February 10, 1969: The Lindsay Snowstorm

February 10, 1969: A severe Winter storm hits the Northeastern U.S. Although the heaviest snowfalls, up to 32 inches, are recorded in Maine, it hits hardest in New York City. Depths were reported at 15 inches in Central Park, and 20 inches at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Of the 94 deaths that were attributed to the storm, 42 were in the City, 3 of them at JFK Airport, found trapped and frozen in a car.

The Airport estimated that 6,000 travelers were stranded there. Drivers became trapped on the highways. As with the massive traffic jam caused by the Woodstock concert 6 months later, the New York State Thruway was closed, man. Cars were abandoned on the Tappan Zee Bridge. The Long Island Rail Road suspended service.

All the financial exchanges closed. It was the 1st time the New York Stock Exchange had ever closed due to bad weather. The bulk of the snow fell on a Sunday, but schools were still closed the next day. Buses, taxis, delivery vehicles, mail trucks and garbage trucks couldn't get through. Nor could food delivery trucks get to the stores. Comedian Vic DiBitetto had just turned 8 years old, and was living in Brooklyn. This may have been the original storm that inspired his famous 2013 video: "They said snow! I gotta get the bread and milk!"

Mayor John Lindsay got the streets of Manhattan cleared fairly quickly. But the "Outer Boroughs"? The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island? It was almost as if Lindsay forgot they were part of the City. And the people living there were furious, especially in Queens. He tried to go there to apologize, but in the neighborhood of Kew Gardens, he got booed. It got worse: In Rego Park, his limousine got stuck. It became known as the Lindsay Snowstorm.

It was an election year, and Lindsay was running for re-election. The City's Republican Party ran John Marchi, a State Senator from Staten Island, against him in the primary, and beat him. Marchi also got the nomination of the City's Conservative Party.

The Democratic nominee was the City Comptroller, Mario Procaccino, and he turned out to be a conservative Democrat. Remembering Lindsay's limo trouble, he coined the expression "limousine liberal," to describe liberals who loved humanity in concept, but were out of touch with real people. But he also made some racist remarks, and it looked like the City had a choice between an Italian version of a Strom Thurmond-style "Dixiecrat" and a Barry Goldwater-style Republican. After all, while Lindsay did manage to keep the nomination of the City's Liberal Party, nobody wanted him for 4 more years.

As it turned out, enough people wanted Lindsay that he won the general election anyway.

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February 10, 1969 was a Sunday. Baseball and football were out of season. No games were scheduled in either the NBA or the NHL. One game was scheduled in the American Basketball Association: The Miami Floridians beat the Los Angeles Stars, 126-112 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.