davis_square | Shoveling sidewalks

As you might gather from that discussion, I have pretty strong feelings about this. I think that if you want to have a walkable city--it has to be walkable in all 4 seasons. If you want people to give up their cars, they have to be able to get their groceries home without hurdling huge banks of snow. On Thursday I had to stand 3 feet into Broadway at the bus stop for the 89 at the top of Winter Hill because there's no house there--no one is responsible for that.

And I'm currently able to hurdle snowbanks--but someday I might not be. There are plenty of people less able to do so, and they should not be at the whim of a property owner who doesn't (or sometimes can't) shovel.

If you want kids to walk to school, they shouldn't have to do so in the streets here. You want to have seniors who no longer drive to be able to get to stores and services, we have to get better at this.

This issue affects the most vulnerable disproportionately. And I think it's a public safety issue that deserves tax dollars.

I lived in Rochester NY for grad school 20 years ago, and they had sidewalk plowing. So other cities manage it. Sidewalk Snow Removal (http://www.cityofrochester.gov/article.aspx?id=8589936460).

Adding "religion" tag, since this appears to be about the church at Morrison and College Aves.

Is anyone here a member of that church?

Edited 2014-02-08 16:41 (UTC)

If the city intends to stay on the intended model of property owners are responsible and they get fines if they don't do it, then they have to change the enforcement model.

Right now Inspectional Services are in charge of sidewalk complaints. They have TWO inspectors, who are also in charge of every other thing in the City that has to be inspected. On the other hand, Traffic and Parking has how many PCOs (Parking Control Officers) who are out there ANYWAY, who could be given the ability to write two different kinds of tickets, one for parking, and one for sidewalks. This would require additional training for the PCOs, and might make them cover a little less territory in a beat, so they might need a few more, but they would still be cheaper and easier to do than new Inspectors.

Last time a friend of mine suggested this to the City, though, she got back "Oh, but we can't do that, because I.S. does sidewalks." it's like they're stuck in that mode and can't consider changing it.

I found more discussion on this that includes some good advice about utilizing the City's social media sites to log concerns: http://bit.ly/1g7a7Lh

Edited 2014-02-08 17:40 (UTC)

Am I correct that _nobody_ has spoken to the members or staff of the church about this beyond a snarky sign? At least, nobody who's on DSLJ/Reddit and bothered by it?

I found this: http://www.somervillema.gov/snow
Apparently homeowners are responsible, and get fined for not removing snow from sidewalks.
I don't see how a church would be exempt from the fines. Someone owns the land the church is on. I don't care if it's a person, a corporation, or a religious organization. That owner should be fined per the law.
What is interesting is that where I grew up churches had more than their share of willing volunteers within their church community to ensure that shovelling (and other building maintenance chores) were done. Why doesn't this church find people in their own parish/whatever to shovel?

What a mess. :D

It would at least make sense for the city to have the little bobcat sidewalk plows/shover/blowers for the major streets like college ave. Most cities that get snow do this in their business districts.

Just ask them to ask God to shovel the snow for them.

It's true that that church does a really crappy job. The most annoying thing is that they shovel the part that is important to them (a path to their doors) very well. They also do a really good job in front of their new, shiny building that they use most. It's really pretty obnoxious. The message they're sending is that they don't give a shit about anyone but themselves.

The UCC has also been doing a lousy job. Again, the path to their door is nice and clean, but the rest of it is packed down and really slippery.

Some patches of sidewalk on Packard Ave, between Broadway and Powder House Blvd, are treacherous, uneven sheets of solid ice.

(Note: I actually live in Quincy, not Davis.)

I agree with you that it seems really really dumb that municipalities don’t plow sidewalks any more. (It used to be entirely standard; I don’t know when that shifted.) I do my best to shovel when there’s a storm, but I’m often away from home several days in a row, and then if my neighbours shovel the sidewalks are still impassible because of my house. And in fact my immediate neighbor shovels, but the houses on either side of us almost never do, so when we shovel, it doesn’t actually help; pedestrians need to walk in the street anyway. It would make much, much more sense for the city to shovel, and guarantee that the sidewalks are passable even if not every single household and business between where I am and where I want to get to manages to shovel.

If they wanted to leave the present system mostly in place, they could give property owners a day or two after a storm to shovel, and then go through and shovel wherever a property owner hadn’t and charge the property owner with an additional fee on their property taxes.

(Towns that theoretically can fine property owners for not shovelling, but that never clear sidewalks in front of municipal property like parks, particularly bug me. I’m looking at you, Malden!)

Edited 2014-02-09 17:40 (UTC)

I'm so glad to see this discussion. So often I feel like pedestrians are completely ignored after a snowstorm. Walking in the narrow streets around here is just too dangerous, yet the sidewalks are often impassable. I agree with the OP - if Somerville wants to be considered a walkable city, then it has to be walkable year-round, and they need to take responsibility for clearing the sidewalks. If other cities do it, why can't we? And while we're at it, let's remember that this problem isn't limited to Somerville. I'd love to see ALL cities and towns doing this.

The city does plow sidewalks. Not all the sidewalks of course but a fair amount of them particularly in the squares or main roads.

They do, in my opinion a decent job of plowing and clearing sidewalks near city owned property.

The equipment used to clear sidewalks is very specialized and very expensive. A typical sidewalk plow costs between 40-70k and it's almost useless for anything other than clearing sidewalks. At least trucks can be used for other purposes when its not snowing.

Sidewalks are the responsibility of the property owner that abuts them. Always has been this way as far back as I can remember. Yes the city does plow the sidewalks in front of many homes and businesses on the main streets so I guess you could say they do selectively plow sidewalks for private citizens and businesses.

The city or the MBTA is doing an excellent job of clearing the snow from bus stops this winter. Whomever is paying for this is doing so at great expense. This last storm I have seen no less than three contractors with a large amount of equipment removing snow from the stops and trucking it away. A big problem with this seems to be that the city is running out of space to put the removed snow so I don't know what they will do if it continues to pile up.

My one major complaint with the snow removal this year and in recent years has been the amount of salt used is really extraordinarily excessive. Last month Broadway from the Arlington line all the way to winterhill was a giant salt mine. There was an inch or more of salt on the ground particularly at the rotary at Powderhouse square. So much so that my eyes and throat became itchy just from driving down the street after the cars in front of me kicked it into the air. That's a really big waste of money and a health concern.

Just wanted to link to this piece for future reference. It's not just here, of course.

http://streetsblog.net/2014/02/19/why-clearing-sidewalks-isnt-a-priority-like-plowing-streets/

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