The editorial board of the Connecticut Post writes, in response to the city’s snow removal effort, “whatever planning occurred was a nightmare, a city of largely rutted, slippery byways more reminiscent of a medieval village than the state’s largest city.” Does Finch deserve the blame? Or did Public Works leadership let him down? Or maybe this was a once-in-a-lifetime storm and they did all they could?
Mayor Bill Finch can talk about the “yahoos” whose cars got stranded at the height of the storm, but the fact is at least some of those “yahoos” were hard-working people coming home from a job. Not everyone has the luxury of skipping work in bad weather.
It’s clear the storm got ahead–way ahead–of the city’s response.
Read the full editorial here.
SAD.
FINCH’S NEXT JOB (ENDORSED BY CT POST)
Finch: “Tom, once I get my foot in the door, I’ll bring you and Chuckie Carroll in as my assistants.”
McCarthy: “It will be like old times again”.
thefw.com/starbucks-secret-menu/
Bravo to the press! The time has come to start now for Finch to admit the mistakes, fire those who misled him, apologize to the people. Time to be a man. Time to be a leader. I know this is asking a lot, but in reality it’s a small price to pay for the biggest blunder in recent Bridgeport history.
Admit error? Not his style. Perhaps his biggest shortfall. It is not his fault though. He is surrounded by sycophants so he has a skewed view of the universe. I have given him the benefit of the doubt for five days. 10:50 pm Glendale Ave. is still not plowed. I certainly hope something positive comes out of this. I am a forever optimist.
I do not know what went into storm planning but hurricanes are different from blizzards. Sandy was a once-in-100-year phenomenon perhaps, but the snowstorm may have been once in 40-50 years … not the first one I have seen as a lifetime CT resident. Anyway we shoveled out our cars, driveway and a neighbor helped by snowblowing the sidewalks but the street was virginal and untouched by public snow removal until the early morning hours. And by 6:00 AM they plowed to within 10 feet of my driveway.
Interesting isn’t it? Or so my neighbors thought as they chuckled about what I would think. Well I am not paranoid, but the thought did cross my mind as neighbors pulled out and I was still stuck: “Is this payback or coincidence?” and I took some pictures and walked to breakfast. By 10:30 AM I returned home to be greeted by one plowed lane that freed my driveway. I was happy. Then I learned it was one of my neighbors with the bucket loader from his business who freed the balance of Seabright and Beacon St. and then went on to completely clear Beacon Court and Penfield Place. Hats off to all who took action. If City equipment was not up to the task, let me be the first to ask how the 2011 purchase of a $245,000 armored personnel carrier contributed to snow plowing? Did anyone see it in operation? You build plans, and prepare contingencies, and read the weather reports, and learn from NYC snowplowing woes in recent history, right? But with the $3,600,000 of budgeted but “ghost” employees disappearing from the City budget in September, and no questions or comments from the Mayor, the City Council members or most of you about that event, perhaps the money has been spent elsewhere. Where will you look?
Just like the YouTube video of Midland Ave and the folks on Fayerweather Terrace, neighbors with equipment or just plain shovels took initiative when the City was delinquent in response and communication. Perhaps Mayor Finch will offer to apply a property tax credit to those who failed to get City snow removal service. Or would such a promise be as ethereal as his election year $600 tax credit? Time will tell.
Bridgeport Now TV show live call in tonight–city employee said there was no plan in place for any and all city employees with regard to the storm–none–no emails from the administration, no plan, nothing. Is there really any more to say?
I called into that show. Tremont Ave not cleared ’til 3am 2/13/13, but was listed as a CLEARED STREET at 7:30 pm yesterday!!! This list is a LIE! Tremont Ave NOT TOUCHED by a plow as of the time this list was posted (2/12/13 7:30 pm!!) … 3 am wake-up call, on day 6 post-storm NEMO (2/13/13)–beeping payloader finally clearing my road of snow, dumps it all on my nice clean sidewalk … someone tell Mayor Finch I will not pay $100. Pic to follow.
blog.ctnews.com/weather/2013/02/10/list-of-passable-streets-in-bridgeport/comment-page-1/#comment-261
Two years after Nemo, the Connecticut Post Endorses Bill Finch for Mayor of Bridgeport.
I wonder how the leaders of Bass Pro are feeling about opening in the city now?
In their quest to increase their readership base, The Connecticut Post isn’t afraid to combine the force of Mother Nature and Bridgeport’s shortcomings to find a way to blame something. If that means bashing their former choice, so be it. We’re all journalists now, right? In 2013, there’s a lot of Denver and very little Bridgeport in the let’s-grab-the-whole-state Connecticut Post.
