January 3, 2011
As a result of the recent and somewhat massive snow blizzard which occurred on Christmas weekend, it has been widely reported that the public works departments of the State of New Jersey responded poorly with inadequate street plowing/snow removal efforts on NJ’s streets/roads/highways. Additionally, the governor continues to defend himself against assaults that blame him for not returning from his family holiday vacation to personally oversee the snow emergency efforts.
Contrary to all the blame that is being placed on New Jersey’s conservative and popular/reformist governor Chris Christie, from what I saw of the state highways and various city streets after the recent massive blizzard of about a week ago (or so), the snow removal efforts appeared entirely acceptable and adequate. Certainly, overall, New Jersey’s snow removal efforts looked better than the snow removal efforts in much of the populated urban and suburban areas in the neighboring states – from what I saw during recent roadtrips throughout the region over the last week.
I don’t believe Gov. Christie should have left his family and returned from his holiday family vacation in Florida, either. I mean…, what could he have done anyhow – expend political heat to make the snow melt faster? The NJ state roads looked fine to me and these adequate road conditions materialized within a reasonable timeframe - at least from my experiences on the many NJ highways that I traversed during and subsequent to the snowstorm.
Adam Trotter / AVT