Was surprised that I had to go to 4 sand/salt barrels to fill 2 buckets because they were all nearly empty.
Mark Dionne
on January 26, 2015 at 6:34 pm
I took a 3 mile walk today around Newton Center. I’d say 3/4 of the homes made some attempt to shovel the recent 4 inches of snow but there were many icy spots. Only in one or two places had people put down salt on the icy spots.
The worst area was Beacon street between Centre Street and Walnut Street, and this is a place where it an be dangerous to walk in the street to get around the icy spots.
One notable place was the city’s Crystal Lake swim area. The unused parking lot was clean as a whistle while the sidewalk was snowy and icy and apparently untouched.
Lo, and there were drifts as high as a mountain, and we were forced to consume our wooly mammoths for sustenance. Time to journey to the southern warmths below Route 9.
Jerry Reilly
on January 26, 2015 at 9:56 pm
Come on down Bill. Over on this side of Route 9, it’s 85 degrees and tomorrow’s going to be a beautiful day. School’s been canceled for some reason, so we’re going to the beach in the morning.
@Jerry: Kind of cloudy for beach. Might be better to stay home and put the tomatoes in the ground.
Marti
on January 27, 2015 at 9:43 am
Someone just went by on snowshoes. Wasn’t someone talking about those yesterday?
Surely does look like fun. Just kinda walked on by, no fuss.
Are cross country skis part of the ban?
Doug C
on January 27, 2015 at 12:27 pm
The streets were still bad when I went on my noon showshoe hike. The main roads are plowed but snowy. 1/3 of the streets are unpassable in a car, 1/3 passable with 4WD and the rest are drivable. I had to help push a plowing supervisor who got stuck in the snow. Even if your road is drivable, you have a 50% chance that the upcoming intersection is plowed in your direction.
Marti, That might have been me you saw on snowshoes- if you are in Newton Corner. I took a little stroll (Charlesbank/Russell/Nonantum Rd/Maple/Jefferson) around 9 am.
Marti
on January 27, 2015 at 1:46 pm
Doug, too funny. I was in the vicinity. I had walked (trudged) up Charlesbank from Nonantum, rounding the bend by Russell around that time or close. Found myself envisioning a Starbucks mirage not much later but it was a closed Buff’s Pub and Max and Leo’s.
Adam
on January 27, 2015 at 5:48 pm
Just took a walk in my neighborhood. Most sidewalks are clear, courtesy of the residents (and especially the work of Mark D.) I worry that the sidewalk condition will be far worse once the city sidewalk plows come through.
Kim
on January 27, 2015 at 6:10 pm
Where is that snow melter? I’d like to see it at work.
BOB BURKE
on January 27, 2015 at 7:53 pm
@Jerry. A day before the smaller storm hit last week, I went to my garden and found that two green shoots had popped through the bed where I planted 20 snowdrops last autumn. And one of the winter kale cabbage flowers I planted last fall was still hanging on. Last year was the first time I tried my hand at planting a flower garden and my goal was to diversity for I’d have something going at least 10 or 11 months out of the year. Last week I exceeded all expectations, but today everything growing and dying is under 2 or 3 feet of snow.
Anyone else finding the city website unavailable: “HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.”?
BruceB
on January 27, 2015 at 9:07 pm
@Patrick: It’s dead.
Probably a subcontractor driving one of those little sidewalk snowplows was trying to clear around city hall and went through the server room instead. I lost some of my lawn to one of those last winter.
; yes, I realize that the Newton web site is probably not hosted in city hall
BruceB
on January 27, 2015 at 9:25 pm
@Patrick: and now it’s live again…
Julia Malakie
on January 27, 2015 at 10:35 pm
After my shoveling was mostly done, and a late lunch, I did a loop on my new snowshoes around 3-4 the is afternoon – Rowe to Comm to Washington St to Elm to Webster. The storm hadn’t even quite ended so I didn’t expect a lot of cleared sidewalks, but offhand I would say 30-40% were cleared or being worked on. I was surprised that Warren House (former Warren Jr High) which has a really long stretch of sidewalk on Washington Street, had not cleared that sidewalk.
Coming up Elm Street, I saw a couple who apparently lived on Webster Street but had been snowplowing around the corner on Elm Street, pushing the snowblower which had stopped working. The guy was pushing the snowblower, but it was so hard to push, the woman had her hands on his back and was leaning forward pushing him!
