Sunday, January 24, 2016

A nickel's worth of free PR advice...

Don't make robocalls on Friday and Saturday before the storm telling residents you have new equipment, new strategies and then put on a dopey DPW hat for effect if you can't control the weather.

First things first, THAT was a snowstorm. Johnny's time in Michigan's Upper Peninsula was truly revisited yesterday. It blew up and it blew up quick. That's part of the trouble when you call on Friday and the storm is just beginning to intensify. Weather can certainly make a fool of leaders who said they were well prepared. It's a roll of the dice. Sadly Jersey City didn't get Yahtzee!, we got three 4's.

We're hearing from all points in JC this morning on Twitter; The Heights, Downtown, Journal Square and people just don't think the words matched the deeds because the deeds were swamped with snow.

Then came this morning's robocall and here's our favorite quote from the Twitter on a Sunday morning call:

 ❄️snowgoth ‏@amywilson  49m49 minutes ago Jersey City, NJ
@JohnyAction the defensiveness & tone of those calls really shocks me. I get it: record snow. I don't expect things to be perfect overnight
10:23 AM - 24 Jan 2016 ·

Ouch.

Next time tell the people what they can do to help your charges, don't mention new equipment and so forth, it raises expectations. Let us know it's all hands on deck and you'll do everything you can. Update truthfully if we're having problems ie cars in streets etc.

We're good with that because we'll mostly be playing in the snow until Monday morning anyway.

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