Some random quotes from today’s news conference:
“Biggest problem right now is stuck ambulances and buses. That’s the real reason for the slowness to plow streets.”
“Biggest effort to clear snow that I’ve ever seen.”
“Another 24 hours (and maybe more) before we get to everyone.”
“If your street was plowed the response was adequate. If your street wasn’t plowed it was inadequate.”
“Don’t think we should sit around and say the end of the world is here.”
“Don’t use 911 for non-emergencies.”
The mayor also called for blood donations b/c the blood supply is getting low: nybloodcenter.org
As of 12:30 pm on 12/28 Clinton and Henry Streets in Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill had not been plowed once. North of Atlantic Avenue, Clinton St was plowed down to the blacktop and salted. In addtion, only a few side streets were plowed in Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill but most were plowed in Brooklyn Heights.
I have lived in CG/CH for almost 40 years and have never seen a main street like Clinton go unplowed for so long; not even during the storms of 1996, 2003 and 2006. During those storms, the main streets of my neighborhood were plowed and salted during and after the storms multiple times.
On the afternoon of Monday 12/27, I did see quite a few garbage trucks, with plows attached, stuck in snow on Court Street. This happened because sanitation department waited too long to begin plowing and the snow overwhelmed the trucks.
Based on the number of subway lines that were shut down, my observations and the observations of many others, city government failed to handle this storm adequately, except in a few, select areas.
Mayor Bloomberg should be apologizing and taking responsibility for this poor performance and promising to do better during the next storm, rather than glossing over this failure with political spin. Bloomberg deserves to have his nose smacked for displaying his all too common, thinly-veiled sense of entitled arrogance during his last press conference.