Under Pressure, City Performs Well

The  crippled the city and exposed holes in Mayor Bloomberg's otherwise tightly sealed administration. And although last night's snow storm was predicted to only be a fraction of the size, Bloomberg took no chances and deployed all the city resources he could to prove that New York City has snow under control.

About 8 inches fell in Prospect Heights last night and by 5 a.m. the streets were deemed safe enough to send public school children to school. At 10 a.m. the streets were plowed and the sun was shining. Can the two storms even be compared?

"The city's response for 9 years has been exemplary," Bloomberg said at a press conference this morning at the Office of Emergency Management in downtown Brooklyn. "Things did not work in that one storm, each one is different."

"We always want to improve," he added.

Bloomberg reported the Department of Sanitation had deployed 2,400 workers, 365 salt spreaders and 1,700 plows and said by mid-day today every New York City street will be plowed at least once.

At noon today, a walk through Prospect Heights showed all streets and most sidewalks clear.

In a shift in policy, Bloomberg said, additional resources from other city agencies such as the Parks Department and the Department of Transportation joined the snow removal process from the outset. Private contractors were also brought on and given the responsibility of clearing some side streets, many of which didn't see plows for days after last year's blizzard.

Twenty-two ambulances were fitted with chains on their tires, Bloomberg said, to test if that would help in case they got stuck in the snow. Unfortunately, no plows were stuck at all, so the test proved fruitless.

GPS tracking devices that had been installed on 50 Sanitation Trucks were so successful that the city has committed to putting one in each of the city's 1,700 trucks. The devices cost $40 a month each, or $68,000 per month if all trucks are indeed outfitted. 

After the news conference, a city spokesman said it wasn't yet clear how many months a year the devices would be activated.

"It's not terribly expensive in the grand scheme of things," Bloomberg said at the news conference. "It's not that big a deal."

An  was last night, which gave the city the ability to tow cars that were blocking the road and hindering plows. Bloomberg said 30 cars have been towed, which is roughly the same number as any normal night without snow. The declaration has been lifted.

Schools were open because, as Bloomberg said, it was safer to have the kids in school, and in this economy, parents shouldn't have to decide between getting a paycheck and taking care of their kids.

311 was used heavily, and between 6 and 7 a.m. this morning was the busiest hour on record, Bloomberg said, with 45,000 calls.

Prospect Heights Patch editor Amy Sara Clark contributed to this report.