Bloomberg On Snow-Removal Snafus: “I Regret Everything in the World”

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bloombergYes. The city should be better prepared.  No. It was a giant snowstorm – people need to just relax and enjoy a snowday.  Who cares? I got more time off work.

Mayor Bloomberg, scrambling to save his reputation as a first-rate manager after a string of snow-removal snafus left New Yorkers fuming, asked the city today for patience.

“It is a bad situation,” he said. “We are doing everything we can think of, working as hard as we can.”

Traveling to hard-hit Brooklyn, he acknowledged the anger of people whose streets haven’t been plowed or whose lives were threatened by perilous emergency response delays as ambulances sat stuck in snow.

“I’m angry, too,” he said.

But Bloomberg insisted city workers were doing their best.

“We won’t get to everybody every time,” he said. “Yelling about it and complaining doesn’t help.”

Asked if he had regrets about the way his administration handled the storm, Hizzoner quipped sarcastically, “I regret everything in the world.”

Even some of the Mayor’s top allies are slamming the city’s sluggish response to the unexpected blizzard warning that went out on Christmas afternoon. February’s monster blizzard was handled far better, they said.

“The collective storm response was not anywhere near up to the standards New Yorkers are accustomed to. This is unacceptable,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who scheduled a Jan. 10 oversight hearing to probe the handling of the storm.

Fifty eight ambulances remained stranded in snowbanks as of this afternoon, down from 100 the day before.

Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano said stalled ambulances weren’t the only reason emergency response times soared during the storm.

He said 4,700 calls were made to 911 during the blizzard, many of them for “sprains and strains that could have waited.”

“That backlogs the system and it clogs up for the more medically urgent calls,” Cassano said. “This was busier than the (2003) blackout. And in the blackout we were able to get around.”

At the height of the storm, the number of backlogged 911 calls hit a staggering 1,300.

The mayor said his new director of emergency communications, Skip Funk, would conduct a review of 911 dispatch during the storm.

“Where we find room for improvement, we will take immediate action,” he said.

Transport in the city remained a disaster nearly 36 hours after the snow stopped falling.

New York’s airports were open but still a mess, with takeoffs hobbled by deicing requirements and a massive backlog of canceled flights still to work through.

The subways were running but with widespread delays and outages on several lines, including the B, L, N and Q.

The LIRR was running the Babylon, Huntington, Port Washington and Ronkonkoma branches on a holiday schedule, and expects to resume “very limited service” on other lines by the end of the day.

Bus service remains severely snarled. Local and express service in the five boroughs was operating with big delays especially in Southern Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens, according to the MTA.

“Roadway conditions are being evaluated on a route by route basis. We will only restore service where we can safely do so,” the MTA said.

The storm canceled several blood drives, leading to a serious blood shortage at city hospitals. New Yorkers who can travel and donate blood are asked to call the NY Blood Center at 800-933-2566 or visit www.nybloodcenter.org.

The mayor urged pedestrians to walk with care as melting snow is due to ice up overnight. And he asked motorists to make sure to clear their exhaust pipes of snow when getting back into their cars.

“If it is, your car can fill up with carbon monoxide, which is toxic and we just don’t need more deaths,” he said.

{NY Daily News/Matzav.com}


8 COMMENTS

  1. He is soo lying. We’ve had worse conditions than this and bulldozers were out. There are no bulldozers in site. Not any street in Brooklyn (side streets and and main streets) have not been touched. The lying is what makes people angry. Obviously something is going on, the rumor is Santitaion workers are on strike!!!!!!

  2. Recent events prove that America is indeed already a third world country. Let’s take a look at current events in NYC. Mayor Bloomberg announces that the storm is costing the city $1,000,000 an inch totaling $20 million. The cleanup job was a total failure. In a sound economy one ought not to think twice when the once in a decade storm comes to clean your city out of the storm. Yet as he indicated in stating the cleanup’s immense cost, he felt the city couldn’t afford to keep it running properly. NYC resembled a war zone? Would you call that a first world response to snow?!

    An additional component in the storm, he sent all the plows to Manhattan and fully neglected to plow the other four boroughs. That is exactly the situation in third world countries that the elite enclaves are serviced while the common citizen is neglected.

    Last but not least, Bloomberg announced that they will be closing many NYC fire stations at 6 PM due to the lack of funds. My friend, need I say more?!

    America is on a steep decline and become more bankrupt by the day. America will continue printing money to ‘save’ America, when in truth it’s just digging our hole deeper and devaluing our money in the bank. What we need to do is buy lot’s of bullion precious metals to survive the money printing. Otherwise you will easily pay off your mortgage due to inflation yet have no money for yeshiva tuition, food and energy that does increase in price steadily as inflation escalates. Choose life by owning G-D’s currency; gold and silver!

  3. Brian (#2) has airily told us that “recent events prove that America is indeed already a third world country”.

    With respect to Brian, he is talking through his yarmulka.

    Brian, and the vast majority of Americans, enjoys unlimited quantities of fresh, pure, water wherever and whenever they want it.

    Brian, and the vast majority of Americans, has access to the very best of medical care in the world. True, they have to pay for it, but so do the majority of the citizens in which I currently reside. Here, there is often a twenty mile walk to see a nurse. Not a doctor, just a nurse.

    Brian, and the vast majority of Americans, have access to probably the world’s best education systems. If an American has the ability to learn and the desire to do so, he can get anywhere he or she wants. Here, schooling ends at the age of 13 years. Period.

    Perhaps Brian might care to reassess his statement that “recent events prove that America is indeed already a third world country”?

  4. the first thing we can do is what We the People can do…..
    help the next guy, do the best we can to help and to be honest. All the cheating is alot of what drained the system.

  5. Dear Shliach:

    A 1st world country doesn’t transform into a 3rd world country overnight. The begining is sadly here. Ten years ago an american salary had the buying power of 155 ounces of gold a year. Todays american salary has the buying power of 34 ounces of gold a year. Don’t you see a train wreck? We hear of the tuition crisis repeatedly, ten years ago that was a crisis only to the economic bottom feeders.

    There are also different levels of third world countries. We aren’t like zimbabwe yet by any means, but fast forward 10 years and many people will be living their standards if we don’t revert to the gold standard. In Zimbabwe (you can see documentaries on this subject on youtube) they ‘pan for gold’ all day in order that they can feed there families at night. That means, they sit and sift through the earth for crumbs of gold that they can buy a loaf of bread at the end of a full day of sifting. If we don’t stop printing money like it’s nobodys business, we’ll be the same way. That’s why gold is up 550 percent in the past 10 years.

    We need moshiach!

  6. “printing money like it’s nobodys business,” is exactly how to run the economy to rock bottom. with your financial advice we will definitely become a third world country.

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