NYC's Snow Job

I had stated on Facebook a couple of days ago that the word on New York City streets regarding the abysmal snow removal efforts was a concerted effort on the part of the Sanitation Department to send a message. According to this article, "Sanitation Dept's slow down was a budget protest" it was...

"They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important," said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), who was visited yesterday by a group of guilt-ridden sanitation workers who confessed the shameless plot.

Halloran said he met with three plow workers from the Sanitation Department -- and two Department of Transportation supervisors who were on loan -- at his office after he was flooded with irate calls from constituents.

The snitches "didn't want to be identified because they were afraid of retaliation," Halloran said. "They were told [by supervisors] to take off routes [and] not do the plowing of some of the major arteries in a timely manner. They were told to make the mayor pay for the layoffs, the reductions in rank for the supervisors, shrinking the rolls of the rank-and-file."

New York's Strongest used a variety of tactics to drag out the plowing process -- and pad overtime checks -- which included keeping plows slightly higher than the roadways and skipping over streets along their routes, the sources said.

The snow-removal snitches said they were told to keep their plows off most streets and to wait for orders before attacking the accumulating piles of snow."

"Multiple Sanitation Department sources told The Post yesterday that angry plow drivers have only been clearing streets assigned to them even if that means they have to drive through snowed-in roads with their plows raised.

And they are keeping their plow blades unusually high, making it necessary for them to have to run extra passes, adding time and extra pay.

One mechanic said some drivers are purposely smashing plows and salt spreaders to further stall the cleanup effort."

They're also smashing cars...By now you've all seen this video, but it's worth showing again...mute it, the "narrator" is annoying as hell.



I'm apt to believe this article. Anyone who has ever lived in New York City and experienced snow knows how the city "normally" deals with snow, and this was not it. This was not the worst blizzard New York ever experienced nor was it unexpected, yet pre-salting never occurred and the snow plows were nowhere to be found.

Mayor Bloomberg, clearly out of touch with the working man, pooh-poohed the cries of New Yorkers and criticized them for complaining, telling them to take in a Broadway show and go shopping. Maybe they would have if they were able to leave their streets. Instead of clearing the outer boroughs, which pay enormously high taxes, Bloomberg focused on clearing the upper East Side of Manhattan, Times Square and the bike lanes!

Meanwhile, people in parts of Brooklyn whose streets weren't cleared and where the train wasn't running, were stranded and unable to get to work for over three days. As of yesterday this street in Brooklyn, was still not plowed. Of course, the head of Sanitation's street in Staten Island was plowed while the surrounding ones went untouched.

Not everyone is upset by this storm. A good friend of mine said he didn't "know what the big deal was." Of course he's on unemployment (for two years), doesn't own a car and can walk down the corner to stores and restaurants. My other friends and relatives who have to earn a living dispute his comment.

Besides grinding the city (and a couple of SUV's) to a halt this "protest" also resulted in the death of three citizens because amubulances were unable to get to them in time. The actions of this powerful union did as much harm to New York City as a "terrorist" could. About the only "good" thing to come out of this blizzard is that maybe more people will realize the power and harm of any union that could strangle a city, and Mayor "let em eat cake, no, cake has sugar in it" Bloomberg should squash any of his plans to run for president. Maybe he should start worrying more about running a city than installing unused bike lanes, screwing up midtown by putting "sitting areas" in the heart of busy streets, and telling people how much fat, salt and sugar they should be eating.

Hey New Yorkers, why did you voter this idiot in for a third term anyway???