City Defends Decision to Leave Lake Shore Drive Open: MyFoxCHICAGO.com
Snow Day Thoughts:
Politics is Easy Governing is Hard
Notice how nobody has heard from Rahm, Gery Chico, Carol Mosely Braun or Miguel De Valle the past two days. Wonder how their snow removal plans would have worked?
Then again, we also haven't heard much from Mayor Daley. To me he seemed checked out and sent his Chief of Staff to face an avalanche of questions about the Lake Shore Drive fiasco.
Depending on who you listened to, that was either good, or bad political strategy:Fran Spielman of the Sun-Times said that Daley learned from the 1979 "Bilandic Blizzard" that cost Michael Bilandic the mayor's race, to Jane Byrne, and his image:
"A few inches of snow and 32 years separate the Blizzards of `79 and 2011. But from a public relations standpoint, they were worlds apart.
The late Mayor Michael Bilandic was publicly vilified — and ultimately booted out of office — for mismanaging post-storm communications even more than he botched the city’s emergency response to the storm.
Under retiring Mayor Daley — who has nothing but his legacy to preserve — image management has been flawless, even if storm management wasn’t.
As many as 900 vehicles, including CTA buses, were stuck on Lake Shore Drive for hours after three accidents in 28 minutes, followed by ramp closures caused by high winds, drifting snow and white-out conditions.
Ray Orozco, the mayor’s chief of staff, responded to the interminable wait by apologizing to motorists for the inconvenience — even as he defended the city’s decision to keep the Drive open.
“While city personnel worked as quickly as possible to get motorists, buses and cars off the Drive, we certainly understand everyone’s frustration ... We know that hundreds of people were very inconvenienced, and we apologize for that,” Orozco said.
“Nevertheless, it was clear that thousands and thousands of motorists leaving the Loop were relying on [Lake Shore Drive] as a major artery to get home. ... We did not want to eliminate that option for those motorists, further pushing that large quantity of vehicles to arterial streets that could clog up those roads, maybe cause more accidents or hamper emergency response.”
Orozco urged motorists to call 311 to identify one of five locations where their abandoned vehicles had been towed. He even offered them free gas.
He also didn’t make the mistake of over-promising. He vowed to “eventually re-open Lake Shore Drive when we believe it is safe to do so.” But, he initially refused to say when that would be."
//www.suntimes.com/news/politics/3623320-418/bilandic-mayor-storm-drive-motorists.htmlNBC Chicago's Ward Room had a different take:
"When severe weather strikes, city officials always issue a reminder that the more fortunate among us should check on our poor, our infirm and our seniors.
Has anyone checked on Richard and Maggie Daley?
The mayor, who has in the past called himself "the most accessible public official you've ever met," has been strangely absent since Mother Nature unleashed her winter fury over Chicagoland.
There was word that Daley was going to address the public during a press conference at the Office of Emergency Management and Communications on Wednesday afternoon, but he apparently backed out, leaving his chief of staff, Ray Orozco, to face the cameras...
But the main department head in this city is Daley, and while he's been known to dodge questions in the past, his absence in the wake of what became the third-biggest winter storm in Chicago's history is uncharacteristic.
While the men who want to be mayor are pushing cars and digging out neighbors, the man who is mayor isn't taking questions.
In the end, maybe he doesn't have to. The lame-duck mayor will be out of office in a little more than three months.
But it's interesting that a massive snow storm -- like the one that many say was the downfall of the late Mayor Michael Bilandic -- would leave some wondering what's going on at City Hall."
Robo Calls
I received two calls from the City of Aurora to tell me not to go outside and and three calls and six e-mails from District 204 to tell me that school was canceled for the past two days. While canceling in the middle of the afternoon on Wednesday for Thursday, may have seemed earlier than usual, local governments are trying to stay ahead of the curve in providing information to their citizens.
Some I know criticized the calling off today. That's what we do in our democracy. But I just appreciated the efficient use of technology to help get the message out early.
Snow Day Tea Party?
If less-government, Tea Party Patriots were running things all over, whose job would it be to move the snow in places like Chicago, Naperville and Aurora. Government bad, but snow removal good.....once again, Politics is Easy, Governing in a 20-inch snow fall with drifts is Hard.
