Please shovel your sidewalks!

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

Just a friendly reminder to folks that even though the snow has turned to rain, your sidewalks should still be shoveled! I walked from Ball Square to Porter just now and 90% of the sidewalks were a slushy mess -- a slushy mess that will turn to an icy nightmare when the temperature goes back below freezing (which might happen tonight, and will almost definitely happen tomorrow night).

I know it's no fun to shovel in the rain, because I was out there myself this morning, but please take a few minutes to make your neighborhood safer!

Comments

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

might i be the jerk who adds that the wider you can shovel, the better. I just went downtown with the stroller, and it was almost impossible to cross many streets because the shoveled section was maybe 10" wide, and I had to force the stroller through that small opening while balancing up on one wheel. Not fun, and I can imagine even less for someone who is disabled in any way.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

if only some places over here off of central would give us 10"! parking and then tottering to the store the other night, even in great snowboots, was nothing short of mildly terrifying. ugh.

and to the OP, thank you for this post. i absolutely hate when the weather turns like this every year, as i'd rather crunch over snow than crawl along like an old lady in fear knowing i'll bust my ass sooner or later on ice! dump an entire salary's worth of salt on it, i don't care but get it gone the best you know how, please!

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

Oh, if only...

It's only 4pm

[hiddenbear.livejournal.com]

The reminder is a good one, but actually no one has to have their sidewalks shoveled yet. Business have a few (2? 3?) hours from the end of the storm, and residences have 6 hours. Since the storm isn't over (and I for one am still at work), we don't technically have to have anything shoveled yet.

That being said, we shoveled at 8am this morning, and I fully intend on shoveling whatever is left when I get home. It does suck when it turns from slush to ice!

Re: It's only 4pm

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

i don't think the OP said "now" but that they should just be shoveled in general - and that once they freeze over, a lot of them won't be (has been my experience). don't expect the rain to wash it away! (not directed at you, just a general statement)

Re: It's only 4pm

[hiddenbear.livejournal.com]

Rereading it I can see that now. I was focusing on the '90%' and took that to mean that the OP felt that only 10% had done what they were supposed to.

I just got in from an hour+ of shoveling slush. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it means we won't have ice come tomorrow night.

Re: It's only 4pm

[in-water-writ.livejournal.com]

As a pedestrian, I'd like to point out that while you don't have to, it'd be much, much, much appreciated by those pedestrians who have to leave their houses in order to make a living. I'm not fond of the choice between slipping and hurting myself on a poorly/not shoveled sidewalk and walking in the street. Knowing that you did shovel this morning, I thank you, genuinely.

[findingthegirl.livejournal.com]

If only the city would ticket for unshoveled walkways like they always threaten. Several of the houses and businesses on the street around the corner from me haven't shoveled their sidewalks since it started snowing in December and the snow is now up past my waist.

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

Might be worth a call to 311?

Seriously?!

[sabio75.livejournal.com]

Seriously? You're going to advocate that someone proactively has a homeowner receive a ticket because they haven't shoveled the snow fast enough or good enough to your standards?

Wow, what is your heating bill like for that glass house ???

Re: Seriously?!

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure the suggestion was to call 311 to report "Several of the houses and businesses on the street around the corner from me haven't shoveled their sidewalks since it started snowing in December and the snow is now up past my waist</>" not that someone hasn't shoveled yet today.

Re: Seriously?!

[findingthegirl.livejournal.com]

Yeah- I wouldn't want them to get tickets if it had just been a few days, but it's been a month and that side of the street is pretty much unwalkable. Also, it's not just homeowners- there's also some sort of warehouse business on that street that hasn't shoveled. It's not that I'm pro-ticketing; I'd be happy if the city just asked them politely to shovel. Unfortunately not even that has happened.

Re: Seriously?!

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Seriously? You're going to advocate that someone proactively has a homeowner receive a ticket because they haven't shoveled the snow fast enough or good enough to your standards?

You bet your bruised buns I am, anyway.

They're not "my standards," they're community standards, civic duty, legal responsibility, and decent-human-behavior standards. And if some people require a fiscal punishment to be compelled to live up to them, then that's what they shall have.

The rest of us will get back to shoveling our sidewalks because we know it's our duty.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

last year a couple news stations went around the towns and documented the government/city buildings that were breaking the code as well. irony much?

with the ice storm coming... YakTrax or Microspikes all the way when i go out later.

#

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

I admit I do fantasize about reporting the worst offenders, but I don't know who to report it to, or if it would do any good.

[lunarcamel.livejournal.com]

Cambridge (http://www2.cambridgema.gov/theworks/services/snow/complaint.aspx)

Boston (http://cobonlineservices.cityofboston.gov/customerservice/ServiceRequestInformation.aspx?PID=I2Uicp3He1fsIHaN5paycCLxOmNbDUBlTczRrmPxqA0=)

I got nothin' on Somerville, as I don't live/work/complain there, but maybe someone here could help.

[trtls.livejournal.com]

Call 311. (from outside Somerville, it's 617-666-3311) You can at least leave a message, although you may have better luck calling during the day and talking to someone. We repeatedly called about a particular neighbor last year and this year they shovel! Be very specific about what address or block you are referring to.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

If only the city would ticket for unshoveled walkways like they always threaten.

You'd think it would be a vast, heretofore-untapped source of revenue that they'd be dying to exploit!

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

That was my thought exactly. If they staffed it like they staff parking control officers, each ticketing officer would be a revenue generator as well as (or rather, more importantly) doing something for the pedestrian public good. It wouldn't really cost anything *to* the city to enforce existing laws about snow clearing. While lack of sidewalk shoveling irks me, I go off the deep end when I see hydrants and gutters not shoveled out -- where is all the melted snow going to go other than flooding the streets? What if there's a fire?

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

We didn't shovel our sidewalk on purpose, because we didn't want the freezing rain forming a black-ice slick on bare pavement after shoveling. Our plan is to hit the stuff with ice melt and shovel later.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

I thought about this plan of attack as well, but then figured that with people walking all over the snow, it would be all valleys and gulleys and just that much harder to ice and shovel....

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

it won't be freezing tonight, so really you're just being lazy :P

[rmd.livejournal.com]

I took the opposite tack -- I went and shoveled just as it started to change from snow to clumps of snow heading towards sleet and rain. So I got the snow up before it finished turning into industrial grade heart-attack snow. The sidewalk is wet but not icy, and once things freeze, I'll throw down some sand and salt.

(This was predicated on the good fortune of my having taken today off, so I was around for the shoveling)

As for sidewalk width, considering that you're not supposed to shovel the snow into the street, we're really starting to run out of places to put it. Hopefully the warm spell we're having and the rain will provide some melt off. And hopefully the rain and melt won't team up with blocked storm drains to flood things too much. (Shovel your storm drains if you can, folks!)

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Srsly. I ended up walking from the Trum Field area to Davis this morning (because the 89 bus never showed up, JOY), and the footing was so treacherous that I slipped about 10 times and fell once. (Bonus: Guess where I fell? Over 48 Grove Street! 311 heard from me today about that.) I shudder to think how much worse it'll be for the rest of the week, and have ordered a pair of YakTrax.

[mattglet.livejournal.com]

I also let 311 know about 48 Grove today, and got a response that the Health Department has been notified, and an inspector will be out to check on it (but they didn't give a timeframe for when that would happen).

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

I got a response as well, confirming that this particular portion of sidewalk is not MBTA property and that an inspector will be sent. I'm pleased to know that they're looking into it.

[littlecitynames.livejournal.com]

The 89 was backwards at about noon. It's supposed to run hourly, and get to Davis at 12:08 and Sullivan around 12:38, but it left Davis at 12:35ish.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

just went out & shoveled about an inch of nasty slush off the side street and put down icemelt. hopefully even though it's raining, i hope the icemelt will change the equation enough so that the remaining frozen slush doesn't turn into an ice slick. :\

[kmac912.livejournal.com]

Yes, this! We're out there every night shaving out a few more inches, but we're having the same problem as the poster who said they're running out of room. Does anyone know if the city has any plans to remove the snow on the side streets? I know the loaders were out on Broadway this weekend. While I know that the loaders are expensive, I am also completely out of space. We have an 8' pile of snow in the teeny tiny front yard. Since we live on the even side of the street, we can't even make the piles on either side of the driveway cut- they get plowed back onto our sidewalks. I had planned on calling 311 to ask, but, well, I was out shoveling. :(

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

i wonder about this too - at some point with this much snow there's just no place for it to go at a certain point. entire would-be parking spaces are filled with it twice as tall as i am here (cambridgeport) and there's still PLENTY on the roads which is also just awful.

Salt vs Sand

[derekp.livejournal.com]

Many people seem confused as to when it's appropriate to salt and when it's appropriate to sand.

What we have here is PERFECT salting weather. Throw some salt down now and let the combination of the salt and warmer temperatures loosen up the ice pack created when people trampled all over your sidewalk before you shoveled yesterday. A few hours later, go out with a shovel - preferably a metal one you would use in the yard - and scrape the ice off. Easy as pie.

Save the sand for when it's bitter cold and you're not likely to loosen the ice up enough to scrape it off.