Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Hosts Press Conference to Discuss Winter Weather

February 9, 2017

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good morning, everyone. We want to give you an update on the storm that is now hitting our city. I want to start by saying yesterday we saw something that I don’t think we’ve ever seen – what felt like a beautiful spring day, no sense that we were in the middle of winter, and then today a full fledge snowstorm. So, we really tried, yesterday, to get the word out that people had to prepare. And we obviously made the decision earlier than usual to close schools when we saw the intensity of this storm. This is an unusually fast, intense storm. We wanted to get New Yorkers ready for it. And by in large, people have heeded the warnings and acted accordingly, but there are still some things that we’re going to have to do and I want to talk about that in a moment.

Closing schools, obviously, was a key part of the preparation; getting our Sanitation Department on full alert. And you’ll hear from Commissioner Garcia in a moment, but I want to say, once again, our sanitation workers are out in force and doing a great job – 2,300 vehicles. They are going at it really hard, really well. I’m impressed by what I have seen already. I took a tour out in Queens through Astoria and Long Island City and Jackson Heights. Those are some areas where we had a lot of trouble during the big blizzard last year. I liked what I saw. I know there is going to be more work to do today, but I think Sanitation was off to a strong start in those areas. We’ll be monitoring all day long, looking for areas that need particular attention. Commissioner Garcia and I have been talking throughout the day. We will be talking as the day proceeds. But so far, I want to say is I think Sanitation is doing a fine job trying to deal with unusually intense conditions. I want to give you a sense of that. You know, we have now had two hours in a row at LaGuardia – and LaGuardia is one of our primary measurement stations. We’ve had two hours in a row where we’ve had three inches of snow. And that is unusual. A lot of storms that go, you know, a whole day – you talk about one or two inches an hour, but to have three inches in an hour, two hours in a row is a real extraordinary level of accumulation.

Now – right now, we’re predicting the total snow will be between 10 and 14 inches. We’re hopeful – we’ve seen this before. You know, you can see storms change in mid-course; they can get better, they can get worse. But right now, we’re hopeful that the main body of the snow will slow down between noon and 1 pm. So, that super intense snow, hopefully, we’ll start to see reduce in an hour or two. Then the Winter Storm Warning will go all the way until 6 pm at this moment based on our conversations with the National Weather Service. That is the time that we expect all snow to cease – by the late afternoon. Hopefully no later 6 pm.

We are at this moment feeling good about tomorrow morning’s rush hour; now a lot to play out today. I’m not going to count any chickens before they are hatched, but right now if those projections hold – if the snow slows down substantially in the next hour or two and then is fully completed by 5 or 6 pm, I feel very good about the opportunity for our sanitation workers to get out there and really clear the streets thoroughly in the evening and overnight. And again, 2,300 vehicles are out salting and plowing. Workers are on 12 hour shifts. And one of the things that we’re going to see today for the first time is the impact of investments we made in the last budget. We put in $21 million for smaller snow clearing vehicles to allow us to get better at some of the smaller residential streets in the outer boroughs. Those vehicles are out in force today. We’re going to see the impact they make. I think it is going to help us get back and running quicker.

Now, that’s what the City is doing. And I want to say – in addition to praising sanitation, I want to thank all of my colleagues who are here and the agencies that they lead, all of which are in this fight together and doing a great job. I want to thank our First Deputy Mayor Tony Shorris, our Commissioner of Transportation Polly Trottenberg, our Fire Commissioner Dan Nigro, General Manager of NYCHA Michael Kelly, Chief of Patrol for the NYPD, Terry Monahan, our Parks Commissioner Mitch Silver, and our Commissioner for the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities Victor Calise – all of them doing a great job. I gave Michael Kelly a special thank you for the great work done at Ravenswood Houses today, clearing walks for their residents out there – and thank you for that.

