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Staten Islanders Blast De Blasio On Plowing: We Feel Like Forgotten Borough

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- With another snowstorm about to hit New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio admitted Tuesday that there has been another plowing mishap.

This time, Staten Island feels like the forgotten borough, CBS 2's Marcia Kramer reported.

Under de Blasio's watch, there have been three snowstorms, with already two strikes against him. The new mayor may be on a learning curve, but don't tell that to some Staten Island residents. With up to 8 inches expected overnight Tuesday into Wednesday evening, they are not exactly filled with confidence that the city will respond properly.

"I think that his promise to make sure that we're not the forgotten borough … he hasn't backed up his words yet," said Joe Nugent of West Brighton, where residents said many roads remained touched on Tuesday.

(Are the streets unplowed by you? Tell us about it! Snap a shot and upload it to our Facebook page and tell us where it is)

Nugent lives on the corner of Harvest and North Burgher, an area where many streets were packed with ice and snow on Tuesday. They were either ignored or plowed so late they were often left like icy ski slopes, making driving difficult and scary.

"We have a couple of inches of ice. There's supposed to be an ice mixture tonight on top of that. It's going to make it difficult to get our kids and grandkids to school, creating a dangerous situation," Nugent said.

Staten Island Snow
Staten Island residents help push a car into the roadin the West Brighton section of Staten Island on Feb. 4, 2013, the day after a major snow storm. (credit: CBS 2)

CBS 2 cameras found wide areas of Staten Island where the going was treacherous, including Annandale, West Brighton, and other communities.

"This is like a minefield. You can't see the speed bumps," said Tara Hart of Castleton Corners.

"They didn't plow at all," another resident said.

"I think it's horrible -- none of the side streets are plowed," Karen Monihan of West Brighton.

And what some residents said they couldn't understand was seeing some plows sitting idle on the street near the sanitation garage near Victory Boulevard and Jersey Street. The Department of Sanitation claimed they were spares, but some said considering how hard the snow fell they should have been used.

"That case on Staten Island is simply not acceptable," de Blasio said.

The mayor admitted he wasn't happy with the plowing plan on Staten Island for Monday's storm, especially on Bard Avenue, which, as CBS 2 showed, remained unplowed most of Monday, and is a primary road to a hospital.

"It was not handled properly, and we're going to fix it," de Blasio said.

De Blasio's administration first came under fire over snow removal following a storm toward the end of January dropped around a foot on the city. Upper East Side residents complained that their neighborhoods were ignored. The mayor promised to look into the situation and make the necessary improvements for the next storm.

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