From the Peoples World Blog:
"Our nation is experiencing what is being described as the largest snowstorm in the country's history. This massive storm is spread over 30 states and weather experts are saying it is going to leave a foot of snow stretching some 2,100 miles....
Meanwhile, governors and mayors are cutting back services and laying off tens of thousands of skilled public workers, replacing them with non-union private contractors with some working overtime, but they don't have the capacity to solve crises such as this one....
There's a real problem here, people! It is the role of government to do something about it. This is a national emergency and people are in danger. The government must act.
There are 15 million unemployed in our nation. Many are able-bodied, ready and willing to work. It's time to hire the unemployed at union wages and help save lives and clean up this mess.
Laid off public workers should be the first to be hired back. The money should come out of federal disaster funds and from taxing the rich individuals and corporations who are hoarding billions and refusing to invest in the American people.
The right-wing corporate-financed Republican and tea party fanatics only want to talk about high taxes and big government. The truth is that public workers and government are key to our everyday ability to function as a nation."
//peoplesworld.org/hire-the-unemployed-to-meet-the-snow-emergency/Two Year Anniversary: 4 inches of Snow had London Crawling
Not sure if getting all the unemployed to remove snow works, but unitary national government's like the UK have had snow troubles, too. As reported two years ago yesterday, London was shut down after just 4 inches of the white stuff:
LONDON (AP) — It was hardly a blizzard, but it still shut down the city that beat the Blitz.
The biggest snowfall to hit London in 18 years idled the city's trademark red buses and Underground trains Monday, stranded thousands of airline passengers, and raised the vexing question of why a predicted winter storm caught authorities so unprepared.
Transit officials had nearly a week to get ready, but they failed to keep things running normally in the capital, which was buried under more than four inches of snow overnight and another four inches in the afternoon.
Londoners who needed to get somewhere often found they couldn't — unless they were willing to walk for miles.
"There's no point in going to work today," said office worker Caroline Samuel after waiting for an Underground train that never arrived. "I'm going home."
All five of the capital's airports briefly shut down — with nearly 800 flights canceled throughout the day and thousands of passengers stranded. An international flight skidded off a taxiway at Heathrow, causing no injuries.
Buses kept off streets
The city's extensive bus network was completely closed for most of the day and many trains simply didn't run.
Colossal traffic jams clogged roads because of fender benders and more serious accidents.
London Mayor Boris Johnson conceded that the city lacked the plows and other equipment — mostly because buying it is a gamble with big snowfalls so rare here.
The usually upbeat mayor said "the volume of snow was so huge" that the city's efforts to keep up were doomed and that skidding buses could become "a lethal weapon."
The mayor's official spokesman denied that concerns about insurance coverage led to the decision to keep the buses off the streets.
"It never got that far," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with department policy. "It was a basic safety issue. It might have caused some inconvenience, but it's nothing compared to the damage that could be done by a 12-ton vehicle cruising over crushed ice. The roads weren't fit."
Richard Tracey, a Conservative Party member of London's city council, told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the bus company's willingness to deal with snow is different than in past years because of growing levels of health and safety legislation.
"I think the public are prepared to go out, but the bus drivers and the companies won't drive if there's even the tiniest risk of the bus skidding and people being injured," Tracey said. "Government legislation, European legislation and all that, that's what stops these things."
Former Mayor Ken Livingstone blasted London's storm preparations. He said it had been more than a century since the city buses were idled.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the government was doing "everything possible" to keep transit systems operating.
The harsh conditions led to hundreds of school closures, and many courts shut as well, including London's landmark Old Bailey. Hospitals remained open, but staffing levels were reduced.
A Transport for London spokesman said the agency must largely rely on London's local councils to treat roads — and that not all of the councils have the same level of ability to deal with a heavy snowfall."We're not in Russia here," said Guy Pitt, a press officer for the agency. "We don't have an infrastructure built for constant snow."
Mayor comes out defends City response: This is not the 'Daley Show'
On Thursday afternoon, the day after the groundhog day, Mayor Daley came out for Q & A with the press. He has a bit more than 6 weeks left (the new mayor takes office May 16), but this may be one of the last times to witness classic city mayor spar with those on the beat. Great stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment