The city of Somerville is hanging oversized neon yellow placards on doors of houses where sidewalks have not been shoveled in accordance to the city’s snow-removal ordinance, according to this article by Boston Globe (and former Newton TAB) reporter Steve Annear. Apparently, Somerville aldermen believe that a “Scarlet Letter” approach, in addition to a $50 fine for a first offense and up to a $200 fine, will help encourage people to shovel their sidewalks.
It’ll be interesting to see if anyone cares. Or if they’ll have any way to measure its effectiveness.
It still amazes me that people expect other people to walk in the street, because they don’t want to shovel (or pay someone to shovel) the sidewalks. The streets are narrow (even side streets) and people do walk on the sidewalks.
The part that makes me upset, is that on my corner, we have been vigilant about shoveling the sidewalks (my kids use them to get to the bus, as do other neighbors to get to the train station) on our side street. The city dumped a pile of snow on my corner, and now I have two sidewalks that lead to no where, and my kids have to walk in the street to get to the bus stop. 🙁 I can’t even have a snowblower get through it because a home snowblower will not be able to eat through those large chunks (and now they are frozen).
Call the city’s 311 line. (Or 796-1000 on a cell). Dumping on corners is not allowed and the city can fine the plow operator who does it. (And make them remove the pile)
Gail, in response to your wondering, “…if they’ll have any way to measure its effectiveness,” please note that Somerville, with its Somerstat program, is a leader among municipalities for performance measurement. I don’t know if they’ll use it for this particular project, but Somerville certainly has things in place to measure the effectiveness of initiatives like this. From Somerville’s FY14 budget:
On WBUR this morning they described the daily bus trip of a young mother in the Boston area trying to hold down a food service job at MIT. The end of her trip involved a walk up a steep hill with her three year old from the bus stop to the shelter they slept at. Anyone who cares about the rich/poor gap should care about cleared sidewalks. Many people rely on sidewalks as part of their daily transportation.
What Bruce said. Unlike Somerville (Somerville?!?), Newton took the opposite approach, which is to shame people with little orange door hangers but not impose a fine. In fact, at the same time it stepped up the “Scarlett Letter” (actually none yellow placard) campaign, Somerville recently doubled its fines to improve compliance. Of course, we could double our fines in Newton, too, but they would still be zero. We could also double the number of people working on enforcement, which would bring us to two (although Ald. Norton, to her credit, has also volunteered to hang placards on people’s doors in Ward 2).
The City probably also deserves an orange door hanger on City Hall. The aldermen have been deluged with complaints about unplowed sidewalks on city property, public transit stops and platforms that are totally inaccessible due to snow, corners blocked by piles of snow left there by private contractors clearing snow for the city and as well as for residents. Nevertheless, while one can certainly find fault with the City’s preparedness, 40 inches of snow over a period of a week (with more on the way) is more or less unprecedented.
As difficult as it has been, all of the good folks who have been working around the clock for the past week or so trying to clean up all the snow deserve our gratitude. And more sidewalk plows. They definitely need and deserve more sidewalk plows.
*neon” yellow
I’m pretty sure we are all sick of snow, and sick of threads about snow shoveling. So I’m not going to dig too deep into the arrogance of local office holders who think shaming their constituents is good public policy. What should be crystal clear to everyone by now, is that people will be walking in the streets of Newton after every snowstorm, until elected officials live up to their responsibility and properly fund sidewalk snow clearing.
I believe property owners should clear public walking areas (paved and unpaved) abutting their property with the exception of city nature trails and similar scenarios.
That said, I would propose that no city citations, fees, penalties, warnings, etc. are issued to property owners by the city until the city has completed its responsibilities relative to clearing streets, parking lots and walkways under their responsibility. If the city can not comply with the ordinance, then it should not be used to collect revenue from the citizens. I agree with Alderman’s recommendation about the door hanger on city hall.
Then there are those of us who are physically incapable of shoveling, do our civic duty by paying someone to shovel for us, then have that undone by neighbors. I certainly can’t afford to pay my guys to come back and shovel 3 more feet of snow because my neighbor’s guy undid their hard work.
So who’s willing to divert funds from other parts of the budget to purchase more snow removal equipment? What items would you cut from the budget in order to purchase this equipment? The other option is to pass an override to purchase more equipment. Any Aldermen up for campaigning for that? Or constituents willing to pay higher taxes for more snow equipment?
