Dear Pedestrians...

[larsks.livejournal.com]

I have tried to keep my sidewalk clear for your comfort and safety -- and my own! But despite my best efforts, the City of Somerville has repeatedly, in the space of an hour, refilled my sidewalk with the snowplow. I tried to complain, but the city doesn't seem terribly interested. My arms are tired, my back is tired, and I give up fighting the City. They apparently don't consider pedestrian safety to be a terribly high priority.

If you have also run into this problem, I encourage you to contact the Mayor's office at mayor@ci.somerville.ma.us as well as your local alderperson. You may also want to contact the Comissioner of the Department of Public Works, Stanley Koty, but my previous experience with DPW suggests this won't help.

Comments

[sekala.livejournal.com]

Clearing a city of snow takes many many steps, none of which, except for clearing for emergency vehicles, can take place until after the snow has stopped and all of the cars have been moved out of the way. In many cities it can take over a week to get rid of the snow from the streets and the walks, but it does happen, just in steps. You have to have a place to move all of those cars etc. so that the street plows can not only remove the snow from the streets, but also get the snow from the sidewalks onto the streets again so that it can be put somewhere else whether that be mountains of snow, or merely plowed, trucked, etc. into the river. But again, none of that can happen until after the snow emergency(of which we have two this weekend, so tough luck for now) has been lifted. Until then, don't break your back trying to keep it all clear. Clear a small single file line furthest from the street side of the sidewalk. Clearing the whole thing only allows the snow to keep falling on the sidewalk rather than letting a natural drift occur. If you continuously shovel your whole sidewalk while all this stuff is still everywhere, you're just going to risk your health and make your neighbors think you have OCD.