[Summit] Disappointed in Poor Snow Removal

[David Kolsky]

 That was one of my greatest irritations, too: when I could reach the corner and not be able to cross the street without climbing waist or chest high snowbanks (at times true of all four corners at University and Cole) or seeking he nearest cut from someone’s driveway (sometimes very slippery).
The City’s public works department, when asked at a neighourhood meeting a few years ago, really didn’t really have a solution: they saw this as a insurmountable technological problem for snow ploughs that has yet to be solved by the brightest minds in engineering.
¶ I would be remiss (even though I haven’t lived in the Summit neighbourhood since 1958) not to give all kinds of credit to the altruism and dedication of SNA’s Snow Shovel Brigade managed every winter by Britt Page and the late Kerry Kohring.
Dave
    On Sunday, February 6, 2022, 07:22:47 PM EST, John Bazik <jbazik at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 I think my neighbors on the whole do a good job of clearing the sidewalks, though it is certainly a "weakest link" approach to something that's essential for pedestrian safety.  What really irks me, year after year, is when the plows return to clean up the expedient single lane they cleared mid-storm, and proceed to mash-in every corner, cutting off the sidewalks from the street with waist- or chest-high mountains of snow.  So after thousands of citizens, with shovels or snowblowers, join together to clear our sidewalks, a handful of plow drivers undo all that work.

John

On 2/6/22 4:52 PM, David Kolsky via Summit wrote:
> See this opinion piece from /The Boston Globe /about ploughing sidewalks:
> 
> Hey, Boston! Take this snow and shovel it. - The Boston Globe <https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/02/02/opinion/hey-boston-take-this-snow-shovel-it/>
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>    Hey, Boston! Take this snow and shovel it. - The Boston Globe
> 
> While clambering over boulders of snow to get to the store, you very well may ask: If cities clear the roads, wh...
> 
> <https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/02/02/opinion/hey-boston-take-this-snow-shovel-it/>
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> 
> As I wrote to Councillor John Gonçalves (First Ward);
> 
>    After living back in Providence for 30 years, I know that leaving sidewalk-shovelling to property-owners */just doesn’t work/* (never has, almost certainly never will), because for a pedestrian, 80% or even 90% compliance is basically no better than 0% compliance.
> 
>    And as some of the commenters to this piece say, government is often the worst scofflaw (as I know from passing Gladys Potter Park on Humboldt Avenue after a Friday night storm, when Monday is the earliest anyone — except a very occasional and very civic-minded neighbour — will come to clear that winding and uneven path.)
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> On Sunday, February 6, 2022, 04:39:56 PM EST, Art Norwalk <art at norwalkcom.com> wrote:
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> 
> Not a total solution, but I bet it would help if the city started towing cars that violate the ban.
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> -- Art
> 
> On Sun, Feb 6, 2022 at 4:15 PM Christopher Buecheler <cwbuecheler at gmail.com <mailto:cwbuecheler at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>    I assume one aspect of it is that Providence generally doesn't get that much snow each year, nor does it usually happen so quickly (in the eleven years I've lived here, I've seen that much snow in one day I think twice). As a result, it may not make much financial sense for the city to maintain a large fleet of full-sized plows ... many of which wouldn't even fit down our ridiculously small streets if a single person ignored the parking ban. The city's snow removal plan appears to be "hire some dudes with plows on their pickups" which is fairly effective when you're getting two inches, but much less so when you're getting two feet.
> 
>    None of this is an excuse. I grew up in Upstate New York and am equally flabbergasted by how poorly this city handles snow/ice storms. Private businesses and many households don't handle it much better. Special shout-out to Bank of America, who every single time there's a storm has their plow service just pile six feet of snow up on the sidewalk, requiring people to wander into the street for days to get around the blockage.
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>    -Chris
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>    -- 
>    Christopher Buecheler - @cwbuecheler <https://twitter.com/cwbuecheler>
>    http://cwbuecheler.com <http://cwbuecheler.com> | Web, Writing, and More
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