Somerville Snow Emergency EXTENDED -- NOT ending tonight. School cancelled through Wednesday

[ron_newman]

just got this e-mail:

Hello, this is Jackie Rossetti from the City of Somerville with important snow emergency-related information for Monday, February 11th. Due to high snow accumulations and ongoing work to clear public streets and walkways, and the forecast for more potential snow events this week, the City’s snow emergency will REMAIN IN EFFECT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. Residents may continue to park in municipal or school lots until the snow emergency is lifted.

Trash and recycling pickup schedules will continue as normal this week. DPW and contracted crews will continue to clear snow around-the-clock over the next week, including removing high snow banks that impair visibility, as well as at bus stops and crosswalks.

To ensure safety of all residents, particularly children during this time, school has been canceled through Wednesday. More information and updates will be available via the City website, Facebook page and Twitter feeds, which can be found at http://www.somervillema.gov/socialmedia. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding as we work to ensure safety and accessibility throughout the City.

Comments

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

How can there be no comment on a decision that appears to me to be "let's bail on educating kids this week, because parking is hard." =P

[samcoren.livejournal.com]

Actually a good percentage of kids walk to school around here and most of the sidewalks are still very much a disaster. Half the time I was walking in traffic on busy streets because no one cleared their corners.

Fire hydrants and curb cuts

[squirrelitude]

Ooh, that's a good reminder. Anyone out there who has finished shoveling their own property, please consider clearing the following locations as well:

• Curb cuts (especially at corners)
• Fire hydrants

Edit: Can does grammar.

Edit 2: Dammit LJ, what's with you today?

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

I know that plenty of kids walk to school -- in fact I'm the volunteer who runs Walk/Ride day at my kid's elementary school (though I admit, living a mile and a half away, we are lucky enough to also take the bus and/or our car in the winter months.) I've been out walking with my kids since this storm, and shaking my fists silently at various unshoveled sidewalks and corners (including residences, businesses who I would think *want* my pedestrian-business, and a university that shall go unnamed. (Oh wait, there's only one university in Somerville...)

But by Thursday, the snow will have been done falling for 5 days. Plenty of those uncleared corners are going to stay uncleared. The ones at major intersections might get some city attention, even to the point of gradually carting some of the snow off in bulldozers. They'll probably do a better job of cleaning up the rotary given a few extra days than they'd done when I went through it yesterday on foot with my kid (exciting times...), and they *might* lean hard enough on Tufts to get them to do the Tufts edges of the rotary sidewalks, and so on. But the minor intersections -- if they're screwed now, they're likely to stay screwed until it melts. The sidewalks on smaller streets that have not been shoveled out will probably stay unshoveled -- just because they closed school for 3 days this week, and might eventually slap some people with fines, the people who own them aren't going to spontaneously come out and shovel now if they haven't before. They've had DAYS already. "Wait till it all melts and then open the schools" is not really a good option for educating kids.

A few years ago in 2011 we had a comparable amount of snow, and a comparable amount of hosed sidewalks as far as I can remember - for weeks and weeks. That year, the city was NOT good about actually having plowed the even sides of the streets during the snow emergency period - when the snow emergency was lifted people started doing stupid parking tricks -- rather than attempt to dig out a spot in crusted-over snowbanks 4' high the just parked up next to the snowbanks, creating situations all over town where emergency vehicles couldn't fit past the even-side parked cars. (I'm sure there's a thread somewhere here about it, even.) Eventually they started coming back to streets one at a time and carting off the snow with bulldozers and dumptrucks until the even side of the streets were all safely parkable again, and there were robocalls about it, possibly a re-declaration of snow emergency, even?, and I'm sure it cost the city a bundle.

This year, they seem to be trying to get closer to the curb from the get-go, and I realize it's not easy with 2ft of snow. So I understand the desire to clear it out better before ending the snow emergency, and I understand how closing schools is a necessary consequence of keeping the snow emergency active, because of the parking situation. But the message from the School Department themselves was even vaguer than this one about why the cleanup efforts after this storm are warranting at least 5 days of cleanup before the schools can open, and I'm just not convinced it's going to get better enough with 2 more business days of effort and some warmer temperatures - so maybe we'd better start adjusting to how we get around in an ugly mess of snow, whether on foot or by bus or car, whether we're work commuters or school commuters or both...

[jimmyfergus.livejournal.com]

All true, but surely when they fine people for not clearing their sidewalks, the fine is for that day - they should get another fine the next day until it actually gets done.

I don't understand why the city is so strict on parking yet lets these offenses slide so much - along with the intimidation tactics of 'reserving your space'. The city says it'll remove reserving items as trash, but AFAIK it doesn't.

If it were me I'd communicate to the city that it won't be tolerated, and then crack down. If the law could conceivably enforced I'd like to see fines triple for those who clear their own paths & driveways but don't clear the sidewalk. There are a lot of that about.

Parking earns revenue but so would these tickets, and the danget and inconvenience for the community is much higher from these offenses.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

(By which I mean that the school is cancelled in large part because they can't open school until they lift the snow-emergency parking restrictions, because the schools parking lots and blacktops are currently occupied by cars displaced from the even-sides of the street.)

[ron_newman]

I think a better idea would be to resume school as soon as possible, and temporarily relax parking regulations during school hours within a quarter-mile radius around the school. Let people within that area park on both sides, and park right up to street corners (instead of the usual 20 feet away) between 8 am and 4 pm. Snow removal can continue at night.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

The 20-foot rule is extra important for emergency vehicle access when the road is narrowed by snowbanks.

The one-side snow emergency rule is rather ridiculous though. Cambridge and Boston manage just fine allowing parking on both sides, except on a few posted snow emergency streets.

[ron_newman]

Why not make this an entire vacation week, then cancel next week's scheduled vacation and have school then?

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Because people (including teachers and other school staff) made their February-vacation travel plans months ago and would not be able to cancel/change those on such short notice?

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

Anyone know what the rules are for non-residents / visitors' permits? Can they use parking lots? Can they park on the street if they somehow find an open space? The city website seems to be down currently, so it's kind of hard to look for information.

[maelithil.livejournal.com]

Hilariously enough, the only unshoveled sidewalk on Day Street is the city's by the parking lot.

[ron_newman]

I posted that on the City of Somerville Facebook page. Have you called it into 311?

[maelithil.livejournal.com]

I was going to when I got home tonight but I see they got to it sometime today. They left an enormous pile at the end, so pedestrians will still have to walk into the street to go around it, but it's definitely an improvement.