We wish we could say that the city did a great job plowing the streets of Woodhaven. We wish we could say the city did even a good job of plowing our streets.
We can't. Supposedly, the city did a decent job elsewhere -- but not here in Woodhaven. As most of you know, we have put together a Block Captain program and we now have about 25% of Woodhaven accounted for. We were able to quickly gather a list of streets that needed plowed and they were reported by 10:30 yesterday morning. 24 hours later nearly 90% of the streets that we reported had not even been touched.
We took a tour of Woodhaven last evening -- about 12 hours after it had stopped snowing -- and we saw street after street that hadn't been plowed. People who were on the roads were getting stuck. Simply put -- the city failed Woodhaven. Update: We're still getting reports that many streets are in horrible shape. We are heading out at 5 PM to check on conditions.
Update 2: We should mention that our next public Town Hall meeting is on Saturday, February 12th at 1:00 at 78-15 Jamaica Avenue (the Woodhaven Volunteer Ambulance Corps).
You can see tire tracks -- so some cars, trucks perhaps, managed to navigate their way down the street. But our Block Captains were reporting cars having great difficulty getting down the streets. There were no stuck cars impeding snow plows -- let's be clear about that. We drove around Woodhaven from 5 PM to 7 PM -- guess how many plows or salt spreaders we saw? ZERO. In fact, we had a better chance of seeing a Hollywood star in Woodhaven than seeing a plow. the Block Captains we spoke to were, one and all, angry. Frustrated. Especially galling was turning on the news to hear apparent satisfaction over the cleanup job this time around. The street below is 89th Avenue -- one of the major cross streets through Woodhaven. Untouched as of last night. Untouched as of this afternoon. The next day. 36 hours after the storm was over.
Maybe we should just go see a Broadway Play --
Sometimes you have to laugh. But sometimes you have to get a little angry to get your fair share. We had a woman on one block, she couldn't get off her block to take her daughter for Dialysis treatments. She told us last night that's she's now afraid when it snows. Getting stuck puts her daughter's health at risk.
Street after street, and hardly any were plowed. In some cases, it looked like the snow had been battered down, and had turned to ice. Here's the way one Block Captain reported it to us via E-mail:
The snow is packed on the street still... caked down on ground with large ruts in the middle... Caked down -- a good description. And as the sun set and the temperatures fell, that ice got harder and harder to navigate. And still no plows were seen.
It wasn't a matter of finding out which streets hadn't been plowed -- it was just easier to write down the streets that had gotten plowed. Once you subtracted those streets from the map, the rest were streets that needed plowing. Still, we were doing this the old fashioned way and writing them down as we saw them.
Ridiculous. Ludicrous. Horrendous. At some point, you just can't find the right words to describe the situation.
You know, we aren't helping ourselves by throwing snow in the middle of the street. Maybe a few days from now, when temperatures are in the high 30s low 40s -- and you have blacktop -- and you throw snow on it so it sits in the sun . . . but not at night, during a Weather Emergency, on a street that hasn't been plowed yet. Only one word for someone who does that -- Schmuck.
We know there's nowhere to put the snow -- but that doesn't mean the middle of the street is the answer! These folks handled it well -- they built their own mountain.
Street after street -- it was pretty disheartening.
This is by PS 97 -- you can see that it's a mess.
Here's a picture one resident sent us of her street this afternoon -- still waiting for a plow.
This is 30+ hours after the storm stopped. I don't know how the city will be graded on this storm -- but as for Woodhaven they can receive no grade other than F.
Here were the streets we reported last evening and again this morning -- these are all the streets our Block Captains reported -- and that we saw on our tour. We're sure we missed some -- but we tried to be as complete as possible.
Streets (North/South)
75th Street between 93rd Avenue and Atlantic Avenue
76th Street between Park Lane South and Jamaica Avenue
80th Street between Jamaica and Atlantic Avenues
81st Street between 91st Avenue and Atlantic Avenue
82nd Street between Atlantic Avenue and 91st Avenue
85th Street between 91st Avenue and Atlantic Avenue
85th Street between Jamaica Avenue and Park Lane South
86th Street between Jamaica Avenue and Park Lane South
86th Street between Jamaica Avenue and 89th Avenue
87th Street between Jamaica Avenue and 89th Avenue
88th Street between Jamaica Avenue and 89th Avenue
88th Street between 91st Avenue and Atlantic Avenue
89th Street between Jamaica Avenue and 89th Avenue
90th Street between Jamaica Avenue and 89th Avenue
92nd Street between Jamaica Avenue and 88th Avenue
92nd Street between 89th and 91st Avenues Cross Streets (East/West)
85th Avenue between Forest Parkway and 85th Street
85th Avenue between 91st Street and Woodhaven Boulevard
85th Drive between 76th Street and 79th Street
85th Drive between Forest Parkway and 85th Street
85th Road between 76th Street and 79th Street
87th Avenue between 78th and 80th Streets
87th Road between 78th and 80th Streets
88th Avenue between 78th and 80th Streets
88th Road between 78th and 80th Streets
89th Avenue between 85th Street and Woodhaven Boulevard
90th Avenue between 84th Street and 78th Street
90th Road between 84th Street and 78th Street
91st Avenue between Woodhaven Boulevard and 84th Street
91st Avenue between 84th Street and Rockaway Boulevard If you have any comments, or would like to suggest other projects, drop us a line at info@projectwoodhaven.com or projectwoodhaven@aol.com .
