New York to get new ... typewriters?

NEW YORK, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Some workers in the high-tech environs of New York City say they'll be accomplishing their daily tasks on new typewriters -- replacements for their old ones.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- a man fond of his iPad and electronic gadgets, and who says he'll turn his city into a new "Silicon Alley" -- has employees of several municipal agencies working not on the latest speediest computers, but a fleet of 1,172 typewriters, the New York Post reported Monday.

Those employees in the New York Police Department, Department of Buildings and Human Resources Administration and 18 other agencies will be getting new electronic typewriters to replace aging ones, the report said.

The city Department of Administrative Services issued a request for bids for new typewriters to replace the geriatric assortment now in use, an agency spokeswoman said.

"The contract is for typewriters, which are primarily used to complete carbon-copy forms that are not computerized," Julianne Cho said.

New York's last typewriter contract -- put out five years ago at a cost to the city of $320,000 -- is set to terminate, the Post said.

"The offices that use them here have to fill out old-style standardized requisitions and purchase orders, etc. -- forms that have multiple carbonless-copy pages and which need an actual keystroke to make a copy on all the pages," said Department of Transportation spokesman Seth Solomonow.