But here – that is what the government is doing and I think it is working by in large. We’ve got a lot more to do, but here’s what we need the people to do, we need the people to get off the streets. So look, I can’t emphasize this enough, don’t drive your car today. It’s real simple. We need you off the streets. Again, I understand sometimes people have no choice, but if you do have a choice, don’t drive your car. It’s very tough conditions. It’s very hard to get around. A lot of cars are swerving and sliding, having trouble stopping in time because of these conditions. Again, the super intense snow we can still expect for another hour or two. Sanitation needs you off the streets so they can do their job. If people keep their cars off the streets Sanitation can plow and plow and plow again and get things back to normal. But they can’t do that if there is traffic all in the way and they can’t do that if cars break down and then block up streets, so Sanitation is literally not able to pass. That’s been a problem in the past. We need people to recognize this is something you got to do for each other and get off the streets and stay safe in the process.

So, obviously mass transit is running. So, I want to urge anyone who does need to get around, subways are running well. There are some delays, but they are running well; buses by in large are running well. That’s the way to go. And also I should say for anyone concerned about their car and what is going to happen the next few days, I want you to know upfront, alternate side parking is cancelled tomorrow, Friday, cancelled Saturday as well. So, you don’t have to worry about moving your car. It’s another good reason why you can leave it be. You’re not going to have a problem with alternate side. Now, just a couple of other things, anyone having a problem with heat or hot water in their building – if you live in an apartment building and you’re not getting heat or hot water, please dial 3-1-1 immediately. We need to know that as soon as possible, so we can get teams out there to deal with it. And very important, I know Dan Nigro always wants me to remind people, if you don’t have heat don’t improvise by opening up the stove and turning on the stove. That’s not safe. We don’t want to see someone who doesn’t have heat do something that literally could lead to a fire. Please check on your neighbors, particularly if they are senior citizens or folks with health issues; help people shovel if they need help and you’re able to do it. And as you know, we’re looking out for everyone vulnerable. Our Code Blue is in effect with Homeless Services working closely with NYPD to get anyone in who needs help. Our HomeStat teams are out. And reminding people, if you have a problem, again like, heat or hot water problem, you call 3-1-1. If you see a real emergency, you see someone in danger or you’re in danger yourself, of course, a call 9-1-1.

Just a few words in Spanish –

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

With that, I want to you to hear first from our First Deputy Commissioner for OEM, Calvin Drayton and then our Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia.

First Deputy Commissioner Calvin Drayton, Office of Emergency Management: Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor: Thank you.

First Deputy Commissioner Drayton: As the Mayor said, this is a very, very dangerous storm and I would encourage each and every one of the citizens of New York City to take mass transit and give the Sanitation an opportunity to do their job.

We expect the snow, as the Mayor said earlier, to end earlier this afternoon before the evening rush hour. As he mentioned earlier, he got a firsthand report from the National Weather Service upstairs with us. She's been with us for the last – since last night and she will continue to be here to providing the Mayor – up to date on the storm's progress.

Our Emergency Operation Center’s currently open. We've been open since midnight. We will stay open until this storm is over with and we've got the city back to normal.

Our City Tow Truck Task Force – I’m sorry – has been activated. We’ve had about 14 busses that were stuck. The MTA is doing a great job of getting those out of the snow banks, etcetera. We have – I just was notified as I was coming in, Mr. Mayor that JFK is at a full stop on the runways. There are no planes departing the city at this time.

Wrong way, excuse me. I'm not used to this, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor: You can do it.

[Laughter]

Just improvise.

[Laughter]

Deputy Commissioner Drayton: Temperatures have been dropping, as we all know, so, again, stay inside, stay off the roadways. The wind chill factors – again, very, very low for the next several days.

If you are going to shovel, we want to you stay safe. Stretch before you head out, dress warmly, and always take breaks. For further weather information and updates, sign up for NotifyNYC, the City's free emergency notification system and as always if you have a problem, always call 3-1-1. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor: Thank you. Appreciate it. And now, Commissioner Garcia.

Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, Department of Sanitation: The shortest one.