The whole route, I don’t think I saw a single vehicle on city streets that was not some type or plow, ambulance or police.
Right now, my streets are narrowed but I can see pavement (some).
Getting out this morning, Charlesbank-area roads in Newton Corner were plowed but still a mess, and Center street (where it becomes Galen) was a bit sloppy. Not a complaint, as I expect cleanup is ongoing, but be careful out there.
Pike was clear sailing.
kristine
on January 28, 2015 at 9:55 am
My street in West Newton is horrible. They only plowed down our street in a straight line and they didn’t do the sides. Isn’t that the point of a parking ban, so they can thoroughly do the entire street?
NewtonMom
on January 28, 2015 at 11:04 am
Dropped off my daughter at a friend’s house. While Chestnut Street in Waban is great, the side streets in Upper Falls were awful!
I tried to do a 311 for the city last night. The plow has buried the hydrant at the end of the deadend, under FEET AND FEET of snow. Like seven feet of snow.
I also had to re-shovel my corner since the plow had shoved snow from the street, onto the berm, sidewalk and my property. A small price to pay to have a sidewalk that people can use. So, the path is now on my lawn, but there is a clear path.
SO what happens when people don’t shovel their sidewalks? Do I report them? That seems unneighborly, but of course, they are telling me my safety is unimportant to them by not only not shoveling the sidewalk, but mounding the snow next to the driveway on the sidewalk.
BruceB
on January 28, 2015 at 7:32 pm
I did not receive any mail today (Wednesday). This is possibly related to the poor condition of the sidewalks in the area (near Chestnut and Boylston), although my sidewalk is clear and my mailbox is accessible. I thought mail delivery was supposed to resume today…
No mail here either. But I was happy to see The TAB. Could not have been easy for Andy and crew to put that together yesterday.
Jane
on January 28, 2015 at 8:43 pm
While in college, I worked in the P.O. delivering mail as a summer job. The average route was 10 miles and challenging on rainy days, even in warm weather. The regulars would tell me tales about delivering mail during the winter and it sounded like a really tough job. Tomorrow the temperature during mail delivery time will range from 18 to 29 degrees. Ten miles of walking in those temperatures – just something to think about.
Julia Malakie
on January 28, 2015 at 8:47 pm
I just got home from work, and no Tab. )-; Did some areas get them and others not?
BruceB
on January 28, 2015 at 9:51 pm
Our Tab showed up sometime after sundown. On a side note, we received our first Tab ever in the 3+ years we’ve lived here 3 weeks ago. Periodically someone here will write a version of “everyone in Newton should know about this issue because it was in the Tab and every house in Newton gets the Tab” and I’ve replied that “no, not everyone gets the Tab… .” I assumed the first delivery was a fluke but now we’ve received 3 in a row. Apparently they updated their database of addresses.
@Jane: I have nothing but sympathy for the carriers walking in these cold temperatures on icy and obstructed sidewalks (although Newton has, by far, the worst mail service of the ~5 places I’ve lived as an adult). I would be happy to pick up my mail but I don’t think that is possible. I would also be happy with 3-day a week mail delivery year-round. But it would be nice to know when mail delivery will resume (of course, I’m expecting a more important than usual item).
I just came back from a 9:30 p.m. round trip to Wegman’s, traveling along Route 9 between Eliot and Chestnut Hill Square and then back. I saw three different pedestrians along the way at different locaitons, each walking in the street because the sidewalks were all snowbank. Given that dark clothing is in these days, I was doubly worried for these folks.
The often-used crosswalk at Route 9 at Eliot (site of the former Huntington TV, across the street from CVS) also has no street access. So if you were walking home from CVS towards Lincoln you have no choice but the walk in the street along a very busy intersection.
I’m happy to report that the unplowed crosswalks at the corner Route 9 and Eliot have been cleared at some point since I wrote my post above.
Perhaps Bruce Henderson is responsible for this too.
Mark Dionne
on January 29, 2015 at 7:01 am
I walked to Wegman’s yesterday. The south sidewalk on Route 9 from Langley Rd was good except at Shreve Crump & Low where nothing was shoveled and 6 foot high piles force pedestriansto walk on Route 9. Very rude. I will take all my diamond purchases elsewhere in the future.
