Elevated train safety nets become hazards after blizzard

  

 

PIX News

  A massive amount of snow collected inside the netting under the elevated tracks along the No. 1 train in the Bronx.

Many residents in the area told PIX11 they're worried to walk underneath the netting, which was installed under elevated subway lines to catch debris.

The MTA identified six areas where the netting underneath elevated tracks is being weighed down by snow and ice: three in Queens, one in Manhattan and two in the Bronx, officials said. No injuries or property damage have been reported.

Wednesday evening, PIX11 saw MTA crews working to remove the snow. They're working "day and night" to get rid of the snow, MTA Communications Director Tim Minton said.

“Nets below elevated tracks are designed to protect the public from infrastructure hazards by catching falling objects," Minton said. "What materialized during Monday’s storm was an epic amount of snow that is being systematically removed to prioritize safety of drivers, pedestrians and transit employees."

Rockaway streets flood after 20 inches of snow; city waits too long to dig out South Queens

 

 PIX News

 After a storm of the magnitude the New York area faced Monday and Tuesday, digging out will take not only some strength and heavy equipment, but some skill as well.

Many homeowners in Queens were at it all day, but some were frustrated to see people shoveling and putting the snow right back into the street.

It’s counterproductive to Department of Sanitation plow truck driver Phillip Covington. It only makes his job harder.

"If you want a piece of advice: don't throw it back on the street, put it on the side," he said.

A 20-year veteran of the department, Covington knows a thing or two about clearing snow, even when it’s more than a foot.

“Just throw it on a mound, like a pile or a mound of snow," Covington said.

Covington's seen it all but there's still something different about this storm.

“This is like a nuisance type of storm because it snowed and then it stopped for a minute and then it wants to rain," Covington said.

Driving through Queens, for the most part PIX11 found blacktop, but Sanitation Commissioner Edward Grayson admitted plow trucks were still trying to make it to all residential streets

“Were out there through the night, out all day today," he said. "We will readdress those residential streets. You will see blacktop today.”

PIX News 

 
When it floods in Rockaway Beach, it really floods.

Resident Mona Hubbard said, “It's like a river down there, you need a rowboat to get out of here.”

Hubbard recorded video Tuesday from her apartment as she watched her neighbor fight through coastal flood waters.

She described her street, Beach 84th Street, Wednesday.

“It’s snows then the high tide comes up so it overflows and it’s like the Antarctica her out here," she said.

It's an on going problem for people who live on her block. Citizen App video showed a city sanitation truck being swept away —the water right up to the door.

Long time resident Wanda McDowell said she feels like a prisoner in her own home whenever there is high tide or a storm.

“We are trapped in," she said. "We can’t go anywhere.”

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Shovel shaming

From PIX11:

As the temperature starts to rise, and the snow slowly starts to melt, some New York City sidewalks remain covered by their white blankets - and that's a problem a councilman is working to fix.

City Councilman Justin Brannan hopes to do it by introducing what he calls "Shovels of Shame." He wants fines for failure to shovel to rise. In the meantime, he's started posting pictures of snowfall scofflaws on social media with the Shovels of Shame tag. He's hoping if extra fines won't convince the businesses to shovel, maybe public pressure will.

"When the average small business owner gets out there and shovels, when the average homeowner gets out there and shovels, you would think that some of these big corporate chains can get out there and shovel just like everybody else," Brannan said. "If you're not going to do it, then we're going to put you on blast. That's what Shovels of Shame is all about."

Right now the city requires responsible parties to shovel their sidewalk between 4 and 14 hours after the snow stops falling. If you don't, fines range between $100 and $350. Brannan wants to increase the fines for chain retailers. The new penalties would range from $1,000 to $5,000 and would apply to businesses with 10 or more locations.

Congratulations on making it through!

If you're reading this, you're still alive!

Mass transit options are icy

From CBS 2:

Countless commuters were seen hopping and leaping over snow mounds that were piled high at bus stops, while others reached out for a helpful hand.

It was not just bus stops. On social media, people posted pictures of snow and icy subway stops. The steps to the D Train at 179th Street in the Bronx were virtually covered in snow, and the Forest Avenue M Train platform in Ridgewood, Queens was covered in ice.

A commuter tweeted the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, “How is this acceptable?” CBS2 wondered the same thing.

The MTA is responsible for subway platforms and stairs. A an agency representative said: “Our snow fighting crews have been working non-stop since the onset of the storm to clear snow and ice.”

DSNY app inaccurate

182nd Street in Fresh Meadows not looking too plowed @NYCSanitation @NYCMayorsOffice pic.twitter.com/aBOODkY7oK

— (((Rory Lancman))) (@RoryLancman) January 8, 2017

From NY1:

A Queens councilman says the city's PlowNYC program did not measure up during this weekend's snowstorm.

City Councilman Rory Lancman uploaded videos on Twitter showing snow-covered streets in his district.