As the Mayor said we have over 2,300 pieces of equipment working across all five boroughs. They are in every neighborhood across all five boroughs and then we have, what are called, tandem teams that are working on the highways.

We have had some – been behind some accidents that have slowed us down on some of those but at this point in time, since about 7:00 am, we've hit about 90 percent of all of the streets in the city of New York.

We started full spread operations around 3:32 am this morning and full plow operations around 7:22 am this morning.

You can track us on PlowNYC at any time to see when we were last there.

Additionally, as the Mayor mentioned, we got front-end loaders. Nine of them are actually are working in Staten Island in the Greens, which is a very tight area. The rest of them will roll out as we get additional accumulations. In addition to the uniformed force, we also have hundreds of mechanics who are working to make sure that we keep our vehicles rolling throughout this event, but this is a very difficult event for Sanitation to fight just due to the rate of intensity and I really do encourage you stay off the roads. It's very slippery out there. Thank you.

Mayor: Thank you, Commissioner. Alright, we're going to be taking questions about this situation and we welcome your questions now. Yes, David.

Question: Can we ask the Commissioner – if you commissioned the front end loaders on Staten Island, is that – and can you just explain a little but more the $21 million that was appropriated last year? Because I know some of the small streets in Queens last year, they were the folks who were really upset. Is that all one in the same?

Commissioner Garcia: The $21 million actually was for the purchase what are called of haulsters, which are small salt spreaders specifically designed for the small streets in Queens and Staten Island. We also got additional front-end loaders to do plowing. We hadn’t actually ever usually deployed them to plow ahead of a storm but they are what ended up digging out most of Queens in the aftermath of the blizzard last year.

So, all of the haulsters have been deployed. The front-end loaders, obviously, are for higher depths, so as we get close to the higher depths, we will deploy those pieces of equipment.

Question: [Inaudible]

Commissioner Garcia: We have been very pleased so far with how the front end loaders are performing and the haulsters are critical to getting into those smaller streets.

Mayor: Can you just describe what they look like compared to previous equipment?

Commissioner Garcia: Absolutely. So, the haulster looks like a very large pickup truck with two tons of salt in the back. And so in comparison our regular spreaders hold about 16 tons of salt.

Mayor: Okay. Right there. You had your hand up.

Question: You mentioned about 90 percent of the streets are plowed but [inaudible] how are you navigating those streets and are those being plowed as much?

Commissioner Garcia: I don't know the specifics on where we are in Gerritsen Beach. We can find that out. I know that we have started all areas. In Gerritsen Beach we have actually – sometimes we need to go even to smaller equipment. We need to use the skid steers to get in there. But the boroughs are managing that and making accommodations to their fleets to ensure that we have the smallest equipment because it's so incredibly tight there.

Mayor: Tell them what a skid steer is.

Commissioner Garcia: So, a skid steer – sorry.

Mayor: Speak English.

Commissioner Garcia: A skid steer is English.

[Laughter]

A Bobcat is what it is, so it's like Kleenex and tissues. But it looks like a Bobcat. It's a tiny, tiny little front-end loader, plowing situation. You'll see them on construction sites.

Question: On the City's maps, they haven't been plowed in like three to six hours – 

Mayor: For Gerritsen Beach, they have said that?

Commissioner Garcia: That is very possible. We have not gotten to every street yet as I’ve said but we are continuing to plow and we are going to continue to go back over and over again. Even if we got there three hours ago, you may have six inches of snow on your block.

Mayor: Mara?

Question: Mr. Mayor, since the storm is so severe, so fast-moving, yesterday, we knew it was going to be severe. Often you’ll do press conferences, multiple press conferences. Why did you decide not to go to the press conference with Commissioner Garcia yesterday? You were at the UFT endorsement – 

Mayor: I thought it was being well-handled. We were way ahead of it. We were getting the information out. We were able to make the decision on the school situation earlier than I think we ever have been because we were getting such clear information. I thought the situation was well in hand.

