Brooklyn, NY – Councilman Greenfield: It’s Insane, Trucks Parked In Garage Not Plowing

    54

    Plow trucks sitting around at the 19th Ave in Brooklyn, NY Dec 27 2010Brooklyn, NY – City Councilman David Greenfield decried what he termed as “two New Yorks, one for the rich and powerful people in Manhattan who got their snow cleared, and the other for the regular folks in the outer-boroughs who were ignored.” Greenfield has been working since Sunday evening advocating for more resources for Southern Brooklyn communities that have seen very little snow cleared from most streets. Greenfield is frustrated that Brooklyn’s needs have, once again, been all but ignored by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

    Join our WhatsApp group

    Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email


    “I was shocked last night to see a dozen plows parked in the sanitation garage in Boro Park when most of the streets in my community were not even plowed a single time,” Greenfield proclaimed. “I personally went to the garage this morning and was informed that these trucks would not be dispatched because there were not enough employees to drive them.” Greenfield attributes the lack of manpower to Mayor Bloomberg’s personnel reductions at the Department of Sanitation, which left the Department short 400 sanitation workers.

    “Why in the world does the city buy trucks and not hire people to drive them? That’s insane,” Greenfield said. Greenfield even offered to find volunteers with the appropriate licensing to drive the snow plows, but his offer was rebuffed.

    Greenfield has been speaking non-stop with multiple officials in the Mayor’s office, the Office of Emergency Management and the Sanitation Department to demand that more resources are directed to his community. Specifically, Greenfield has asked for more manpower to operate the idle plows in his community and more tow trucks to move cars and buses that are stuck on some streets, preventing street clearing. Greenfield learned this afternoon that five tow-trucks were sent today, for the very first time, to Brooklyn Community Boards 12 and 14 – an area that has a total population of nearly 500,000 people. “It’s outrageous that we had to wait 30 hours to get tow trucks into our community. I am certain that Midtown Manhattan had these trucks both during and immediately after the storm.”

    Greenfield’s office, which has been open yesterday and today from 9am – 6pm despite the storm, was inundated with nearly 1,000 phone calls from constituents who are furious at the Mayor for not clearing their streets. This is especially difficult for many of the Councilman’s Orthodox Jewish constituents whose yeshiva children are not enjoying the same winter break that public school children are enjoying.

    “I have had constituents tell me that they are losing several days’ wages because of the fact that their yeshiva children, who would normally be in school, are home. Others have told me that they fear they may be fired because mass transit to my district, including the B, N, Q trains and most buses, remain out of service and they cannot get to work. I guess this is the Mayor’s new economic plan – take away jobs from people in Brooklyn who are snowed in and give them to the folks in Manhattan who are not,” concluded Greenfield.


    Listen to the VINnews podcast on:

    iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Podbean | Amazon

    Follow VINnews for Breaking News Updates


    Connect with VINnews

    Join our WhatsApp group


    54 Comments
    Most Voted
    Newest Oldest
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    Nilhouse
    Nilhouse
    13 years ago

    My friend, David G., you are barking up the wrong tree. If you want something done, do the same thing that we did here in Crown Heights when we had a problem – call Pinny Lipschutz (of Yated/Matzav). He will start a fundraiser for your forgotten neighborhood. The man has a heart of gold. Yes, you can use my name.

    Paulie123
    Paulie123
    13 years ago

    Lets face it, the people that pay the most taxes are the ones in Manhattan. A large portion of Brooklyn Queens and the Bronx are on food stamps and welfare and pay very little in taxes so they are second class citizens. Kind of like the scene in the Titanic

    jewishbrother
    jewishbrother
    13 years ago

    its rediculios my friends father passed away sunday night cuz htzolah couldnt get to him.i think its total desscrimination

    yaakov doe
    Member
    yaakov doe
    13 years ago

    This is the most inept snow clearing effort I’ve ever seen. And those who went out without 4 wheel drive and are stuck in the middle of the streets are making it much worse.

