Bloomberg Praises Sanitation Dept's "Amazing" Snow Response

Mayor Bloomberg reassured the city would have clearer roads—100,000 tons of salt! 1,400 plows!—after today's winter storm, pointing out, "New York City has nearly 6,000 miles of streets. So to plow all our streets, just think about this, it's like plowing form here to Los Angeles, and back. It is really quite an amazing job that the sanitations workers have to do and that they do do." (If your street hasn't been plowed, call 311.) Schools Chancellor Joel Klein explained the rare snow day, "A lot of those streets weren't passable. We have kids, young kids, walking to schools. We transport 150,000 or so students on yellow buses. With the wind and the snow blowing and the traffic issues that we were hearing about, we thought this was the right decision. As I said, it's never the preferred decision, but the right decision." And the Mayor had a message for the school kids: "For those kids who were hoping for two consecutive snow days in a row, things can always change, but my suggestion is to do your homework."

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By Jen Chung in News on March 2, 2009 6:28 PM

Comments [rss]

Tower18

At least in my corner of Brooklyn, they actually did do a pretty good job. The streets were salted before the snow, and plowed numerous times after.

Granted, I live around the corner from a sanitation garage.

handsomedevil

I'm just hoping he doesn't do another post-snowstorm ticket blitz this year.

Dean Witter

Wow, thanks for explaining how big the city is and what a big job it is to plow the streets. I guess maybe that explains why during the 2/3 or so of the year it doesn't snow, they don't bother to fill the potholes in the roads and cracks in the pavement.

Snoopy

DSNY doesn't do potholes. It's a different union.

Snoopy

It's not quite the same as plowing from here to LA and back. With 1,400 trucks, it's the equivalent of one truck plowing a bit over 4 miles. That could be done in about a half hour. So why are they plowing bare pavement? Couldn't be because the greedy guys at DSNY are getting overtime could it?

drewo

Couldn't be because the greedy guys at DSNY are getting overtime could it?

Do you really think they would take advantage of the system?

Steven

I think NYC public school closed because they're are starting to feel the pressure from the suburban schools. If the schools were open nobody goes anyway and most teachers are absent.

Gothamist_Cynic

What? The roads are still covered and slushy as hell.

Not Your Sweetie

He didn't just tell people to call 311 if their street wasn't plowed. he told them to call if thy want to find out which parks give away hot chocolate. Which was dumb as he added how many extra calls the operators had to handle that day. NYC parks department has a website where that information may be posted.