Here's my last complaint about a politician this year.
I'm sure you've all heard about the blizzard we on the East Coast had on Sunday. Even though the plow missed my house and I was snowed in for two days, I thought it was beautiful.
Unfortunately, the mayor of New York City dropped the ball. If you lived in Manhattan everything was fine. The other boroughs didn't fare too well. Mayor Bloomberg has done a worse job of clearing the snow than Mayor Lindsey did back in 1969. Back then, Mayor Lindsey only neglected the people and streets of Queens, Mayor Bloomberg managed to ignore Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx.
On Monday evening he actually suggested that New Yorkers should carry on as usual, maybe even take in a Broadway show. The only problem with that is that only those living in Manhattan would have been able to get to a show. The buses and subway were barely operating. He seemed to have no idea of the problems of the outer boroughs.
Ambulances couldn't get through. In some cases, the EMT's left their ambulance and walked to their patient. In spite of the efforts of the EMT's, two people died.
There was no reason for these problems. The mayor was aware there would be a storm, he should have been better prepared. When he saw the snow on Sunday, he should have declared a state of emergency immediately. Instead, he stood aside and claimed that everything was OK even though a train with passengers was stalled on frozen tracks for several hours.
Only now is he starting to take responsibility for the problems in the outer boroughs.
Contrast that with Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, NJ. Granted, Newark is smaller than NYC, but Mr. Booker has gotten involved with the clean-up. He is using Twitter to find areas or people who need help. He has helped dig out a stuck car. He even brought diapers to new parents who couldn't get out. If someone tweeted him about an unplowed street, he either sent the plows or went himself to shovel some snow.
I really don't expect the mayor to actually shovel the snow or dig out stalled cars, but it is nice to know that he got personally involved in getting his city working.
2 comments:
Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic lost his next election because of such poor snow removal in 1979 when 2 storms dumped a total of 29" in the city. It's a BIG DEAL when cities are immobilized like that. I don't know if anyone died in Chicago, but the deaths this year in New York were so damn unnecessary.
But - happy new year! Hopefully this coming year will be better than the last. :)
Hi Cathy....just reading back some as I am here for the first time...Always like meeting someone new from Jersey...I was up in Princeton during the big storm and loved the Mayors big press conferance...He really shouldn't try to speak "bad" Spanish...He should just have Yolanda Vega translating for him....And he also needs an attitude adjustment...
Down here in Atlanta we heard that the entire city stopped for two days...no mail, nothing...garbage wasn't picked up for a week....Now here is a place that really isn't prepared for snow!!
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