Somerville Snow Emergency Declared, Saturday 2/16 at 7:30pm (lifted 2/17 at 3pm)

[tober.livejournal.com]

EDIT: The snow emergency has been lifted as of 3pm on Sunday 2/17

According to http://www.somervillema.gov/snow :

With many streets still narrowed by remaining snow banks, and with revised snowfall predictions of from four to eight inches overnight and tomorrow, the City will be declaring a snow emergency, effective 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 16th.


During snow emergencies, parking is allowed on the odd-numbered side of the street only (unless otherwise posted). Cars not moved from the even-numbered side of the street by 11:30 p.m. on Saturday evening may be subject to ticketing and towing.


Residents unable to find a parking space on the odd-numbered side of the street may park in any municipal lot or in designated school parking lots.

Updated information can always be found on this page and in the following locations:

www.facebook.com/SomervilleCity
www.facebook.com/311Somerville
Twitter: @SomervilleCity www.twitter.com/SomervilleCity
Twitter: @311Somerville www.twitter.com/311Somerville

Comments

[samcoren.livejournal.com]

Tom Champion is the new Mr. Saturday Night.

[tober.livejournal.com]

Heh!

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

And if you really want something to do tonight, pop some popcorn and go read the comments on the CIty of Somerville Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/SomervilleCity)...sheeesh.

[teko.livejournal.com]

People loooooove to whine pointlessly.

[littlecitynames.livejournal.com]

Ugh. I get people being annoyed about their streets not being fully cleared and having trouble finding parking. But I don't understand why people seem to forget that plows are driven by contractors who literally work around the clock during bad storms (the FB page says they've been doing something like 18-24 hour shifts), or that the city has to prioritize what needs to be done. The rain and melting and re-freezing also made the snow much heavier and harder for plows to move.

[lomagna.livejournal.com]

Somerville's strategy with responding to complaints is reminding me of the Applebee's disaster. Arguing about the weather forecast for over a hundred comments...

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'll bite. How is the City's response to complaints about its handling of snow removal during the past week or about its declaration of the current snow emergency similar to Applebee's handling of the incident in which an employee was fired after going public with a pastor's refusal to leave a tip?

[lomagna.livejournal.com]

As I already mentioned, the strategy of arguing with people through an endless series of comments on a status update = ur doin it wrong.

[teko.livejournal.com]

The city was explaining to angry citizens what its policies around snow emergencies and its efforts towards plowing and snow removal are. They kept a very even and constructive tone and helped people understand why they had to do this, as frustrating as it was for people.

Applebee's, on the other hand, made a fool of themselves by angrily spouting lies at 4am on Facebook.

The two things have nothing to do with each other.

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

I concur -- and couldn't have put it better myself.

And, in any event, the emergency is now lifted:

Here's the official message from, uh, me:

Based on current and forecast conditions, the City is lifting its emergency declaration effective 3 p.m. on Sunday, February 17th.
Due to high compliance with emergency regulations, the City has been able to avoid towing for snow violations – and, due to the Presidents’ Day holiday, cars currently parked in city and school lots may remain there until no later than 8 a.m., Tuesday, February 19th. All other parking regulations will go into effect as of midnight on Monday.
We appreciate your patience and cooperation during this fast-evolving storm, which has followed so closely on a record-setting blizzard. For additional information, please call the City's 311 constituent service line. Thank you – and Happy Presidents’ Day.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Walking to Ball Square for brunch, we saw many cars parked on the even side of Willow but didn't notice a single ticket. Hard to believe T&P was so nice about it all.

Still accepting bets on when we'll get the even side of our street back.. ;)

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Still accepting bets on when we'll get the even side of our street back.. ;)

What's the over/under?

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

It's gonna take a while, I'm sorry to say. The problem has been the sheer volume of snow: If we'd tried to achieve a true "plow to the curb" after last week's blizzard, the snow would have been piled onto the sidewalk in fairly deep mounds. (See photo below.) And now that the snow has been sitting for a week, and has thawed and refrozen, trying to "shave it down" can do serious damage to the plow blades and hitches.

The only alternative is to use front-end loaders to put the snow in dump trucks and haul it away, which is both time-consuming and expensive. (The City has nonetheless been using this method, but only on the highest priority locations.)

Snow dragons (portable melters) are costly to buy and even more expensive to operate.

This is just a tough winter, and we all have to roll with its punches as best we can.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

Tom, are you working for the city again? The last many messages weren't from you, and then this one is.

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

February 28th is my last day. I hadn't gotten a chance to make a snow call during the entire winter of 2011-12, so I thought I'd wanted to weigh in for the blizzard and for this one. Besides, Jackie has done the work of ten for the past few months and desperately needed -- and deserved -- a weekend off.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Animated gif. You win.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

To be fair: Newton and Cambridge are both larger cities than Somerville (in both population and square mileage) and they had their roads and sidewalks looking really good-to-great within a few days. Newton in particular was almost bare of snow. Obviously patience is needed, but some cities did a really poor job with this storm and seem to cling to its size as an excuse (it's certainly acceptable for them to need a couple extra days, but that's not the case).

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

On what do you base this claim? My observation has been that Cambridge does a terrible job of snow removal, much worse than Somerville, on both major and minor roads.

[crschmidt.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Cambridge's streets and sidewalks are shit. It took until the Wednesday after the blizzard before the sidewalk next to a park along Magazine (a snow route, no less!) was 'cleared', and even that was a somewhat crap job. Streets are generally still missing about half of their parking spots, even on corners and other areas where a plow or other tools could get them out.

Cambridge always does a terrible job of snow removal.

[courtney o'keefe (from livejournal.com)]

What Cambridge does have, that Somerville doesn't, is a snow melter. Somerville puts snow in designated spots around the city (under the 93 overpass, Assembly Square...etc). Imagine if we had the Cambridge technology, but with Somerville's sensibility of good snow removal?