Do the Alderfolks think Newton should be immune to the inconveniences (and much worse) that literally millions of people in the Northeast are experiencing? If they can’t figure out how to explain to their constituents why snow removal has been so difficult during these two storms, they’ve either stayed too long at the party and need to move on or didn’t grow up in New England.
During the last storm, we spoke to a snow plower who’d worked 24 straight hours out in the cold. He was tired, but planned to continue. No complaints. Very nice, salt of the earth kind of guy. Says it all to me. People are working hard to get the snow removed, the trash picked up, and the mail delivered under the most trying set of circumstances – circumstances I seriously doubt many people on this blog have ever had to experience in their workplace.
As for the snow ordinance, this is such an unusual amount of snow, I can’t imagine anyone is expecting enforcement. Even “younger” seniors are struggling to dig out of this one, so I’m sure it’s an impossible task for anyone with a disability or illness, or older seniors. The ordinance wasn’t meant for situations like this. Its intent was to get able bodied people who never shovel their sidewalks to do so, with a special focus on those who hire people to plow their own walkways and driveways but don’t have the public sidewalk in front of their homes plowed.
Instead of diverting funds, how about Newton consistently charges market rates for parking in business districts and city parking lots and then buys a couple of sidewalk tractors with heated cabins and rotary brooms for light to medium snow (plus plows for heavy snow) like these http://ventrac.com/advantages/snow/#tab_Photo
A heated cabin and comfortable ride are important if we want workers to be out for hours clearing sidewalks. Currently, I believe, our street plow drivers do the City sidewalks after they clear the road. Which means, they go from a nice heated truck to an exposed bobcat (after working for hours in a storm).
I’ve seen these Ventrac Snowclearing trucks working in Boston and Wellesley. They seem to do a great job clearing the sidewalk, especially with the rotary broom.
Lucia, I just watched on of the Ventracs working the sidewalks in Wellesley on my way to the office. It is truly amazing how fast and effective they are compared to the Bobcats and Bombardiers. I understand Newton needs to replace some of its equipment and I think that we should definitely look into these.
Jane, you’re just being cranky. It is no laughing matter for people who are trying to get to the T who have to go to work and cannot drive when for over a week the sidewalks leading to the bus stops and train platforms have not been clear. Nor is it an “inconvenience” to disabled people or people (including seniors) with mobility impairments who are unable to do the simplest things like walk to the store or to the mailbox. Under the ADA, the city must fulfill its maintenance obligations to ensure “reasonable removal of snow, ice and debris” from public sidewalks to keep them accessible. If we need more and better sidewalk plows to do it, then we should get them.
The problems with the T in particular this winter have highlighted the deplorably poor condition of our public transportation system. We oughta fix that too.
BTW, “Juno” (whose idea was it to name winter storms now, anyway?) cost the City at least $2 million for snow removal. I have no idea what this week’s storm and this coming weekend’s storm are going to cost. Wouldn’t it make sense to invest in some really good equipment which might actually be more cost effective too? The city bought a Dragon to melt snow (not a real one, the fossil fuel kind that adds to global warming, which in turn contributes to stronger storms) for something like a quarter million dollars because we have no place to store snow. Why not get decent sidewalk plows so the sidewalks and T stops will be accessible?
THM – How much does the city bring in from Parking fees on a yearly basis?
Joanne, $1.7 million in FY14. I would have to check with David Wilkinson to know whether they can be spent on snow removal equipment.
And a tragic reminder of the safety importance of clearing snow around hydrants:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/02/06/revere-fire-crews-battle-alarm-blaze/v2Ygqcn9nmpVBnlPYI6oHK/story.html
Thanks THM
No, Ted, I’m not being “cranky”. Please reread my post. In very clear terms, I’m suggesting that an aldermen with an ounce of common sense should be able to explain why the snow removal from these storms has been so difficult. I said that millions of people in the entire Northeast have been inconvenienced “and worse” by these storms, and stated clearly that an event such as this is a terrible ordeal for disabled and elderly people.
As for the able bodied people in every city and town in eastern Massachusetts – the reality is that we’re going to have to factor in extra time to get to just about anywhere for a while. Yesterday I had a 3:30 appointment at an office that’s normally a 10 minute drive away, and I set aside 30 minutes to arrive on time and used every minute of it. It’s called common sense.
However, I’m also concerned about the people providing the services to get life back to normal, but that doesn’t seem to be much of an issue for you. IMO, the stress of the hours they’re working and the unbearable conditions under which they’re working should be a concern for every resident.
