Winter Wonderland

February 12, 2015

While Winter Storm Juno was not the predicted storm of the century, it did transform Prospect Park into a scenic winter wonderland. Keeping the Park safe and ready for thousands of visitors is not a small feat, and crews worked tirelessly around the clock, contributing from start to end nearly 900 hours to shoveling, plowing, salting and other forms of snow removal.

The Alliance maintains a very small fleet of plows and salt spreaders, which requires an “all hands on deck” approach, as staff do everything possible to stay ahead of storms. Mowers were converted with special brooms into high-powered snow removal devices, but much of the work involved manual labor with staff on the ground operating blowers, shoveling and spreading salt.

The team’s first priority is clearing the Park Drive, entrances and perimeter sidewalks, an operation that took place throughout the night of the storm. The next day, crews focused on shoveling out fire hydrants, bus stops, staircases and crosswalks, with over 40 crosswalks at Grand Army Plaza alone. Even volunteers got into the effort, with a group from the Church of the Latter Day Saints who shoveled staircases in the Vale of Cashmere.

The result of these efforts could be seen in the sheer number of visitors who descended on the Park to enjoy the snow. Prospect Park became the symbol of a New York winter wonderland, thanks to a video posted by Mayor de Blasio, and photographs of the Park in publications around the world. 

Enjoy our photo gallery from Winter Storm Juno, and continue to share your photos with us by posting to our Facebook page or to Instagram with #prospectpark.