Exactly one year ago, New York City was hit by a major snowstorm and , and today, CBS News reports that the city’s sluggish response to cleaning up the storm has cost it more than $1.8 million in claims, with more still pending.
CBS reports that according to the city Comptroller’s Office 1,196 snowstorm-related claims were filed with the city, including claims from individuals who say they were injured on icy roads and sidewalks, and residents who say that city plows damaged their cars and property.
As of Friday, 620 of the claims had been settled for a total payout of $1,855,152.53 (these included $150,000 for a man who said he slipped in an icy parking lot, and $100,000 to a Brooklyn cemetery where headstones were damaged), according to the report. The remaining several hundred claims were under investigation or were already dismissed.
Last December, to cleaning up the snow, with left many residents stranded with buried cars or little public transportation options.
"I put the snow in the street, the plow packed it right back up!" Charles Pigott of Fort Greene told Patch as he attempted to shovel his wife's car out from the snow.
In January, the Bloomberg administration’s handling of the snowstorm, at a public hearing at Borough Hall.
Sharona Jones, a wheelchair-bound Clinton Hill resident, testified last year that sidewalk curbs still weren’t clear in her neighborhood, making it difficult for her to get around.
“They always fail the disabled community,” Jones said. “I would like to think that it was just this blizzard, but every winter it's the same thing.”
Park Slope resident Bo Samajopoulos testified that he witnessed a snowplow truck driver who sat in his truck, arms folded, for several minutes while he and his neighbors shoveled their own way out on their block.
