Some New Yorkers React Predictably to Hurricane Irene Response

Article first published as Some New Yorkers React Predictably to Hurricane Irene Response on Blogcritics.

New Yorkers were in a real funk over this past weekend, mostly because Mayor Michael Bloomberg had the nerve to react proactively to the arrival of Hurricane Irene. I have lived in New York all my life, and I never remember the mass transit system being completely shut down. Yes, blizzards have a way of doing that after the fact, but this is the first time I can recall subways, buses, and commuter railways being shut down prior to an event. New Yorkers were predictably lost especially without their lifeline beneath the ground, and everything closed including Broadway shows, fancy restaurants, and sporting events.

Once Irene passed over us inflicting much less damage than expected, the armchair quarterbacks were quick to complain about Bloomberg's "over reaction" to the hurricane. I guess if people didn't wake up and see the torch from the Statue of Liberty sticking out of a skyscraper and the Brooklyn Bridge broken into chunks floating in the water, they felt they were robbed of a Saturday night in the city unnecessarily.

Well, I applaud Bloomberg and Governor Andrew Cuomo's handling of the event. Let it suffice to say that they learned from President George W. Bush's debacle with Hurricane Katrina, and yes that was a much more powerful Category 5 storm, but the same fears of flooding and devastation came with Irene too. Bloomberg and Cuomo really took the steps that were necessary, and the evacuations of low lying areas, the cancellations of transit service, and the closing of bridges and tunnels created a virtual lock down of the city that no doubt saved many lives.

I guess it should be expected that people would complain about this, but the bottom line is that the eight million plus residents of the Big Apple survived relatively unscathed. Yes, about 900,000 people lost power in the five boroughs, in Westchester, and Long Island, but only one person lost his life (a City Islander who fell into the water as he was trying to secure his boat), and credit has to be given to the mayor and governor and all those cops, firefighters, and transit workers who made the operation a success.

So, thank you, Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Cuomo. New York survived and your leadership made certain most of the populace survived as well. To quote GWB, "you did a heckuva job" but in this case the praise is well deserved.

Blizzard of December 2010: Apocalypse Snow

Article first published as Blizzard of December 2010: Apocalypse Snow on Blogcritics.

I know Apocalypse Snow is the title of a film about skiing, but it just seemed apropos as I look at what has happened to New York City in the last few days since the big blizzard hit. Other appropriate titles could range from Dawn of the Dead and The Walking Dead (in reference to the city's response to the storm). No matter how you look at it, people died and suffered and someone must be held accountable.


I've seen footage from television cameras in helicopters passing over the city, and you would think Manhattan was in a completely different time and place than Brooklyn or Queens. This is where the mounting anger and frustration come from in a very understandable way. I saw abandoned cars and a city bus in a short walk yesterday, but the panorama offered by a camera in a helicopter indeed invokes images of those doomsday films: abandoned cars and trucks every and anywhere, deserted streets, and a feeling like the authorities long ago repaired to their well-supplied bunkers while the populace was literally stuck in their tracks and left to fend for themselves.

The horror stories also mount: a young Brooklyn mother-to-be, in labor and bleeding in the vestibule of her apartment building, waited for a response to 911 that came ten hours too late. The baby died after they were both taken to the hospital. A Queens woman calling 911 about her ill mother was forced to wait hours for a response and the mother died. Another Brooklyn woman called about her stricken father who had died, and she had to wait overnight with the corpse in her apartment until an ambulance could arrive. Are unplowed streets to be blamed for these things, or is it more pernicious: an almost total breakdown of the system meant to serve and protect New Yorkers?

These are just some of the stories; there are many more, including passengers on the A train being forced to wait in a tunnel for seven hours. Anyone who has been in a NYC subway car knows that seven minutes is a long time to be in a crowded car, but seven hours? This is ridiculous. Then to rub salt in the wounds, after this and many other incidents where buses and subways were stuck or not running, the Metropolitan Transit Authority announced fare increases to go in effect as a New Year's gift to beleaguered passengers.

If I didn't know any better, I would think the character Gru from Despicable Me was running this city, but at least he is revealed to have a soft side and to actually care about people in the end. Here Mayor Mike and company seem content to let people stew (or is it freeze?) in their homes and apartments, with their cars stuck out in the streets. Even senior citizens, reliant on the Meals on Wheels Program, are trapped without food and waiting for expected daily meals that never come.

So, yes, this does seem like a city that is being run by an ad hoc committee instead of an administration (and especially a mayor) who has been on the job long enough to be able to handle things like this. If people start evoking the name of Mayor Lindsay (who after a big blizzard in 1969 basically did about the same thing to Queens and the other outer boroughs), they would be right on the money. Lindsay, who had presidential aspirations, was finished after that bungling of the storm clean up. Perhaps this will once and for all put the final nail in the coffin of Bloomberg's notions of running for higher office.

I know this storm hit a large area of the nation, and it has been a difficult time across the country, and many millions of people have been affected. Any time you shut down JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark Airports for any length of time, it is going to hurt people all over, including people on other continents waiting for flights that never came or planes that could never take off.

Here in our little corner of the world we have had to suffer, and if people can blame George W. Bush for Hurricane Katrina and President Obama for the Gulf Oil Spill response, then surely we can all rise up and blame Mayor Bloomberg for this horrendous response to the blizzard of 2010 here in New York. People are angry, and the Mayor says he is angry too about the response to the storm. Well, instead of playing it like the Queen of Hearts and calling for heads to roll, maybe the Mayor should look in the mirror, mirror on the wall.