39th district blizzard cleanup report

8/8/2019 39th District Blizzard Cleanup Report

1/15

Office of Councilmember Brad Lander

December 2010 Blizzard Cleanup Report

39th

Council District, BrooklynCobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope,

Windsor Terrace, Kensington, Borough Park

January 9, 2011


2/15

2

Introduction

On December 26, 2010, New York City was hit with a large-scale blizzard, with 1424 inches of

snow falling rapidly on the city, amidst powerful winds. As is well-known, the City of New

Yorks response to this storm was deeply inadequate. Many streets were not cleared for days.

The New York City Council is holding hearings to examine why the Citys cleanup efforts were so

much worse than in past storms, and what must be done to address these failures going

forward. The first hearing will take place on Monday, January 10th

, with the Deputy Mayor for

Operations, the Commissioners of Sanitation, the Office of Emergency Management,

Transportation, and FDNY/EMS scheduled to appear. There will be community-based hearings

in each borough, including one in Brooklyn on January 19th

.

To prepare for these hearings, the office of New York City Councilmember Brad Lander

prepared this report to analyze the response in the neighborhoods of the 39th

District.1

Over

the course of the following week, the office of Councilmember Brad Lander received nearly 400

communications from constituents about snow removal, primarily that their block had not been

plowed within a reasonable period of time. The last blocks in the 39th

District were not plowed

until early New Years morning, nearly 6 days after the storm.

The goal of this report is to summarize and analyze major issues that arose in the

neighborhoods of the 39th

District, so they can be further investigated and addressed in the

Council hearings and beyond. The report is based on:

An analysis of the 392 communications our office received in the week following the

blizzard, as well as similar data gathered online by another source;

The work that our office did to address those complaints in communicating with both

City agencies and constituents;

Fieldwork observations by staff, the councilmember, and constituents;

Dozens of conversations post-cleanup, with residents of blocks that were not plowed for

days (including a meeting with residents of a Kensington building where a veteran died a

possibly-preventable death on Monday, 12/27), with key neighborhood institutions (e.g.

hospitals), with sanitation workers (at a field visit to a sanitation garage), and other

members of the public; and

A review of news reports that describe incidents in the district during the storm and its

aftermath.

1Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington, and Borough Park


3/15

3

Constituent Communications/Complaints during the Cleanup

Over the five days following the storm Monday, December 27 through Friday, December 31

the office of Councilmember Lander received 392 communications about snow removal (370

were from residents of the 39th

district). Staff took aggressive action to address these concerns

(described below), and also recorded the calls and follow-up in a spreadsheet, which forms thebasis of our analysis of the local response.

Complaints by Type

88% were complaints that their street had not been plowed.

The remaining 13% of requests were about unshoveled sidewalks or crosswalks,

abandoned cars preventing plowing, or subways/transit facilities that were inaccessible.

Complaints by Type

Sidewalk not

shoveled

4%

General Inquiry

3%

Bus stop/subway

entrance not

shoveled

2%

Abandoned car

2%

Other

12%

Street not

plowed

88%

Requests for street plowing were more or less evenly split by community district, after

the amount of each community district in the 39th

District is taken into account. The

39th

City Council District includes portions of Community Board 6 (Cobble Hill, Carroll

Gardens, Park Slope), Community Board 7 (Windsor Terrace), and Community Board 12(Kensington, northern Borough Park).

2

2The service areas for Sanitation Districts share the same boundaries and numbers as Community Boards.


4/15

4

However, the percentage of complaints about unplowed streets dramatically increased

from Community District 12 (which includes Kensington & Borough Park) as the week

went on. District 12 composed only 21% of complaints on Tuesday, but rose to 60% of

calls on Thursday and Friday.

Snow Requests per 6-hour Period by Community District

4 3

23

146

4

52

13 12

72

35

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

12a-12a 12-6a 6a-12p 12-6p 6p-12a 12-6a 6a-12p 12-6p 6p-12a 12a-12a

Mon 12/27 Tue 12/28 Wed 12/29 Thu 12/30

%o

fReques

tsperCommunityDistrict

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

T

otalRequests

CB12 CB7 CB6 Total Requests

District 12Kensington

Borough Park

District 7Windsor Terrace

District 6Park Slope

Cobble Hill

Carroll Gardens

Complaints by Method and Time/Day Made

Complaints were made to our

office by phone (over 120 calls)

and online (over 260 online

request, via e-mail and an online

web-form). As a result of the lack

of subway service on Monday,

December 27, only two

employees were able to get to

the office on Monday. Three

staff worked the remainder of

the week. On Tuesdayafternoon, as the magnitude of

the failed response became

increasingly apparent, the office

put a complaint web-form online,

and sent out an e-blast to our list

of nearly 9,000 people.


5/15

5

Staff Response/Assistance to Constituents

Following up on the hundreds of complaints received, staff:

Communicated with DSNYs community affairs office, DSNY local garages, the Office of

Emergency Management, the Mayors Community Affairs Unit, the Parks Department,local police precincts and City Hall advisors directly.

Made several dozen follow up phone calls and personal emails to constituents to

monitor the situation.

Made a number of site visits throughout the district to see field conditions first-hand.

Follow-up action with City agencies included:

Lists for cleanup requests were sent to DSNY, OEM and the Mayors CAU

o Mid-day Tuesdayo Mid-day Wednesday

o Throughout the day Thursday

o Friday morning

Specific requests for car removal were called into the 66th

and 76th

police precincts. The

precincts appear to have been able to respond within a matter of a few hours to most

towing requests when made directly.

Specific requests for still-neglected blocks were made to DSNY garages 6 & 12 on

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

A request to the Department of Parks & Recreation on Wednesday to fully clear the

pathways along Greenwood Playground that are the main approach to the southern

entrance to the Ft. Hamilton Pkwy F train station revealed that many DPR workers had

been detailed to DSNY at the request of City Hall during the recovery. The pathway to

the train was eventually cleared on Wednesday.

On Thursday an abandoned National Grid truck that had been parked in a moving lane

against the flow of traffic on Ave C since the storm ended was removed very promptly

after we informed National Grid staff of the situation.

Repeated calls were made to the Mayors office throughout Thursday and Friday, until

all blocks were cleared.


6/15

Summary of Major Issues during Cleanup in 39th

District

Clearing of Major Streets

By the end of the day Tuesday, most major streets & avenues in the district were plowed and

passable for emergency vehicles.

There are several notable standouts that were not addressed:

Henry Street, which is a key street for emergency vehicle movements, as it used

frequently by the 76th

Precinct and Long Island College Hospital. There were several

stuck cars on Henry Street, including a report of a stuck DSNY plow truck, that were

preventing plowing until late Wednesday evening.

A section of McDonald Avenue between Cortelyou and Ave C was not visited by a

snowplow until Thursday; the street was cleared by the private businesses on the block

on Wednesday.

Ave C, Cortelyou, Ditmas Ave & Ave F, all major east-west streets in Kensington wereunplowed until Friday.

Ditmas Ave at E 7th

Street remained unplowed as of Thursday mid-day.

Insufficient Priority Given to Vital Access Routes

Access to hospitals: Access to hospitals is obviously a vital top priority. However, key

routes to the three hospitals in the 39th

District (Sixth Street for Methodist, Henry Street

for Long Island College Hospital, and numerous local streets near Maimonides)

remained unplowed for all of Monday, and in some cases until Wednesday.


7/15

7

Safe access to transit: Safe access to subway stations must be a top priority during and

following a storm, when a higher percentage of people will rightly use transit rather

than drive. While getting the subway system up and running after a major storm is

rightly the first priority of the MTA, ensuring safe pedestrian access to the stations must

be a close second. However, our office received several reports that pedestrianentrances, and pathways to stations, were insufficiently cleared in particular, the Fort

Hamilton Parkway and Carroll Street F stations.

A particular concern in the 39th

District is the area around the Fort Hamilton Parkway F

train station, including the entrances to the station and the pedestrian bridges crossing

the Prospect Expressway. The highway divides the area and the small slivers of parkland

around the right-of-way have led to conflicts over agency responsibility. In response to

issues in the snowstorm early in 2010, our office convened a site visit in May 2010 of the

responsible agencies DPR, NYC Transit, and DOT to sort out who was responsible for

each area. The ramp to the Fort Hamilton Parkway F train was reported to have beenshoveled by Tuesday evening. Pedestrian bridges over the Prospect Expressway that are

DOTs responsibility were cleared by early Wednesday morning. DPR-controlled paths

were partially shoveled early Wednesday and fully shoveled by late on Wednesday

afternoon. Parks workers were reportedly detailed to Sanitation during the initial phase

of the cleanup, preventing the cleanup from being prioritized appropriately.

Especially Poor Cleanup in Kensington & Borough Park (Brooklyn District 12)

Based on analysis of complaints to our office, there was a clear lack of service to Kensington

and Borough Park, despite the fact that our office repeatedly brought this to the attention toofficials at DSNY, OEM and the Mayors CAU.

Streets in District 12 remained unplowed for several days longer than in District 6 or District 7,

and complaints from District 12 made up an increasingly large portion of complaints to our

office as the week went on. Many streets in Borough Park were not fully plowed until

Thursday.

It was not until our office sent photographs of the situation in Kensington on Thursday that the

major East-West streets noted above and the side streets (E 2nd

- E 9th

Streets) began to be

cleared. Some sections of these side streets, specifically some blocks of E 7

th

, E 8

th

and E 9

th

,were not visited by plows until early on Saturday, January 1

st.


8/15

8

Percent of Complaints by Community District by Day

CB12

25%CB12

21%

CB12

45%

CB12

60%

CB7

16%

CB7

7%CB6

75%

CB6

57%

CB6

39%

CB6

33%

CB7

21%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Mon 12/27 Tue 12/28 Wed 12/29 Thu/Fri 12/30-31

In addition to complaints directly to our office, the delayed response in DSNY District 12 is

revealed by analysis of data from an independent, online crowd-sourcing map posted during

the storm by Brooklyn resident, Raul Rothblatt, at brooklynsnowremoval2010.crowdmap.com,

which included 152 reports of snow removal issues in Council District 39.3

Data provided by Raul Rothblatt from Brooklynsnowremoval2010.crowdmap.com

3There were a total of 456 reports of unplowed streets, abandoned vehicles, and reports of the time that streets

were plowed made to brooklynsnowremoval2010.crowdmap.com. This analysis includes only the unplowed street

reports that were in District 39.


9/15

9

There were allegations that four DSNY supervisors shirked their duties in Kensington by holing

up in their department cars overnight and even drinking while on-duty.4

This along, with other

allegations of improper behavior, must be investigated. Our office was encouraged to learn

that the District 12 Sanitation supervisor was sanctioned and reassigned by the Department of

Sanitation in the week following the storm. However, a full investigation must be conducted.

Remainder of District (Brooklyn Districts 6 & 7)

Many side streets throughout Park Slope and Carroll Gardens were unplowed until Tuesday

evening or Wednesday morning, with most finished Wednesday mid-day. Most tertiary streets

in CB 6 & 7, such as the smaller Place blocks in Carroll Gardens, the blocks between Degraw

and Kane in Cobble Hill, the Place blocks in Windsor Terrace like Fuller Place, or cul-de-sac

streets like Temple Court were only cleared late Wednesday night. There were a few blocks

including Garfield Place between 5th

and 6th

Avenue in Park Slope, and Warren Street between

Court and Clinton Streets that were inexplicably unplowed until Friday.

Stuck & Abandoned Vehicles

There were still many abandoned vehicles, including MTA buses, in the district throughout

Tuesday. Most MTA buses were moved by the end of Tuesday evening. Abandoned vehicles

remained throughout Kensington on Thursday and Friday. In some cases on side streets, cars

were towed, but a plow would not follow soon afterwards, and a new car would get stuck in the

same spot. On E 2nd

Street, between Cortelyou and Avenue C, this happened at least three

times, resulting in the block not getting plowed until Friday.

Lack of Plowing Coordination

Discussions in the field with DSNY workers revealed that plows are dispatched with a specific

route sheet a series of streets to plow in a specific order. If a plow gets stuck or encounters

an obstacle (in this case, usually a stuck vehicle), it is up to the driver to determine how to

complete the route. While the driver may communicate his condition back to the base, it is

unclear how the route sheets are adjusted, and how it becomes clear to the garage or

Sanitation Department which streets have been actually cleared of snow.

Many constituents across our district and elsewhere observed plows going down fully-plowed

streets with the plow shields down repeatedly on Tuesday and Wednesday.5

In other cases, we

received numerous complaints of trucks going down unplowed streets with their plow shieldsup, even on Thursday so it could be said that the street saw a plow, but not that the street

had actually been plowed. This indicated that while garage supervisors might know that they

4Blau, Reuven and Brad Hamilton. Sanit bigs boozed amid snow chaos: witnesses New York Post. Jan 2, 2011.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/slushed_sloshed_fX907nPJIEevDILBvlYAtK5

This was observed on streets that would not make any sense for plows to be traveling down to reach other

unplowed streets.


10/15

10

directed a plow to go to a particular street, but they may not know the condition of the street

or whether it has actually been plowed.

The lack of information about actual conditions on the ground apparently led to a high-ranking

DSNY official to take an NYPD helicopter to survey.6

The helicopter was spotted by office staff

around 10:15 am in Kensington and around that time in Borough Park as well.7

EMS Access and Response

It has been noted in media accounts that the Citys 911 call system and EMS response was

overwhelmed by the storm. A 911 operator reported that at one point there were over 1,500

calls on hold. The 911 system is undergoing a $1 billion modernization, but it is behind

schedule, and radio and dispatch equipment is reported to be outdated.8

When ambulances

were dispatched, many got stuck in the snow. As a result, emergency response was delayed in

many cases, including in several possibly-preventable deaths.

One of these possibly-preventable deaths that of veteran Joel Grossman took place in the

39th

District.9

The Councilmember visited Mr. Grossmans building (135 Ocean Parkway) and

spoke with neighbors about what happened in the week following the storm.

Mr. Grossman was a 73-year-old veteran, with a history of health problems. He began feeling

sick on the morning of Monday, December 27th

. He first called 911 at noon, complaining of

stomach pain (he had a history of ulcers) and kept calling back hourly, but in the midst of

storm response 911 operators apparently did not deem his situation life-threatening. At 6

pm, neighbors heard him screaming and called 911. Neighbors continued to call 911 for the

next hour. However, no EMS ambulance arrived.

Around 7 pm, one neighbor directly called Hatzoloh, a private volunteer ambulance service that

serves Kensington and Borough Park (in addition to other neighborhoods). A Hatzoloh

ambulance arrived within 15 minutes. When the ambulance could not traverse the service road

of Ocean Parkway (which had not been plowed), they ran to the building with a stretcher from

Caton Avenue. Unfortunately, it was too late. EMS appears to have arrived sometime after

7:40 pm and Mr. Grossman was pronounced dead at 7:48 pm, due to natural causes from

cardiovascular disease, according to a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner.10

6McGeehan, Patrick. Bloomberg Is Criticized on Storm Response as He Tours City Beyond Manhattan New York

Times. Dec 30, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/nyregion/31snow.html7

Yeshiva World, Dec 30, 2010. http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/79451/YWN-

Exclusive%3A-NYPD-Chopper-Over-Boro-Park-Checking-For-Unplowed-Streets.html8

Otterman, Sharon. It Was Hell: Dispatchers Tell of Flood of 911 Calls During Story The New York Times. Dec 30,

2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/nyregion/31dispatch.html9Ibid. Lemire, Jonathan, Simone Weichselbaum and Joe Kemp. Elderly Man Dies at Home After Snow Delays

Ambulance Arrival. New York Daily News. Dec, 30 2010 http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/12/30/2010-

12-30_elderly_brooklyn_man_dies_at_home_after_snow_delays_ambulance_arrival.html10

Ibid. Also based on reports to Councilmember Lander from neighbors on Wednesday, January 5, 2011.