Also the crosswalk at Langley dead-ended into a snow pile on the south side, and the walk button there was not accessible. I know that children cross here on their way to Bowen school. The mom-and-pop blinds shop on the north side did an excellent job clearing their sidewalks.
Jackson Street was a mess, with many snow piles. People probably wait for the city machinery to clear the path to Bowen, but it had not yet come.
Lucia
on January 29, 2015 at 8:57 am
For the first time ever, I was able to walk to my kids (former) school without climbing over a single snow bank. I think it’s a combination of both the City and neighbor’s improving shoveling in our area. I also appreciate that the city plows did not pack in the sidewalk corners in our neighborhood. Makes it easier to dig them out.
BruceB
on January 29, 2015 at 9:08 am
@Greg: Route 9 between Elliot/Woodrow and the office parks in Wellesley has significant pedestrian traffic, especially on the north side, because of the Elliot T stop. This morning, those people are walking in the roadway. Many of the buildings on this part of 9 are rental units and few property owners take responsibility for clearing the sidewalks – not only of snow in the winter, but leaves in the fall.
However, since the Route 9 sidewalks get buried under snow plowed from 2 wide lanes of pavement they are in worse condition than most. This is one road where I think the entity that plows the roadway (is it the state or the city?) should also have responsibility for the sidewalks. I have seen sidewalk plows on 9 before (although very little of it is actually on the city map of officially plowed routes) but they do not plow after every storm and have not yet done so for this one.
Streets outside of Centre in my neighborhood are a still a bit messy but passable. It’s just a huge storm so i try to maintain my patience.
I did notice that the bridge across the Pike in Newton Corner had not been touches (East Side), but for the sets of footprints of the pedestrians that have to trudge through it. I’m not bus commuting these days, but that sort of thing still bugs me. I guess we’ll see how things are faring once we get past the weekend (and a couple of smaller snowstorms forecast)
mgwa
on January 29, 2015 at 10:10 am
My mail just arrived.
Marti
on January 29, 2015 at 11:12 am
Still no mail and no Tab. Hopefully soon.
Tricia
on January 30, 2015 at 8:11 am
OK, we’re now Day 3 post-blizzard, Day 2 back in school, and most of the city’s snow plow route around Burr School is impassable, including the sidewalk directly across the street from the school. Not only is this long stretch of sidewalk (in front of a private condo complex) unshoveled, snow from private driveways on either side is piled in huge mounds on the sidewalk. I get that they can’t do everything, but they can’t clear their own snow plow routes that lead up to elementary schools? What’s up with that?
Blueprintbill
on January 30, 2015 at 10:04 am
Get a grip folks , the automobile rules.
There has been no mail because the post office hasn’t gotten delivery from the airport etc.
there is/was no mail to deliver!
Adam
on January 30, 2015 at 10:56 am
My neighborhood remains very walkable, thanks to residents, but the critical sidewalks on the city plowing route, including those leading to Bowen and major intersections Newton Centre, remain in pretty bad shape. The delays are understandable, but even when the crews arrive, the equipment does not seem to be doing the job. The DPW is continuing to widen streets and intersections and melt snow in parking lots when a better first pass must be made at the sidewalks. As long as those priorities remain, yes, the automobile will continue to rule.
Was surprised that I had to go to 4 sand/salt barrels to fill 2 buckets because they were all nearly empty.
I took a 3 mile walk today around Newton Center. I’d say 3/4 of the homes made some attempt to shovel the recent 4 inches of snow but there were many icy spots. Only in one or two places had people put down salt on the icy spots.
The worst area was Beacon street between Centre Street and Walnut Street, and this is a place where it an be dangerous to walk in the street to get around the icy spots.
One notable place was the city’s Crystal Lake swim area. The unused parking lot was clean as a whistle while the sidewalk was snowy and icy and apparently untouched.
Lo, and there were drifts as high as a mountain, and we were forced to consume our wooly mammoths for sustenance. Time to journey to the southern warmths below Route 9.
Come on down Bill. Over on this side of Route 9, it’s 85 degrees and tomorrow’s going to be a beautiful day. School’s been canceled for some reason, so we’re going to the beach in the morning.
@Jerry: Kind of cloudy for beach. Might be better to stay home and put the tomatoes in the ground.
