Clarification, December 23, 2025 4:22 pm:
This article has been updated with comment from the City of Pittsburgh.
The snow is melting, but that may be cold comfort for Pittsburghers who waited days for their streets to be plowed or salted after the city was blanketed with the heaviest snowfall in three years. Although the city’s Department of Public Works (DPW) reported “moderate successes” in clearing roads, residents and local talking heads complained loudly on social media that it took days for workers to clear side streets — if they cleared them at all.
For those who felt the city’s response was inadequate, “They’re right. Plain and simple. How can you try to drive or walk through the City right now and say that they’re wrong?” City Controller Rachael Heisler told Pittsburgh City Paper.
Heisler said the problem is straightforward: the city’s vehicle fleet is in rough shape.
“In the 2018-2019 winter season, the City had 144 vehicles available for snow removal. Last year we had 103, with 37 down for maintenance, so effectively 66,” Heisler said. “Yesterday, the administration said that, this weekend, the City was operating with 57 trucks and 13 reserve units. That’s as clear an indicator as you can find of what’s happened with our fleet.”
Adding to local uncertainty was the failure of Pittsburgh’s Snow Plow Tracker software. The webpage hosting the tool appears to have been taken down, and Reddit users speculated that issues with the software’s developer were to blame. On Dec. 16, City Paper saw requests for Snow and Ice Removal flood the City’s 311 service, with dozens coming in every minute over an hour-long period.
Residents have given DPW’s response a chilly reception, with some calling the lack of response “unacceptable” and posting complaints on social media. Local radio host Marty Griffin, an outspoken critic of Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration, posted and reshared multiple videos of struggling delivery vehicles and unplowed roadways. Griffin, a Mt. Lebanon resident, called the City’s response “ridiculous.”
Complaints on Reddit also addressed neighbors’ unwillingness to shovel and the “slippy” surfaces of the city’s new piano-key crosswalks.
“We’re 3 days out from the storm the city has really dropped the ball this time around,” u/PhilosophizingPanda posted.
“I can tell you right now that both Pitt and [Carnegie Mellon] campus were not touched,” said u/NoMaans.
“[W]e have a fleet crisis. This is why the only real solution for the 2026 budget is a tax increase,” u/torcsandantlers wrote.
Heisler agreed. Beyond snow plows, she said vehicle repairs and replacements will be critical to improving public safety and sentiment, noting that “all departments that rely on City vehicles — fire, EMS, police, everything.”
She noted that deferred maintenance has been a problem across multiple administrations, but recent budget negotiations, coupled with the heavy snowfall, have made City workers’ challenges — and, in turn, Pittsburgh residents’ complaints — more acute. As City Council mulls a tax increase, Heisler said she’d like to see Pittsburgh “get better at the basics.”
“I’ve been very vocal about the fact that we need the Mayor and City Council to prioritize investments in our fleet, so I hope that happens,” Heisler said. “There won’t be any meaningful, noticeable change in our storm response until it does.”
After publication of this article, City of Pittsburgh press officer Jacob Williams (no relation) followed up to say that “unfortunately we had 40 trucks go in for service during this last storm and only 33 of them were returned to operation.” Williams noted that the City’s snow plow tracker is not used for planning and that DPW’s report of “successes” “was from the progress of our crews reported at their end of shift check-ins.”
“The City of Pittsburgh Department of Public Works sympathizes with residents whose lives were affected by the most-recent snowfall,” Williams said. “Our mission is to keep traffic moving safely on Pittsburgh’s over 1,200 miles of streets during and following snowstorms to the best of our ability. While we would like to provide the same level of service uniformly across the City, we must prioritize our limited resources including trucks, plows, and salt where critical.”
This article appears in The Big Winter Issue: Winter Guide/People of the Year.
