Some Residents Perplexed By New York City's Lack Of Snow And Ice Removal

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The city suspended alternate side parking again Tuesday for snow removal, but some drivers said they still had to maneuver around mounds of snow and ice.

On the social snow patrol, a New Yorker named Matthew tweeted a picture of the street he parks on in Park Slope, saying, "Can I ask you what snow are you removing?"

So, CBS2's Marcia Kramer went to find out what the city was really doing.

It's a question some New Yorkers are asking: Why were alternate side of the street parking regulations suspended Tuesday for snow removal and where is that removal by the city going on?

Kramer found one man trying to chip ice from the street in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, but by and large the alternate side of the street parking lanes were quiet. Drivers parked end to end on snow and ice.

"It's not right. I have to come back out here and clean out the walkways. That's not my responsibility," resident Albert Laratuente said.

Trapped in mounds of ice, Dwight Dammers spent an hour helping one man get his van out of a parking spot.

"We tried to chisel it out," he told CBS2's Tracee Carrasco. "The ice is pretty thick here."

It's a difficult and time consuming task that has many New Yorkers wondering why alternate side of the street parking regulations were suspended once again on Tuesday, for snow removal when it doesn't seem like the snow is going anywhere.

Drivers throughout the city said the ice and snow building up along the streets is making it especially dangerous to maneuver around.

"It's been horrible actually. I've been sliding all over the place," Rommel Collymore said.

The city said there was some snow removal going on at crosswalks and bus lanes, but added when it's as cold as it has been of late it's too cold to remove the snow and ice.

"One of the things that we want to do is make sure that the brooms are actually working. It is very frustrating to people who move their cars if we don't make it up their block to sweep their street," Department of Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia said.

Garcia said the parking rules were suspended for 22 of the past 24 days.

"Alternate side of the street parking regulations are designed so I can work or the department can work and if we can't work then I don't want to force you to move your car," Garcia said. "We're not doing it to torture you."

She said the city needs warmer temperatures to remove the kind of snow and ice that is currently on the streets.

"When we get temperatures that are this low, when we push the snow out and crush it and then salt it, it's not going to melt. And we're just going to create ice in the driving lanes," Garcia said.

The record for suspension of alternate side of the street parking rules was set during the winter of 1977 when there were 62 consecutive days drivers didn't have to move their cars, Kramer reported.