Mamdani: Sunday’s snowfall ‘biggest in years’ — but no snow day Monday, kids

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — “Whether it’s a foot of snow or even a little bit more, Sunday’s snowfall will be one of the biggest snowfalls that our city has seen in years,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters Friday at a press conference at New York City Emergency Management headquarters in Downtown Brooklyn.

The mayor outlined a citywide operation encompassing numerous agencies, including the Department of Sanitation, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Department of Education and Emergency Management.

While National Weather Service forecasts pointed to 8-14 inches of snow hitting the Metropolitan area on Sunday into Monday, “There’s a range of snow we could see in this city, and we  want to be prepared for every possibility,” Mamdani said. In addition, very cold temperatures and high winds will make being outdoors and traveling hazardous.

DSNY will be “transformed into the nation’s largest snow-fighting operation,” he said. “At 6 a.m. today, we had DSNY brining our highways and major roadways. We’re going to see 2,000 sanitation workers starting 12-hour shifts Saturday evening, where they’re going to be salting the streets as soon as we see the first snowflake, and 700 salt spreaders will be activated as soon as we see two inches of snow.”

People can track the progress of the street plowing by visiting PlowNYC, Mamdani said. DSNY will track the plowing internally by the BladeRunner2.0 system, “Which monitors plowing in real time to ensure that every community, every neighborhood, every part of New York City will be met with the services of the city government.”

The city on Friday issued a Hazardous Travel Advisory for Sunday and Monday, and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a statewide State of Emergency due to Arctic cold and snow. The city issued a “Code Blue” with extra outreach to get the homeless into shelters.

Mamdani urged New Yorkers to stay home and off the streets Sunday and watch “terrible reality TV.”

He also encouraged residents to sign up for the NotifyNYC app to receive alerts of the situation as it unfolds. 

Sorry, no snow day, kids

To the disappointment of public school kids across the city, there will be no time-honored snow day this Monday. The city will decide whether classes will be held remotely or in person by noon on Sunday, Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels told reporters. “In either case, learning will continue.“

Mamdani appeared wistful remembering his own past snow days. “I will tell you that growing up in the city, snow days were one of my favorite memories,” he said. “To be very clear, however, we are also bound by state law and it requires 180 days of instruction. And as a previous administration added additional holidays to the school calendar, it leads to our school calendar without any flexibility for the potential of a lack of an educational day.”

Samuels said the remote-learning system had been tested in December, and he was sure it would hold up under the pressure of a million kids logging in on Monday. Capacity has been added since a previous “disaster,” and the city has learned to stagger schedules, he said.

The chancellor added that remote learning didn’t always require that children sit down for a straight six hours and 20 minutes, since some activities have flexible timelines. And the mayor hinted that he might revisit the question in the future, “Just not Monday.”

“The mayor is a lot more fun than I am,” Samuels commented.

‘This ain’t our first rodeo at the MTA’

MTA CEO Janno Lieber told reporters the subways would be operational, with the agency carrying out detailed planning and prepositioning “tons of equipment and personnel,” including debris and de-icing systems. The bus network will be ready as well, he said, with 35 snow-fighting vehicles, and all buses with the exception of articulated (two compartment) buses fitted with chains.

“This ain’t our first rodeo at the MTA,” Lieber said. “We are ready to handle it.”

While the underground portions of the subway system remain unaffected during snowstorms, there are nearly 220 miles of outdoor track throughout the boroughs, he said. (These include the Rockaway A and S, Sea Beach N, Flushing 7, Brighton B and Q and Dyre Avenue 5 lines.) “We will be focused on making sure that those continue to be operational, but can tow if needed,” he said, adding the bus network would be ready to “pick up any slack.”

Locked up in chains

On Friday afternoon, Lieber, New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow, Executive Vice President of Buses Frank Farrell and other MTA officials headed to the cavernous Jackie Gleason Bus Depot in Sunset Park to give reporters a look at an MTA team fitting snow chains onto the rear tires of transit buses. 

Resembling a NASCAR pit crew, the team, wearing white jumpsuits, installed chains on a bus tire in under a minute.

All 2,700 local buses across the city, including 900 in Brooklyn, will be equipped with the chains for added traction in the snow and ice, Farrell said. Articulated buses are not getting chains, however, and will be taken out of service when roads get slick. 

Full bus service is planned for Sunday, Farrell said, adding that riders should check the MTA app for any changes. “The operators do an amazing job, they’re prepared, and they’re ready for the snow,” he said.