Someone just went by on snowshoes. Wasn’t someone talking about those yesterday?
Surely does look like fun. Just kinda walked on by, no fuss.
Are cross country skis part of the ban?
The streets were still bad when I went on my noon showshoe hike. The main roads are plowed but snowy. 1/3 of the streets are unpassable in a car, 1/3 passable with 4WD and the rest are drivable. I had to help push a plowing supervisor who got stuck in the snow. Even if your road is drivable, you have a 50% chance that the upcoming intersection is plowed in your direction.
Comm Ave at Chestnut
Washington St at Comm Ave
Marti, That might have been me you saw on snowshoes- if you are in Newton Corner. I took a little stroll (Charlesbank/Russell/Nonantum Rd/Maple/Jefferson) around 9 am.
Doug, too funny. I was in the vicinity. I had walked (trudged) up Charlesbank from Nonantum, rounding the bend by Russell around that time or close. Found myself envisioning a Starbucks mirage not much later but it was a closed Buff’s Pub and Max and Leo’s.
Just took a walk in my neighborhood. Most sidewalks are clear, courtesy of the residents (and especially the work of Mark D.) I worry that the sidewalk condition will be far worse once the city sidewalk plows come through.
Where is that snow melter? I’d like to see it at work.
@Jerry. A day before the smaller storm hit last week, I went to my garden and found that two green shoots had popped through the bed where I planted 20 snowdrops last autumn. And one of the winter kale cabbage flowers I planted last fall was still hanging on. Last year was the first time I tried my hand at planting a flower garden and my goal was to diversity for I’d have something going at least 10 or 11 months out of the year. Last week I exceeded all expectations, but today everything growing and dying is under 2 or 3 feet of snow.
It won’t kill the snowdrops Bob. They will be fine. I don’t know about the kale, but the snowdrops are evolved to bloom under conditions like these. There are also early little flowers called glory of the snow that you can think about for next year. http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.johnscheepers.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/thumbnail/0dc2d03fe217f8c83829496872af24a0/c/h/chionodoxa_glor_mix_main.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.johnscheepers.com/glorious-chionodoxa-mixture.html&h=247&w=204&tbnid=70KBbDN7uVflAM:&zoom=1&tbnh=186&tbnw=153&usg=__krqIrswmTt99Y2w0aO5CyUbkvro=&docid=o8QFdQ59-4BSTM&itg=1&ved=0CJEBEMo3&ei=NzfIVJ2uOsypNua2hGg
Anyone else finding the city website unavailable: “HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.”?
@Patrick: It’s dead.
Probably a subcontractor driving one of those little sidewalk snowplows was trying to clear around city hall and went through the server room instead. I lost some of my lawn to one of those last winter.
; yes, I realize that the Newton web site is probably not hosted in city hall
@Patrick: and now it’s live again…
After my shoveling was mostly done, and a late lunch, I did a loop on my new snowshoes around 3-4 the is afternoon – Rowe to Comm to Washington St to Elm to Webster. The storm hadn’t even quite ended so I didn’t expect a lot of cleared sidewalks, but offhand I would say 30-40% were cleared or being worked on. I was surprised that Warren House (former Warren Jr High) which has a really long stretch of sidewalk on Washington Street, had not cleared that sidewalk.
Coming up Elm Street, I saw a couple who apparently lived on Webster Street but had been snowplowing around the corner on Elm Street, pushing the snowblower which had stopped working. The guy was pushing the snowblower, but it was so hard to push, the woman had her hands on his back and was leaning forward pushing him!
The whole route, I don’t think I saw a single vehicle on city streets that was not some type or plow, ambulance or police.
Right now, my streets are narrowed but I can see pavement (some).
Getting out this morning, Charlesbank-area roads in Newton Corner were plowed but still a mess, and Center street (where it becomes Galen) was a bit sloppy. Not a complaint, as I expect cleanup is ongoing, but be careful out there.
Pike was clear sailing.
My street in West Newton is horrible. They only plowed down our street in a straight line and they didn’t do the sides. Isn’t that the point of a parking ban, so they can thoroughly do the entire street?
Dropped off my daughter at a friend’s house. While Chestnut Street in Waban is great, the side streets in Upper Falls were awful!
