Thoughts on the Christmas Snowstorm

We all know about the snow storm that hit the great city of New York in the christmas season and everyone seems to be putting all the blame on the poor mayor Bloomberg. My question to all of you is whether this series of events should be seen, possibly, as a sign that the city is simply not prepared for all types of emergencies. Why then should the city be expecting quality service 100% of the time?

Unfortunately people tend to forget that certain services cannot handle all situations well. Is it possible that instead there should be a focus on what resources the city uses to prepare for such disasters. This helps me recall the time when i visited my family in Argentina and noticed how my Grandmother and most of my relatives did not rely at all on the services of the police department in their area and province. Instead, they contracted several individuals to keep watch on the neighborhood, and he was paid fairly. Without having to worry about caring for too many streets and families respectively, he could focus his attention and maximize the security for the community that lived in that area. Should this same lesson be taught and administered to the populace of New York?

What simply seems to be the answer to this problem is to simply allocate resources on a community level, allowing the community itself to divert whatever resources they have to needs they think are most appropriate. This appears to make a lot of sense versus the notion that the city itself should be mobilizing the effort itself to tackle cleaning up the streets after the snow. At least the problem is not that simple, but at least it is another way of thinking of such subjects such as self governance.