Brian Lair on WNYC. Before we talk to New York City Comptroller Mark Levine about the snowstorm

and the financial storm that he says is about to hit New York City.

Here, just for some historical context and maybe curiosity about a snowstorm

most New Yorkers of today weren't alive for yet.

Here is a New York Times look back at the blizzard of February 9th, 1969, and how it

almost brought down a mayor. The headline by the New York Times reporter

Sewell Chan is remembering a snowstorm that paralyzed the city. And it says the blizzard prompted

a political crisis that became legendary in the annals of municipal politics, nearly brought down the administration of Mayor John V. Lindsay

and offered an instructive lesson to elected officials in the politics of snow removal.

It says the snowstorm is recounted in Vincent J. Conado's The Ungovernable City,

John Lindsay and his struggle to Save New York, which was published in 2001,

says 15 inches of snow fell on Sunday, February 9th, 1969, defying the predictions of the United States Weather Bureau,

now the National Weather Service, which had forecast the change to rain by that afternoon. Queens, it was very much a

queen's story, Queens was relegated to the status of a neglected stepchild. For days, the streets

were impassable and residents were all but barricaded inside their homes. At one point, Ralph J. Bunch,

the diplomat and Undersecretary General for the

United Nations, sent Mayor Lindsay a telegram that said never in his 17 years living in Q Gardens

had he, quote, experienced such neglect in snow removal as now. Then it continues, there were no buses,

taxi cabs, or delivery vehicles, and no trash or garbage collection for days.

Then it quotes Dr. Bunch again, saying, as far as getting to the United Nations is concerned, from Queens, I may as well be in the Alps.

This is a shameful performance by the great city of New York, which should certainly condone no second-class

borough. Then it continues, Mr. Lindsay traveled to Queens, but his visit was not well received.

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