Gossip: Fat Relatives, Lost Jobs

This week, Patch chatter focused on the coming new Tappan Zee Bridge and problems with the old one. Over the past 10 years, it cost about —or $137,000 a day. One reader thinks this is reason enough for a new crossing:

Would anyone let a relative who weighs 300 lbs sit on a broken folding chair? Not a pretty sight!

Not everybody is on-board with the fat-relative analogy, however. Many folks are miffed at the likely lack of trains on the new span:

As long as we strive to solve 21st century problems with 20th century solutions we will all fall short. We live, what, twenty-something miles from the greatest city on the planet and can't get a reliable transit ride to or from New York after midnight? Many of my shifts start at 4 or 5 a.m. and end after midnight. 

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Also a popular topic: Rockland's plan to axe over 500 jobs. It's an effort to close the county's deficit, but not everyone's pleased. (See: 500 soon-to-be unemployed.) Some are rooting for equal concessions:

There should be across the board cuts... let every department deal with 10 percent less. I am sure they can... and if they can't, remove that department. Simple...

Other want a fresh start:

So the proposed budget has cuts but they still need to raise our taxes? They just don't get it. Vote them all out.