This is brass tacks time. When we get down to brass tacks, the “Finch regime” failed us. Sort of like Fredo failed his father when needed most. Let’s face it, the Democratic Town Committee and the Bridgeport Regional Business Council care nothing about the people, only that which benefits the chosen cheap-shoe shitheads who run this town. When we really need effective municipal management we got Finch and Charlie Carroll. Brain-dead registered voters who do not vote are actually the root cause of this disaster.
Hey Lennie, did you get the photos I sent? The streets may be passable to some but the photos I took will show they are not. Hickory and Rose are shown as passable, but the last time I checked, Rose Street had a mountain at the end where it meets Noble Avenue. I don’t call that passable. And on Hickory, the photos I took show you can drive up or down, but it too has a pile of snow just sitting in the road and only one-way access.
Lennie must be thrilled with the readership on OIB these past few days!
Again, Finch is either a liar or misinformed or both. Today’s articles in the Post say it all. Bpt had no plan and their delayed response of over a few hours caused the disaster scene we see today. There is no leadership in the administration or Public Works. That is blatantly obvious.
I am not surprised John Marshall Lee’s driveway was piled high with snow. Former mayoral candidate John Gomes had the same problem at his restaurant, the Red Rooster. He had to hire a private contractor with a payloader to dig out his restaurant. Way to treat a local business, mayor!
All Finch can do is blame the public. He needs to look around him. It’s his crew of yahoos who got us in this mess. INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION NOW!
So here is the last of my posts on the snow situation. 10:40 AM Glendale Avenue. Street finally plowed. After four days of shoveling driveway, the plows put a 3 x 4-foot heavy mound at the foot of my driveway. Very pleased to say the least. Not!
Well we have finally heard from Paul (flush) Timpanelli. He agrees with the mayor and states the reduction in public facility manpower contributed to the plowing problem. Hey Paul, the city reduced the manpower but they did not take away the funding for these now-vacant positions. I will only comment on the last two years where they budgeted for 41 unfilled PF positions but did not fill them. instead they hired seasonals at $10 per hour.
It was not the workers who screwed this up, it was PF management pure and simple. Finch, it’s time for heads to roll, if not you will be gone next election.
OFF TOPIC: Andy, do you know how to get in touch with Efraim Ramos or Aidee Nieves?
Try Facebook.
Timpanelli has a lot of balls. If Trumbull looked as bad as Bpt, he’d be criticizing the hell out of Tim Herbst. This entire situation should be investigated by an independent committee comprised of residents (not DTC members) and actual workers who will tell the truth about the circle-jerk we call Public Facilities management.
Of course the employees will later be terminated for telling the truth and the supervisors will be promoted for lying. That’s how it’s done in Bpt.
On Bridgeport NOW 2/12/13 a caller to the TV show asked if the very slow response on the part of bankrupt cities like Bridgeport CT, Waterbury CT etc. was a result of a plan to receive needed Federal money for these cities, to cover expenses for snow removal which said cities did not have in their treasuries with such excuses as “storm of the century, broken equipment” etc. Is it possible the political machine(s) put the welfare of the taxpayer at risk in the areas of lack of food, emergency ambulance response, inability to get to work and so on, so at election time said politicos cover their collective asses, like in elephant and donkeys? Hmmm … It could be, considering the collective forgetfulness over time.
Yep! That was me … that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!!! What other reason for no plow blades hitting the streets??? Broke state and cities putting citizens at risk … and then blaming them! Is there a town more corrupt than Bpt?
If we wait two years to vote out Finch it will be too late for this city. Time to demand Finch and his cronies leave office NOW.
Calling John Marshall Lee …
Can you identify in the city budget where they can afford to plow a snowfall like this? If not, the administration might be handling this correctly. If you can’t pay to plow it, you can’t plow it.
Jim,
From what we know about how Mayor Finch spends taxpayer money, would affordability get in the way if he wants to do something? And if there were no funding, what does that say to planning? And if there were no planning or learning, one year from the last and so on, then how can we even call this group MANAGERS?
Callahan, I have gone to several sources and will pen a note for Lennie to post. I missed lunch today waiting to speak in Hartford, and I am hungry for dinner. Stay tuned for some hilarious but shameful news. Time will tell.
