When the Snow Blows
If you’re going to visit NYC in a snowstorm, you might as well visit during a snowstorm of record-breaking proportions. It can be fun. It can be exciting. It can be breathtakingly beautiful. This past weekend, I managed to survive (heck, I thrived on) the Blizzard of 2006.
The snowstorm started in NYC’s Murray Hill neighborhood around 4:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon. When I awoke early Sunday, everything was covered with a confectioners glaze of wet snow—roads, bushes, trees, sidewalks, the window ledges of my hotel, and the church steeple across the street. The storm was scheduled to exit mid-day. Instead, it pivoted and turned back upon itself, dropping more and more snow on the city through late afternoon.
For 25 years I lived in Washington, D.C., where a former mayor, in the face of one approaching winter storm, proclaimed, “We don’t send plows out ‘till the snow stops falling.” Here, the opposite approach was in effect; plows began their work shortly after the storm started. Even more impressive, a small army of men and women tackled corners and sidewalks with old-fashioned, back breaking snow shovels. By early afternoon on Sunday, with the storm still swirling about the city, these hard laborers had cleared wide swaths of the sidewalks that line 5th Avenue.
On Monday morning, everybody moved about the city with the level of energy and intensity that is endemic to NYC. Only two facts hinted that something amazing had taken place within the previous 24 hours. One, you couldn’t help but notice the mountains of snow, some six foot and more in height, than snow plow after snow plow had created. And two, the storm forced NYC fashionistas to temporarily abandon their Jimmy Choos and adopt sensible walking attire.
Post script: If you’re in NYC when another major winter storm hits, head to The Chemists Club, http://www.dylanhotel.com/dining.asp. In addition to a delightful menu, the restaurant offers a working fireplace—not a bad place to while away a snowy afternoon.
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