I have no objections to raising fees to purchase the nifty sidewalk cleaners that Wellesley has. However, I don’t know the cost of these cleaners and have no idea what increases in fees would be necessary to purchase them, and realistically Newton would need more than a few to make a dent in our plowing needsWR9H. I do know that Wellesley has had multiple overrides to maintain its high level of town services and infrastructure.
Jane – What about able bodied people without a car? On a short drive I passed at least 10 people walking in the street today, several of them kids too young to drive. Yesterday I had to slow down for an able bodied women carrying groceries in the middle of Centre St midday (in front of the Greek Dance studio’s unshovelled sidewalk). I’m guessing she was walking and carrying her groceries because she didn’t have a car.
Sidewalks are as important to our transportation network as roads for cars. I agree with Mike Striar – sidewalks in business districts and by busy roads (like Route 9) should be treated like roads and cleared by the government.
Jane, go back and read my post. I said the people who have been working around the clock to clear snow deserve our gratitude, as well as the equipment they need and deserve to do their jobs. And I also listen attentively to residents who complain that they cannot get to the train or the bus because of the snow, and about snow piles dumped on sidewalk ramps, walkways, etc., and I empathize with their concerns. My own daughter stood in the street waiting for a bus because the sidewalk was not plowed and spent 2 hours on an “express” bus for 2 hours that made her late to work earlier this week, and it took her two hours to get home on the Green Line too because of outdated, poorly maintained trolleys.
You may still find plenty to nitpick in my post above, but you might want to get down off that high horse of yours and see things from the perspective of other residents who have legitimate gripes too. I do.
I’m shocked to hear that dumping on corners is not allowed. The two corner lots on my street have snow piles that reach up to the second floor of the houses and obviously negate the sidewalk. If I call the city, that will be reomved?
Lucia – I think Mike Striar meant that ALL the streets should be cleaned by the City this is what he said – “What should be crystal clear to everyone by now, is that people will be walking in the streets of Newton after every snowstorm, until elected officials live up to their responsibility and properly fund sidewalk snow clearing.”
Ted-Your daughter is in the same boat as the entire Northeast. Everyone feels badly for those who have had a very difficult time with these storms, as well as those who have been inconvenienced as your daughter has been (which is virtually everyone). That doesn’t change the fact – and it is a fact – that we’re going to be in this mess for a significant period of time. I’m all for buying those great sidewalk cleaners you think we should purchase, but I still want to know where you suggest we get the funding for them? The $1.7m goes somewhere now, so we lose that “somewhere” service/program/etc. if we divert those funds to sidewalk removal equipment. Can you identify specific cuts in the budget we should make in order to free up the funding for them? The specific fees we should implement? Because very frankly, I don’t think offering unrealistic solutions we can’t afford is being empathetic.
I’m completely with you on the MBTA issue. A major upgrade has been in order for decades, and if anything good comes from this mess, it may very well be that we finally address the aging public transportation system. Lucia – during a snow emergency (and in my book, we’re still in that period whether it’s official or not), I don’t see any solution other than drivers sharing the road with bikers and pedestrians. I was also in a line of traffic that slowed for pedestrians with whom we knew we had to share the road.
Listen, this hasn’t been easy on my family either. My husband is 68, the snow blower broke, the kids are gone, I was incapacitated and now he is. For the first time, the public walk in front of our house isn’t adequately shoveled. We’re doing the best we can and I think most people are as well. I just don’t get why everyone expects things to be back to normal 24 hours after getting 40 inches of snow in 7 days, with 12 more inches predicted in the next few days.
I agree with Lucia agreeing with the alternate reading of what Mike Striar said (I know what he meant) If/when the city can effectively run plowing operations for the subset of roads it does now, we can talk about expanding the program.
Jane, we just had an override, and part of the pitch was an increased investment in pedestrian safety. I voted for the override. I would resent being asked to fund the same item twice.
While this has been an unprecedented amount of snow, I hope the takeaway isn’t that we shouldn’t expect anything like this for awhile. Rather, this is the new normal and we need to be prepared – with $, with equipment, whatever – to be able to handle this much snow on a regular basis.
According to this National Geographic article, “TV meteorologists may be calling it Winter Storm Juno, but climate scientists have a different name for the “once-in-a-century” blizzard that’s expected to blanket the U.S. East Coast from New Jersey to Maine starting on Monday. They call it completely predictable… The Northeast is the big winner in the “extreme precipitation” sweepstakes dealt out by global warming, with the region seeing the biggest uptick in the severity of the most severe blizzards or rainstorms across the United States.”
@Emily – The link doesn’t work.