    It appears that instead of putting a full complement of sanitation workers out at the begining of the storm, this usual action was delayed to save money. The end result will be additional costs, lost tax revenue and most importantly loss of life.

    bubbygreen
    bubbygreen
    13 years ago

    Greenfeld for president 2012!

    bubble
    bubble
    13 years ago

    David, way to go keep on going some with some common sense which is not so common

    Yaakov2
    Yaakov2
    13 years ago

    Kol Hakovod to David Greenfield !

    At least Borough Park has a very vocal David Greenfield to get at least some sort of delayed reaction out of Bloomberg.

    In Crown Heights we don’t even have that much!

    Crown Heights streets remained largely inadequately plowed as of Tuesday Night at 7:00 pm and the Crown Heights Sanitation Garage is full of Snow Plows that are not being driven.

    Crown Heights streets only has Eastern Parkway 1/2 way plowed (not the service lanes- even C.H. Hatzoloh, in front of 770, had to shovel the Eastern Parkway service lane, by hand!!!) and even large streets like Empire Blvd was only 1/2 way plowed with many abandoned and stuck vehicles not being towed.

    Crown Heights’s largest Kosher Supermarket on Empire Blvd., had no fresh bread all day, because they have it baked in Borough Park and the B.P. delivery truck was stuck in snow clogged streets on Utica ave. for many hours on end.

    Borough Park should be thankful that at least you have a David Greenfield to finally get Bloomberg’s attention (a few days late) but in Crown Heights, our elected Jewish Leaders, the Vaad Hakohol and our even our secular elected officials have not even been able to accomplish, the little which David Greenfield was able to accomplish.

    jerrygold
    jerrygold
    13 years ago

    why did they send 2 drivers on each truck? when one is plenty to do the job of driving and plowing at the same time?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    The city has limited resources and cannot give priority to every neighborhood. The do the best they can with the limited resources they have available. If you want to pay higher taxes than let Councilman Greenfield know. Otherwise, they will have to clear the Manhattan streets first since those are the most important to the city’s economy.

    13 years ago

    Please call Greenfield and dov hikend tell them to demand from the governor
    To send in national guards that’s the only way to get things going

    Yaakov2
    Yaakov2
    13 years ago

    It’s strange that no one really understands what went wrong here, when the reality is really quite simple.

    Everyone knows that in a storm like this, the only way to avoid disaster is to plow very quickly with a full force at full and at maximum staff.

    Right now, it is FAR too late to fix the problem.

    Right now, no matter what Bloomberg does he will never be able to play “catch up” after the first 12 to 24 hours were negelected.

    The reason being is because after 24 hours of not doing the job, the disaster results, in tens of thousands of clogged streets, stuck vehicles of all kinds, that the mess is now 1,000 times harder to rectify, than if it was done quickly, to begin with, before the neglect.

    This is check mate for Bloomberg and he has no way out now.

    Whatever Bloomberg thought he saved by cutting the budget of 400 sanitation workers he will now pay a million times more to compensate for his mistakes in this storm.

    It is now FAR too late to fix this. It’s is 100% impossible to fix this disaster even in another 24 hours from now. It will take at least an entire week for Bloomberg to be able to MAKE-UP, for his failure in the first 24 hours of this storm.

    13 years ago

    2 reasons for the disaster; The Sanitation department implemented a new rule whereby all personnel are to report to their assigned garage, not the closest one as had been the prior practice. For example, if John lives in Brooklyn and he is assigned to a Bronx Garage, he was to report to the Bronx and not the closest post, as was the prior practice. Many were unable to arrive at thir assigned garages due to the severity of the storm.
    The second reason is that it was on a holiday weekend, and many were unwilling to report. This was the first blizzard in New York history on a holiday weekend.
    What I can not understand is why the B, Q, and N lines are not running.

    YidelfromBP
    YidelfromBP
    13 years ago

    David!!
    Why can’t we just hire a private company with 5-6 construction tractors and they should start cleaning the streets! Forget about sanitation! Bloomberg keeps on saying he needs private help! BP as a community let’s hire the private company and in 6-8 hours all streets will be clean!!

    bennym
    bennym
    13 years ago

    This is all a clever ploy by the Sanitation Workers Union. Every snowstorm workers work extra shifts to cover all areas. They are refusing to work extra, so people will scream bloody murder and the unions will get more workers.

    jewru
    jewru
    13 years ago

    Lehavdil, it’s like we are living in a ghetto, and Bloomy is part of the Gestappo!
    He should be helping his ‘Landsman’ instead of telling the rich and affluent Manhattanites to go see a play.
    Kudos to D Greenfield for helping expose the farce!
    VOTE GREENFIELD FOR MAYOR!!!

