Snowpacalypse later

Winter weather shuts down NW Bronx

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People in the northwest Bronx and the rest of the city went to bed on Monday night hearing dire warnings of catastrophic levels of snow and wind from weathermen who said to expect perhaps the worst winter storm in New York’s history and from the governor, who forbade driving starting at 11 p.m.

They woke up to a ghost town. In the event, the ghost, so to speak, was the storm.

“If you’re a native New Yorker, you hear the ‘apocalypse’ happens every year, and it never happens” Steve Hughes reflected while having beers with his father at Riverdale City Grill on Tuesday afternoon.

Mr. Hughes, who was visiting his native Riverdale on vacation from his current home in Brazil, said he enjoyed the roughly five inches of snowfall from Monday night.

“It’s good. There’s only so much hot weather you can take after a while, if you’re a northeasterner,” said Mr. Hughes, 46.

An overnight halt of public transportation and widespread predictions that up to three feet of snow from Winter Storm Juno would strike the city left most people taking the day off and many of the northwest Bronx’s streets nearly empty on Tuesday.

That was just fine with Justin Hudson, 13, who recounted the cheer his classmates gave on Monday afternoon at St. Margaret’s School when they learned Catholic schools, like public ones, were closed Tuesday.

But then came the rub from his teacher, who he described as saying, “You guys realize you’re going to have to take a day that you would have off that you’re not going to have off now.”

The eighth-grade student was running errands with his father on Riverdale Avenue near West 236th Street, although most stores in the area were closed.

Down Riverdale Avenue, at Ewen Park, a livelier scene played out. Dozens of children sledded down the park’s tall hill while their parents looked on — although some of the adults hopped on toboggans, too.

“It’s a good day to enjoy with my daughter,” José Mercado, 32, said before settling onto a new plastic blue sled with his 6-year-old child.

Juno, snow, storms, Shant Shahrigian
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