Brooklyn Snowplows Go High-Tech

Big, fat, fluffy snowflakes are falling on Park Slope today.

And while Brooklyn will likely receive only three inches of snowfall, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is taking no chances.

Yesterday Bloomberg announced that roving video crews and GPS devices installed on 50 Brooklyn snowplows will allow the city to monitor today’s snowplowing efforts better than during last week’s post-Christmas blizzard disaster.

The GPS devices, installed on trucks in areas such as South Brooklyn hit hardest by last week’s storm, will also enable sanitation workers to directly communicate with their supervisors if they spot a problem. Additionally, the city's "Scout Teams" will send live video feed back to City Hall of street conditions.

 “We plan to do a great job, the kind of job that the public has come to expect us to do, and you will see that tomorrow,” Bloomberg said at a news conference at City Hall yesterday afternoon.

True to his word, snowplows have been spotted roving the streets of Park Slope, though with little to plow—as of this afternoon, streets still remain clear, most snow turning to slush as it hits the pavement.

Some residents were miffed by the appearance of the big, hulking trucks on the lightly powdered streets of the Slope.

“Once again, he’s putting on a big show because of the big screw up in the last snowstorm,” said 11th Street resident Robert Olson. “They just need salt out there today. The plows are completely unnecessary.”

According to Bloomberg, the EMS head has been replaced and some management and personnel changes have been made at the Department of Sanitation’s Brooklyn division, though these changes will not take affect until Monday.

 “When something goes wrong, we stop everything, we find out why it went wrong – and we fix it,” he said.

But snowplows or not, Park Slope sure looks pretty in the snow.