He said many of them had not been plowed in hours, or at all.

This, despite the streets being marked as recently cleared on PlowNYC - the city's public database that tracks which streets have been plowed.

Sanitation may actually remove snow this year

From NY1:

Hoping to avoid a repeat of last January's disastrous cleanup in parts of Brooklyn and Queens, Sanitation Officials say they have made significant changes to the snow removal process.

The agency has purchased $21 million of new equipment to handle some of the narrow streets that large trucks cannot navigate and to replace private contractors for routine plowing.

"We have enough equipment that we can handle the tertiary streets more effectively and more efficiently," said Henry Ehrhardt Director of Community Affairs for the Department of Sanitation. "We will still use private contractors on call for plowing and hauling operations, but all of the snow plowing and salting as far as regular operations are concerned will be done by department personnel this year."

And that personnel has received a significant amount of training compared to previous years. Several drills were on the street and not at a training facility.

"In the past, the way we did snow training was at our training center in Brooklyn and sometimes we had the training during the week so as much as we wanted to be focused on the training we really couldn't as much as we did," said one sanitation official.

New equipment to clear bike lanes, crosswalks and bus stops has also been added. And the city has updated its GPS technology to better inform the public about which streets have been plowed.

We were victims of "sectoring"

From the NY Times:

Well before the blizzard of 2016 descended on New York, city officials had prepared a new blueprint to tackle the accumulating snow, creating new plow routes and a different hierarchy of roadways.

The plan was called sectoring, an approach that would replace the city’s pecking order of primary, secondary and tertiary roads — a ranking that came into focus after a blizzard paralyzed parts of the city in December 2010 — with a two-tier system.

The Sanitation Department’s new plowing hierarchy began as a pilot program that was expanded across all of Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island, according to the city’s published snow plan. (The new approach was also used in two small sections of the Bronx and Brooklyn.)

Under the new approach, which had been tested in areas of the Bronx and Staten Island in the last two years, the department replaced the old three-tier system with two levels: critical and sector. The critical streets correspond roughly to primary streets in the old classification, still used on the city’s PlowNYC map; the sector streets include both secondary and tertiary roadways.

The new system was an outgrowth of the problems faced by the city in 2010, when many Brooklyn streets became buried in snow and took days to clear. The idea, sanitation officials said, was to devise routes that would keep drivers, as much as possible, on roadways that they are assigned to plow. Many of the old routes forced drivers to spend part of their time along streets they were not assigned to plow so they could reach their appointed streets.

The union representing sanitation workers said that while sectoring appeared to work in most areas of the city, the new routes might have been too long in Queens.

In previous years, the city used a contractor, CSB Contractors, to plow minor side streets in those areas. This year, the Sanitation Department assumed responsibility for all streets in those neighborhoods, as well as about 50 miles of tertiary roadways in Brooklyn formerly handled by the company.

The city kept a different contactor, Natural Landscapes, for areas in southern and eastern Queens, including Flushing and Jamaica. Those areas generated fewer complaints, according to the borough president’s office, which heard from many irate Queens residents.

Katz declines comment on snow situation

John Schiumo on NY1 said tonight that he had invited Melinda Katz to give the “First Word” about the snow plow conditions in Queens.

But she declined.

This came up, because a caller complained about the poor snow plow conditions, and the caller complained that de Blasio had complained that people in Queens were responsible for the unplowed streets, because we were cleaning snow off our cars back into the streets. Then, the caller asked, “Where is the Queens Borough President ?” That’s when John Schiumo dropped the bomb about Melinda Katz.

MTA snow complaints take 15 days to resolve

From Cleanup Jamaica Queens:

Don’t you just love this response from the MTA in regards to a compliant I filed about a snow covered sidewalk at the top of the subway stairs at the F train 179th Street subway stop at Hillside Ave & 178th on the south side this morning, a couple of days AFTER the snow storm.

First the Mayor fucks over Queens, then the mayor keeps schools opened on Monday even though many streets and sidewalks have not been plowed in Queens, then the Mayor blames the residents, then the MTA states in regard to a complaint of a snow covered sidewalk at the entrance to one of the subway stops, then they make a statement of “do not reply to this email, as it will go to an unattended email box.”

Where are the rest of the Queens pols?

School buses get stuck in snow

From PIX11:

Multiple school buses became stuck in the snow Monday as they tried to traverse snowy streets in Queens, the borough hardest hit by the weekend's blizzard.

Residents were furious over unplowed streets and the mayor's move to keep schools open despite the record-breaking storm.

"We make one decision for a school system of 1.1 million kids," Mayor Bill de Blasio said, defending the move to keep class in session, during a midday news conference.

PIX11 News viewers in Middle Village and Woodhaven reported seeing school buses getting bogged down in the slushy mess that still coated the roadways during the morning commute.

Requests for comment from the city's Department of Education were not returned by the time of publication.

Queens' stuck-in-snow humor

See any more? Send them in!

