Hey, What the F*%@, Mr. Mayor?

Allright, I've heard about all of the apologies. I've even listened to some of the apologies. Saw on the news about how the storm/blizzard was apocalyptic. Etc. Etc. And yeah, I understand it was bad. As a matter of fact, at one point I was standing in our kitchen looking out the window at the snow blowing sideways and I actually saw lightning and heard thunder. Out of the ordinary, for sure, in the middle of the winter. I even heard it referred to as a category 1 hurricane...with snow. Really.

But this is New York City. A city of what - 10,00,000 people? Financial center of the world (or maybe it used to be). A city which is in and of itself, proof that hundreds of different kinds of people can generally live together in peace and harmony. People from all over the world. The great experiment...that works (at least most of the time).

So, as I say in the title: "What the fuck?" Hey, Mr. Mayor - what is going on? You're a mayor who prides himself on "his" city being "ready for anything," and tells that to any and everyone who will listen, over and over again. During this snowpocalypse and its aftermath, you told New Yorkers not to drive and to use mass transit or walk to your destination. Then you even blamed New Yorkers for the problems with snow removal. But get real, dude.

So last night, a full two and a half days after the end of the storm, Significant Eater and I decided to walk up to a new restaurant on Essex St. just north of Delancey. It's a short walk from our apartment; less than 1/2 a mile, as the crow flies. And here's what we found:

First, the whole east side of Essex St. between Broom and the subway entrance had not been shoveled. So walking to that subway entrance was challenging, to say the least. Unless you had a pair of snowshoes for that walk. And then, this...

That's 3 feet of snow piled up at the corner of Essex and Delancey Streets. Essex and Delancey. Delancey is an 8-lane road leading to and from the Williamsburg Bridge, for those not familiar. So, it's A MAJOR INTERSECTION. And it had had so little snow removed that pedestrians had to walk in the middle of the streets. This is not an easy intersection to cross (people are killed at this crossing every year) in the best weather or conditions.

So, stop apologizing already, Mr. Mayor. On TV this morning, they said that promises that were made to get all NYC streets cleared by 7 AM today had not even been met. Perhaps, Mr. Bloomberg, you could take a few million dollars out of your piggy bank to help hire some day laborers to do some shoveling. After all, how much did you spend to overturn election laws in order to win a 3rd term as our mayor? This would be a mere pittance compared to that.

It's time to stop making excuses. It's time to stop making promises. It's time to do your friggin' job that you bought your way into. After all, this isn't DC, where they don't even bother removing the snow. This is the greatest city in the world - remember?