NYC storm update

Seems NY city is looking into the poor plowing of the streets. Sanation dept, stalled on purpose because of budget cuts. Paper says the Selfish sanation dept bosses ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard clean-up to protest budget cuts.??? Makes you wonder.

Oh, well.
Hope this wasnt typical.

It's a mess when it snows in the 5 boroughs, maybe more so in Manhattan. Every sanitation truck or just about is equipped with a snow plow, they are dispersed strategically through out the city. When the snow piles up, there is no room, it just encroaches on everything. I do recall a nice one in Feb. 1996, I was working in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, on a high rise nursing home, the area was impassable due to blizzard conditions and snow accumulations not seen very often, the place was shut down for awhile. Significant weather events can and do wreak havoc, rain, snow and high winds/hurricanes, even severe thunderstorms, I experienced all of these things in the years I worked there, definitely no fun in addition to these weather events increasing the elements of danger of just being there.

I was 2 blocks over from a crane that toppled, the morning after Hurricane Floyd passed through, I had just completed a foundation for a high rise on 9th avenue, observing that the drainage worked so well, considering the amount of rain, just south of the Harriman/Woodbury toll plaza on the NYS thruway, there was literally 2 lakes on each side of the thruway, in all the years I have traveled that road, I have never seen or thought it even possible. It was a Manitowoc 4100 or 777, set up with a lattice type mast and a big ole luffing jib, on a 30 story residential building on 6th ave, Turner Const., they lowered and secured the jib, the operating engineer erroneously powered it up with the tiebacks in place, it literally pulled the mast over, collapsing onto the street, a local 608 carpenter saw it coming, pushed a woman out of its path, only to get himself caught in the wreckage, what a mess for JF Lomma/ NY Crane, the noise was horrendus, I could not believe what I saw when I got over there.

All things considered, it can be a precarious place to live, work or visit on a good day, add snow, and or labor issues with city employees, forget it, you should have seen the garbage Aug 15th 2003 right after the blackout, which followed some kind of sanitation labor problem, they can create quite the mess by not working, that is for sure.

Really...... just imagine if that was a tree, for those who don't know, just break a limb off a tree and watch the ensuing crowd, I did it once and had to fend for myself, camera wielding crowd.... over a tree limb, they have more rights than people, that vehicle was probably the cost of doing business, cause the loader had to be somewhere else, they'll pay up, owner will get a new one, life goes on and our taxes go up, what else is new LOL !!!

Hi Billy, I remember that black out of 03. I went down to West Sand Lake to buy a used Timberline wood stove insert, that I found in the want ad. It was a big outage. I knew something was wrong when we drove home from work and all the stop lights were flashing.

Makes me proud to be a newyorker LOL Had a Union organized "candlite service for Unionized state workers who were losing their jobs because of budget wows here in Albany last night. We have a question here in rural upstate NY. "What is big and Yellow, and sleeps 4 people? Answer- A state DOT Truck." It's time that a bunch more non performing state workers lost their jobs.

Between the wrecker operator and the endloader operator neither one of them are very smart. Also why did anyone send them out without chains on the loader. The next question that I have is would someone tell me just where is a person suppose to push the snow with cars on both sides of the street? I plow snow for a township and as far as I can see if you went down the street you will plow all the cars in and when you come back you will get the other side. PLEASE TELL ME I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE SUPPOSE TO PUT THE SNOW. Thank you.

Man hope IND never unionizes gov. workers ,, Really would become a problem ,,

Wonder if the car owner could pursue getting tickets issued against the two drivers. I understand they have insurance but the blatant disregard for personal property is unacceptable. Who ultimately pays for the insurance? Myself and all the other NY taxpayers. Bill from Western NY.

Sand Lake is not far from here, I bought a 101 ford 2 bottom plow and quick tach forks from someone over there how sells regularly on craigslist, has quite a bit of nice hay ground and a very nice farm.

That black out was something, as I recall, or had hoped to forget, I was trying to find myself a way out of the subway, A,C,E line, where it stopped exactly I don't know we, ended up walking the tracks to the next station 23rd st. Got out of the city finally, made to my house in NJ and we had power! Took friday off and came home. After 9-11 and that, seemed like time to get out of there, for awhile at least.

I remember years ago seeing on TV NYC loading dump trucks with snow, backing them out on a pier, and dumping the snow in the harbor. Wonder if they still do it.

KEH

Thats why a big city like NYC is such a joke. THERE IS NO WERE TO PUSH THE SNOW. Your right about that.

