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Home Front: Politix
Outrage as Transit a Mess, NYers Still Stuck
2010-12-28
Two days after slamming the tri-state, millions of people affected by a post-Christmas blizzard continue to dig out from a storm that shut down area airports, crippled commuter train and subway service and stranded thousands traveling during the holiday weekend.

The sixth largest snowstorm in the history of New York City dumped two feet of snow and left many people, especially those living in the outer boroughs and small suburban side streets, feeling trapped or ignored as city resources went to dig out Manhattan. Mayor Michael Bloomberg blames the fast pace of snowfall and the huge gusts of wind.

Though the storm came just after Christmas, and while many people were already on vacation, those that had to commute found the trip long, exhausting and complicated. And those who found themselves still under a blanket of white two days later were irate.

"I'm furious at Mayor Bloomberg, he's a rich man, so he doesn't care about the little people," said New Enrico's Car Service livery driver Julio Carpio, speaking in Spanish. "I have to work, why aren't people out there plowing? Why does the mayor always go on TV the night before to say, 'We're all set with a fleet of salt trucks,'? and then you never see a single truck. They always abandon Queens."
Why does this remind me soooo much of the bitching about Bush after Katrina? I'm not about to pass judgement on Bloomberg as I am not there and don't know the logistics, but man this is giving me flashbacks. Any 'Burg New Yorkers have an on-the-ground feedback of this?
Posted by:DarthVader

#24  refrigerating food wasn't the issue then... yikes!
Posted by: Frank G   2010-12-28 21:41  

#23  If I didn't have the fireplace, which I rarely use, I'd be dead. Jacked the heat up to 75 when they started to talk about power failures. Good thing. It was 48 degrees inside when I finally got the power back.
Posted by: tu3031   2010-12-28 21:12  

#22  but that's just me...
Posted by: Frank G   2010-12-28 21:07  

#21  your landscaping looks a little...mono-color. I suggest you brighten it up with some flowery annuals and the occasional perennial with vibrant hues.
Posted by: Frank G   2010-12-28 21:05  

#20  See what I mean...

Posted by: tu3031   2010-12-28 21:02  

#19  20 hours with no power up here around Boston. The snow was bad but they were handling it. The winds, however, were hellacious. Roaring, house shaking winds from about 9 Sunday night to 8 Monday morning. When I finally got outside, the house looked like it was made out of snow. Totally coated.
Posted by: tu3031   2010-12-28 20:53  

#18  As for the complaints from the outer boroughs and side streets, plows work radially from their storage place. I presume that is in Manhattan. They can't get to you until they've cleared where they're coming from. Perhaps y'all should consider clubbing together to buy your own snowplows and road salt, and hire your own crews -- I'd bet the volunteer firemen would be thrilled to have new toys to play with... although they'd leave 'em where they were in a New York minute when the fire alarm went off.


Maybe if they got enough resources together they could even incorporate, and form a city government.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2010-12-28 19:51  

#17  Rain tonight, Abu, about an inch...oh, the humanity!
Posted by: Frank G   2010-12-28 19:34  

#16  We had a little rain in San Diego, well, quite a lot for us, maybe a whole seven inches. But today was gorgeous. That's just a little report for all of you who would abandon us to our fate. :)
Posted by: Abu Uluque (new computer)   2010-12-28 19:31  

#15  There are no bridges between the Bronx and Manhattan? They must be levitating trucks over the Bronx River these days...

Why the hell would they be storing all of their snow removal equipment in Manhattan? I'd think that real estate costs alone would dictate that the outer boroughs would have their own equipment stored in their own borough buildings.

Everything I've ever read about the governance of New York City tells me that the incorporation of the outer boroughs was a fundamental error. The city was, is, and always will be over-hierarchical, a Hayekian nightmare of distributed knowledge and centralized power.
Posted by: Mitch H.   2010-12-28 16:05  

#14  When one gets snow in a city, with nowhere to blow the snow, things come to a standstill pretty quick. Plow the snow aside and you have stuck parked cars. Bring dump trucks to haul away the snow and you have traffic jams. When we get blizzards in Anchorage, Alaska, I work at home until the commuter destruction derby ends on the Glenn Highway into town.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2010-12-28 15:53  

#13  Even Buffalo, NY gets shut down when the snow is falling heavily, then blown by the wind into packed drifts, and we were told Buffalo has more snowplows than anywhere else in the country.

