Emanuel knocks NY Times for headline slamming storm response
By Abdon M. Pallasch Political Reporter/apallasch@suntimes.com February 3, 2011 3:30PM
Updated: February 3, 2011 7:24PM
Mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel had just finished complimenting city workers on the job they did handling the blizzard when he was told of the New York Times front-page headline: “A city that shrugs at snow meets a storm it can’t handle.”
“The New York Times?” Emanuel asked incredulously. “Well, that’s why it’s called the ‘New York Times’ and not either the Chicago Tribune or the Chicago Sun-Times. All right? And that, in all due respect, I think that, I’m not doing any comparisons.”
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had to apologize for his city’s inadequate response to a snowstorm earlier this winter.
The Daley Administration was criticized for its handling of the situation on Lake Shore Drive, where some motorists were stranded for 12 hours or more. That’s what the New York Times story focused on.
Mayor Daley said the city did a “tremendous job considering the number of accidents on the Drive Tuesday night from the rapidly worsening storm.
Emanuel would not directly criticize the city’s response, saying he would wait until he reads the “after action report — there will be multiple reasons. We’ll find out why.”
Emanuel’s response to whether the city “couldn’t handle the storm” was to repeat his praise for the city workers — though many of them such as police and firefighters have voted through their unions to endorse Emanuel rival Gery Chico.
“The workers of the city stood up,” Emanuel said as he visited the Cornerstone Community Outreach homeless shelter in Uptown Thursday morning.
“We handled the rest of the city — we couldn’t handle Lake Shore Drive,” Emanuel rival City Clerk Miguel del Valle said as he looked at the headline.
