In a grim, darkly hilarious special report, the Times has confirmed that the guys in charge of dealing with Snowmageddon in December didn't know what they were doing--as in, they had no experience dealing with a major snowstorm and they made "questionable calls" right and left. From the report:
"Mr. Jackson had no idea of what was going on," said Sione Kongaika, a plow driver who recently retired after 31 years with the Seattle Department of Transportation. Two or three days into the first major snowfall, "all he was doing is yelling, 'We have to get more plows downtown. The mayor can't get to the office.' "Wealthy areas and the mayor's neighborhood got special attention. The city told us they were plowing major prioritized routes, but those routes didn't get plowed--while special requests were filled right and left. Even the city council knew something was wrong, spoke up about it, and were pretty much ignored. Egads. Maybe now we'll see some accountability from SDOT on this disaster.
