Facing a countless number of snow-covered streets and mounting criticism about its blizzard response, the Bloomberg Administration was hustling Thursday to meet a self-imposed deadline that was set to expire at 7 a.m., Jay Dow reports.
“I expect that we will have every street in New York City plowed. Will somebody find a street I missed? Maybe,” Mayor Bloomberg said.
That warning was perhaps an acknowledgment of what residents said did not happen on so many side streets in western Queens, Staten Island, and Brooklyn.
“We’re looking every time, waiting for a plow. Nobody comes out here. I mean, what are we supposed to do?” said Mendy Shapiro of Borough Park.
“I’m very upset. And I think everybody in this neighborhood is upset,” another resident said.
The mayor now admits the City could have done better. “We did not do as good a job as we wanted to do, or as the City has a right to expect.”
So what happened? Did the mayor wait too long to declare a snow emergency?
Was the Sanitation Department crippled by cuts or sabotaged by frustrated union workers?
Or did too many residents underestimate the storm and drive, only to abandon their vehicles?
Mayor Bloomberg said there will be accountability. “We’ll find out what was different this time and try to do everything to make sure it’s better next time.”
During a press conference on Wednesday, John J. Doherty, the city’s sanitation commissioner, said that he expects that every street in the five boroughs would be plowed by 7 a.m. on Thursday.
The hour has arrived.
Is your street plowed? Take a walk over to the window, open the curtains, and take a peek. Hopefully, what you see will make you happier than it did on Tuesday and on Wednesday. Did Mr. Doherty live up to his word?
(Source: NY Times)
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9 Responses
My block has yet to be plowed even one time.
The situation is so bad I expect that it will take quite a while for the workers to actually be able to clear just my block alone.
I feel like a prisoner.
After midnight last night, a bulldozer came and finally dug out my block. After all the geniouses shoveled their driveways into the middle of the street, no plow could have made it through. It took the bulldozer a solid hour to clear the street.
Many streets in Kensinton have not seen a plow yet whereas others are clean – do they clear streets at random or is there a method th their madness?!!!
East 32nd bet I&J and J&K has never seen a plow !! It totally ridiculous ?!!!! Will bloomy return my tax money that I can use right now to call a tow truck and remove my car from the 3 feet of snow ?????????
Kensington ISN’T in Greenfield’s district, so while he made a whole ruckus and got results for his districts we wern’t included in that.
I live in kensinton and we got plowed late late last night.
And Ditmas finally got cleared, 72 Hours after the storm ended!!!
i heard bull dozers the whole last night, but i didn’t see any plowing. Maybe they were doing some construction work.
A plow came thru my block late last night, but there were no salters. A plow can only do so much without a salter.
#1, you wrote “My block has yet to be plowed even one time” When a plow finally does come your street is probably going to need to be plowed only once!
#8- I know what I wrote, and that was based on many blocks being cleaned repeatedly. Some blocks were plowed early Monday and needed re-plowing (and were replowed) thereafter. Further, there was so much snow on our street, that the plows actually DID have to go through twice.