By Amy Zimmer
DNAinfo News Editor
GRAMERCY – The outer boroughs may have borne the brunt of unplowed streets, but Manhattan was not without its own snow-clogged arteries.
The normally busy East 19th Street between Irving Place and Park Avenue South was still snow-bound as of Tuesday evening because an abandoned truck from Le Pain Quotidien, the upscale restaurant chain, had prevented plows from clearing the road.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg blamed the city's sluggish plowing pace on cars residents abandoned amid the blizzard.
The truck had been stuck since at least 12:30 a.m. Monday, a resident on the block said.
“The transmission broke,” explained Denise Fudrini, from Le Pain Quotidien’s human resources department. “We have already requested a tow truck, but due to the blizzard, we are on a waitlist.”
When restaurant reps called the tow company around 4 a.m. on Monday, they were told they were No. 75 on the list.
“It’s just a waiting game,” Fudrini said. “I know people are upset, but it’s out of our hands.”
The company emptied the truck of all its perishables, but the food apparently didn’t reach the Le Pain Quotidien branch just a block west on East 19th Street, where a worker said they were only serving coffee on Monday since they never received their bread or other food.
Some workers on the block said they saw a few taxis find creative ways around the truck: they drove onto the sidewalk.
A resident whose car was parked next to the truck tried driving headfirst into the unplowed street.
“The snow was deeper than the undercarriage of my car,” explained David Neuman, 42, an orthopedic surgeon who needed his car on Tuesday to drive to a Bronx hospital where he was to perform surgery. When that didn’t work, a crew of people on the block helped move his car back into the spot, and Neuman then borrowed his father-in-law’s car.
As soon as the truck got stuck, "I put a call into 311," Neuman said. "I've been struggling ever since. It’s frustrating."
Joe Taranto, 63, who lives a few blocks away, was astounded by the snowed-in street.
"It’s crazy because this is a usually busy westbound street," he said. "It's been here two days. Normally they would tow a vehicle by now to plow the street."
"I was under the impression everything would be plowed by now," said Chad Goldstein, manager of Angelo and Maxie’s Steakhouse on the corner of Park Avenue South and East 19th Street. One of their delivery trucks had to park three blocks away before the worker could walk over kitchen supplies.
Tthey worried about what would happen with beer and liquor deliveries set for Wednesday.
Another manager at Angelo and Maxie’s, Nadir Nadir, said the block were he lives — West 55th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues — also hadn’t been plowed due to a stuck truck.
"I called 311,” he said, "and they told me they’re doing the even numbered streets first."
