When an audience is watching a production number during a Broadway musical, they are less aware of the individual elements that make it up than they are of the overall effect.

The evacuation – for that’s what it was – of Chestnut Avenue, was in many ways similar to a production number … or even a ballet. And in its execution, all elements had to work together harmoniously: a violin played by thirty-five hands without any fingers missing a note. Amos coordinated everything from his office in City Hall. Fifteen tow truck drivers, each with a helper. Daisy Dalrymple and Mouse Meekly answering phone calls from frantic car owners on the 311 Resource Hotline. Noah plowing, moving, and shifting at the scene. And Lilly Snow, whose primary job description (other than assisting Noah) was, as Mayor Chiquita put it when the young woman was leaving the office, “to be the Evacuation’s Muse.”

By 8:00 o’clock that Sunday morning, fifteen tow trucks were lined up on Chestnut Avenue, a block south of 84th Street. Eight trucks were on the west side of the street. One for each of eight parked cars. Only seven trucks were on the east side of the street, because one of the parking spaces … and we know which … was unoccupied.

Amos planned that the operation would be finished by 9:00 a.m., before (he assumed) late-sleeping car owners woke up. To minimize noise, only two trucks would operate at the same time. One on either side of the avenue. Each was to drive to the northernmost parked car – the one closest to 84th Street – hook it to the tow truck’s chains, hook the chains to the boom, hoist the front wheels onto the back of the truck, and then tow the car away.

After each vehicle was removed, Noah Pitt would plow out the space it had occupied to clear it for the next tow truck. He would continue doing this, one after another, until the car closest to 83rd Street had been dealt with and all the others had been towed away.

The vehicles so removed were taken to an empty parking lot adjacent to a Department of Public Works garage on 101st Street, where they would remain until their owners reclaimed them.

Amos Goode told the last tow truck driver to deliver six orange and white striped traffic barriers to Noah Pitt, with instructions for Noah to block the 83rd and 84th Streets entrances to Chestnut Avenue. Lilly helped him to position them at either end of what was now a completely empty street.

Empty, that is, except for Noah, Noah’s snowplow, and Lilly Snow, who, per the mayor’s orders, had affixed flyers to every available parking meter and light pole.

The text of the flyer, printed in black letters on an orange background, was this:

NOTICE TO VEHICLE OWNERS

Due to an extreme snow emergency, all cars parked on Chestnut Avenue between 83rd and 84th Streets have been temporarily relocated.

Please call the 311 RESOURCE HOTLINE for instructions on how to reclaim your vehicle at the City’s expense.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

NOTICE TO VEHICLE OWNERS

Due to an extreme snow emergency, all cars parked on Chestnut Avenue between 83rd and 84th Streets have been temporarily relocated.

Please call the 311 RESOURCE HOTLINE for instructions on how to reclaim your vehicle at the City’s expense.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Copyright © Shelly Reuben, 2021. Shelly Reuben’s books have been nominated for Edgar, Prometheus, and Falcon awards. For more about her writing, visit www.shellyreuben.com