11/15

11

A Heroic Citizen Response

During the week following the storm, as the inadequate City response left many people

stranded, countless volunteers aided their neighbors in ways large and small. Our office met

Bob Carbone and Jamie Hildalgo, who each made extra efforts to clear street crossings for

pedestrians and helped shovel out their neighbors in Kensington. There were business ownerslike Ben Panzer of Empire State Supply who cleared their streets when the City did not.

In Borough Park, several volunteer chesed organizations stepped up in remarkable ways to

assist in the response. Hatzoloh, an all-volunteer ambulance service, fielded an extraordinary

response, picking up back-logged calls that the 911 system could not handle (such as Mr.

Grossman). Members used their own vehicles, and worked in larger teams to carry patients

when unplowed roads rendered vehicles unable to reach buildings directly.11

Other

organizations, including Shomrim, Chaveirim, and Yad Ephraim also contributed to the heroic

response, insuring public safety, getting meals to patients where hospitals were short-staffed

due to the storm, and assisting thousands of people during and after the storm.

11Eller, Sandy. As City Bungles Snow Cleanup, Communal Organizations Fill Void. The Jewish Press. Dec 30,

2010. http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/46599/As_City_Bungles_Snow.html


12/15

12

RecommendationsWhile this is a local view of the response, the analysis and experience of our office during this

storm clearly indicate the need for several adjustments in citywide policy to improve response

to the next major snowstorm.

The Council as a whole will be conducting a more complete investigation through severalstanding committees and community-based hearings. These hearings, responses to questions

by the Bloomberg Administration, and other follow-up is necessary to investigate questions

such as why a snow emergency was not declared, what the chain-of-command was at key

decision-points, etc. However, we can say with confidence that the following issues must be

addressed by the Mayor, based on the response in the 39th

District:

1. Investigate DSNY Brooklyn District 12 response

While there have been reassignments within DSNY Brooklyn South command that were

announced the afternoon of January 6, a full accounting of the operations in DSNY Brooklyn

District 12 during and after the storm needs to be conducted. Many of the streets inKensington and Borough Park remained unplowed for at least a day after the Mayor promised

that all streets in the City would be plowed, and some remained unplowed until the morning of

Jan 1st

. No other area of our district received such poor service.

Cortelyou Road at E 8th

Street remained unplowed on Thursday around

10:30am, and vehicles that had been there since before the snowfall

partially blocked the right-of-way.


13/15

13

Such an inquiry should seek to answer the following:

What is the chain of command in District 12 and how did it respond?

What was the nature of interagency coordination in District 12 and how was it different

from other areas?

How did DSNY, OEM and City Hall respond when they were repeatedly informed thatlarge portions of Kensington and Borough Park were unplowed?

Was District 12 under-resourced in manpower or equipment before the storm? Were

District 12 resources diverted to other areas of the city during the storm or cleanup?

Were there equipment malfunctions or deferred maintenance that were unique to

District 12?

Did the nature of supervision of the district garage affect the quality of the response?

Did labor-management relations play a role in the poor storm response in District 12?

Did the response during the storm in District 12 affect the post-storm cleanup in a way

that was unique to this garage?

Was there a disparity in the quality of the response among neighborhoods withinDistrict 12?

If the report reveals that operational adjustments, resource deployment, chain of command

adjustments or further disciplinary action are warranted, they should most certainly be taken.

2. Adopt Technology to Know When a Block is Plowed

There were several pieces of information that seemed to be lacking based on communications

with DSNY and observations of DSNY operations during the storm cleanup:

Which streets all of the DSNY trucks had actually visited and plowed.

What streets DSNY had to skip because of stuck vehicles.

