N.Y. / Region So Long, Road Salt. Hello, Sun and Sand. By KATE TAYLORMARCH 14, 2014 There are no snow plows in Aruba. Perhaps that is why John J. Doherty, New York City’s longest-serving sanitation commissioner, is headed there on vacation after March 28, his last day as a municipal employee. Mr. Doherty, 75, was ready to retire last year, but agreed to stay on temporarily, at Mayor Bill de Blasio’s request, to get the city through the snow season. He has had plenty of opportunity to regret that decision. The winter turned out to be a punishing one, with snowstorm after snowstorm dropping a total of 57 inches in Central Park. During a heavy storm on Jan. 21, residents of the Upper East Side claimed that their neighborhood was being neglected by the city’s fleet of snow plows. Instead of defending Mr. Doherty, Mr. de Blasio issued a statement saying that the city’s response on the Upper East Side had indeed been lacking and that he had instructed Mr. Doherty to “double-down” on cleanup efforts there. In an interview earlier this year, Mr. Doherty acknowledged that the plentiful criticisms of the city’s snow-clearing efforts got to him sometimes. “It’s a little depressing on some days, no doubt about it,” he said then. On Friday, after the website Capital New York reported that Mr. Doherty had tendered his resignation, Mr. de Blasio issued a statement through a spokeswoman praising Mr. Doherty. “I extend my deepest gratitude to Commissioner Doherty — on behalf of all New Yorkers — for his decades of service,” the mayor said, adding, “I could not have been more fortunate to begin my term as mayor with a commissioner like that at my side.” Mr. Doherty began working for the city as a trash collector in 1960 and worked his way up through the Sanitation Department. He was sanitation commissioner from 1994 to 1998, then briefly retired, before returning to the job for all 12 years of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s tenure. Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Doherty always suggested that their working relationship was temporary, intended to get Mr. de Blasio through his transition. Mr. de Blasio said Friday that he would name a new sanitation commissioner within a few days. A version of this article appears in print on March 15, 2014, on page A17 of the New York edition with the headline: So Long, Road Salt. Hello, Sun and Sand.. Order Reprints|Todays Paper|Subscribe
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 05:36:44 +0000
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