Blizzard 2010 Hearing

[BudFrump23]

Posted: 1/10/11 at 1:01pm

Anyone else watching the City Counsel let the Mayor's Deputies have it?

My favorite so far:

"So, if this blizzard was not enough to warrant a State of Emergency for New York City, please tell us what would?"

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/10/11 at 1:05pm

Have they announced what tropical island Michael Bloomberg was sitting on while the blizzard was hitting NYC?

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 1/10/11 at 2:08pm

Maybe he was in Disney World with Christie.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 12:15pm

Mystery solved
Link

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 3:55pm

I haven't been following this Bloomberg controversy. So, Bloomberg flew to Bermuda late night on the 24th and returned to NYC shortly after the blizzard started on the 26th, right? What was the controversial part? Did he say he never left NYC?

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 4:38pm

Matt,
The controversy lies in that Bloomberg has been loudly crying that where he was during the blizzard and crisis does not magtte and is none of their business since, according to him, he is always accessible via phone and email. They also have refused to name a singular individual who would have been in the decision making position in his absence and the 9 page report issued by Bloomberg's office that outlined the failures during the storm, according to the article in the Daily News, listed must of what went wrong but made no mention of decision makers and people who would have been at fault.
In particular, Bloomberg's statement of always being accessible is a point to be raised in the hearings and debate because, as shown in Bloomberg's early press statements, he was GROSSLY unaware of what was actually unfolding on the streets of New York City, particularly in the outer boroughs.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 5:02pm

But if he arrived in NYC midday on the 26th (according to the article in that link), then wouldn't he have been aware of what was going on? It sounds like he was aware, came back earlier than planned, and arrived around the time the airports were being closed. My flight arrived about 11 am on the 26th and the traffic was really slow, but Queens didn't appear to be in a crisis stage at that time. I don't know who is at fault, but it does sort of sound like Bloomberg is being scapegoated for the debacle. People want a name to string up with a noose, but I doubt it has more to do with reelections than it does with satiating an angry mob.

Updated On: 1/11/11 at 05:02 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 5:15pm

But something that came out in the hearing was that Bloomberg didn't know whose responsibility it was to declare a snow emergency. He's only been mayor since 2002. You'd think by now he would know the job.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 5:48pm

Wasn't there a huge blizzard three or four years ago? I remember a friend of mine sending me photos. Was that declared an emergency? I know Times Square was considered a priority because of New Year's Eve and I think they did about as good a job with that as possible. I guess the question is about whose responsibility it was to call in reinforcements for the boroughs. But I'm not going to pretend I know what it was like for everyone. I just know what it was like in midtown. We were only there a couple of days during the middle of it all and never ventured further than between 32nd and 50th. But I did buy some terrific new boots on sale at Sketchers!

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 6:03pm

The internal report apparently showed that Bloomberg truly did not know what was going on, even after he had arrived back. He was being told that things were sunshine and roses all over the city by the people around him and all that he actually saw himself was the tidied up stretches of the city between Gracie, City Hall and wherever he happened to be for a photo op. It seems that he never viewed any of the local news reports that revealed what was really going on. Bloomberg and several of the deputies, who testified before the council, took people at the word that there were no problems, even when many people around the city were actively in crisis mode.

It matters where Bloomberg was to begin with and what happened around him after he had returned because the chain of communication ALONE was so severely broken. And much as the New Jersey command was broken thanks to Christie and his people, the chain of command in the city was just as flawed. People had a fit that Christie stayed at Disney after the blizzard was set to bear down. Bloomberg should be held to that standard too.

As far as Queens at 11am on the 26th, the storm was still light at that point. I, in fact, was out running errands before the storm really hit. It was not forecast to get bad until 5pm on the 26th.. and that evening was when it went into crisis mode. At the same time, city leadership KNEW it was bearing down and were not fully preparing at that time.


And yes, to the anger of New Yorkers, no offense, cleaning up midtown for the tourists and the broadcast seemed to be a priority. The city LOVES to keep things pleasant for the tourists, often times giving citizens the shaft to make the tourists happy. This was a GLARING example and it angered many people to see crystal clear midtown and Bloomberg essentially saying that the tourists are having a good time, so the city is fine, when just outside that bubble, it was chaos. People died because emergency responders couldn't get through streets - that is documented facts, people were snowed in for DAYS without even a sighting of clean up crews. garbage and recycling began to pile up for what ended up being at least 2 weeks.. Hundreds of people were stranded for hours and hours in subway cars..

The VERY BASIC rules for preparing for a snow storm were not followed.

The news would show the border of Queens and Nassau county.. on one side of the street, clean and tidy, the other side looked somewhat like a war zone.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 6:07pm

It was also discussed during the hearings that clean up crews in Brooklyn were redeployed to Manhattan because they were needed there. They testified at the same time that Brooklyn was hit by the storm much harder than Manhattan and that is why Manhattan was far easier to clean. if Manhattan was far better off and easier to clean and Brooklyn was a wreck, why did they not do the reverse and send Manhattan crews to Brooklyn?

That point was raised by several council members as well.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 6:13pm

The city LOVES to keep things pleasant for the tourists, often times giving citizens the shaft to make the tourists happy.

Unfortunately, that comes with the territory living in any major tourist destination. Orlando is not that pretty outside the walls of Disney and in Chicago, the Mag Mile and State Street will always come first around the holidays. But for NYC, new Year's Eve is THE biggest 24 hours of tourist commerce of the year and it it broadcast worldwide. Not cleaning it up first would probably have resulted in a bigger mess (physically, politically and economically) than what ultimately happened. Yes, it sucks for the citizens, but without tourists, it would suck even more for everyone in the long run.