Thanks to the blizzard that dumped 20 or so inches of snow on us, the sight of garbage bags, piled high and stretching far is a sad, familiar sight on New York City’s streets even though it’s been a week since the snow fell. Chalk it up to a poorly managed response to the snowfall plus the possibility of a sanitation slowdown. They just started garbage collection yesterday but even that’s hampered by a necessary split in service where some trucks are still working on the snow in some areas. It’s estimated that there are 50,000 tons of garbage to haul away, some of which has been accumulating since before Christmas. Christmas! That was over 10 days ago! Now all we need are the rats to come out of hiding and then we can sound the alarm for a plague warning!

This photo was taken on January 3, 2011.