Was there one behind you? Okay, we’re going to go this way –

Question: When do we make the decision on schools for tomorrow and do you have any guesses where you may go?

Mayor: I'll guess. We haven't really had a formal conversation but at this point, we feel good about tomorrow meaning we feel that the city will be largely back to normal and we’ll be able to have school open and a pretty normal rush hour.

Let's check in a few hours and see if that's still true but I would say to my fellow parents – plan on school being opened tomorrow. Coming this way – Marcia. 

Question: Mr. Mayor, I’m wondering if you think it was so important for people to stay off the roads and not get into their cars or whatever, why you didn't address it yesterday and warn people – don't even think about it?

Mayor: Yeah, I told people in the several interviews I did yesterday. I did radio interviews. I did a TV interview and that message got out. We used social media and I think we put that out clearly.

I think people actually have done a pretty good job. We've seen – and certainly with my touring around, I was impressed there was relatively little traffic. I think there’s some places we're having a little more trouble. We’re going to keep pounding away with the message. But I think people are learning with each passing storm, that if they want the streets clear the smartest thing to do is get off the roads.

Question: Can you tell us what did you experience when you were out driving today?

Mayor: Yeah, Marcia, I was impressed by the fact that things were moving. Sanitation had clearly been through. I met with the Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer at Ravenswood Houses. His district had a lot of trouble in the past storm. I called Council Member Julissa Ferreras. Hers had had trouble as well.

Both said they were seeing real results from Sanitation this time. They were pleased with what they saw. There were cars out but nowhere near the number you would see normally.

So, still a lot of work to be done. You can tell it was hard for cars to move around. It was certainly cold out. I walked around both that area around Ravenswood. I walked around Jackson Heights a bit. Real cold out. But I think, again, Sanitation did a good first pass and people are by and large heeding the warning.

Question: [Inaudible] had two radio interviews – 

Mayor: TV, yeah. Two radio and TV.

Question: Do you think that you could have done a better job – 

Mayor: No, I'm content. We're getting the message out with a lot of forums. I know the Sanitation Commissioner had a press conference. We did a lot of social media. I think the word got out.

Question: There's a fatal fire on Staten Island this morning. I know a couple firefighters were injured. Was the snow at all a factor in the response to that fire?

FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro: Absolutely not. Unfortunately, we did lose a gentleman and that gentleman's brother is in critical condition. The response time to that fire was less than three minutes. The firehouse is quite close to the location. And it was a second-alarm on arrival. There was a great deal of fire that met the firefighters when they got there. They made a very brave interior attack in the fire and a number of firefighters were injured, none seriously. But it did result in the death of one person and a critical injury to another.

Question: Like I don't really understand how this works but is it harder to put out a fire in the snow or easier?

Commissioner Nigro: It can take a little longer to stretch hose lines in the snow and get ladders in position, so we did put extra firefighters on duty to cover for that.

Mayor: Grace, I saw you live from Brooklyn Heights this morning.

Question: Oh, thank you.

Mayor: Dramatic front line footage.

[Laughter]

Question: Quite dramatic. I thought I covered politics but – 

[Laughter]

You know, school is out today. The snow is expected to taper off at some point. There's a warning in effect until 6:00 p.m., but any message to children who are at home who may be itching to get outside once the worst of the snowfall stops? Any concerns about kids taking sleds into parks or playing outside?

Mayor: I'm going to pass to our Parks Commissioner Mitch Silver. I'm going to first speak as a parent. I always say to parents in a snowstorm keep an eye on your children because, right now, I would not encourage anyone to go out because it's just too intense. But even later on, kids love to go to the park, you know, I think adult supervision is a really good thing.

Mitch, why don't you speak to the specifics of how you're handling it.

Parks Commissioner, Mitchell J. Silver: Parks are not closed but we're encouraging people not to go into parks until the intense part of the storm is over. We know there’s some temptation, particularly when school is out, for both children and dog owners to just gravitate toward parks. Because of the conditions and limited visibility, we're encouraging extreme caution and we prefer people wait for the storm to pass through the area. Again, we expect that to be early afternoon. So that they – use caution if they go into the parks but parks are not closed but we encourage people to stay away until the storm passes.

