New Yorkers have “pretty incredible” expectations that snow will be shoveled from roadways in a timely fashion, the city’s top Sanitation boss said Sunday.
“I have to tell you that I didn’t quite understand the expectation of snow from the residents of New York,” Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia admitted in a puzzling call-in interview on John Catsimatidis’ 970 AM radio show — comments that come days after parts of Queens grappled with snow-choked streets in the wake of Winter Storm Jonas.
“When snow hits you have eight and a half million customers and their expectations are very high, so I have a new respect for the department in terms of how we mobilize all of our forces and get out there to fight snow,” she continued. “Because the expectations are pretty incredible.”
A Park Slope native, Garcia, 45, appointed Sanitation boss by Mayor de Blasio in 2014, admitted she’d never quite overseen an event with Jonas’ scope.
“I’ve dealt with a lot of emergencies before, but they’re usually somewhat localized,” said Garcia, who led the city’s Department of Environmental Protection for seven years before moving to her $208,000-a-year gig.
Garcia admitted her new job taught her something else: Weather is something that changes.
“The other thing I learned is that forecasts change rapidly sometimes,” she said. “They change time, they change accumulation, so you really need to be ready for anything.”
Queens lawmakers shot back Sunday, saying a delay in snow removal is a basic complaint — even for a city of kvetchers.
“We New Yorkers are simple people,” said Councilman Rory Lancman, who said parts of his district in Kew Gardens Hills and Electchester were buried for days after the stronger-than-usual storm. “We expect our elected and appointed leaders to show up to work on time and do their job, like we do. When they fail to do that we yell at them.”
Snow removal is the least New Yorkers should get back for paying some of the highest property taxes in the country, added state Sen. Tony Avella.
“Part of how we get that money back is through the city plowing the streets — just plow the streets!” he said.