Mayor de Blasio wasnt chill on Tuesday about being frozen out of Gov. Cuomos decision to shutter the subway as their frosty relationship showed no sign of thawing.
It was just the latest instance of the governor acting without input from City Hall.
De Blasio, who aides said was told only about 30 minutes before Cuomo went public with the subway shutdown announcement, said it was a big decision that he shouldve been consulted on.
I think it was a very big move and certainly something we would have liked to have had some more dialogue on, de Blasio told reporters.
De Blasios office said the mayor found out about Cuomos decision the first time in the subways 111-year history in which it was shut down for snow around 4:30 p.m. Monday when an MTA official called City Hall with a storm update.
That call was roughly 30 minutes before Cuomo went on TV to tell the rest of the city.
A spokeswoman for Cuomo said the governor was in constant communication with the mayor starting on Sunday, and that closing the system had always been an option. But as late as Monday at noon, MTA Chairman Tom Prendergast told reporters he didnt think completely closing the subways would be necessary for the storm.
The final decision to shut the subway was made after a 4 p.m. weather report and based on the advice that Prendergast gave Cuomo, said Melissa DeRosa, the governors communications director.
We understand that a 4:45 p.m. announcement of a closing at 11 p.m. is relatively short notice but we wanted to get the best, most timely information before we made the decision and the public clearly got the message, said DeRosa, his chief spokeswoman.
Its not the first time Cuomo has surprised the mayor with a major announcement on short notice.
During the Ebola crisis, de Blasio wasnt consulted about Cuomos decision to enact a 21-day quarantine policy, which he announced in a joint presser with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
In another curious move amid the snowstorm, the mayor and the governor while repeatedly stressing that their offices were in close contact held dueling media availabilities early Tuesday morning to discuss the storm.
Cuomo spoke at a briefing with top officials at 8 a.m., around the same time de Blasio appeared on CNN.
And on Monday, they scheduled their separate storm press conferences just a few miles apart within 15 minutes of one another, which wouldve made it impossible for TV crews to shoot both live.
Cuomo ended up moving his presser time up. He downplayed the dueling briefings as a scheduling snafu.
I talk to the mayor all the time, so were totally coordinated, Cuomo said Monday.
For his part, de Blasio insisted he wasnt upset about the late notice of the subway shutdown, saying the runup to the storm required quick decision-making.
All the meteorologists were (saying) 2 feet or even more, and very fast accumulation, he said.
So I think in that atmosphere everyone was trying to make quick decisions, and the right decision.
And he stressed that despite not being part of the final decision-making process he and the governor were mostly in sync with how to handle the storm.
The decision to focus on safety and take more precautions rather than fewer was the right one...and the governors team and I were very united in that broad philosophy, he said.
Cuomos decision to close the subways during the storm which ended up being far less powerful than initially predicted ruffled more than just de Blasios feathers.
Some transit advocates questioned the wisdom of completely closing the system, and the head of the pro-rider advocacy group the Straphangers Campaign called for an independent body to review the decision.
I grew up in New York. The subways never closed for snow, said Gene Russianoff.
Closing the subway, you inconvenience millions of people, and hurt the citys economy, he said.
He said he didnt want to Tuesday morning quarterback, but someone should take an independent look, similar to the type of probes that are done after derailments or other types of accidents.
Others defended the governors choice.
The executive director of the General Contractors Association whose members work on many MTA projects said it was a tough choice that had to be made, and could have saved the system from serious damage if the storm hadnt shifted directions.
By giving plenty of notice, people were able to plan their day and were able to get out safely, said Denise Richardson.
The worst thing in these instances is for people to act as if things are business as usual and then find themselves stranded by conditions.
Cuomo, at an early morning press conference, also defended his decision to put the city that never sleeps on lockdown.
Weve had people die in storms .<TH>.<TH>.<TH>Id much rather be in situations where we say, We got lucky,<TH> said Cuomo.
Service was brought back around 8 a.m., but didnt get fully operational until around noon and even then, it was only on a limited-service schedule.
It is expected to go back to a weekday schedule on Wednesday.
Officials with the Transport Workers United Local 100 which represents subway workers said that it couldve been brought up faster if the MTA had planned the shutdown better.
Because the move was made so quickly, the MTA did not ask many workers on their Monday evening and night shifts to sleep in crew rooms, which would allow them to be on hand for a quick turnaround on Tuesday, union officials charge.
Some individual supervisors asked workers on their own but many did not.
They didnt hold onto people physically and I think they got caught short in some areas because of that, Steve Downs, a division chairman with TWU Local 100, said.
TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen said the union offered to secure volunteers from the ranks of train operators and conductors to stay overnight Monday at key locations but the management wasnt interested.
Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/de-blasio-dark-cuomo-order-close-subway-article-1.2093839
