Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is seeking answers from City agencies regarding their preparedness for yesterday’s blizzard, and calling on New Yorkers to report ongoing problems with obstructed streets. With more winter storms ahead, the Public Advocate hopes to improve the City’s storm response by utilizing detailed feedback from neighborhoods across the city, and comparing details from the current clean-up effort to those of past storms.
“Yesterday’s storm was especially severe, and I am increasingly concerned the City did not take every necessary step to minimize the disruption,” said Public Advocate de Blasio. “More decisive steps should have been taken to keep drivers off the roadways and prevent so many abandoned vehicles from obstructing the City’s snowplows. We need to determine if inadequate preparation played any role in grinding New York City to a halt. By learning from the difficulties experienced over the last 48 hours, and paying heed to the neighborhoods most severely affected, we can ensure we are ready for the next big storm.”
Public Advocate de Blasio is sending letters of inquiry to the Office of Emergency Management regarding the decision against declaring a Snow Emergency during the storm, and to the NYC Department of Sanitation regarding staffing levels.
The Office of the Public Advocate is also compiling reports of streets that remain obstructed by snow or abandoned vehicles. After reporting such conditions to 311, New Yorkers should call the Public Advocate Hotline at 212-669-7250 or file a report online at www.advocate.nyc.gov.
(YWN Desk – NYC)
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6 Responses
What is the big difficulty here? We are in the middle of school breaks throughout the country during the first big shopping/tourist season after the recession has begun to recede. If Manhattan was not cleared first and completely, it would mean the loss of millions of dollars of sales and tax revenues. That plus the dismissal of four hundred sanitation workers all means Brooklyn, the Bronx, etc. will have to wait.
I tried to call 311 yesterday and this mining but I can’t get through!
that NYC Public Advocate Bill De Blasio Wants Answers is not suprising since he does want to be the next mayor .
This is the same man who supports allowing more illegals to come here and use up resources that should have been devoted to dept. of sanitation.
NYC Public Advocate Bill De Blasio….
Get the NYC Dept of Sanitation to plow the streets of Boro Park and Flatbush so that we should not feel that we are from a Third World Country. The streets have always been cleared within 24 hours after a snow storm. Why should it take longer now that Mr Bloomberg is in office. I know that he knows he will not be our Mayor after the next election, but at this time we don’t care that he is saving NYC 20 million dollars because of Budget cuts with the Sanitation Dept. We want our streets plowed so we can do business as usual.
Everyone says “The City”. I am just curious who is the city? All the councilmembers and the Advocate blaming the city, aren’t they are the city?