As for the complaints from the outer boroughs and side streets, plows work radially from their storage place. I presume that is in Manhattan. They can't get to you until they've cleared where they're coming from. Perhaps y'all should consider clubbing together to buy your own snowplows and road salt, and hire your own crews -- I'd bet the volunteer firemen would be thrilled to have new toys to play with... although they'd leave 'em where they were in a New York minute when the fire alarm went off.

Idiots.
Posted by: trailing wife   2010-12-28 13:48  

#12  They always get Manhattan first, followed by the Bronx (b/c it's right there- no bridges.) Then they 'radiate' east and south.

If NYC didn't clean up the financial district first, we'd lose it- they would move. It would also have international implications (don't tell a foreign government that their money is snowed in...)
Posted by: Free Radical   2010-12-28 13:31  

#11  Ha! Two feet of snow. It takes two whole inches of snow to close down my city.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2010-12-28 13:06  

#10  Actually, this sounds superficially like John Lindsay's catastrophic leadership failure during a nor-easter in February 1969; there's the same bellyaching about the outer buroughs being neglected by a Manhattan-centric liberal Republican-fusionist mayor.

Combined with the Ocean-Hill Brownsville teachers strike of the year before, the '69 snow emergency was a symbol of the administrative collapse of New York City under Lindsay.
Posted by: Mitch H.   2010-12-28 12:58  

#9  Grew up in Anchorage. Never missed a day of school for anything but earthquakes.

However, it takes a major investment to be prepared to guarantee 100% up time for roads in major metropolitan areas. I personally don't think that New York has experience enough of these to justify that investment.

However, if global warmng continues then they may have to reconsider.
Posted by: DoDo   2010-12-28 12:24  

#8  Good point, free radical.

A fair amount of the Long Island RR and the other commuter lines are also in depressed, uncovered sections.
Posted by: Lord Garth   2010-12-28 12:23  

#7  While almost all the MTA in Manhattan is underground, some of it in the other 4 boroughs is at grade or elevated...

Or worse- the line I use is mostly in a cutting- open air but below grade. All the snow blew into it, so it's completely KO'd. But this is only hour 30 since the clock started.
Posted by: Free Radical   2010-12-28 12:15  

#6  It's never a good idea to be parked on the street when the NYC Department Of Sanitation is playing with big toys.
Posted by: Free Radical   2010-12-28 12:05  

#5  Bloomberg has a point when he cites the wind (which was quite strong during this storm). Transit is especially vulnerable when snow gets into places that are hard to clear.

While almost all the MTA in Manhattan is underground, some of it in the other 4 boroughs is at grade or elevated and clearing snow off these takes special equipment that has to be moved from site to site (without damaging it).

Regarding streets, the wind is not as much an issue.
Posted by: Lord Garth   2010-12-28 11:49  

#4  Bloomie: "You people! It's a little snow, quitcher bitchin, why don't ya? At least you're not eating anything salty, yannow?"
Posted by: mojo   2010-12-28 11:46  

#3  Thanks FR. I have been in snowstorms that come down faster than the plows can clear it. And if that happens for 24-48 hours, you can pretty much count on the city being shut down for 2-3 days after the snow stops. Happens at once a year on average in Colorado.
Posted by: DarthVader   2010-12-28 11:38  

#2  Any 'Burg New Yorkers have an on-the-ground feedback of this?

Yes... it hasn't even been 72 hours since the snow stopped... the assets are deployed and working 24hr shifts; all subway lines are stumbling back to life except the one *I* use (of course- it's all a plot against *MEEEEEE* 'cause Bloomberg is rich and stuff); I think people got caught off guard because the last couple of 'blizzards' they forecast were damp squibs. This (for NYC metro) was a real one- 2"/hr for 12 hours, visibility down to 100m. A LOT of vehicles are stuck and it raises hell with the plows.
Posted by: Free Radical   2010-12-28 11:02  

#1  The Chicago blizzard of 1979 and the inept response of the anointed Daley Mayoral Chosen resulted in a change of personnel in the next election.
Posted by: P2kontheroad   2010-12-28 10:01  

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