Mel Evans/Associated Press Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City looked on as Mayor Cory Booker fielded questions from reporters last September in Newark.The contrast on Twitter couldn’t have been more stark.
As Mother Nature dumped more than two feet of snow on their cities, the mayors of New York and Newark took to the social media site in very different ways.
Michael R. Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, offered his standard advice: to call the city’s government services’ hot line.
“To report roads that need plowing or salt, call 311 or visit //bit.ly/fhuMye #NYC #Blizzard,” the mayor — or someone in his office — wrote on his Twitter feed.
By contrast, the messages from Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, popped up every few minutes, documenting his personal travels through the city’s snow-clogged streets as he sought to dig residents out.
“Mayor, central ward needs ur help bad,” one Twitter message said. “Streets are still a mess.”
Mr. Booker responded: “Where exactly? I’m in Central now making lots of progress.”
When a Twitter message from someone named Stephanie said “My street (UNITY AVENUE ; off of 18th and Styvesant) has yet to be touched,” Mr. Booker wrote back: “I’m sending someone ASAP.”
And a few minutes later, when a woman named Erika wrote that “My grandma is 82 yrs old, she can’t get out,” Mr. Booker sent an urgent Twitter message back: “Where is she? I will go now.”
He even delivered diapers to a woman who said she was stuck and unable to go out to shop.
“I’m delivering the diapers now — we will get her street soon,” Mr. Booker wrote.
The comparison is perhaps unfair, as several people noted online Wednesday morning. The city of Newark has only about 278,000 people, while New York City has close to 8.5 million.
And the impact of the snow in a major metropolis is clearly more severe and harder to recover from. But if the blizzard reminds people of anything, it should be this: The politics of snow removal are among the most brutal and unforgiving of them all.
As my colleague, Sewell Chan, pointed out two years ago, John V. Lindsay, the mayor of New York in 1969, was nearly forced out of office after a citywide failure to respond to more than a foot of snow in the city.
And people who lived in Washington in 1987 remember clearly the ridicule that was heaped on Marion Barry, the city’s mayor, who was in southern California attending the Super Bowl when a winter storm paralyzed the city. (As Mr. Chan notes, photos of the mayor at the Beverly Hills Hilton didn’t help.)
But perhaps those lessons have faded in the memories of some.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a feisty, get-it-done kind of politician, was on a family vacation to Disney World when the storm hit, and took some criticism for not rushing back from Florida to deal with the aftermath.
That criticism may be unfair. It’s not clear that he could have gotten back, given the weather-related flight delays. And even if he returned, it’s not clear what a governor can do, anyway.
But that didn’t stop the critics on Twitter.
One message Wednesday morning read: “This just in: NJ Governor Chris Christie reports tanning is proceeding ‘according to plan.’” Another notes that “Bloomberg’s, Christie’s reputations for effectiveness buried under snow.”
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