Though New York’s new mayor, Bill de Blasio, made sure to shovel his own sidewalk during a snow storm a few weeks ago, he’s having a tougher time clearing the rest of New York City’s roads during today’s unexpectedly strong storm.
As this correspondent has seen, traffic has been backed up on Park Avenue all day with nary a plow in sight. Other New Yorkers have noticed this apparent negligence as well, taking to Twitter to air their grievances:
https://twitter.com/gurrahschapiro/statuses/425755434775879680
#deblasio #nycsnow what? Did Bloomberg hide the keys to the snowplows or something?
— Allie in the City (@CityGirlRants) January 21, 2014
#myfoxny #deblasio you had a chance to show us and you did- nothing. Manhattan is a mess! Get off you a— and plow baby plow!
— Bubs (@bubblesbott) January 21, 2014
https://twitter.com/bapartofmylife/statuses/425743487011540992
Actually, Manhattan’s no better.
https://twitter.com/VesteyWilliam/statuses/425750367650213888
Bang up job #Deblasio. Unplowed streets, chaos, no cops, and no stay off the roads. #johnlindsay all over again. Need warm cup of pre-k.
— TheDoctor (@sanitychecknyc) January 21, 2014
Goodnight, and good luck NYC. pic.twitter.com/GpOuzJp0Ug
— Big Spaceship (@bigspaceship) January 21, 2014
UPDATE: Residents of the Upper East Side (the only neighborhood of Manhattan to vote against Bill de Blasio in the mayoral election) thinks the new mayor is purposefully not having snow plowed in their part of town, according to a New York Post report.
“He is trying to get us back. He is very divisive and political,” said Molly Jong Fast, a lifelong resident of the Upper East Side. “By not plowing the Upper East Side, he is saying, ‘I’m not one of them.’ But we have everyone in this area on the Upper East Side. We have rich people, middle-class people, and housing projects. We have it all.”
“What is he thinking?” another resident, Barbara Tamerin, asked. “We’re supposed to get up to a foot of snow and nobody on the Upper East Side is supposed to blink an eye? I can barely get around and I’m on snow shoes. . . . “We need Mayor Bloomberg back.”