Peter Jennings begins discussing local politicians' reactions to the Blizzard of '96 at 4:40. This event was discussed (and this ABC News report excerpted) on the
January 2 roundtable on ABC's
This Week in the context of politicians' responses to the December 2010 blizzard.
According to this report by John Donvan, Anthony Russo, mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, cut off his city to all outside traffic and joined the snowplow crews. There's also video of Giuliani in an FDNY cap and pushing a stranded police car and of then-Governor of NJ Christine Todd Whitman (a Republican) in a snowplow. And yes, Tom Menino is STILL Mayor of Boston (having served since '93).
Compare that to both Gov. and Lt. Gov of New Jersey (both Republicans too) going on vacation during the December 2010 blizzard. And Michael Bloomberg
admitting some responsibility for the city's botched response.
In the past, Donvan reports, botched blizzard responses have historically hurt NYC mayors: when Queens didn't get plowed immediately in 1969, John Lindsey decided not to run for re-election, and following a 7-foot snowfall in 1979, Chicago mayor Michael Bilandic lost his next election.
The New York Times with more on then-NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani dealing with the snowstorm: "
For Giuliani, Riding Storm In High Gear" (Jan. 9, 1996): "The Mayor said the primary streets were plowed by midday, as were about 40 percent of the secondary streets, and aides said the side streets would be cleared within two days. Some community board leaders complained that the city had yet to remove abandoned cars that were blocking plows, but because the Mayor ordered all nonemergency traffic off the streets, the problem affected few New Yorkers," although Giuliani declared the snowfall at the time "beyond record levels." Also on Hoboken: "
With Shovels, Snow Turns Into Windfall."
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