The biggest snowstorm to hit the area in five years dumped 14 inches of powder on Jersey City a week ago Saturday, and the city seems to be slowly digging its way out of the mess.
The search for parking in parts of the city has morphed into a blood sport. Fights between residents have erupted because spaces – at a high premium in the best of weather – are now rarer than a friendly turnpike toll taker. Snow banks have obliterated precious curb space in the city.
Don’t expect it to get any better soon.
While Jersey City plows the entirety of strips identified as major thoroughfares, it leaves only the middle of side streets plowed, according to Emergency Management Director Jerry Cala. Those major streets include Sip, Communipaw, Newark, Monticello, Central, Manhattan, Bergen and West Side avenues, Christopher Columbus Drive, York Street, Hudson Street, Warren Street, Broadway, St. Pauls Avenue, Martin Luther King Drive, and Ocean Avenue.
The county plows Kennedy Blvd.
Though the centers of roads have been plowed pretty much down to blacktop, the edges of side streets remain a mazeway. They will likely remain that way until snow melts or residents clear the stuff away.
The Jersey City Incinerator Authority, responsible for much of the removal, is now only responding to requests for blocked crosswalks and piled up intersections.
“We’re anxious to clean up the snow as best we can,” said Parking Authority Executive Director Carmine Venezia last week. “You can’t do it on the little narrow streets.”
There is some paradoxical good news for car owners, though.
As long as the streets remain snow-covered, street cleaning rules will be suspended, Venezia said. When the streets become clear enough, the city will resume its street cleaning operations. Car owners will be warned with a windshield flier when cleaning resumes.
On those major intersections where clearing was deemed crucial, the city blocked off the street, pulled cars out of the way, cleared the entire swath, and returned the cars. In all, the city moved about 300 cars, but also posted emergency warning signs, ran the license plates and attempted to notify the owners prior to moving.
Cala said the snow removal was a joint effort among police, the incinerator and parking authorities and private towers.
Help came from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, which relaxed snow-dumping restrictions. Snow was deposited in the Hackensack River at the ends of Duncan Avenue and Howell Street. Empty lots at Jersey Avenue and Grand Street and Communipaw and 440 also served as dumping areas.
The city operated under a state of emergency from Saturday until 8 a.m. Tuesday. This gives city officials the power to shut down streets, make purchases without going out to bid, and force city union workers to work overtime.
The timing of the snowstorm actually aided clearing of the accumulation, said Cala.
“It helped being a holiday weekend,” he said. “We could do snow removal during daytime instead of night.”