December's North American blizzard is "dead and gone"(haha like my reference to Justin Timberlake?) but with another storm approaching Tuesday night going into Wednesday's morning commute, many New Yorkers must be concerned, considering the way clean up was handled in late December.
Today's hearing held amongst the NYC Council, regarding the storm cleaning mishaps, addressed the many mistakes made. Not surprisingly, Mayor Bloomberg was not in attendance. Others were left to take the blame and scrutiny! Probably for the better though, considering Bloomberg's lackadaisical attitude and statements regarding the December snowstorm. The Daily News quoted Bloomberg as saying "The world has not come to an end...The city's going on. Many people are taking the day off. Most stores are open. There's no reason for anybody to panic." [Bloomberg's PR people are really going to need some magic to work on his communication skills.]
Deputy Mayor of Operations, Stephen Goldsmith fessed up to the following mistakes:
-Failure to declare snow emergency
-Not enough accountability tools
-Insufficient deployment resources
-Failure to procure private resources
-Inadequate ability to communicate with fields unit
-Breakdown in the 9-1-1 emergency system
Each of these mistakes caused severe repercussions for NYC's community. Ambulances were unable to reach victims in need of help in a timely manner due to uncleaned streets and major back-ups.
I drove into the Bronx, the 29th, for Yankees Stadium's 1st ever Pinstripe Bowl, and was astounded to see the streets still shabbily cleaned leaving locals no where to park safely, hence the parking tickets/fines. Sidewalks unsafe to walk on, and garbage stacked and piled up to God knows where land.
Hopefully the city will have its act together for the storm to come. Better to be safe than sorry! Future NYC council meetings are to be held concerning the MTA's part during the storm.