What the actual condition of those streets were (as indicated by plows replowing fully

cleared streets while others nearby remained unplowed).

On January 7, 2010, City Hall announced that 50 trucks in Brooklyn District 14 would be carrying

GPS units as a pilot during the storm predicted for that day (which turned out to be a small

storm).12

This is a good first step. It is essential that this initiative not just serve as an employee

accountability mechanism but also help facilitate the distribution of information about the real-

time conditions of streets to garage supervisors, DSNY management and across the DSNY

bureaucracy.

12Press Release. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg Updates New Yorkers On Preparations For Upcoming Snow. Jan 6,

2011.


14/15

14

3. Review Equipment and Staffing Levels at Sanitation

Following the storm, the Councilmember visited Sanitation garages and spoke with Sanitation

workers at one of the garages that had performed relatively better during the cleanup, about

their perceptions of the failed cleanup effort. They specifically identified the failure to declare a

snow emergency, many more stranded cars and buses than in past storms, lower staffing levels,and poor equipment as key issues hampering the cleanup. While they technically had the same

number of plow-drivers, overall staffing levels were lower than in the past so there was not

available manpower to coordinate stalled vehicle removal, or watch for pedestrians while

major commercial avenues were cleared.

Sanitation workers also reported that poor equipment played a role. They pointed to new,

inferior chains (see photo); newer model trucks that are weaker and lighter than older trucks;

and an adjustment to the trunnion plate angle designed to make the plows better for

scraping ice, but reportedly less effective in snow conditions like this blizzard.

Picture taken by Councilmember Lander of old and new snow plow chains,

at a Department of Sanitation garage. The older chains (left) are

substantially thicker, heavier and less slick than the new chains (right) and

therefore far more likely to provide traction in deep snow and ice.

4. Increase Collaboration Between Tow and Plow Operations

One frequent frustration was that when abandoned or stuck vehicles were towed away on

unplowed streets, plows did not often follow in a timely manner. As a result, on some streets,

new vehicles got stuck in the same spot. While DSNY does have one or two tow trucks per

garage, and the NYPD provided additional resources, it is not clear how those resources were

deployed during the storm or how the removal of cars was coordinated with plow operations.


15/15

15

5. Prioritize Removal of Snow around Hospitals and Subway Entrances

As noted above, snow removal was not a sufficiently high priority either around 39th

District

hospitals (Methodist, Long Island College Hospital, Maimonides) or subway stations.

Roads around hospitals must be a top priority in the first hours of and following a snowstorm.The City should communicate with all hospitals to determine which key routes were not cleared

quickly, and to insure that these streets receive top priority in future storms.

Our district received several requests for snow removal at the Fort Hamilton Parkway and

Carroll Street F/G train stations. At Fort Hamilton Parkway, there are agency jurisdiction and

resource deployment issues described above. At Carroll Street, it appears that snow removal

by the MTA was initially inadequate as late as Wednesday.

The Department of Parks and Recreation has the responsibility for clearing sidewalks around

park facilities. In some cases, sidewalks that DPR is responsible for are the primary access to

subway entrances. This appears to be the case for about 10% of stations in Southern

Brooklyn.13

DPR must prioritize pathways and entrances to subways for which they have

jurisdiction. These should be cleared before DPR workers are assigned to Sanitation.

While the MTA must prioritize getting its system up and running after a major storm, safe

pedestrian access to the stations must also be the next priority. In cases where the MTA has

jurisdiction over sidewalk and plazas outside subway stations, the agency must remove snow in

these areas at the same time as the actual entrances themselves.

*******

Councilmember Lander looks forward to feedback from members of the public on this report,

and to following up on these issues at the upcoming City Council hearings and beyond. It is

essential that we understand the mistakes that caused the inadequate response, require

accountability for these errors, and identify and correct systemic problems before the next

major snowstorm.

139 of 96 stations on the A, B, C, D, F, N, Q, R & Franklin Shuttle trains.

39th district blizzard cleanup report

Documents