I found out years ago that when it snows it brings out the "Stupid" in just about everyone. If they don"t like their vehicles stuck, don"t like the roads closed, stay the heck home and become part of the solution instead of adding to the problem! Just my two cents worth. Funtwohunt

I don't think they can dump in the harbor anymore due to pollution concerns, but they can use snow melters that dump the melted snow into the storm sewers.............that in turn dump into the harbor. Go figure.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIqw4k2fDr8&feature=related

If that type of thing is tolerated, the city needs a regime change ASAP.

Yep ,blackmail used to be illegal,ever seen men walk off a big concrete pour when half way through.

If IND. means IN or Indiana, then you should know they already are unionized.

What's that got to do with the fact that the union told their people to do a poor job on purpose?

People died because emergency vehicles couldn't make it through the unplowed streets. How would you feel if that was your wife or child?

But unions are just good people trying to do the best for themselves, right? BS!

there is a plugged storm drain on Rt 50 below the closed K-Mart right outside my window at work, in heavy rain water backs up and floods one of the lanes on Rt 50

DOT regularly sends out 2 huge trucks with 4 guys in each truck, they put out cones and park the trucks to block one lane

on our tax dollars they then sit inside the 2 trucks all day, order food from the Glenville Queen and play cards until quitting time, then pull the cones and go home

I don't have time to download, but if that is the video of a big tow truck pulling out the yellow articulated loader, with the guy hollering what are they doing? and filming from above, as the loader bucket hits the rear end of the white truck, pushing it into another car, then, the truck is owned by NYC housing authority. Don't know about the car. Does look like a union job, though.

Don't you think it more likely that NYC is simply just not prepared for a MAJOR winter snow storm? Mabey I'm wrong... but I don't think NYC gets near the snow that falls in more northern areas of the state and certainly nothing like we've been known to get up here from a good ole nor'easter. The fact that they've got garbage trucks equipped with plows suggests that they really don't expect much from winter...
Even here... where they have a dedicated fleet of plow trucks along with plow equipped graders and loaders... they still get caught and get behind in a major storm. The fleet has been cut so thin over the past 15 years... if one or two pieces of gear break down they can get days and weeks behind. There's only so many reserve units that float around the province and when they all get put to use... well... if something else breaks, you wait.
I rather suspect you're seeing the same thing...

Rod

I agree,..THERE IS NO PLACE TO PUT THE SNOW!! The City of New York is a nightmare when it comes to snow removal. However,..I used to plow snow at our local airport (Gerald R. Ford International) and I do not understand the problem with snow removal from runways and taxiways they had out East unless the wind kept drifting them shut. All large airports have FAA specified equipment to handle most all snow storms. They get 80% plus funding from the Feds to purchase the equipment.
So maybe there was a labor issue involved.

Actually, the NYC equipment for snow removal is quite good. Have you seen their garbage trucks? Specially designed for New York City streets. Driven by the same drivers on the same streets day after day. They get to plow some snow every winter so it's not like they've never done it. Looks to me like the Mayor should have, early on, declared a state of emergency where no one but emergency services would be allowed on the streets to allow snowplows free reign. He waited too long and the storm got ahead of them. Also, storm wasn't forecast to be much of a storm until after it started.

Oh, don't worry folks -- the UPSTATERS will pay for it !

I liked that Kmart, its to bad they had to close it up.

No, I haven't seen their garbage trucks... but the fact that they're mounting plows on garbage trucks plain simple says to me that snow removal is not at the forefront of their thought process... If you really worried about snow removal... 5 solid months of it... you'd have a fleet of gear to do the job. No doubt they're prepared enough for what they typically get... it's just that this is not typical. Normally we'd be getting snow now. Instead we got half a foot of rain from that system. I shudder to think what we'd be doing if it was 10 degrees colder. That would have been 5' of snow.
As far as when to start plowing... other than essential routes... they don't plow until it's over around here. There's little point as it only excerbates the problem with deeper drifts until you run out of places to put it. Then they've go to start blowing...

Rod

Money for snow remaval should be NO problem....the Mayor is a billionaire and then some, he should be willing to donate or at least loan the poor city money in this emergency. Where is his civic spirit?

Rod, you are right, but wrong. They were ready, and have the equipment, there investagating them stalling because of budget problems. They were told to stall during the cleanup. normaly they dont have this kind of problem cleaning up the streets. I mean its not an easy job, but this time they dident do anything. Buses couldent move, subway was stopped. emergency crews couldent get around ect.

Say Jay,

In " NEW YORK CITY" nothing "makes me wonder"!! LOL

solid rumor says Target will tear down both buildings and open new store with Olive Garden next to it