By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — New Yorkers from the outer boroughs praised the city's snow clean up effort Wednesday, just weeks after unplowed roads from a blizzard crippled parts of Brooklyn and Queens.
All eyes were on the Sanitation department Wednesday morning when a Nor'easter dumped at least nine inches across the city.
"Convoys of two or three trucks pass by every half hour," Alex Moldes, 33, of Elmhurst, Queens, told the New York Daily News Wednesday.
"Somebody got on their butts! I've seen them working since 9 p.m. last night."
That 'somebody' may have been Mayor Michael Bloomberg who had to defend himself from criticism thrown his way following the sluggish response to a Christmas weekend blizzard that dumped 20 inches of snow on the city.
Residents and the City Council blasted the the Sanitation Department, the mayor's office and the MTA for failing to prepare properly for the December blizzard.
City officials responded by being more proactive leading up to Wednesday's snow storm. Mayor Bloomberg declared a state of emergency Tuesday night and approved $1.2 million in contracts to hire private plows.
"This time, they got it right," said City Council Sanitation Committee Chairwoman Letitia James.
However, the Big Apple's snow removal efforts have not come without a cost. The city has already burned through its snow budget for the entire year, the Wall Street Journal reported. The clean up from the Dec. 26 storm cost $38 million. It marks the seventh time in the last eight years the city has used up its entire snow removal budget, the Journal reported.
