Critics throw shade at Poloncarz for leaving NY to view the eclipse

That was the first sentence in Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz’s post Monday morning on X and Instagram. His tweet and video went on to say, essentially, that it’s too bad everyone else in Erie County got stuck with cloudy skies, but he wasn’t missing out.

“Looks like it’s going to be a good place to watch the eclipse,” he said in his video. “Unfortunately, we drove straight through clouds all the way through New York, all the way up until the Erie, Pa., so I don’t have a very good feeling for people back home.”

Criticism started rolling in. His video post about his decision to flee cloudy skies in favor of a sunnier spot at a welcome center in Ashtabula, Ohio, became his most shared post on X since mid-January, when he was announcing driving bans in Erie County due to the back-to-back lake-effect snowstorms.

Poloncarz later posted a thread on X, featuring beautiful, unobscured images of the total solar eclipse and talking about how “awe inspiring” it was to experience it.

“I wish everyone could see this once,” he said. “It was wonderful to enjoy it with others and hear the young and young at heart gasp when totality occurred.”

He also posted eclipse photos with his girlfriend on Instagram, saying, “When a once in a lifetime opportunity comes to see a total solar eclipse in your region, one must be willing to travel to see it. I had intended to view it at Chestnut Ridge Park, but when the forecast looked bleak, I called Lindsey Lauren at 11:30 a.m. and said let’s try to see it in Pennsylvania or Ohio.”

Hundreds of people responded to his X…