Old lady here

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

Ok, I feel like a fuddy duddy complaining about this, but someone in my neighborhood did not salt their sidewalk and I sprained my wrist today slipping on a sheet of ice there.  If I complain to 311 what happens?  Will the owner get fined or contacted about this?  Will it get taken care of so others do not experience the bummer morning I had?

Comments

[ron_newman]

If you complain to 311, the city may ticket the owner of the property. But I don't think the city will actually shovel the offending sidewalk.

Where did this happen, so we can all be careful when we go there?

[clara-girl.livejournal.com]

if the city shoveled the walk at the price of a ticket, no one would shovel in the first place!

[ron_newman]

Depends on the price of the ticket.

[makoshark.livejournal.com]

No. clara_girl is right. You want the city to shovel at less than the price of the ticket. Presumably, much less.

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain. I slipped a couple of months ago on a sidewalk here in West Medford. I get so angry at people who don't shovel/salt/sand. Please repost, or email me, when you find out if a call to 311 does anything.

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

It's a real problem in Medford (and I couldn't find a way to complain to medford, either). There's a couple of houses that don't shovel at all, and I've sprained an ankle TWICE this winter because of it.

[saraheeyore.livejournal.com]

In Medford, you could try emailing John Bavuso: jbavuso@medford.org. I'm not sure who he is exactly (DPW, maybe?), but he told me he's the guy who deals with that kind of thing and was quite helpful.

[guinnessfloat.livejournal.com]

311 did send a crew out once to break up a huge sheet of ice on my street. I had neighbors who let their washing machine drain onto the sidewalk/street and the ice stretched along the sidewalk between 2 houses and into the street. (they also couldn't be bothered to sand the ice, much less break it up) I called one evening after myself and 2 of my roommates had slipped and there was a crew out the next day breaking the ice with shovels.

[hiddenbear.livejournal.com]

If it is still there, they may get a $25 ticket. Unfortunately, normally when you call 311 about sidewalks not being shoveled, it gets put on the todo list of either the Health Department or Inspectional Services for the next day. By that time the ice will probably have melted and the owner won't get a ticket and won't get the message.

Try a note on their door?

[brianbeck.livejournal.com]

I shovel my ten concrete steps and the sidewalk in front of the house religiously. I salt the steps. I didn't think I had to salt the sidewalk too. Are you sure about this? Thanks.

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

I don't know who's officially responsible for sidewalk salting, but I have never seen a city employee doing it in my life, so I figure if we residents don't do it, it won't get done.

[kalliejenn2.livejournal.com]

residents are responsible.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

According to the Somerville ordinances you're required to remove the ice/snow from the sidewalk or make it even and salt or sand it.

Thanks for the feedback

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

I e-mailed 311 and got this response:

I have notified the Health Inspectors about the icey sidewalk at Josephine Ave and Broadway. They will be sending an inspector out to look at the property. If a ticket needs to be issued they will issue it to the property and then send a copy to the owner. They will continue to monitor the property and issue tickets if the owner does not comply. If you have any further questions please call 311.

Thank you,
Kimberly
Constituent Services


I'll let you know if this was successful, and maybe we can deterr other accidents in the future by being fussy neighbors.

Re: Thanks for the feedback

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, there are some very irritating stretches in Ball Square. Dear businesses: shovel your walk. Be nice if you cleared the curb cuts too. kthxbai.

Sorry about your wrist :(.

Re: Thanks for the feedback

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking about the main offenders this morning. This wouldn't happen to be the building that formerly housed Mayor Joe C's campaign and the driveway immediately adjacent? They never take care of the ice buildup, especially when it melts and refreezes!

Re: Thanks for the feedback

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

Wow, you are good!

Re: Thanks for the feedback

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

That's what all the girls say.

[ron_newman]

My 311 complaint was to the city, about their failure to shovel or salt the sidewalk on Day Street in front of the metered parking lot.

The list of shame

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

I went for a run on Sunday, and noticed that some sidewalks on College Avenue, up towards Hall and Francesca, still had not been shoveled. I know people were home. How lazy can you be? For shame!

[lilithchilde.livejournal.com]

Some of Wallace Street is pretty bad, too. I took a bit of a tumble yesterday. I'm fine, but it's annoying when people can't even shovel a few feet of sidewalk.

[countlibras.livejournal.com]

I was there the other day - isn't it weird how it's all shoveled on the even side of the street and barely shoveled on the odd side of the street?

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Which is the sunny side?

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

As you probably guessed, the even side gets the sun. But, there are a couple of people on the odd side that don't make much of an effort.

[countlibras.livejournal.com]

the even side get a little more sun, but not that much more...

(where as my house, the front faces north and get barely any sun at all)

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

The even side also gets hosed with snowplows, so it kinda evens (heh, heh) out.

[leko.livejournal.com]

I snowblow my walk, and the neighbors if they need it. A couple of times I've come out to find that someone already cleared a snow-blowers-width path in front of my house. I always thought wallace st. was pretty good about clearing the snow except for maybe 2 houses on the odd-side.

