Snow sorry, sez Blaz aide
The sanitation commissioner is sorry about that nightmare commute in a few inches of snow earlier this month — kind of.
Kathryn Garcia, whose agency is in charge of snow removal, was pressed Thursday for an apology when she testified to the City Council about the city’s botched response to the storm — which left people stuck in epic traffic jams that saw some special needs school kids trapped on buses long past midnight.
“What’s wrong with apologizing, even if there were factors outside of what we can control, what is the problem with saying I’m sorry?” Council Speaker Corey Johnson asked.
Garcia then said she was sorry — that people didn’t get how bad the storm would be.
“I am certainly sorry that we did not message this and we were not able to make it so that people understood the challenge that they would face ahead, whether or not they were commuting on school buses or they were parents and what the issues were,” Garcia said.
But she insisted she wanted to be more “forwardlooking” as Johnson again nudged her to say sorry.
“I am reluctant to phrase it in that direct way because of the challenge of trying to apologize for a storm and for traffic,” she said.
As for that messaging, Garcia said the city should’ve been more clear about how bad the roads would be.
“We knew that we were having challenges in the late afternoon and our messaging primarily said something around, exercise caution. That is not a strong enough message in terms of making sure that the public really understands the challenges that we are facing,” she said.
The city should have advised people to leave their cars at work and take public transit home — a tough message to get across, she said.
Garcia was one of several de Blasio administration officials who faced the wrath of City Council members — the dais also included Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg, Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver, Emergency Management Commissioner Joe Esposito, and Department of Education Chief Operating Officer Ursalina Ramirez.
“We need to do a better job of communicating with the family, we need to do a better job of communicating and coordinating with NYPD,” Ramirez said of the city’s busing operation.
But she said even with NYPD escorts, gridlock made it difficult to move buses. She said the city was moving “rapidly” to get GPS on all buses.