Comparing Seattle and New York snow is unfair to both cities. For one - we rarely get snow. Two - our street grid includes a shit-ton of hills and curves and lakes and other things that make managing snow considerably more difficult.

Nickels did a shitty job because he had SDOT to refuse to even really try - instead just put some sand down, and don't plow, just compact the snow (because plowing may damage streets).

McGinn's administration's response was actually pretty good, comparatively, and it was more WSDOT's lack of response that had the major crippling effect on Seattle.

Scotland sacked a minister for their 'inadequate reaction' to the snow!

When did people lose the magic, maaaaaaaan?

Pretty amazing details elsewhere in that paper. At one point there were over 1300 emergency services calls backed up with no way for ambulances to get to them. Doctors were on the phone helping EMTs decide which injured people were so far gone they should be left to die, to give the ambulances a shot at getting to people who might still be saved.

Heavy stuff.

I see it as an act of nature that came in an intensity that left both disaster and confusion and nobody is to blame. Sure, their response can be tweaked but in reality it came at exactly the worst time and was too great to satisfy everyone's needs. People are such whiners. A good example is the havoc caused to airline passengers. Sure, storms cause misery in airports, but who's to blame. Nobody. It's nature.

Same thing is happening in DC.

McGinn did a pretty good job, most of the stuff on city arterials worked, other than dumb people trying to drive up or down hills and thinking that 4WD meant the car commercials showing you on the peaks of mountains were right ...

Bill Clinton's Secretary of Transportation Federico Peña defeated Bill McNicohols in 1983 to become mayor of Denver over the same thing. Then in 1987 Peña dropped the ball himself and nearly faced a recall over another paralyzing snowstorm.

You can let almost anything fall to shit in a city but if you don't clear the snow you can't be Mayor any more.

I look forward to that twitter stream.

MayorMike: @ seattle center building KEXP igloo, throwing snowball at chuhuluhlyly #seattle

MayorMike: lady in ballard needs diapers; can't carry on bike

RichardConlin: @MayorMike A tunnel would work just fine in a snowstorm, jackwagon

MayorMike: @RichardConlin snowblow me.

RichardConlin: @MayorMike You know who called me? @GovGregoire. She doesn't say hi.

VoteMallahan: @MayorMike @RichardConlin You know, losing never looked so good.

GregNickelsBeard: @VoteMallahan I agree!

JeanGodden: athashmark

@3

Plus people don't have heating oil, grocery deliveries aren't coming in-- Even if you're healthy & off the street, there's no guarantee you'll survive.

Shit's coming down, and the stupid teabaggers are blaming the victims for "depending on the government to take care of them."

I do not understand why people in Seattle feel that it is the government's obligation to make sure that snow causes no disruption whatsoever to their normal routine. Snow dramatically alters our environment, it is not within our pitiful human control, and sometimes you just have to cancel your plans and stay home. This was not difficult to accept in the Midwestern town where I grew up, and yet somehow people in Seattle believe that the government has failed whenever snow causes anyone the slightest inconvenience.

Good to see there were no negative consequences from laying off over 400 NYC sanitation workers do to austerity measures this year.

Too many subsidized SUVs not allowed to drive on the streets of Paris, too little patience.

you can't compare the two cities at all. NYC is HUGE and they have 1800 snow plows! seattle is incapable of handling snow. NYC should know better - but it takes TIME to plow such a huge city! also - one of the biggest problems with plowing in NYC is there is NOWHERE to put the snow! i have lived in both cities and i have experienced snow emergencies in both and here's what i think: seattle needs to become better prepared to deal with snow - i mean how many times does it have to snow in seattle before they get a plan in place? seriously? new york needs to develop some patience. there is the capability of handling the emergency - but it is going to take longer than a new york minute to plow all of the streets in all 5 boroughs. get a grip people!!!

People in Spokane start complaining about the mayor as soon as snow is even forecast.

if you bothered to read any of the other NYT articles on this you'd have found the one sourced from snow plow drivers who said the biggest reason they couldn't plow streets was because cars (who had ignored advice to not drive) were stuck in the middle of them.

@1, Nickels was right. Plowing the streets does destroy them. Our streets have never been more ground-up than they are now.

@16 - Oh, I don't disagree with the sentiment - but refusing to use salt, and then compacting the snow, is asking for trouble.

And don't I know it. I live in Eastlake - our streets are torn to shit (but then again, nobody cares about Eastlake)

I am always amazed by how freaked out people get about their streets. We'll tolerate execrable leadership in all other circumstances, but when it comes to potholes and snow removal, we mean business.

Conversation on the couch during the weather report last night:
Me - wow, looks like SDOT is going to do some preventative stuff for the alleged snow we are getting tonight.
Wife - all because of the thanksgiving snow?
Me - yeah, because they were reminded to watch the weather channel and actually pay attention to it.
Wife - the bad news is that they can only keep two things in their head at one time, so the next snow will come as a complete surprise.
Me - SDOT, the worlds shortest attention span.
Wife - they are the labrador retriever's of the govt, wait was that a squirrel?

Bloomberg's lack of interest in even making it look like he's pretending to have the vaguest idea of starting to give a shit about the problems faced by any New Yorker base enough to require city services like the subway is all too evident. He may be re-thinking his purchase of a third term as do-nothing mayor.

@20 why SHOULD he care? It's not like it pays well.

Besides, he knows he can't run as the Republic nom for Pres or VP with the Anti-American Tea Bagger crowd in charge.

@7 the Stranger needs to hire you to write a column of that.

@9 "I do not understand why people in Seattle feel that it is the government's obligation "

Uh, that's a global thing.

It may have been said here already (it's even been in the New York Times) but this is definitely an issue where Chicago is nobody's second city; ask ex Mayor Bilandic 30 years ago.

There are a lot of things that have never been done, and until we've done it, the way of getting them done remains speculative. Hypothetical. Things like curing cancer, or a manned mission to Mars, or successfully invading and occupying Afghanistan.

Plowing snow is not one of those things. Cleaning up after a snowstorm is more comparable to preparing dinner for 12 or changing a diaper or designing a 6 story apartment building. It's been done before and we know how to do it. It's all a matter of either having the resources and the know how, or not having them.

That's why people expect it to get done. Because it's doable.

@ 9, Chicago is part of the midwest. Remember when their mayor got the boot from office over a poor response to a blizzard? No, probably not.

If a small town closes up for a few days, in most cases it only affects that town. When the same thing happens to a major city, it's repercussions can be felt around the world. That's why it's important to be able to respond to storms.

One side of the mouth: "WASTE of TAXpayer dollars! Hang the bastards! The tea party will teach them a thing or two!"
Other side of mouth: "WAAAAHHHH! My driveway isn't plowed! My car is stuck! Who's going to plow the streets 15 minutes after snow starts falling? WAAAAAAHHHHH! WAAAAAHHHH!"

You broken-record, taxpayer-dollar whiners really do need to get a grip on reality, to say nothing of getting real lives. If you bitch and moan and vote people out who have a commitment to making government work, and know we will not get something for nothing, QUIT SNIVELING AND BITCHING! You're getting exactly what you voted for: no taxes, which equals no services.

What a pathetic collection of comments. Really people, stop reading Digg and Youtube! Where's the poetry, the existential angst, the irony, the reconciliation of body and soul, the je ne sais quoi, the jeu d'esprit?

*sigh* It's been too long since Seattle had a venue where 20-somethings played their guitars riding tricycles.