Why all the angst? New Yorkers wanted budget cuts and personnel reductions – they got budget cuts and personnel reductions. Now, surprise! There’s nobody to drive the snowplows. You get what you pay for, and if you don’t pay, you don’t get.
It also might help if people had stayed home, so the plows would be able to get through. All the photos I’ve seen of NY show cars littered all over the landscape, stuck in snowdrifts. If you don’t have snow tires, four-wheel drive or chains, for Pete’s sake stay off the roads when it’s blizzarding.