I was around the NYC area during that blizzard. My wife and I were expecting our first child. We weren’t wringing our hands about the government, weren’t planning our legal options should an ambulance be needed and fail to access our home due to the weather. We waited for the snow to stop, I shoveled out our car, and the next day (it was a Monday) we went for a walk (to try to get things “moving along”). Life went on. I don’t remember any public outcry over the inablity of gov’t officials to navigate us all through the “crisis.” I don’t even remember it being viewed as a crisis. It was...weather—which happens every now and then, I’m told.
I have to agree with Rendell...what a bunch of wussies we’ve become!
Oh, yeah...the following Sunday (Jan. 14) our first was born at 8:37 pm in Hackensack Hospital (and thanks again, to our nurse—whom I’ve come to refer to as Saint Elizabeth!)
What good would have it been to shovel your car out if the city roads were not cleared, and even if you had a 4-wheel & high-clearance vehicle that could drive through 20"+ of snow, the roads were blocked by abandoned cars, buses, trucks & ambulances....?
People may be wussies, but government has always had certain fundamental responsibilities - like police, military and roads.
Whether for state, county or municipal roads, whether in NYC or other parts of the country, whether today, a decade ago or a century ago, government's primary responsibilty was maintaining those roads - including snow removal. It was and is not - as Bloomberg specializes in - telling you what to eat, what to drive, where to smoke, who you had to rent to or sell to, where you can display Christian symbols...