MESSAGE
| DATE | 2010-12-28 |
| FROM | Michael L Richardson
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Mayor Turns a blind Eye to Brooklyn
|
Can Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island succeed from New York City, and
New York State?
On 12/28/2010 9:42 AM, phantom21-at-mindspring.com wrote:
> The blind eye wasn't just for Brooklyn. Most streets here in Queens (at least here in Ridgewood) haven't seen one touch of a plow, and there are drifts 3 feet high.
>
> Mark
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
>> From: Ruben Safir
>> Sent: Dec 28, 2010 2:12 AM
>> To: hangout-at-nylxs.com
>> Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Mayor Turns a blind Eye to Brooklyn
>>
>> ~
>> Snow job! Brooklyn pols blast lackluster storm response
>> Brooklyn pols blast city for lackluster storm response
>>
>> By Gary Buiso
>> Monday, December 27, 2010 11:09 PM EST
>> Comment (No comments posted.) Email To a Friend
>>
>> Brooklyn received a one-two punch on Monday — first when Mother
>> Nature pummeled us with the sixth-largest snowstorm ever, then when City
>> Hall didn’t do enough to clear the streets of the most-important
>> borough.
>>
>> The blizzard that dumped two feet of snow ended in the wee hours on
>> Monday, but hundreds of streets throughout Brooklyn remained untouched
>> by city plows all day, stranding and endangering residents, and
>> infuriating critics.
>>
>> And elevated subway tracks — common in Brooklyn, though virtually
>> unheard of in Manhattan — were rendered impassable all day long
>> (though limited service on the F line was restored by 10:30 pm and was
>> expected to be available for Tuesday’s rush hour).
>>
>> “This isn’t the worst storm we’ve ever had, but it seems to
>> be the worst response to any major storm in recent memory,†said
>> Councilman Steve Levin (D–Williamsburg).
>>
>> Indeed, much of Brooklyn remained inaccessible by public or private
>> transportation. Major arteries, such as Nassau Avenue in Greenpoint and
>> Fourth Avenue in Park Slope were impassable.
>>
>> And Southern Brooklyn was no better off.
>>
>> “Here, in the ‘outer-boroughs,’ we are used to being the
>> step-children of Manhattan and waiting for available plows, but there
>> are major streets in my district that haven’t see a plow at
>> all,†Councilman David Greenfield (D–Midwood) said around
>> midday. “I’ve never seen such a wholesale failure of government
>> to provide basic services.â€Â
>>
>> Borough President Markowitz agreed. “I would doubt the Upper East
>> Side is like this. Or the Upper West Side for that matter,†he said.
>>
>> “Something happened in this snowstorm that we got behind the curve.
>> Something came up short, and Brooklyn … took the brunt of it.â€Â
>>
>> But Sanitation officials saw things differently.
>>
>> ADVERTISEMENT
>> “There is no difference for any borough,†said agency spokesman
>> Keith Mellis. “It’s the same plan we use for the entire
>> city.â€Â
>>
>> The city insisted that the culprit was simply the storm’s ferocity,
>> though abandoned cars at a variety of intersections didn’t help the
>> clean-up effort.
>>
>> At the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 21st Street in the South Slope,
>> for example, a traffic jam of abandoned cars imprisoned a plow,
>> rendering the vehicle impotent.
>>
>> The same scene played out down in Midwood, on Avenue N and East 13th
>> Street.
>>
>> “I don’t want to hit the parked cars,†a Sanitation worker
>> told our photographer on a side street, explaining why he didn’t
>> risk moving down the narrow road.
>>
>> The agency said it assembled 365 salt spreaders, 1,700 plows and 2,000
>> workers to clean up the mess. Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg didn’t
>> exactly feel the borough’s pain, saying at a Monday news conference
>> that “the world has not come to an end.â€Â
>>
>> “The city’s going on,†he added. “Many people are taking
>> the day off. Most stores are open. There’s no reason for anyone to
>> panic.â€Â
>>
>> At press time, no weather-related deaths have been reported. The roof of
>> a parking garage on Second Street in Park Slope collapsed because of the
>> snow, shutting down Fourth Avenue from Atlantic Avenue to Eighth Street.
>>
>> And things weren’t all bad. At least not for WR Hardware on
>> Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint, where White Monday became Black Friday.
>>
>> “People were lined up in front of the door this morning,†said
>> manager Martin G, whose hottest sellers were ice choppers, shovels,
>> window-washing fluid and salt. A snowstorm “always helps,†he
>> added.
>>
>> And in Gowanus, fresh air was a welcome respite from the familiar, fetid
>> odor arising from the polluted Gowanus Canal.
>>
>> “This is one of those rare occasions that you can’t smell the
>> stink,†said President Street resident Linda Mariano.
>>
>> Brooklyn’s business hub — the Metrotech complex, which includes
>> the Community Newspaper Group Building — was all but abandoned, save
>> for a handful of hurried pedestrians, and a small boy with plastic bags
>> strangely tied over his winter boots, frolicking in a massive snowdrift.
>>
>> Train service was suspended in much of southern Brooklyn, trapping the
>> area in a snowy isolation.
>>
>> “We haven’t been plowed and we can’t get out,†said
>> Edith Storch, a resident of Sea Gate, a private community near Coney
>> Island, that is without public transportation altogether. “I
>> don’t see my way out of here. We were praying we don’t need
>> medical care.â€Â
>>
>> Transit spokeswoman Deirdre Parker said the storm scuttled the
>> agency’s pre-blizzard preparations, which included moving trains
>>
> >from outdoor yards to enclosed areas.
>
>> “It just overwhelmed our equipment,†she said. Ice on the
>> electrified rail stalled trains, some as long as seven hours. “We
>> had snow blowers, but at some point during a blizzard, it just blows
>> right back.â€Â
>>
>> Suspended train service meant a rare day of silence for those living
>> adjacent to the elevated tracks.
>>
>> “It’s very quiet here today,†said Barbara Donnelly, who has
>> lived on E. 15th Street and Avenue P, near the Q and B trains, for the
>> past 55 years. “It seems strange without them.â€Â
>>
>>
>>
>>
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