Why are we asking for Finch to step down? You know he will not. I feel if the Mayor told the truth about what happened, we would have all pulled together and helped out even if it were our own street. But he did not tell the truth. In the end it all comes out. Waited for four days … the plow is coming … the plow is coming. And it did not. So we plowed our street. The workers who are plowing our streets do not know what they are doing. Carelessness! Covering fire hydrants. Arguing with each other. When this is over all those men and women need to take a course on snow removal. Administration need to listen to the weathermen … even if sometimes these storms go out to sea. An elderly woman cradled in his arms and walked (by a stranger to her) to an intersection for the ambulance to pick her up. A young man died from an asthma attack. Another person passed away (heart attack) and the body in the house for hours because the funeral home could not get to them. There is so much to tell. Shame on the Mayor, Public Works, and all those responsible for making sure our streets are taken care of for the safety of all and they DID NOT!
Remember Mayor Lindsey and Queens NY and their snow storm? He could have gone on to be president. Did he end up driving a snow plow? Or is that an urban legend?
If you are unhappy with how this storm was handled there are twenty City Council members up for election in the fall. They are counting on you forgetting. Don’t.
Mayor Lindsay could not have been elected dogcatcher after a snowstorm because the outer boroughs thought he had screwed them.
However, Lindsay was reelected mayor of New York City in November, 1969 after the “Miracle Mets” won the World Series in October, and suddenly New Yorkers–including those in Queens–were feeling good about their city. Also, the guys running against Lindsay were stinkers, if I recall.
This is a perfect reason to have a recall provision in the charter.
Andy: No Bridgeport mayor would survive a recall on snow removal.
One of these decades citizens should demand an understandable plan about what the city will do and when in a bad snowstorm–measured by how bad the snowstorm.
The plan starts off with the words “We have too many narrow streets and too many cars.”
Fine. We all know that excuse. It’s legit.
The next words of the planning report should be: “This is what we will do about it.”
That way you have a way of measuring what kind of job that the city is doing, or if officials are giving you the breeze.
People forget that the much-noted 1978 snowstorm was followed by several others. The town was a mess through March. There was no place to put the snow even when they were dumping it into the harbor as fast as they could.
Jim: The problem was and is there was no plan in effect for this and any other storm. Who ever heard of taking plows off the street for a number of hours while the snow fell at 2-3 inches per hour?
Employees were not told to be prepared to stay for days or until the job was done. There were no arrangements for employees to rest during their down time. There were no shifts so workers could rest.
It made no difference if cars were on the street or not as both streets with no cars and streets with cars were treated the same.
Heads should roll in Public Facilities starting at the top and working downward at the management level. Will they? NO. Finch has no balls.
For all his faults Finch does deserve a little bit of leeway on this one. A historic storm, three feet of snow in one night, thousands of miles of roads, cars parked everywhere, cars abandoned in the road, people who would not stay home so the road crews could work and equipment that was not designed to handle this kind of snow. Before any of you start complaining, how many of you have cleared your walks??? Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
I do not mean to dismiss comments about historic snowstorms or management of public works. I don’t think the difference between the two thoughts should be split either.
The picture at the top of this thread says a lot: the city still didn’t have Fairfield and Main clear by Tuesday night. Not good by any standard.
The snow removal “plan” is always a mystery. Whatever the plan is it always seemed to work better if there was an agreement that the person in charge of public works was a good administrator. But this is a lot of snow.
As one who is willing to give everyone the benefit of a doubt–I’ve built a career on being gullible and maybe an idiot–I’m going to guess everyone did the best they could with the resources they had.
And I’m willing to bet the one resource they didn’t have is money. And that resource wasn’t available until a State of Emergency was declared by the president. Now the city knows how it will pay the bills. Now the snow removal can begin.
Using that measure it doesn’t matter if the city has a snow removal plan or not, or if anyone is competent or not in public works.
I’m guessing the city is broke. They’ve been playing cutesy with numbers long enough.
Let’s hope a new thread on finances from John Marshall Lee will rat out the truth. Nothing works better at getting at the truth than grumpy people.
*** UPDATE *** CHARLIE CARROLL HAS NOT BEEN IN CHARGE OF PUBLIC FACILITIES FOR A WHILE, HE’S ONLY BEEN IN CHARGE OF THE PARKS & REC DEPT. *** Mayor Finch is the “Boss Hog” in Bpt just like Gov. Malloy is “Boss Hog” in the State of CT and “both” dropped the ball from the week’s prior info they received about NEMO, “before, during and after” the big snowstorm! Was it watching the $pending, poor planing and action, not enough workers and needed working equipment, “what?” *** And the CT Post with the way they’ve been covering Bpt news, never mind the entire State of CT and endorsing Finch in the elections; who cares what their editorial board thinks or writes at this time; I sure don’t! *** FORGETABOUTIT ***