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  • Mayor de Blasio declared a state of emergency for the entire city at 11 tonight, all non emergency vehicles will be banned from city streets.

  • CBS two's political reporter, Marcia Kramer.

  • Life tonight in Midtown with more of what the mayor said, Marcia, we'll take a look.

  • The conditions out here, it's snowing, It's gusty and look what it's done to the streets, their icy.

  • They're mushy.

  • This is the things that proves the point of why Mayor de Blasio want to get all the cars and trucks off the streets.

  • He wants emergency vehicles to be able to get through.

  • And by the way, the ban also means no takeout after 11 o'clock because he doesn't want those taste cup.

  • I take up bicycles there.

  • People have to make smart decisions from this point on.

  • Careful decisions recognize this as an emergency.

  • It is not business as usual.

  • And if my fellow New Yorkers join me in doing the smart and safe thing, we're all gonna get through this.

  • Okay?

  • Mayor de Blasio learned something from former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's big, big mistake during the blizzard of December 2010 when ambulances, fire trucks and police cars couldn't get through because regular drivers blocked the streets.

  • So he declared a state of emergency.

  • That means no private cars, no traffic like this after 11 PM If you are, uh, part of the city government, if you are a first responder, if you are an essential public servant, those kind of people who will be allowed on the streets the mayor means business.

  • We want to be able to respond to people that need help.

  • So if it's a fire apparatus, if it's an M s ambulance, if it's Ah, NYPD RMP, we want the road's clear.

  • We can't have people out there.

  • If we find people out there that don't belong there, the number steps that we can take it will be up to the discretion of the police officers involved.

  • It could be anywhere from from a summons Thio in worst case scenario and arrest.

  • Not what we want to dio want to be helping people, but we need people to stay off the roads tonight.

  • And there's another lesson learned from Bloomberg's mistakes.

  • De Blasio awarding 40% more ambulances, 500 extra firefighters in 2010 the there were no chains on ambulances and now there are.

  • That's one simple way we've done.

  • We also have some four wheel drive ambulances we didn't have before, and we're pre positioning some National Guard vehicles at each of our stations.

  • Take a look at that car over there.

  • It's one of the cars taking advantage of Mayor de Blasio's decision to suspend alternate side of the street parking rules.

  • But here's what the mayor says.

  • Once you pick a spot and it's covered with snow and you're snowed in, don't move your car for days because the one thing he doesn't want is more people putting more snow on the road, because that makes it harder for the sanitation crews to do their job reporting live in Midtown.

  • I'm Marcia Kramer, CBS two news.

Mayor de Blasio declared a state of emergency for the entire city at 11 tonight, all non emergency vehicles will be banned from city streets.

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