Heroes of the Storm

A lot of New Yorkers did a terrific job during the inclement weather that hit the city over the weekend, but the ones we particularly admire are those who braved the winds of the nanny state. We’re thinking of people like Daniel O’Sullivan, 53, a retired carpenter of the Department of Transportation who is from Broad Channel, Queens, and was reported by the New York Post to be one of a “hardy collection of salty holdouts” who were prepared to weather not only the storm but also the warnings of the mayor. “I ain’t leaving,” Mr. O’Sullivan was quoted by the Post as saying, “I ain’t listening to [Mr.] Bloomberg . . . No way I’m moving.”

Mr. O’Sullivan wasn’t the only one who stood on principle and long experience. From old age homes on the Lower East Side to the shores of Manhattan Beach Brooklyn, people were reported to be sticking to their residences — either because they comprehended that the storm would not be as bad as the mayor warned it might be or because they preferred to stay with their property in hopes of protecting it. It was their judgment that turned out to be right in respect of the rainy weekend. They reckoned that the mayor and other political leaders were over-reacting to the prospect of rain because they had under-reacted to the blizzard that struck the city in December.

What they understood, we speculate, is that the mayor made the same mistake in both storms. During the blizzard, his mistake was in failing to keep the streets plowed and the business, subways, and taxis moving. In respect of Irene, his mistake was the same. He failed to keep buses and subways moving so that people could get to work, to hospitals, and stores. In the first case, the mayor made an error of omission; he was asleep at the switch. In the case of Irene, it was an error of commission. The Incredible Hulk of Nanny Bloomberg took over and forced the buses off the road and shut down the government on the theory that he knows better than New Yorkers what is good for them.

In Rockaway, according to the Times, “residents resolved to stay put, even though public transportation was shut down at midday on Saturday, and the city might close the two bridges to the peninsula in the event of high winds.” The Times’ leg, Corey Kilgannon, reported of the Rockaway residents: “Their determination alarmed some officials, who issued increasingly strident warnings all day long about the risks of staying. In some housing complexes on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the city sent buses to transport people, but they sat empty, even though officials had announced that elevators would be turned off in the evening.”

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It’s a fitting coda to a mayoralty that was supposed to have ended at two terms. We understand the mayor is in a difficult spot, particularly with the way the tort laws expose the city to litigation. No one we know blames law enforcement. But there is, we detect, a sense in the city that the mayor himself stands for the nanny state and that it has become ridiculous. It started with the ban on smoking in restaurants and the outlawing of trans-fats. Now New Yorkers can’t even smoke at the beach or in the park. Or drive through Times Square. Bicycle paths have clogged their streets. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has become a runaway agency, with a degrading grading system for restaurants. According to the Times, it is now banning dogs from neighborhood bars dogs have been going to for decades. It is even raiding the buffet tables of private clubs that have served their members without incident for more than a century. We don't gainsay the tragedy of the several storm related deaths in the New York region. But it wouldn’t surprise us were Irene to prove to be a moment when thousands of New Yorkers realized they’d had enough of nanny-statism and would prefer to decide for themselves whether to retreat from the gusts and the rain. They are heroes of the storm.