Boston just got pummeled with the 5th largest snowfall in one storm in recorded history with 24.9 inches recorded in Logan Airport and reports ranging from 18 inches to 30 inches in various parts of Massachusetts.
The response this year was interesting to say the least and has brought forward a few thoughts. Before I begin with these contemplations, let me just say that I think the City of Somerville did a fine job with moving the snow and definitely did its part to raise awareness and keep everybody informed as to what was going on (this morning, there was a post on Facebook and less than half an hour later a reverse 311 call out to residents to let us all know that the parking ban would remain in effect through tomorrow and when we'd need to get our cars out of the municipal lots so that work could be done on those lots). A good job indeed. A day later, I feel that I would have no trouble driving the streets of Somerville safely and I salute the efforts made by all those who have worked the long hours to get us to this point.
That being said, a statement made before the worst of it on Friday keeps ringing in my ears: "we will be plowing to the curb." The reason for this statement is obvious. Two years ago, we had a series of storms that left us just as pummeled as we are now, less tired because it was more gradual, but just as unable to get the snow out of the way. My yard was just as full then as it is now, making it difficult to catapult the snow over the embankments and into the center where it might not fall back down onto the sidewalk. Two years ago, emergency vehicles were unable to reach a poor soul in need and we found ourselves with a fatality due to the limitations of streets imposed by encroachments of the snow banks. Plowing to the curb was music to my ears on Friday, for it meant that, while there would be some narrowing of streets, they wouldn't be multiple feet narrower but rather maybe a foot narrower, allowing for emergency vehicles to, for the most part, get where they need to go, and for cars to pass each other on most streets. Friday night would have been the time to enforce this plan, but as I shoveled my walk, I saw plows coming through with the usual plan of just clearing a path for cars, not plowing to the curb. The plan, if it were to be followed through on, should have been to start plowing to the curb with the first plow-runs.
Again, I feel the city has done a fine job, but perception is perception and does not necessarily take into account the intellectual knowledge that the city had a herculean task in front of it and did the best they could. The city sent out a notice this morning that did not help its case much. The notice on Facebook included "2. PLOWING: If your street has not been plowed, please report it to 311. If you street was not plowed exactly to the even-side curb or if some snow was plowed onto the sidewalk, please understand that this was an extraordinary amount of snow. It may be this was the only option on your street. If you remain concerned, please report the issue to 311." So... let me get this straight, people complained that the street was not plowed exactly to the even-side curb and others complained that the snow was plowed onto the sidewalk? First, again, perception weighs heavily and I'm sure there are some that would be upset about each option. That being said, the statement on Friday was that we would be plowing to the curb, which forces the snow to be plowed onto the sidewalk. It's a simple boolean since we don't have the facilities to simply remove the snow as it falls, we move it to the side, which is how you come to "side walk" because it's the "walk" on the "side" of the road. To make it painfully clear, if you're going to plow to the edge of the street to remove the snow from the street, you're going to be putting that snow off the edge and onto whatever is next to the street. I understand that the city needs to try to send a message of apology to each side, and there's certainly no easy answer to the complaints and what they came out with is admirable, but it leaves some room for improvement. If this wasn't going to be an extraordinary amount of snow, would we really have tried to plow to the curb?
But enough about the city. As frustrated I am by the messaging, I do feel they did a good job and have done a fantastic job keeping the residents aware of the ongoing work and the emergency status.
On to the public.... oh the public. I admit, I didn't shovel the sidewalk at our driveway on Friday night, but I shoveled to the other edge of my property and shoveled out to the street since I wasn't going to shovel the entire block out. Saturday, we shoveled this path again since another foot and a half had fallen, and this time also shoveled to meet up with our neighbor's efforts near our driveway. In the morning, as I was shoveling, I saw some neighbors shoveling into the street on the other side, where the plows would push the snow directly into a driveway. I don't blame these neighbors, they have no yard to shovel into and thus, with the 3 foot high snow piles around them, had no decent place to put the snow, but all the same, I don't imagine they were thinking of our cross-street neighbors as they went out clearing out their own driveway. I went for a walk through our neighborhood later in the day around 4 and found that some of our neighbors hadn't shoveled, and some had only shoveled their driveway out (though not the sidewalk in front of the house) and had decided to shovel onto the sidewalk in front of their neighbor's property, creating a wall in the middle of the sidewalk, not on the side of the walk either near the fence or the street, but all along the side walk, creating a further 6 inches of snow. I can only begin to express my frustration with each of these scenarios.
First of all, it is our civic duty to clear our sidewalks, to make them passable so that people don't have to walk in the narrowed streets. The streets aren't just narrowed, but they're also treacherous to walk on by the sides, slippery with slush, ice, and snow. It's the least we can do to make sure our sidewalks are passable by the able-bodied (I'm not going to even get into how oppressed the handicapped are in these times, I have no solutions for this scenario for them and I would hate to be in their shoes even more now than in other, less hostile times of the year).
Second, we should encourage people who are building new structures to take snow storms into account. My house has a front yard, which is fantastic for putting snow in, though it's a good bit higher than the sidewalk so I have to lift the snow a bit when throwing it in. I never have to throw snow onto the street, which just increases the snow being pushed to the sides of the streets, blocking us all in again. Not everyone is as fortunate as I am, but everyone should be and everyone could be. If we just built our houses 5 feet in from the sidewalk, or, where we want to have porches, place the porches 5 feet in from the sidewalk, then we would have the opportunity to have small front yards which would serve the function of a place to put the snow as well as, in warmer times, the potential for a prettier landscape.
Third, we should be mindful of our actions and their effects on those around us. When we shovel, we should avoid just shoveling to a place which would be hurtful to others, whether that be the street just beside our neighbor's driveway, or into our neighbor's sidewalk.
I certainly don't have all the answers, or even most of the answers, but it seems that civility is a good starting point. Let me know any solutions you have, I'll be interested to read them.