Mayor: Willie? 

Question: I think a lot of people would say it's sensible to keep kids home from school, to encourage drivers to stay off the road, but just now and this morning earlier you went a lot further. This morning you said, ‘I want to emphasize to all New Yorkers, stay inside if you can, don't go out if you have to.’ A lot of New Yorkers would hear that and say when did we become a city of wimps? Isn't it the Mayor's job to keep the city running, not to tell the city stop all that activity? 

Mayor: Willie, Willie, Willie. Pat Kiernan asked a different version of that question earlier. I think when you're talking about a super concentrated snowstorm, which, you know, let's say five, six hours of unusually intense snow, it is just plain common sense to not go out in that if you don't have to, to stay home, keep your car home, so everyone who's outs there working on behalf of New Yorkers, especially our Sanitation workers, can do their job. Just plain common sense.

It is not a moral judgment. It's not that we've changed who we are. This is one of the toughest, most resilient cities on earth, and we've proven it a thousand times over. But this storm – and the reason we made the decision to close the schools earlier, the day before than we have certainly in my three years – is because we heard from the National Weather Service this is going to be a very concentrated, intense storm. And it made sense to give people an understanding of that and to get them to alter their behavior for it.

So there's plenty of times we faced challenges, and I've told people, it's business as usual, go about your business. Obviously we're not going to be intimidated about things that happen around the world, etcetera, etcetera. When you're talking about five or six hours when it's not just smart for people to be outside, I think that’s the right thing to do, and that's clear to people. 

Question: This is for Commissioner Garcia. Can you give us a snapshot of whatever your last briefing was on primary, secondary, and tertiary? And what’s been hit and what’s not been hit?

Commissioner Garcia: What I looked at my last briefing because obviously we're much further along if I say I started at 3:00 am. Since 7 am, to – within – right before we talked down here, we are across the city on all routes. We're at 91.4 percent. On the smallest haulster routes for the small equipment, we were in the 80s. But overall, we were over 90 percent in the last – since 7:00 am. But I'm going to say if you got hit at 7:00 am, you have six or seven inches of snow on the ground again. We are coming back around over and over again, so we are continuing to do that.

And I just want to temper one thing about – yes, I do think we will have a relatively normal commute tomorrow, but it will be very cold and there still will be snow there. And so people should take caution. I'm not saying anyone should stay home, but you should be cautious as you're moving about during the day. 

Mayor: Just one quick question, I want to clarify, the 91 percent was your figure? As of what hour? Just so we’re all hearing it right. Last hour that you can say you have –

Commissioner Garcia: From 7:00 am until like 10:58 am. That's when I hit the – I got the last report. 

Question: [Inaudible]

Commissioner Garcia: So in the – this will keep repeating and go back, and so then I change the timestamp. What have we done since 10:00 am to now will be the next thing I look at.

Question: Do you have to do more repetition because of the intensity?

Commissioner Garcia: Yes, the intensity of the storm is meaning we are trying to move through all of those routes over and over again. We design our routes to try to make it so they're about – that two hours in length. Two hours now maybe six inches of snow, and that's a lot of snow for us to be coming back around on. 

Question: Commissioner Garcia, just to follow up, could you give a time frame – when the storm does temper, you know, sometime in the afternoon, taper off in the afternoon, when can people expect their streets to be cleaned? Because a lot of times people say, “Oh, my area got forgotten, they’re not coming here.” What should people do if the snow has stopped, and they still see eight, 10 inches of snow, and they feel like no one is coming? Should they call you? And what should these people expectations? 

Commissioner Garcia: This is all very challenging because every storm is different. At this point in time, we have a piece of equipment in every single neighborhood – as of right now, as of actually early this morning. Once we are through with all of the snowfall – everything is done – it will take us several more hours to make sure we have hit every single street. But usually that will occur within three or four hours we will have been able to make a pass, but I can't make any promises. This is a very heavy snow. And it is very difficult for us to move through it. 

