#john lindsay

The obligatory shot of Times Square on New Year's Eve, this one in 1940. The crowd was estimated at half a million.

RFK, Mayor of NYC John Lindsay and President Johnson

^^^ Got this message from the City of New York Sunday evening.

People who live in areas which get little or no snow may not be aware of the political importance of dealing with snow emergencies.

When a surprise snowstorm hit NYC in February of 1969 the city was woefully unprepared. Close to 40% of the city's snow removal equipment was out of service. It took days to get even main streets dug out. Food had to be delivered to some people by helicopter. The mayor at the time was a patrician liberal Republican (an extinct species) named John Lindsay.

Lindsay was up for re-election that year. His botched handling of snow removal caused him to lose the Republican primary. He still had the endorsement of the now defunct NY Liberal Party. Lindsay managed to eke out a win in the general election in a divided field with just 42.4% of the vote. Some people in NYC still refer to it as the "Mayor Lindsay snowstorm".

In 1979, Mayor Michael Bilandic of Chicago did not fare as well. In January Chicago was hit by its biggest blizzard since 1967. Bilandic's response was totally incompetent. He lost the February Democratic primary to insurgent Jane Byrne who went on to become mayor. Most of Chicago's current snow related traffic and parking regulations date back to reforms during the Byrne administration.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani responded reasonably well to an earlier storm this winter. But this one is even worse.

'Epic' blizzard paralyzes NYC, NJ area with over foot of snow, transit disruptions, school closures