Snowplowgate or Snowgate or Plowgate

“Snowplowgate” and “snowgate” and “plowgate” are used to describe a scandal (”-gate” is from the Watergate scandal in 1970s Washington, DC) where snow is not quickly removed from the streets. New York City had such “-gate” scandals in December 2010 (when it was widely believed that city workers were slow to remove snow for a contract negotiating ploy) and in January 2014 (when it was widely believed that the snow was not plowed in wealthy areas of Manhattan by order of a new mayor who attacks the rich).
 
“Mayor Bloomberg is a douche bag with respect to Plowgate” was a tweet on December 28, 2010. “#SnowPlowGate” was in a tweet on December 30, 2010. Although the terms were popularized in New York City in 2010, all had been cited in print previously. “Plowgate” (regarding the Boston area) was cited in December 2009 and “snowgate” (regarding the Washington, DC area) was cited in February 2010.
 
   
Wikipedia: List of scandals with “-gate” suffix
This is a list of scandals or controversies whose names in scholarly sources include a ”-gate” suffix, by analogy with the Watergate scandal. This list also includes controversies that are widely referred to with a “-gate” suffix (such as New Orleans Saints bounty scandal), but may be referred to by “-gate”-less names in scholarly sources.
 
Etymology, usage, and history of -gate
The suffix -gate derives from the Watergate scandal of the United States in the early 1970s, which resulted in the resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon. The scandal was named after the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.; the complex itself was named after the “Water Gate” area where symphony orchestra concerts were staged on the Potomac River between 1935 and 1965.
       
The Best Blog In The Universe (Boston, MA)
Monday, December 7, 2009
Plowgate And Other Stuff
What an enjoyable column by Jane Lopes on Plowgate and especially the Plowgate Ten - of whom several are not even taxpayers. Charge a nominal fee? Define emergency as simply being accumulated snow/ice and then resolve the issue in the spring.
 
Adam Bond and the Plowgate Ten have certainly shown what they think of their fellow townspeople. Just another reason to realize Willy Shakespeare was correct. This whole issue has nothing to do with the streets and everything to do with the sitting BOS.
 
Twitter
Robert Dyer
‏@SwarminHornets
Notice media not questioning govt. storm response? Now the real story about Snowgate 2010 in Montgomery County: http://bit.ly/anTeXO
7:21 PM - 9 Feb 2010
 
Twitter 
SOULKHAN
‏@soulkhan
Mayor Bloomberg is a douche bag with respect to Plowgate. Yeah, I’m calling it Plowgate. #Getthissnowthefuckoutofhere
11:51 AM - 28 Dec 2010
 
Twitter
Afterseven
‏@Afterseven
NY City Workers Planned Their Slow Response to Record Snowfall As a Protest to Budget Cuts http://is.gd/jNI8C #SnowPlowGate #tcot
5:33 PM - 30 Dec 2010
 
Instapundit
JANUARY 3, 2011
SNOWPLOWGATE: “If the allegations are true, supervisors should do jail time; people died because ambulances couldn’t get through the snow. But we still don’t know that they are true. It seems as if investigations are going to happen, however, so hopefully eventually we’ll find out one way or another.”
 
RushLimbaugh.com
Plowgate: De Blasio Punishes the People
January 22, 2014
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: De Blasio, already the rich on the Upper East Side are claiming that de Blasio’s not plowing their streets to get even with them for being rich.  And de Blasio is saying no, no, no, no, it has nothing to do with the fact that I hate you—and I do—it has nothing to do with that.  It is that our snowplow GPS was tuned to CNN for the Fareed Zakaria show and missed the Upper East Side.  We didn’t get there.  It was just a GPS problem.  But it wasn’t the fact that I hate the rich, and it wasn’t that I wanted to get even with you and have you find out what it’s like to live in the outter boroughs where no snow is removed.  No, it’s just a coincidence that you are finding out how the other half lives.  My genuine resentment and envy and hatred for you on the Upper East Side has nothing to do with it, said the new mayor, Bill de Blasio.
   
American Thinker
January 22, 2014
DeBlasio’s ‘Snowgate’
Rick Moran
New New York Mayor Bill de Blasio sent a message to the city’s wealthy yesterday; things are going to be different.
 
Twitter
Dennis Barton
‏@DenBoomer1
NY upper east siders crying foul on unplowed streets. Could this turn into #BillD’Blasio #snowplowgate
10:31 PM - 22 Jan 2014 from Manhattan, NY