STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Dead ends and roads throughout Staten Island remained snow-clogged and slippery Wednesday afternoon, creating hazardous driving conditions for motorists — especially on those streets that reportedly had not been touched by a plow.
In Stapleton, five households of senior citizens on Shelterview Drive remain effectively trapped in their homes as their street remains unplowed despite multiple requests for assistance from the city.
The residents who live at the end of a dead-end street on a steep uphill block have been unable to receive mail or get groceries since Monday’s snowfall.
“Nobody has been up here to plow,” Tom Girardi, a block resident, told the Advance/SILive.com. “We’re all senior citizens up here and we can’t get down the hill.”
According to Girardi, they have been trying for days to get the city Sanitation Department to plow their street to no avail.
The residents, in their 70s, said they have filed multiple complaints with the city’s 311 service since Monday, but have received no assistance.
“We put in complaints, called 311 since Monday, and this is now Wednesday,” Girardi said. “We still have nothing.”
The situation has also disrupted essential services. Mail delivery has been impossible since the snowfall because postal workers cannot access the street. This is particularly challenging for residents who rely exclusively on paper mail.
Shelterview Drive residents in Stapleton say postal workers can’t access their mailboxes and they’re too old to carry groceries up the snow-covered hill.Courtsey of Tom Girardi
“We can’t even get our mail,” Girardi noted. “There’s two parts of the hill. One part you come up, and that’s where our mailboxes are. The mailman can’t get up here.”
When asked about the potential impact on bill payments, Girardi confirmed the severity of the situation: “We still get our mail. Everything is paper. We’re not online. We don’t pay our bills online.”
For these senior citizens, navigating the snow-covered hill presents significant dangers. While Girardi managed to get down the hill on Tuesday, he was unable to return with his vehicle and had to leave his truck parked on Van Duzer Street.
“My wife can’t get off the hill,’’ he said. ”I got off the hill yesterday, but now I have to walk back up. I’m not carrying groceries up; we’re in our 70s.”
Shown is the location off of Van Duzer Street in Stapleton where Shelterview Drive residents are still snowed in.Google Maps
The residents have even attempted to secure private snow removal services, but found the cost to be astronomical.
“I had somebody come up look at it yesterday privately. They wanted $3,000,” Girardi said. “We’re not paying $3000 to plow a hill.”
In previous years, the residents had their own solutions.
“One of my neighbors has a quad with a plow on it, and he’s been plowing it. He’s been away now on vacation,” Girardi explained. “Before that, I had a big snow blower and I was able to go up and down the hill.”
Adding to their frustration, the residents report that city plows clearing the main thoroughfare have actually made their situation worse.
“When they plow the street, they plow us in at the bottom on the street. Like we’re a driveway and not a street,” Girardi said.
The residents have noticed a puzzling pattern in the city’s snow removal priorities.
“There’s other small streets like this that actually go through from Van Duzer all the way up to Howard Avenue. Those are all plowed. They’re all plowed with a pickup truck, but the truck doesn’t come up here,” Girardi observed.
Five households of residents in their 70s on Shelterview Drive can’t get mail, groceries or emergency services after filing multiple 311 complaints since Monday.Courtsey of Tom Girardi
The Department of Sanitation typically uses smaller vehicles equipped with plows to clear narrow streets like Girardi’s.
Girardi said Sanitation workers visited the area on Sunday night when everything was already clear.
A video taken by Advance/SILive.com‘s opinion columnist, Tom Wrobleski, showed the slushy mess left behind in Tompkinsville.
Motorists were traveling slowly along Austin Place Wednesday morning, as it appeared that no plow had touched that area in a while.
Residents across the borough are sharing videos and complaints about unplowed dead-end and slushy streets. Click on the picture to view the footage.Courtsey of anonymous reader
Click here to watch the full video on YouTube.
On Instagram, Advance/SILive.com readers shared similar realities about their snow removal experiences across the borough.
“Two days and still not all shoveled out because everything is ice,” Social media user @shortcrs said. “I don’t believe a plow came down the street at all!”
A Midland Beach resident identified only as Ralph said his street was never salted and gave the situation a thumb down emoji.
Early Wednesday morning, bus riders were forced to stand in the street at the intersection of Narrows Road and South Fingerboard Road in Arrochar because the stop had not been cleared.
“Nothing was cleared so that passengers could have a safe spot to wait,” a witness said.
With the Narrows Road South and Fingerboard Road bus stop still buried and sidewalk uncleared, riders had no choice but to wait in the street on Wednesday Jan. 28, 2026.Courtsey of Dennis Rees
He noted that while a few areas like Van Briesen Park saw partial cleanup, many essential locations — including Bay Street bus stops and Sylvaton Terrace — remained inaccessible.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the Sanitation Department’s Plow NYC map has been deactivated with the message that the website is not tracking vehicles “at this time.” Plow NYC tracks plow locations across the city. To use the service when it is back up and running, visit this link.
The Sanitation Department did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication.