Jason C. McLean

A few days before we arrived last week, New York City was greeted with something we were told was a rather large blizzard. I’m not sure if it would rate as a blizzard or even rate as a large snowfall by Montreal standards, but it did seem big by local standards.

While Montreal isn’t always prepared to deal with the snow we get (just ask someone who doesn’t live on or near a major street), we do have the trucks for it. NYC, on the other hand has to improvise and improvise they do:

Two birds with one stone: snow removal in NYC (photo by Chris Zacchia)

Nope, your eyes are not deceiving you, fellow Montrealers or fellow people not from the five boroughs, NYC equips garbage trucks with snow plows and sends them out to do presumably two jobs at once.

Both snow removal and garbage pickup probably fall under sanitation in a city that doesn’t usually get enough snow to warrant it’s own department, so it does make sense. It’s still a little funny, though, for an outsider from a colder climate to see in action.