Snow Changes the Course of History

The lead article in today’s New York Times, “Under Scrutiny, Mayor Gears Up for Snow Today,” shows how a simple thing like the weather can change the course of world events.

Mayor Bloomberg, once touted as a possible independent Presidential candidate, has seen his approval ratings plummet to under 40 percent, largely due to the disastrous response to the blizzard of December 26th and 27th. In addition to failing to clear some streets for days, the Mayor has also been attacked for a lack of preparedness by the Emergency Medical Services department (EMS), because it did not institute any special procedures and ended up with 170 ambulances stuck in the snow.

As a result of all the criticism, the Mayor is preparing for today’s minor snowfall (five-to-seven inches) like it was the battle of Armageddon. His snow plows are being monitored by GPS, and employees are going out into the streets with cameras to stream live feeds of the street conditions to City Hall.

Whether all these efforts will restore the Mayor’s fortunes remains to be seen, but, right now, only 1 in 5 approve of his response to the city’s last experience with inclement weather. So far, the Mayor’s only tangible response has been to fire the head of EMS, John Peruggia, but that looks too much like scapegoating, because it is. We’ll see what happens today.