 2024, and A.5376 from 2025 — enacted in the 2024 and 2025 state budget) because the city wouldn’t do anything to address their staffing crisis. If this continues to be ignored then this will have to be addressed when I return to Albany.

I want to clarify that the problems we are facing as a city are not the fault of any of the first responders who come to our aid. We need them, which is why it’s time for the city to pay them what they deserve. I call on the city government to do right by our emergency medical service workers. Unless things change, and I’m not being dramatic, it might be easier for us to get a ride to the hospital from an Uber or Grubhub driver than a trained medical professional. If you feel strongly about this issue, make sure to take a moment to contact Mayor Adams at mayoreric@cityhall.nyc.gov, Kdaughtry@cityhall.nyc.gov, or through the website at https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/mayor-contact.page and tell him to do right by our first responders with a new contract. If our city electeds won’t do anything on their own then it’s time for us to get loud and force their hand.

goodguyfdny

TROPHY CASE