Staten Island streets unplowed, accessibility failures cited as lawmakers demand answers on snowstorm management
After Two Storms, a Reckoning at City Hall
The New York City Council is moving to hold a formal oversight hearing into the Mamdani administration’s response to the 2026 blizzard and the January snowstorm that preceded it — a sign that lawmakers are not satisfied with the administration’s account of its own performance. The hearing was initially scheduled for the Monday following the February blizzard but was postponed when the storm itself made the meeting impossible. It is now rescheduled, with Acting Sanitation Commissioner Javier Lojan expected to testify, along with officials from other relevant agencies.
The February 2026 blizzard was historic. Central Park recorded 19.7 inches of snow in a single day — its ninth-biggest snowfall in recorded history. The storm shut down the transit system, buried cars, and overwhelmed city services for days. Mamdani declared a state of emergency and personally monitored the response from the city’s Emergency Management center in Brooklyn. By most accounts, the major arterial roads were cleared within a reasonable timeframe. The problems were in the details: dead ends, bus lanes, and secondary streets in outer-borough neighborhoods — particularly in Staten Island — that remained impassable long after the main roads were clear.
Accessibility Was the Central Failure
Lawmakers are expected to focus significant attention on accessibility failures during both storms. For residents who rely on wheelchairs, mobility scooters, or other assistive devices, unplowed sidewalks are not an inconvenience — they are a denial of the basic right to move through public space. New York City’s sidewalk-clearing laws require property owners to shovel within specified timeframes after snowfall ends, but enforcement is spotty and physical capacity varies enormously. For the most vulnerable New Yorkers — elderly residents, people with disabilities, those without family support — a city that cannot clear its sidewalks is a city that has effectively imprisoned them indoors for days or weeks.
The Sanitation Department has reported that as of the time of the hearing scheduling, all streets on Staten Island had received at least one plow pass. The department acknowledged that dead ends and bus lanes require additional passes and said work was continuing. The timeline for bus lane restoration is important not just for wheelchair users but for the approximately 500,000 New Yorkers who rely on buses as their primary mode of transit — disproportionately low-income residents and outer-borough communities that the subway does not serve well.
Mamdani’s Snow-Shoveler Program Under National Scrutiny
President Trump called attention to the city’s emergency snow-shoveler payment program during his State of the Union address on February 25, mocking the documentation requirements. “If you apply for that job you need to show two original forms of ID and a Social Security card,” Trump said, implying a contrast with what he characterized as lax voter identification requirements. Mamdani responded with characteristic equanimity, calling the national attention unexpected and joking that he did not anticipate the program would generate such coverage. The program, which pays residents to help clear snow in their neighborhoods, was widely praised by participants and community organizations as an effective and equitable use of emergency funds.
Separately, the arrest of a man in connection with the Washington Square Park snowball fight — which occurred during the blizzard aftermath — has added a political dimension to the hearing’s context. Lawmakers supportive of the NYPD are expected to raise questions about the administration’s messaging on the incident, including whether the mayor’s characterization of it as a “snowball fight that got out of hand” sent the wrong signal to the public about the consequences of throwing things at police officers. Mamdani has not changed his stated position and has not endorsed the assault charges sought by the PBA.
What the Hearing Will Reveal
Sanitation Commissioner Lojan’s testimony will be closely watched for any acknowledgment of gaps in the city’s snow removal capacity, any changes to protocols being considered for future storms, and any specific commitments on accessibility improvements. The hearing gives the Council a formal mechanism to compel detailed information from the administration that might not otherwise be volunteered, and it creates a public record that advocates for disabled residents and outer-borough communities can use to hold the administration accountable.
For NYC Sanitation plow tracking, visit nyc.gov PlowNYC. For accessibility rights in public spaces, see the ADA National Network. For NYC Council oversight information, visit NYC City Council. For disability rights advocacy in NYC, see Center for Independence of the Disabled NY.
