Why did Somerville fail utterly to handle thie storm properly?

[feoh.livejournal.com]

Why was the snow removal process botched so horribly that plows weren't out at all on Sunday and many side streets weren't plowed at all until last night?

The result has been a nightmare. I just spent an hour and a half riding a bus to work that usually takes 10 minutes or maybe 20 on a bad day or of it rains. Cars are forced to crawl along, traffic backs up. The entire city becomes some sort of giant constipated nightmare vision from hell with noone getting anywhere and everyone wishing they were anywhere else but trapped in the bus/car they've been in way too long.

On top of this, while many people do a good job, a startling number of people and even businesses utterly fail to shovel their sidewalks.

What's up with that? I watched an elderly lady take a nose dive into a pile of muddy snow this morning because the Kwik Mart on Highland Ave barely shoveled at all (There's a narrow trench not even big enough to solidly put your foot down, much less walk normally).

I just don't get it. This is not rocket science. We live in New England and we get snow on a regular basis. The fact that we've been spoiled the last few years by wimpy winters shouldn't cause us to forget how to deal with the weather.

Grumph. Anyway, pardon my rant but it just seems too far out of whack not to speak up.

Comments

[komos.livejournal.com]

Remember those millions of dollars that were not not given to municipalities? You can't cut budgets and expect services not to suffer.

[marm0t.livejournal.com]

Also: remember January and February? I'd bet we ran through a lot of the money earmarked for snow removal back then. Two severe winters in the same calendar (or fiscal) year: bad.

[komos.livejournal.com]

The State fiscal year runs from July to June. Not sure about Somerville's, but I'm guessing that Jan and Feb came out of last year's budget.

What's up.

[feoh.livejournal.com]

OK so that explains the lame snow removal effort. What about all the total lack of shoveled sidewalks?

I can even understand lazy homeowners or especially renters not shoveling their walks, but I'd think businesses would be concerned about the liability aspect.

Re: What's up.

[komos.livejournal.com]

Can't speak to the latter. I know that the owners and not the renters are responsible for snow removal for residential rental properties, so that may explain one piece. As far as businesses, that's just bad juju.

Re: What's up.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

My landlord has on all his apartments' leases that the tenants are responsible for snow removal...

Re: What's up.

[komos.livejournal.com]

In that case, you have entered a contract to do snow removal for him. That's perfectly legit. Where there is no lease or no provision for it in the lease, all maintenance falls to the property's owner.

Re: What's up.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I can understand if businesses didn't shovel until yesterday, since many people were unable to get to work on Monday, and no employees = no shoveling. (My school was one of the few that didn't have a snow day -- grrr! -- and a lot of other *faculty* were absent, because they lived on tiny unplowed roads or ice-covered hills or in the middle of nowhere...) But not shoveling by a reasonable hour on Tuesday is, I agree, pretty goofy.

Re: What's up.

[enmascarado.livejournal.com]

If employees can't make it, owners could still get a contractor to do snow removal. There were a few businesses that didn't do anything that were open (like every Dunkin Donuts I pass on a regular basis). The Prospect Hill School managed to clear its basketball court, but didn't touch its sidewalk. My favorite is St. Ann's Church on Medford St., which cleared the path from the door to the street, but not the sidewalk. Apparently to let you know that they're open if you want to pray, you just have to have the faith in God to cross a tightly packed highly trafficed road.

On a related note, those people who shovel from their driveway to their door but neglect the rest of their sidewalk should be severely punished.

-Dan