Mayor: Let me just add to that. I understand why people get frustrated for sure, and I understand that they feel like they can be forgotten. No is going to be forgotten. This is all based on a systematic plan. We're going to reach every neighborhood. We’re going to reach every street.

But here's what we want to emphasize – one, for these next hours you can plow every street simultaneously, and it's going to accumulate again very, very quickly. You’re talking two or three inches an hour. You can imagine – it’s literally impossible to plow every street in New York City simultaneously all the time.

So, we're going to be playing catch up all throughout the afternoon just because of the intensity of this storm. What I think will really matter is when we get into the evening and the overnight, and if people continue to stay out of the way of Sanitation and let them do their job then they go on the offensive, and they’re not facing a constant barrage of snow coming in, they can get things pretty good for tomorrow morning.

So if it holds – that the snow is done by five or six o’clock – Sanitation throws everything they have got at it, people stay out of the way, keep their cars parks, stay out of the way, let Sanitation do their job – I think it adds up nicely.

If people see the snow ends, and everyone starts to drive around that’s going to slow down clearing the snow. I look at it this way. This day obviously was disrupted by Mother Nature. I want tomorrow to be as normal as it can possibly be.

And I hope anyone who feels the same way – which I imagine is the vast majority – are going to participate by staying out of the way of Sanitation and keeping their cars home. 

Question: Mr. Mayor, just quickly since we are at OEM headquarters I was wondering about the absence of the Commissioner Bruno –

Mayor: Commissioner Bruno has long since retired. I think you mean Commissioner Esposito. 

Question: Commissioner Esposito, sorry.

Deputy Commissioner Drayton: As you all know the Commissioner was at the press conference yesterday, he had a well-planned ahead vacation. We have been in touch with him numerous times. He has been in touch with his executive staff in numerous of times. I think he is still in the building somewhere. Thank you. 

Question: Commissioner Garcia, you said nine of the front-end loaders were already on Staten Island, where were they deployed? I’m sorry. I did not catch that. 

Commissioner Garcia: On the Greens, so off of Arden and Huguenot, in those areas as you know which are very tight. And if there – like once we are past the storm, and you think there’s something that I don’t know, you should – I encourage everyone to always reach out to us via 3-1-1.

Question: 4,300 pieces of equipment today, how many more is that than you had last year at this time? How many of those are the haulsters?

Commissioner Garcia: There are 163 haulsters on the street today. That is double what I had last year. Just to give you a sense of what we have done in terms of snow equipment under this administration, we have about 56 percent more salting equipment than we did. So we’ve – in some cases made it so that we’re using more salting equipment and more appropriately small equipment than the white trucks. But we did about 2,500 pieces during the blizzard last year. So, it’s really finding the right fleet for the right streets rather than trying to use a one- size-fits-all approach.

Question: You have less equipment out today than you did a year ago.

Commissioner Garcia: We have less equipment out than we did in the blizzard.

Mayor: And the blizzard, I will remind you, which we didn’t know at the time, but we found out afterward was the largest snowfall in the history of New York City going back 150 years. This is a much more concentrated situation thankfully. The high end of projections here is still 14 inches which would make it about half of last year's snowfall during the blizzard. 

Question: No talk of a travel ban yet with Governor Cuomo? 

Mayor: No, this is a super concentrated event. Remember, I think it’s a good juxtaposition to the blizzard. The blizzard last year, remember, with every passing hour the estimate, went up and it became abundantly clear it was going to be a longer event and a much more challenging event because it would not stop. The numbers mounted and we thought it would be the second largest snowfall but when it was counted it was the greatest of all time for New York City.

In that instance the travel ban was necessary because to have any chance of getting back in the game, Sanitation, legendarily in my view, got the city up and running for the morning rush hour that Monday which I thought was absolutely amazing.

