Elected officials in the Bronx are fuming over the city’s lax response to the season’s first snowstorm, with commuters sounding off on social media and drivers stranded on the roads for hours.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, meantime, called the storm a teachable moment. “There are definitely some things we need to learn from this and some things we need to do better but it is also important to note that you know we got just about every form of bad luck we could have gotten yesterday,” said de Blasio in an interview on NY1.
The snowstorm brought one to three inches of snow across the Bronx at the cusp of the evening rush. But while accumulations were small, there was very little preparation ahead of the evening rush, according to Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.
On Twitter, Diaz questioned whether the city had made any preparations for the evening storm. He added he’d received “numerous complaints about road and transit.”
Was there any preparation for tonight’s storm? My office has received numerous complaints about road and transit conditions. What went wrong? New Yorkers deserve answers. @NYCSanitation @MTA #unprepared #firstsnow #Snowvember
— Ruben Diaz Jr. (@rubendiazjr) November 16, 2018
Diaz’s tweet was met with responses by angry Bronx residents.
I am a principal in the Bx. We still have teachers here who are having a terrible time getting home. Uber is up to $100 to take them from our school to other areas in the Bx.
— Marjorie Sanchez (@mdc_sanchez) November 16, 2018
Yes, I had to walk back home because the trains were not running signal problems. We all knew there was snow coming.
And the buses and train were not prepare at all, people were stranded, waiting for the bus 41, 2, 1, 19 and the trains number 2,3, 4 and 5. This is unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/5cAzwhsrX3— SilHeN (@SilviaH83136051) November 16, 2018
Meantime, Councilman Fernando Cabrera, who sits on the Council’s Sanitation Committee, had heard constituents were stuck in traffic for hours. He called the city’s snowstorm response a failure.
“Rather than the term “all systems go” today’s response by the Sanitation Department can only be described as ‘all systems fail,'” said Cabrera. “Several weeks ago, the New York City Department of Sanitation rolled out an impressive snow response plan but failed to put the plan into operation today during an actual snow emergency. Like many of my fellow New Yorkers I am outraged by the City’s complete failure to respond effectively to today’s snow event.”
Stuck vehicles along East Gun Hill Road, an already congested roadway during the evening rush, made navigating the roads even tougher. At 6pm along the Grand Concourse, cars were spotted moving at a snail’s pace. On Van Cortlandt Avenue East near the Mosholu Parkway, drivers were re-routed to East Mosholu Parkway North after a collision shut down the street.
Throughout the day, Mayor Bill de Blasio cautioned New Yorkers to take it easy during the evening rush. Yet there was little in the way of a news conference, often a route taken by the de Blasio administration on the heels of impending snowstorms.
Even with increasing temperatures, I continue to urge all New Yorkers to exercise extreme caution if you have to travel tonight. https://t.co/BV8PjeLuBp
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) November 16, 2018
Cabrera is now urging his fellow Council members to consider a hearing. The hope, according to Cabrera, is to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.
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Its 12:0× I am sitting on the bx30 since 9:02 trying to get to the D train to Broadway Lafayette to catch the M or J train into Brooklyn now I have to turn around
This was inexcusable, they way that snow was coming down and Sanitation plows. I drove Knox place to Kossuth Ave it took 22 minutes all the car’s going through red lights so we stuck behind to stuck school buses until I able to go around. I was heading to Parkchester to take someone home. With all the major Roads congested went through a side and got Fordham. Had to head back and Fordham Road was Parking lot, with all these stranded little car’s. Went to Kingsbridge and Jerome and she went on the 4 trian. I picked her up at 5:20 pm got Kingsbridge at 7:10 pm. We got home at 7:50pm a 5 minute Drive. My Wife’s Friend well she got home at 9:30 pm. In New York City with the largest Sanitation Dept in the World and we couldn’t tackle 2″ or 3″ of Snow🤔
It took me 7 hours to drive from Manhattan to McLean Av a complete disgrace the official’s in charge of the snow storm should be fired this is not acceptable but will anyone be fired no these people are incapable of doing a Job should not be there don’t give job’s to unqualified people we need professional’s in this city
We will all forget this when it comes to these individuals running for office again and again and again.
There could be a chance this was done in order for New Yorkers to makes sense of the fair hikes, etc by being tardy for the snow storm clean up party or just simply preparing us for a bigger disaster. They need to get it together.
My special needs son got home at 9:18pm last night cold, terrified, anxious, starving. School let out at 3om. Combination of an inefficient, abusive driver and a city unprepared. Several complaints were made to OPT based on driver’s inconsistent excuses and the fact that she had our crying, anxious children call us, begging us to pick them up from a location in the Bronx miles from where we all lived.
We open our City to all, we build more and more affordable houses, we do not build shoreline protection from hurricanes and do not have snow preparation for 2 inches of snow…shame on NYC. What is going on? NYCHA is crumbling, rats run all over, feral cats breed in allyways, people breed pit bulls in apartments, people pee in our streets, drink in our parks, teens run bicycles through traffic and do wheelies, cars drag race and smash into our cars while we sleep (soundview, castle hill, ferry point. throggs neck). Where is the law? a 15 year old gets hacked up by mistake, houses in quiet neighborhoods are being used for drug party rentals, vaping lounges have out of line unlawful incidents, people stumble out of lounges and have sex, fights, poop and pee on peoples lawns…sounds like chaos to me. Traffic is astounding during school months.Parking is horrid all year. Repeated accidents happen in Pelham Bay and other hot spots. Where is the Law? Where is the correction?
This was a huge failure of leadership and we demand answers.
The response to this storm was a huge danger to public safety especially for those of us in the Bronx. Children stuck on buses for hours without food and bathrooms. Not a police or firefighter in sight to guide traffic. Cars were driving on the sidewalks trying to get around standstill traffic on Webster avenue. Eight hours to drive
along Webster avenue from 152nd Street to Fordhsm Road and on to Gunhill road.
On Gunhill an additional huge delay due to buses they were stuck. We arrived home at 4:16AM.
Never saw a sanitation truck, salt spreader, fire fighter and I saw maybe three police officers the entire night. Bronxites were left to fend for themselves.
Fire the Sanitation commissioner, Mayor, Police Commissioner and Fire Commissioners all failed New Yonkers
Teachers had to stay at school for parent teacher conferences till 730 or800. No parents came after a certain time but we could not leave many teachers made it home by 1 am to 3 am. Why were they not canceled? so add school chancellor to the list of failures and this was not even mentioned in their wonderful press conference!
Is it me ??? Or was I the only one who listened to the weather. They’ve been saying snow for the last few days and on Tuesday, AL Roker reported that this was not gonna be flurries…, This was a STORM.. Come on People.. Shouldn’t the mayor’s office had been better prepared? Not to mention that the Bronx has always been the forgotten borough. Face it, unless you live in Manhattan, you’re screwed!
I live in Yonkers work in the Bronx. My daughter goes to BMCC her freshman year. She made it to Nerid & White Plains Road to find people have been waiting since 3:00 pm for a Yonkers bus that never came. She got the last lyft car out of the Bronx, she was stuck in traffic for two hours. She made it home at 9:00 pm. They tried to charge her 247.00 for a ride that normally takes 15 – 20 minutes. I on the other hand was waiting at the Neried Avenue & White Plains Road til 10:15 pm when I decided to take the. 2 train downtown to 149th Street and 3rd Avenue walked to Morris Avenue & 149th Street to finally catch a cab to my mothers house. I was cold, tired, hungry and disgusted. It’s a shame and a disgrace how the city and the mayor handled the snow storm. He needs to man up and take responsibility for this huge failure.