    ConcernedMember
    ConcernedMember
    13 years ago

    The outer boros have been ignored, and will continue to be ignored because they do not make up Bloomberg’s “people.” His people are uptown Manhattan. It is amusing to see many of the Councilmen who were so supportive of Bloomberg getting a third time are now seeing first hand how much of an elitist he is. You can see it in his press conferences with reporters. This man does NOT care about the “common people.” We are beneath him.

    MyHumbleOpinion
    MyHumbleOpinion
    13 years ago

    How Stupid can one be, to even try to excuse this arrogant Stuck-up Mayor

    The simple ABC was not even planned (and YES we had enough notice to do so).

    Were not talking about some logistics that didn’t work out exactly as planned. Were talking about th most important and simple thing which i guaranty you if you should ask any three year old what the first thing to plan is, the answer will be YOU MAKE SURE EVERY TRUCK ON THE FLEET HAVES A DRIVER yes no brainstorms here. What good can we get out of a dozen trucks with plows but no drivers to drive them. And that was only at the 19 ave. station could you imagine how many more throughout the city where parked in the station.

    13 years ago

    Its not Bloomberg to blame its the union (legal mafia) to blame here, they wanted to give beck for Bloomberg for laying of 400 of them, i believe that all the trucks who got stuck while cleaning did it intentional sitting there for hours not even trying to come out, they have blood on their hands & every one should know it, same like the the transit strike a few years ago,
    Bloomberg if you want your name clean of this fire everyone who had a stinking hand in this, just be brave and you will get credit.

    satmerguy
    satmerguy
    13 years ago

    We have to understand mike bloomberg is “no” mayor Rudolph Gullani ,he just base luck with an idea on wall st. but never created a single job for the people ,he does not know how to run the biggest city in the world .

    zayin
    zayin
    13 years ago

    1. I was in Manhattan today. The streets were NOT much cleaner than here in Brooklyn

    2. Didn’t bloomberg say that he will in no way cut back on cleaning the streets? Didn’t he say “clean the streets first, then worry about the budget”????

    13 years ago

    we have to call out to mr. bloomberg that we need some financial support for the next few days to be able to recooperate from this situation

    Joe-Shmoe
    Joe-Shmoe
    13 years ago

    Dont sell me that b”s! I was by the lumber yard on 60 and 13 this morning and there were 3 big tractors cleaning, when I passed the neighborhood at 6 they were only up to 56 st. 4 Blocks in a day! Sure Blame Bloomberg. (not that I like that so…) We have to blame the sanitation union, who gets the money here without providing the services. Yes I think bloomberg should’ve given out contracts to clean the snow. Dont tell me that you can’t get it for much cheaper than the 20 people that come with the tractor driven by 1 (believe it or not, They don’t yet require more than one man to drive it) driver, plus overtime.

    mewhoze
    mewhoze
    13 years ago

    stop carrying on about manhattan being cleared. i was in the lower east side of manhattan today and it is far from clean. there are areas that havent been touched by a plow either. so stop whining about manhattan , manhattan. call it like it is….upper manhattan and times sq. and broadway got priority . not all of manhattan.

    jerrygold
    jerrygold
    13 years ago

    I live in BP and sorry but none of the streets have even had once a plow go through them!!! With all due respect, I do not know where they would shovel the snow to or into or whatever! The kids are having a grand time that is for sure.

    Michel
    Michel
    13 years ago

    1. Immediately fire the Sanitation Commisioner.
    2.Bring in the National Guard to drive their own equipment and the Citys that is sitting idle. Hire unemployed people at $10 per hour, give em shovels and send them to every street corner. No matter the cost.
    3. Hire private tow truck operators to tow stuck vehicles. Charge the vehicle owner when they come to pick the car.
    4.Ask for help from neighboring NJ, LI, and any other area that already cleared their streets. Pay them for their help.
    The CIty lost billions this week from no businesss.

