page_title: John Lindsay
section_title: Blizzard of 1969
hierarchical_section_title: John Lindsay / Mayoralty / Blizzard of 1969
caption_attribution_description: Original caption&#58; "Miniskirts were in style then, but not the best for a snowy, windy night. 16 inches of snow slows the frenetic pace of Manhattan." — NWS archive English: A resident struggles to walk in a blizzard in Manhattan, New York
context_page_description: John Vliet Lindsay was an American politician, lawyer, and broadcaster. During his political career, Lindsay was a U.S. congressman, mayor of New York City, and candidate for U.S. president. He was also a regular guest host of Good Morning America. Lindsay served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from January 1959 to December 1965 and as mayor of New York City from January 1966 to December 1973. He switched from the Republican to the Democratic Party in 1971, and launched a brief and unsuccessful bid for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination as well as the 1980 Democratic nomination for Senator from New York. He died from Parkinson's disease and pneumonia in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina on December 19, 2000.
context_section_description: On February 10, 1969, New York City was pummeled with 15 inches (38 cm) of snow. On the first day alone, 14 people died and 68 were injured. Within a day, the mayor was criticized for giving favored treatment to Manhattan at the expense of the other boroughs. Charges were made that a city worker elicited a bribe to clean streets in Queens.
  Over a week later, streets in eastern Queens still had remained unplowed by the city, enraging the borough's residents, many who felt that the city's other boroughs always took a back seat to Manhattan. Lindsay traveled to Queens, but his visit was not well received. His car could not make its way through Rego Park, and even in a four-wheel-drive truck, he had trouble getting around. In Kew Gardens Hills, the mayor was booed; one woman screamed, "You should be ashamed of yourself." In Fresh Meadows, a woman told the mayor: "Get away, you bum." Later during his walk through Fresh Meadows, another woman called him 'a wonderful man", prompting the mayor to respond: "And you're a wonderful woman, not like those fat Jewish broads up there," pointing to women in a nearby building who had criticized him.
  The blizzard, dubbed the "Lindsay Snowstorm", prompted a political crisis that became "legendary in the annals of municipal politics" as the scenes conveyed a message that the mayor of New York City was indifferent to the middle class and poor citizens of the city.
caption: A street in New York City during the storm. This scene is in Manhattan, 1969.
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