Sanitation vehicles get stuck, fail to clean streets boroughwide

Woodhaven

Bayside

Corona

Ozone Park

Then there were problems in Maspeth, Ridgewood and Briarwood.

How Queens electeds handled the snow debacle

Well folks, this is what represents you.

Koslowitz thinks there's 20 feet of snow.
Crowley can't form a grammatically correct sentence.
Dromm is too upset about the cancellation of a gay pride event than the fact that his district got hit the hardest.
Van Bramer wants you to know that he didn't miss brunch.
Vallone managed to turn his constituents' grief into a commercial for himself.
The rest of them can't seem to agree on whether the response by the city was fantastic or sucked ass.

Can confirm its still snowing. Check on neighbors. We just dug one of mine out as his door fully snow-blocked #Jonas pic.twitter.com/dTxSZbEcHn

— Sen. Mike Gianaris (@SenGianaris) January 23, 2016

.@MikeSimanowitz, I and other Queens electeds are on conf call with @NYCSanitation expressing outrage right now. https://t.co/wa5iDRtdie

— Rory Lancman (@RoryLancman) January 24, 2016

Too many streets still buried. Can't imagine what we would be dealing with if storm hit in the middle of the week. #blizzard2016

— Michael Simanowitz (@MikeSimanowitz) January 24, 2016

Great job in clearing our streets @NYCSanitation. pic.twitter.com/U4S9z2AdiO

— Donovan Richards (@DRichards13) January 24, 2016

Snow removal operations in #SEQueens r better than we've seen in past storms. There are 900 @NYCSanitation vehicles dedicated to #Queens.

— I. Daneek Miller (@IDaneekMiller) January 24, 2016

The #snow can't stop us from breakfast @auberginecafe! Issues w/the storm? Let me know. I am in touch w/the admin. pic.twitter.com/il3f72bRf2

— Jimmy Van Bramer (@JimmyVanBramer) January 23, 2016

Hope you're staying safe during this blizzard weekend! Thank you for reading the week in review. https://t.co/7XsNvtqod4

— Paul Vallone (@PaulVallone) January 24, 2016

DeBlasio realizes he left Queens buried in snow

From PIX11:

Mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged at a news conference Sunday morning that more needs to be done — and fast — to dig out the borough of Queens, where large swaths of road are still buried in snow from the historic blizzard.

De Blasio, who visited Queens Sunday morning, said the goal is to have streets cleared by Monday morning in time for the commute and the rolling of buses in a borough where they are so important. Schools will be open.

"Queens is a very big borough," and each storm is different, the mayor said, but what is being done differently this time is a new "agile strategy" to respond to problems in Queens, where 850 plows are now at work.

De Blasio said resources are being funneled from Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn into Queens, where residents have been complaining about lagging cleanup efforts. Queens has historically posed a challenge to the Sanitation Department and City Hall after major snowstorms, and famously hurt Mayor John V. Lindsay's reputation in 1969 and Mayor Michael Bloomberg's in 2010.

Queens saw more snow than any other borough in this weekend's storm, with Kennedy Airport getting more than 30 inches. Queens also has more roads to clear than any other borough.

3 people have died shoveling snow

Be careful out there.

Bill threatens to take away business licenses of scofflaws

From the Daily News:

A new City Council bill would yank the licenses of businesses that rack up thousands of dollars in unpaid fines.

The city is owed $1.5 billion in uncollected penalties on building and fire code, sanitation, health and other violations - all judgments handled by the Environmental Control Board.

Under the bill being introduced by Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan) Wednesday, businesses could lose their licenses or permits if they have $50,000 overdue for two years, or $25,000 overdue for five years. They’d also get hit if they owe $10,000 and fail to make three straight payments on a payment plan.

“There’s $1.5 billion that’s sitting on the table,” Kallos said. “Passing these laws to revoke permits would do a lot to improve quality of life.”

The legislation would mean construction sites that rack up debt for dangerous building code violations would have their permits taken away.

Other targets could be restaurants that don’t pay their health code fines, or businesses that leave sidewalks covered in litter or don’t shovel snow.

Done in by a snow plow

From WPIX:

This is a winter Allyson Healy would like to forget. But she probably won’t.

Back on Jan. 24, while the school speech therapist slept in her Rego Park apartment, it was snowing outside. New York City snowplows were out clearing the streets. Allyson had quite a sight when she woke up and saw her Nissan Altima.

“When I saw it in the morning from my bedroom window it was perpendicular to the street,” Allyson told me. “It had been pushed half up into the sidewalk half into the street!”

She had no idea what happened. So she got her building super to check the exterior security camera. “What happened was is it was hit by a snow plow that was turning the corner…Dented the bumper, popped it out. Cracked the mirror here. A multitude of scratches and gouges on the exterior of the bumper.”

The snow plow just kept going, leaving her car out in the street and no information about who did it. Allyson’s estimate is that it will cost about $3,000 to fix her car.