Snow Removal?

We don't know why, but the Slum Times was praising Rahm's snow removal efforts the other day:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel has survived his first Chicago weather emergency. Give the man his due.
  
  He reportedly was on vacation in Indonesia with his family until Monday, which drew the ire of critics who felt he should have been here in town directing every snowplow like mayors of old. But the plows rolled and the warming centers opened and the schools — if just in time — were closed. As for the 1,500 flight cancellations at O’Hare and Midway, has there ever been a big storm that did not paralyze the airports?
  
  Emanuel, that is to say, did not do a Bilandic. He did not fall on his face during the big freeze of 2014 the way Mayor Michael Bilandic flopped during the blizzard of 1979. On the contrary, city services performed about as well as one might expect. We can’t see some would-be Jane Byrne scoring points against Emanuel on this one.

You'd think that Rahm was out there driving a plow himself. The Slum Times even found an opportunity to toss a zinger at the blog:

• This did not discourage some bloggers. They bemoaned that every side street was not instantly cleared. “Sit back and watch the show,” one commentator on a cop blog wrote. “Did Tiny make it back from vacation? Maybe he should leave his bags packed because his minions are doing a s--- job of handling snow removal on the streets at the airports.”

Ouch. That hurt. We mean, it's not like cops have any insight into the actual conditions of the street. It's not like we're driving around 24/7 hitting the main streets, side streets, boulevards, alleys, or whatever and might feel the need to report back to other cops that, "Hey, you know what? Driving really sucks at the moment."

It seems an aldercreature noticed the same thing though:

• Alderman Roderick T. Sawyer (6th) is speaking out about budget constraints that he says restricts the amount of salt that can be used on the side streets in his ward.
  
  Sawyer issued a news release Thursday saying he was "shocked" to discover that trucks his Sixth Ward were restricted to one load of salt to use on side streets.
  
  "The accumulation of slush on our side streets is not only dangerous for my residents, but this slush is pulled out on the arterial streets which make conditions unsafe for all travelers," Sawyer said in the release. "This is the first big snow storm of the year and we cannot allow budget constraints to decrease the safety in my community."

Then Roderick goes and blows the whole thing by implying it might be racial:

• ....Sawyer insists the trucks were put under a salt restriction, and says he "cannot be handicapped by closed door policies made without consultation and applied inequitably throughout the city."

Don't worry Rod - the streets sucked throughout the city. It's a Rahm-thing, not a racial thing.