    13 years ago

    Interestingly, a dead end block in Midwood with a certain frum Judge living on it, was the only side street getting plowed so far.

    Brian
    Brian
    13 years ago

    The unions are to blame for blackmailing the city into giving obscene compensation packages to the sanitation workers. Give reasonable wages (not princely salaries plus benefits) and you will be able to afford the necessary amount of workers. After all, they are blue collar workers, not executives!

    lawschooldrunk
    lawschooldrunk
    13 years ago

    how come no one has made the suggestion of getting everyone on the block to work outside together and shovel their block? If every single able-bodied member of a block went outside and worked in concert to clear their block, there would be less of a problem.

    I understand that you don’t have to do this and that your taxes pay for this, but in the end, if you need to get to work you have to do something and not wait around for the city.

    13 years ago

    All you need to bring the mayor to boro park and have him walk from any street to the next and make his comments from here, how does some one invite him ?

    At the same time he should also take a ride in the front seat of new fire truck or a ambulance driving from 44th street on fort hamilton during an emergency and counting the minutes it takes to pass the 46th street island with out a seat belt.

    13 years ago

    what about the ppl who lost out on days of work?? maybe the city should set up a compensation fund for the lost wages!!

    13 years ago

    Now you are all crying. When VIN posters told of the administration eliminating the X-29 Express Bus last June, none of you gave a darn because it didn’t effect you. However, now you see it did. The mayor saw that the Yidden would not fight to keep their Express Bus, so the die was cast for him to ignore all of you the first chance he got.

    Cherrybim
    Cherrybim
    13 years ago

    To #36 – The judge’s attendance in court is vital to this city and will at least accomplish while the mayor’s attendance did not.

    13 years ago

    This mess truly calls for an investigation. how is possible that almost 48 hours after the storm most streets in bp werent plowed? I thing i noticed is that my block was lucky and was plowed durimg the storm but I never saw a salt spreader. I think this is the key to the entire situation.
    I remember some big storms in my life 69, 78, 84, 93 in the last years 10 years almost every year we had at least one storm with over a ft. last year we had it twice. remember Tanis esther also 20″ and even as it it began to stick i remember the weather service saying its not going to stick. yet 2 days later on purim there was almost no zecher of the snow.
    but of course in this city fire lanes and bike lanes get priority treatment.
    Take the millions spent on making bike lanes and use it for more important things.
    i say make a snow party and dump the snow in front of city hall!

    Brian
    Brian
    13 years ago

    Stop being so petty. At the end of the day we can rely on Bloomberg for the important stuff like building us the ground zero mosque. 😉

    Moish
    Moish
    13 years ago

    I guess the commissioner should resign as Hikind demanded. The difference between Manhattan and the outer boroughs are unbelievable. I actually made it in on Monday and it looked alot bettter then than Brooklyn does today. They continued steadily (hourly) rerunning up and down the avenues, plowing, flattening, and clearing corners, while ignoring entire neighborhoods in the other boroughs.

    NYC law provides the following:
    N.Y. ADC. LAW § 16-124 : NY Code – Section 16-124: Removal of snow and ice from the streets
    The commissioner, immediately after every snowfall or the formation of ice on the streets, shall forthwith cause the removal of the same, and shall keep “ALL” streets clean and free from obstruction. (quotes and capitals added).

    Butterfly
    Butterfly
    13 years ago

    How about DECREASING salaries or freezing their salaries this week because the work was not done in a timely fashion!! It might shake them up a bit!! My steet has not been touched except for a few people who started to shovel the road, that is, do the sanitation workers job and not be paid for it!! It is done like this every year because nobody ever cleans our block!! They come after the fact!! PRIMA DONNAS!!

    CountryYossi
    CountryYossi
    13 years ago

    I think we are all fortunate to be stuck at home with heating ,food, and clean clothing..Think for a minute of the tens of thousands who are stranded in airports without food and lodging desperate to get home safely…Lets NOT complaint so much and rather thank hashem for what we do have…..

    Butterfly
    Butterfly
    13 years ago

    To #52 What happens when you run out of food? Deliveries cannot get through!! Did you think of that yet??