But in this case, this is very concentrated snow. Again, we think by even as early as 12:00 pm or 1:00 pm the worst will be over. I don't see a travel ban situation here. Certainly the State is not suggesting it. The State has kept the MTA going pretty much on normal schedule. So, I think we are all very much on the same page. 

Question: The Governor is scheduled to speak at noon about the storm, have you been in touch with him and was there any discussion about appearing jointly today to talk about – 

Mayor: Our staffs have been in touch and everyone is coordinated and on the same page. So, we just decided everyone’s doing fine with what we’re doing.

Question: Mr. Mayor, when you close schools do you incur a loss of State aid and if so how much do you lose? 

Mayor: To the best of my knowledge the answer is no if we are able to achieve the full school calendar for the year. So, I’m looking at – the expert has given me the nod. That is correct. We do not anticipate any problem with this. Of late, as you now Marcia, we have to look at history and plan for the potential of a few days of snow days each year. Thankfully, the last few years we have not had to use as many as the plan allows for. 

Yea, way back –

Question: Yes, this is [inaudible] from SinoVision. I’m just wondering compared to past years what more measures did you take this year to – in preparation for the blizzard? 

Mayor: Two things are real different and clear compared even to last year. One – because we had such sharp consistent information from the National Weather Service, we were able to call school off earlier than we normally do. I want to remind you, I think it was the first time – I’m looking at Tony again – we had to cancel school in 2014, ‘15 but we made one decision at 5:00 am in the morning the same day because we did not have a clear picture.

The fact that we knew by around 6:00 pm for sure that is was going close was very helpful all around. We had clear information and were able to act on it.

The second big difference is the additional equipment and the smaller equipment, in particular at Sanitation, to allow us to get to the side streets and do a better job. We have added, consistently, Sanitation equipment over the last three years but the smaller apparatus to help us. 

Question: Mr. Mayor, [inaudible] from Univision. I was wondering if you could elaborate on the motor vehicles you talked about investing $21 million. A lot of our audience live in those little neighborhoods in Queens we have so many complaints last time. Can you elaborate how those vehicles were, what they’re doing –

Mayor: I was out there in those neighborhoods like Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst, Corona, number of neighborhoods that experienced tremendous frustration in the blizzard last year because they just did not see the trucks coming through consistently. Part of the problem was we had a domino effect. People shoveled out their cars, that snow added up on the street, it got so bad that the big equipment could not get through effectively. Everything got bogged down and that was one of the things that convicted us that we needed the smaller equipment.

As the Commissioner said, the Bobcat, we have all seen them around – the small, little front loaders and the other types of equipment. This is going to allow those vehicles – they can get through those streets no matter what. The bigger vehicles can focus on the bigger streets but with the small streets this is equipment that even if there is snow shoveled in the way or anything else, they can move around. They have maneuverability. A lot of times with the big equipment they start down the street and they just literally, they get stuck because they can't maneuver well.

So, we’re really excited about what this is gonna allow us to do. We think you will see a real different outcome this time. Anything else? 

Question: Mayor, we understand there was a doorman from the Upper East Side who died. He was shoveling and then he fell. Do you have any information?  

NYPD Chief of Patrol, Terrance Monahan: What we have so far – happened around 9:30 am this morning. Doorman’s out in front of his building on 93rd Street. He’s shoveling the snow. He slips and falls through the glass window. He then expired. 

Question: Ages or any –

Chief Monahan: I can get you that at a later date.

Mayor: A very, very sad situation. We don't, obviously, have all the details but it’s another reminder to people – be very careful when you are shoveling. If you are not up to shoveling, don't shovel. Take breaks, all of those common sense rules. We don’t know what happened in this case. But that’s just a good reminder why people have to take it seriously.

Okay, last call. We will keep you updated throughout the day, particularly we will confirm if this timeline we are seeing on the snow continues to hold and what that’s going to mean for our ability to keep clearing the roads.

Thank you, everyone.