This isn’t just a nor’easter. Think of this kick in the shins from nature as Mayor Michelle Wu’s Snowstorm Response 2.0.
It’s Wu’s do-over, and her administration needs to get it right.
The precedent set by the late-January storm doesn’t inspire confidence. Three days after the Hub was hit with nearly two feet of snow, many sidewalks and side streets remained snow-clogged. Walking was often best done in the street, despite the risks.
For a city that had weathered storms under previous mayors, this half-baked response came as a surprise.
Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn was just one of many who criticized the dangerous conditions in the wake of Winter Storm Fern.
Flynn said he had been contacted by residents and business owners about the poor conditions on Huntington Avenue, which, in one instance, prevented an ambulance from reaching a building in the area.
Ambulance workers were forced to walk a block from Exeter Street with a stretcher to provide assistance, the councilor wrote in a letter to Wu and Interim Chief of Streets Nick Gove. Huntington isn’t exactly a side street.
Flynn said he received more calls and messages from residents and businesses than he has in previous snowstorms. All contained the same request, to “find areas to improve” the city’s snow removal response.
This nor’easter is the city’s chance to prove it can get the job done. Projected snowfall amounts differ, but we’re likely looking at a foot-plus. Enough to make the streets, sidewalks and crosswalks a mess. And the elderly and disabled homeowners who weren’t able to shovel their sidewalk last month are no more capable this time around. Do we have a plan for that?
State Sen. Nick Collins wanted the state to step in to help Boston deal with the snow from Fern, writing to Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation Phillip Eng and Massachusetts Port Authority CEO Richard Davey that their help “would be delivering an enormous service to taxpayers.”
Will we need a similar plea this time around, or will the city give taxpayers the services they pay for?
The storm also has New York City in its sites, and Democratic Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani was on the case, calling for New Yorkers to sign up to become emergency snow shovelers Saturday.
As the New York Post reported, “For those who want to do more to help your neighbors and earn some extra cash, you too can become an emergency snow shoveler. Just show up at your local sanitation garage… with your paperwork which is accessible online,” Mamdani said.
Paperwork to shovel snow? Yes. Mamdani, whose Democratic Socialist party slams the SAVE Act requiring voter ID, wants potential emergency shovelers to present ID to clear sidewalks. The New York City Sanitation Department website says that in order to register as an emergency snow shoveler, one must provide two small photos sized 1-1.5 square inches, two original forms of ID plus copies, and their social security card.
There’s nothing like political hot air to keep a city warm during a storm.
