Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Snowplows, buses stuck in snow




Here's one for the records - College Pt Blvd and 7th avenue in College Point. This bus got stuck on it's route on Monday at 8am. There has been no other buses since, no plows to plow the bus routes, and this poor bastard has had to stay with his bus since then. What's happening in Queens? If there isn't a sanitation job action, what is the reason for this screw up? It's inexplicable otherwise. - Jack

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was listening to WNYC today - callers said that when they called 311 to complain about unplowed streets they got either recorded messages, or if they did get through to someone the operator REFUSED to take complaints.

Now that WNYC are as much corporate whores as the rest of the media, leading-question expert Brian Leher tried to shift blame away from Bloomberg, but amusingly enough the NYT reporter on the show for this segment wouldn't entirely let him get away with it.

It will be a miracle if the media in general will report this story accurately - but really, things are very bad if the city won't even adequately staff 311 with an adequate number of operators.

Anonymous said...

It's shameful that people rely on what the media feeds them as a basis for their opinions. Open your eyes and think people!

georgetheatheist said...

Let's rename this street where this happened after Ed Koch.

Anthony said...

Accidents happen.

JO said...

maybe if they didn't wait 24 hours it wouldnt have piled up.

It worked in Manhattan.

D. Cowardly Lion said...

Snowplows and buses and snow...oh my!

Snowplows and buses and snow...oh my!

Snowplows and buses and snow...oh my!

Welcome to Bloomturd's Oz!!! We're off to see the Lizard.

Anonymous said...

Plenty of express buses into Manhattan but none from Fresh Meadows to Jamaica more than 24 hours after the snow stopped falling. Waited for more than 2 hours and during that time, I did not see any plows or salters either. I couldn't get to work today, but its great to hear from our mayor that, if I were lucky enough to be one of his neighbors in Manhattan, I could go see a show or wait for a table at a restaurant. What a jerk for a mayor.

Anonymous said...

Call 311, they won't take the complaint after you've been on hold for a ridiculous length of time. They've even taken down the link to put the complaint in online. Ya think Bloomy doesn't wanna hear from us?

Queens Crapper said...

Link is still active.

Dickie Chrisie Q said...

Dont' botha me, I'm fund raisin' for de Koch Bridge.

He's ma boo!

georgetheatheist said...

Has anyone seen their City Councilperson? How many of them went "out of town" recently?

Not to worry. Their zhlub staff will up-date 'em when they return.

Queens Crapper said...

Council Press Conference

ew-3 said...

NYC is one of the few places that use their sanitation folks to do most of snow clearance. It seemed to work well (back in the day) before the unions got so powerful.
Perhaps it's time to look at what other places use. In MA the state handles some as does the town highway departments. But the bulk is done by private contractors, mostly with 4x4 pickup trucks with a plow.
And yes, they are liable for damages. In fact I've found these guys are actually pretty good at what they do. The do not get paid if it does not snow, and get paid by the mile and hrs worked. And they are not unionized.

georgetheatheist said...

Re the Council Press Conference.

Check out Helen Marshall's imitation of a Bobblehead. She definitely shows empathy and concern. (When did she get back into town? She definitely was not at Gloria D'Amico's funeral last Friday.)

Anonymous said...

"It seemed to work well (back in the day)"
You mean before Bloomberg decided it was ok to skimp on service?
Expensive? Yes, but the DSNY always did an excellent job at snow removal.

Christina Wilkinson said...

"Snow Deficit. The Fiscal 210 budget for snow removal was underfunded by $26.8 million. As a result,
an additional $392,000 has been added to the FY 2011 snow removal budget."

See page 2.

Anonymous said...

"NYC is one of the few places that use their sanitation folks to do most of snow clearance. It seemed to work well (back in the day) before the unions got so powerful."

Is that you posting here Stephen Goldsmith?

Anonymous said...

I don't know who's dumber: the retards who run and maintain those city or me for still living here.

Must be me.

I was just thinking today how many times I feel like I live in a third world city and not the almighty New York City.

~jeesh~

Mayor Mike said...

Attention peons!

My staff has informed me that all of the snow will be gone by May. Chill out.

PS Speaking of peons, don't eat yellow snow.

Anonymous said...

It's now 6:51 pm, Tues and reconnaissance reports are that the home streets of Councilman Mark Weprin and Assemblyman David Weprin have been plowed right down to the asphalt. The dry and pristine condition of these streets indicate the plowing (and salting) occurred many, many hours ago. Can the Councilman and Assemblyman pull some strings to do the same on our snow covered streets which haven't been plowed or salted?

Unknown said...

