Drifts of two-three foot high snow! Unpaved side streets in the outer boroughs! Yellow-stained snow! Slush that will stain ruin your boots! Suspended subway service and packed train cars! It's the first snow in the city!
The snow that hit the Northeast and parts of the Midwest seems to have subsided, and now the clean up begins. Some reports said that 20 inches fell in the NYC-area, which means a $20 million clean-up bill (it's about $1 million/inch), but it seemed more like 12 inches or so. The Mayor announced the first "State of Emergency" for the city, and the Department of Sanitation did a pretty good job of clearing most roads. Either way, if you weren't shoveling, many were having Central Park snow fun, like countless people did yesterday.
Gothamist is pretty annoyed with the media calling this the "Blizzard of 2005"; January isn't even over yet - this is like tempting Mother Nature to make fools of us! There was a Nor'easter in December, back in 2003, so there's clearly time to work on blizzards. The Daily News wonders if the media made a bigger deal out of the snow than it needed to. Considering how the Jets are out of the playoffs and the only other big local news was happening in Palm Beach, Gothamist thinks it's safe to say yes, the blizzard was a godsend of sorts for local news networks.
Did you know you can make $9/hour shoveling snow for the Department of Sanitation. And here's an oldie but goodie from 2003 - Tim Hall's Snowsteria video. Yes, everything time it snows, it feels like the very first time.
