Mayors and governors are responsible for day to day operations of their governments. City Councilmen are legislators, and have nothing to do with those day to day operations. There is a world of difference.

I was responding to Dave Hirsch’s slander of Democrats. And you have joined in the bashing. When did Thou Shalt Bash Democrats become one of the 613 Commandments?

It occurred to me that we see an example of what a Republican would do over in New Jersey. Their Governor is in Florida and their Lt. Governor is in Mexico.

MODERATORS NOTE: Just for the record, so is NYC Councilman Brad Lander – a Dem.

What is interesting is that Manhattan and the Bronx voted for Thompson in the past election and those boroughs do seem to have had more cleared streets. And the entire frum community voted for Bloomberg overwhelmingly.

I personally have published no speculation regarding the reason for the problems; hopefully there will be an investigation. I’ve just published what I personally have observed. It is possible that we had less snow here in the Bronx, it is possible that the cuts to sanitation services were less severe here, it is possible that we had fewer stuck cars here (Izzy6 just gave a first hand report from Brooklyn and there WERE some problems with abandoned cars there; I personally haven’t seen any in the Bronx). But I don’t know for sure what created the problems. Hopefully there will be an investigation and we will learn.

To all those claiming that there were plows but they kept getting stuck behind cars, that is simply not true. There was an inadequate amount of plows. Some main arteries got services (to a bare minimum) but most didn’t. There were plenty streets with no vehicles stuck; yet, no plows even bothered trying. Why weren’t there any plows right in the beginning (when cars didn’t get stuck yet) so that it would have less of an impact? Why didn’t Bloomy put out plows on 4×4′s as Giuliani did in ’96? Why didn’t the city hire private ATV’s to assist the cleanup? Bottom line is that the city was ill-prepared for this snow storm.

But what bothers me most is Bloomberg’s arrogance. Saying NYC is at work, is ridiculous. Claiming that everything is okay besides the streets that weren’t plowed, is crazy. We need an explanation or, better said, resignation.

Basically, Samuel Johnson spelled it “plough” while Noah Webster spelled it “plow”. That is how “plow” became the standard American spelling while the standard British spelling is “plough”.

But about the issue that EVERYONE had yesterday about not seeing any plows on the road:
The main issue is that Mayor Bloomberg should have declared a snow emergency. That would have kept all those 2 wheel drive cars and minivans from getting stuck in the middle of the road, blocking the plows.
After all the jokes have been made about there not being any plows, There actually were many plows out there (not as many as there could have been,because of the holiday week/weekend). A few of them got stuck on big snow banks, but for the most part the plows just sat there bec there was no where for them to go, they were blocked in by all the ditched/stuck cars.
Many of the big streets and avenues had ditched cars littering the middle of the road, also blocking EMS and FDNY.

Last night we drove around in a 4×4 covering Chaveirim calls (boosts & house/car lockouts) and helping other emergency situations, and it was a jungle out there!!

Coney Island Ave & 18 Ave was one big gridlock of abandoned vehicles in all directions in middle of the road. 3 PLOWS, 2 City Buses, 2 Police cars, 17 Taxis 55 cars & almost a fire truck, all stuck in or leading up to this intersection.
Ocean Parkway (thankfully plowed) had parking on the side and middle of the main road. especially near Lawrence (70 Prct)
Even while driving a 4×4 we still tried to stick to the main roads. We didnt go down a single side street, bec we might not have made it.
Avenues N & O were clear enough to drive through.
Ave P (very wide) was plowed which made cutting through Midwood easy.
Cony Island Ave was passable from Church till Cortelyou, and then plowed from Foster Ave. to deep into Midwood.
60th St was also cleared/plowed for the most part, opening up a main entrance into BP.
16th & 18th Avenues (the only ones I was on in BP) were NOT plowed, but were passable for the most part.
18th Ave from Mc Donald to Ocean Pkwy, and then from OP to Coney was completely blocked with Abandoned cars in the middle, and with plows sitting there on the side “waiting for spring to come melt the snow”.

You can’t begin to compare us to out-of-town, because there they dont generally have too many cars parked on the street, (if at all) so plowing there is a breeze.

Normally NYC isn’t this bad about getting snow cleared, the DOS usually does a pretty good job of having ALL the main roads and many side streets done in a timely manner.
The MAIN PROBLEM WAS THE ABANDONED CARS BLOCKING UP THE ROADS.

Much of this could have been avoided, if the Mayor would have declared a Snow Emergency. Thats almost the equivalent of declaring a State of Emergency on a City level. Like in Jersey, this would have kept all non-Emergency vehicles off the road, leaving the roads clear to be plowed in a timely fashion. Instead what you had all these small cars thinking they could get by wherever they wanted, and thinking that 16+ inches of snow wouldn’t stop them. Well it DID!! And because of them, the plows didn’t have room or place to plow the snow to the side, clearing up the middle.

This was the main problem, and then this led to the EMS being backlogged by about 1000 Calls, and 3 hour waits for critical calls!!! They just couldn’t get through, or fast enough, and thats when they weren’t getting stuck on unplowed streets. How many people died today, or arrived to the hospital in a more severe condition because of this??? (YWN: http://goo.gl/bwbUn)

As taxpaying citizens on NYC we expect the basic service of having our streets cleared of snow in a timely manner. At least the main streets!!!

Not to call this a “Katrina”, but the mayor and/or OEM should have been more prepared for this kind of storm.

Hopefully Mayor Bloomberg will learn from this, and have a contingency plan for the next snow storm we get, and not keep blaming the problems on the rate of the snowfall (2-3in per hour)!!

Thanks to Councilman Greenfield for his support to his constituents throughout this snow storm,(YWN Article http://goo.gl/ndIAt) And maybe he can “help” the Mayor make some changes.

Stay safe and keep warm. And if you know of any elderly neighbors, check in on them, and see if they need anything.