One of the excuses I keep hearing is all the cars in the way. Well why are there so many cars??
1. The city took away 1000's of spots in the interest of safety! Almost every corner with a stop sign lost 2-4 parking spots.

2. The city allows large multi-dwelling homes to be built where single family dwellings once stood.

Where does the city expect us to put all the cars??

In previous years I have always seen a line of salters and plows out around queens before the snow even starts so they could keep ahead of the storm. This year, I didn't see one until well into the blizzard.

And lastly - Bloomberg says they had plenty of staff. How?? Didn't he just fire thousands of Sanitation personnel.

Anonymous said...

city won't even adequately staff 311 with an adequate number of operators.

Above is right, I call 311 and hold for 45 minutes and no pickup - call precinct where no one answers. City workers know they are goners and will be layed off soon. Bloomberg is King of Media Co and has fellow media titans or idiot liberals cooperate with his views.

This time it's been exposed and difficult to hide that he is a failure.

Anonymous said...

to ew-3:

1975 called - it wants its "powerful unions" back.

And a question for the above anon poster who says "liberals" are covering for Bloomberg: what "liberals"?

Anonymous said...

Street was finally plowed this morning. Terrible job as cars are still getting stuck. Plow circled twice. No sanders and plows haven't returned. Did contact 311 online last night. Submitted report but there was a message saying would be used for information purposes only, not to send out plows. So what was the point.

Anonymous said...

Pretty sure the city was bankrupt in the 70s. Tens of thousands unionized city workers worked for free (work 3 days and get paid for1) or were fired. They all chose to work.

Anony2 said...

Boy I miss Rudy! That man knew how to clean snow!

Anonymous said...

FYI-Crowleys office had people inside, but they weren't picking up the phones to log complaints, etc...? If you called Addabbo's office they picked up the phone but said there was nothing they could do-not even log the call, group calls by area for seriousness on issues, nothing. Thanks all. I want to get back to the days when local politico's actually had some clout and connections to get things done. Not to mention employees who would go out of their way to help or at least satisfy a constituent by knowing how to speak to someone. What a waste of a vote, money, and my time.

Ms. Tsouris said...

Halloran's office handled my plow complaint very well; they told me that 311 was no longer taking snow removal complaints but his office would forward my complaint to the Sanitation Department. 32 Ave. is now acceptable, but the side streets in Bayside are still very hazardous.

Anonymous said...

Will Astoria, Queens, ever be dug out from under all this snow ?

Anonymous said...

Will Astoria, Queens, ever be dug out from under all this snow ?

April 1st!!!

Anonymous said...

CntrySigns said...
One of the excuses I keep hearing is all the cars in the way. Well why are there so many cars??

Not an "excuse" it's a fact. This was a major complaint from the firemen who responded to that 5 alarm in Elmhurst last night. They literally had to dig out asshole's cars that blocked the trucks access.

The City has towed over 2000 abandoned cars and more are still blocking plows according to ALL the news reports.

Where the City screwed up is not declaring and emergency and banning these idiots from driving private vehicles.

This was a fast moving storm. I saw an ambulance on third ave stop for a break at a deli. When they finished and tried to get out they were stuck. This took no more than 10 mins. Finally a fire truck came a gave them a push.

http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2010b%2Fpr477-10.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1

Quoting:"Department of Sanitation:
Eliminate 200 supervisor posts and redeploy to frontline sanitation worker positions."

Where are those "thousands"?

Anonymous said...

now that the developers have replaced one family homes with front yards to shovel the snow on ,with brick buildings and parked cars ,there is no space for snow except the street.

with no plows the problem is doubled. the only solution is 90 degree heat or using steam shovels and dump trucks to remove the snow off the street.

the city unions are in collusion.....

Anonymous said...

With who?

Anonymous said...

On 56th Road in Maspeth - the residents have built a giant wall of snow, across the street, not one car can get down that street - Hope none of those genuises need emergency services. In Maspeth the one eyed man is King.

Anonymous said...

Bloomberg's "schvance" will be stuck up every New Yorker's "keester" until his 3rd term finally is up....OR....he gets indicted (heh, heh, heh)!

IMPEACH BLOOMFART FOR DOING THE LOUSIEST JOB OF ANY MAYOR SO FAR....IN "MANAGING" OUR GREAT CITY!

Soon-to-be-ex.gov.a.schwanzenegger said...

Der vord ist shpelt "shvanz". Hahr-hahr. I chust luff dis blockzite.

Soon-to-be-ex.gov. a. schwarzenegger said...

Und I chust mishpelt mein own name. Vat a choke. Hahr-hahr-hahr. I luff it.