[ellf.livejournal.com]

We need a "website of shame" - someplace where we can list the address of these malcontents and let the LJ mob publicly mock them.

point is?

[winterhill.livejournal.com]

Then all the LJ folks could mock them but I bet the offenders still wouldn't get the message. My advice is to speak to (or post an anonymous letter to if you're that afraid of direct human contact) the offending neighbor before calling 311. When I lived on College Ave (for a loooooong time) our landlady contracted out the snow removal. Some years it was okay, others it wasn't. Usually a call directly to her solved the problem.

Re: point is?

[ellf.livejournal.com]

It was a joke. :p

Re: point is?

[winterhill.livejournal.com]

Oh I know. It's just that folks rant here a lot when they could actually, I don't know, DO something.

[mr-mcfeely.livejournal.com]

You could always post your grievances to RottenNeighbor.com.
It combines the Google Maps API and your angry comments to accurately identify (by address) the people you despise in your 'hood.

http://www.rottenneighbor.com/

Yes you are being a fuddy duddy

[fmmodzelewski.livejournal.com]

It sucks you fell --seriously. But why not take the initiative and get a good set of shoes for bad weather instead of complaining? Salt is bad for the environment and animals and is not a requirement--- shoveling within 24 hours is.

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

Sorry to disappoint, but I am a sensible shoes kind of girl -- and I wear stabilizers in bad weather even. You might recognize me as the person in 50 layers covered head to toe in bad weather walking to and from work -- maybe I'm too sensible? At least the layers help buffer the fall, but maybe they limit my ability to respond. I end up sort of like the state puff marshmellow man...

Will look into downsizing my wardrobe to less fuddy duddy duds.

Your right about salt though, I think it would be less of a problem if people dealt with the snow/ice when it appeared.

[dylanesque29.livejournal.com]

Nothing like slipping on ice to make you feel like part of the Social Security set, even when you're nowhere near. In the past, I've found that gently throwing a rock with a note tied to it that says SALT & SHOVEL YOUR MOTHERFUCKING DRIVEWAY, YOU HORSE'S ASS through the offender's front window communicates the breach of protocol and consideration quite clearly.

[diatomacearth.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of printing up a of labels like that. I'm getting tired of near misses, and bone bruises take a really long time to heal.

I might settle for slipping them into mailboxes. I have a bright future I don't want to be clouded with either an arrest record the possibility of being beaten up by an irate homeowner.

Re: Yes you are being a fuddy duddy

[diatomacearth.livejournal.com]

I wear good snow boots whenever there's snow and walk reeeeeeeeally carefully. Even when I walk reeeeeeeeally carefully, I sometimes slip on icy patches--it's more likely to happen if the ice is hard to see (sorry, not walking on sidewalks after the sun's set is not an option in winter) or if it's thawed just enough to be slippery. I've gotten bad bruises and generally had the shit knocked out of me because one jackass in a block couldn't be bothered to put down some salt. I'll hop out into the street when I can to avoid ice and snow on the sidewalk, but if the street's busy, that's hazardous, too, and not really fair to the drivers.

Some of the ice hazard, by the way, comes from jerks who don't even shovel the snow, let alone salt the slick ice--people walk over the snow (what the hell else are they going to do? stop on their way to work, walk home, get a shovel, and clear a stranger's sidewalk? every block for a mile?)--and it gets condensed into thick, uneven ice which is pretty tricky to navigate.

Re: Yes you are being a fuddy duddy

[ron_newman]

Wearing boots is no guarantee against slipping and falling on ice. I can speak from personal experience on this one.

[artemii.livejournal.com]

agreed. i was wearing boots when i slipped on ice and fell last month (referenced in my comment to the original post below).

[trtls.livejournal.com]

I've called 311 in the past with little luck. The city is apparently not responsible for sidewalks everywhere, or at the very least they are low priority. When I called they asked for the addresses of houses I was talking about so they could ticket the owners for not shoveling. I felt this was unfair, but really how can the city be expected to have the manpower to clear every sidewalk? So, I guess issuing a ticket would encourage the offenders to get to it sooner (or at all, or higher someone) the next go around. I think it's unlikely anything will happen if you don't complain, so please do.

East Somerville - Lombardi St

[jaschonh.livejournal.com]

I live in East Somervile and walked from Broadway under 93 on Lombardi to the Home Depot and Lombardi wasn't shovelled at all (at least the portions not protected by the expressway). It made me wonder why streets owned by the city aren't shovelled.

Re: East Somerville - Lombardi St

[ron_newman]

That one may be owned by the state - I'm not sure.

When I submit a 311 request for the city to clear the Day Street sidewalk in front of the municipal parking lot, it gets done. But I shouldn't have to request it anew after each storm.

[artemii.livejournal.com]

i wished in retrospect that i'd memorized the number of the house whose sidewalk i fell on and hurt my back last month so that i could have reported the ice. i hope nothing similar happened to anyone else.

thanks for taking the time to report this one.