Mayor Bill de Blasio, who emerged almost criticism-free from the first snowstorm that pounded the five boroughs on his watch, doesn’t appear to be as lucky this time around.
The main headline of the New York Post this morning blares: “SHAMBLES! Turmoil as Blas botches ‘early’ snow.” The text on the front page adds that his team was “completely unprepared” for the winter flurry.
The inside of the tabloid is no kinder to the new mayor.
“It really is a tale of two cities — this time with the tony Upper East Side getting the shaft!” declares one story, which quotes various residents accusing Mr. de Blasio, who fared poorly in the neighborhood during last year’s campaign, of refusing to plow the neighborhood as a form of political retribution.
“Mayor de Blasio bungled the second winter storm of his administration when the snow hit a few hours earlier than expected Tuesday — causing a rash of car crashes and snarling traffic across the city,” claims another report, which links all sorts of snow-related problems to Mr. de Blasio’s “botch.”
As the latter piece notes, Mr. de Blasio’s team denied anything sinister happened in the Upper East Side, blaming traffic and a broken GPS device for the impression the entire neighborhood had gone unplowed.
“We had spreaders out at 8 a.m, Tuesday,” de Blasio spokeswoman Marti Adams told the paper yesterday, “and once snow accumulated to two inches, plows were deployed to neighborhoods in all five boroughs — including the Upper East Side — and they will continue to work through the night.”
