Friday's Headlines: New York's Strongest Edition

Everyone has complaints about the aftermath of the big snow last month. But our job isn’t merely to whine, but to whine … with data!

One data point, of course, is how well city agencies respond to all the whining — aka 311 complaints. Well, not so well, apparently.

Our friend Paul Schreiber crunched the 311 service complaints that the Department of Sanitation received in the category of snow or ice on sidewalks. There were 8,169 of them between Jan. 27 and Feb. 4!

Let’s break them down:

Of the 8,169 complaints, 7,341 (or 90 percent) were “in progress,” even though DSNY is allotted 24 hours to deal with a service request.
The remaining 828 (or 10 percent) were marked as “closed.”

Of the 828 closed violations, here were the main resolutions:

The agency issued 85 violations (10 percent of the closed cases; 1 percent of the overall complaints).
In 180 cases (or 22 percent of the closed cases), the DSNY said it investigated and “addressed the issue.”
In the vast majority of closed service requests — 557 or 67 percent — the agency said it investigated this complaint and found “no condition” or “no violation.” (Full disclosure: My wife had filed one of those closed service requests, which may explain why I’m doing this story, given the time-honored axiom, “Happy wife, happy following up on her story leads.”)

So I asked the agency a few questions:

The DSNY is supposed to close cases within 24 hours. Why are there so many complaints “in progress.”
Only DSNY supervisors can write tickets. Do you need more supervisors?
Not mentioned above, but there were just four closed cases where the DSNY indicated that the agency “cleaned the location.” That seems very low. Does the agency need to hire more emergency snow removal workers?

These are very specific questions, but the agency didn’t really address them. But in the interest of fairness, I’ll let DSNY spokesman Vincent Gragnani share his thoughts:

As you know, the 12 to 15 inches of snow we received followed by nearly two weeks of subfreezing temperatures is unprecedented in recent memory. There is a massive amount of snow that is not moving on its own – and we are out there clearing it away, 24 hours a day, seven days a week since the flakes started to fall.

Property owners have a responsibility to clear snow and ice from sidewalks, crosswalks and bus stops, and we have been out there enforcing this requirement, writing nearly 3,000 summonses and counting. [Editor’s note: Most of these summonses were issued not in response to 311 complaints, which was the core of my question.]

We actively encourage people to call 311 when they see property owners failing to meet these legal responsibilities. Response times can vary during an active snow event, but we do follow up on all requests. Some service requests are closed because the area was already cleaned, some are closed when we issue a summons. Supervisors have multiple responsibilities, especially during winter weather events, and that includes observing conditions and taking action, even without a 311 service request.

Note also that we are taking on much of this work ourselves: Since last Sunday’s storm, we have had 2,500 Sanitation workers on every 12-hour shift, 500 Emergency Snow Shovelers, and about 700 pieces of contracted specialized equipment working to get the city fully safe and clear.

In addition to brining, salting and plowing all roads and bike lanes, we also cleared paths at all unsheltered bus stops, as well as more than 44,000 crosswalks citywide. Yes, much of this infrastructure is the responsibility of the adjacent property owner but, knowing that many property owners fail to do so, DSNY has stepped in. We have cleaned far more crosswalks, paths to crosswalks, bus stops, etc., than 311 service requests received.

We have also hauled away and melted more than 215 million pounds of snow, and this number will be rising every day, possibly for weeks to come.

In other words, stop your whining, Streetsblog (and Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella)!

Well, we can’t because of shit like this:

In other news:

The Times, following up on our criticism of the mayor’s approach to homeless New Yorkers during this historic cold snap, dug deep into the deaths of 17 people.

On the plus side, the mayor took some of the blame. (Gothamist)
But, like us, The City still feels the roads are a mess …
… Which is why J.K. Trotter’s story today is so seminal: Why did the city get rid of its no-parking snow emergency routes?
The Gateway tunnel project really is dead … (NYDN)
… Is that because President Trump doesn’t want to put his name on tunnels that no one sees? (Axios, Punchbowl)
A hit-and-run school bus driver killed a teenager in Gravesend. (NY Post, Gothamist)
I was on Bike Talk this week, where I talked about ICE — and not the kind that we’ve been complaining about above.
It’s another fine mess for bus lane blockers (Brooklyn Eagle), but, of course, the soft-on-crime Post objects to holding scofflaw drivers accountable.
NJ Transit riders now face bottlenecks just to get on the train. (NY Post)
In his own words: Here’s socialist Zohran Mamdani on why our centrist governor would be better than her progressive lieutenant governor. (The Nation)
Come for the profile of retired Partnership for New York City leader Kathy Wylde and stay for the devastating last line about her successor. (NY Magazine)
The guy who started the NYPD’s controversial Strategic Response Group now wants it disbanded. (Gothamist)
Big ghost car crackdown in Suffolk County (we wonder how many cops were caught up in it!). (WPIX)
In our ongoing coverage of Citi Bike, ABC7 has now followed the Post following Hell Gate’s following of our coverage of the piles of snow surrounding Citi Bike docks across the five boroughs.
On a personal note, the Mets cannot lose Brett Baty. Jimmy and the Jaywalkers know it. And now, amNY knows it.
And, finally, we were remiss in not letting you know that Bike Plant, a shop in Bedford-Stuyvesant, became officially worker-owned a couple of weeks ago. We had a few friends on hand, who sent over some pictures of the festivities. For more info on the store, click here.