I tried to do a 311 for the city last night. The plow has buried the hydrant at the end of the deadend, under FEET AND FEET of snow. Like seven feet of snow.
I also had to re-shovel my corner since the plow had shoved snow from the street, onto the berm, sidewalk and my property. A small price to pay to have a sidewalk that people can use. So, the path is now on my lawn, but there is a clear path.
SO what happens when people don’t shovel their sidewalks? Do I report them? That seems unneighborly, but of course, they are telling me my safety is unimportant to them by not only not shoveling the sidewalk, but mounding the snow next to the driveway on the sidewalk.
I did not receive any mail today (Wednesday). This is possibly related to the poor condition of the sidewalks in the area (near Chestnut and Boylston), although my sidewalk is clear and my mailbox is accessible. I thought mail delivery was supposed to resume today…
No mail here either. But I was happy to see The TAB. Could not have been easy for Andy and crew to put that together yesterday.
While in college, I worked in the P.O. delivering mail as a summer job. The average route was 10 miles and challenging on rainy days, even in warm weather. The regulars would tell me tales about delivering mail during the winter and it sounded like a really tough job. Tomorrow the temperature during mail delivery time will range from 18 to 29 degrees. Ten miles of walking in those temperatures – just something to think about.
I just got home from work, and no Tab. )-; Did some areas get them and others not?
Our Tab showed up sometime after sundown. On a side note, we received our first Tab ever in the 3+ years we’ve lived here 3 weeks ago. Periodically someone here will write a version of “everyone in Newton should know about this issue because it was in the Tab and every house in Newton gets the Tab” and I’ve replied that “no, not everyone gets the Tab… .” I assumed the first delivery was a fluke but now we’ve received 3 in a row. Apparently they updated their database of addresses.
@Jane: I have nothing but sympathy for the carriers walking in these cold temperatures on icy and obstructed sidewalks (although Newton has, by far, the worst mail service of the ~5 places I’ve lived as an adult). I would be happy to pick up my mail but I don’t think that is possible. I would also be happy with 3-day a week mail delivery year-round. But it would be nice to know when mail delivery will resume (of course, I’m expecting a more important than usual item).
I just came back from a 9:30 p.m. round trip to Wegman’s, traveling along Route 9 between Eliot and Chestnut Hill Square and then back. I saw three different pedestrians along the way at different locaitons, each walking in the street because the sidewalks were all snowbank. Given that dark clothing is in these days, I was doubly worried for these folks.
The often-used crosswalk at Route 9 at Eliot (site of the former Huntington TV, across the street from CVS) also has no street access. So if you were walking home from CVS towards Lincoln you have no choice but the walk in the street along a very busy intersection.
Scary.
I’m happy to report that the unplowed crosswalks at the corner Route 9 and Eliot have been cleared at some point since I wrote my post above.
Perhaps Bruce Henderson is responsible for this too.
I walked to Wegman’s yesterday. The south sidewalk on Route 9 from Langley Rd was good except at Shreve Crump & Low where nothing was shoveled and 6 foot high piles force pedestriansto walk on Route 9. Very rude. I will take all my diamond purchases elsewhere in the future.
Also the crosswalk at Langley dead-ended into a snow pile on the south side, and the walk button there was not accessible. I know that children cross here on their way to Bowen school. The mom-and-pop blinds shop on the north side did an excellent job clearing their sidewalks.
Jackson Street was a mess, with many snow piles. People probably wait for the city machinery to clear the path to Bowen, but it had not yet come.
For the first time ever, I was able to walk to my kids (former) school without climbing over a single snow bank. I think it’s a combination of both the City and neighbor’s improving shoveling in our area. I also appreciate that the city plows did not pack in the sidewalk corners in our neighborhood. Makes it easier to dig them out.
@Greg: Route 9 between Elliot/Woodrow and the office parks in Wellesley has significant pedestrian traffic, especially on the north side, because of the Elliot T stop. This morning, those people are walking in the roadway. Many of the buildings on this part of 9 are rental units and few property owners take responsibility for clearing the sidewalks – not only of snow in the winter, but leaves in the fall.
However, since the Route 9 sidewalks get buried under snow plowed from 2 wide lanes of pavement they are in worse condition than most. This is one road where I think the entity that plows the roadway (is it the state or the city?) should also have responsibility for the sidewalks. I have seen sidewalk plows on 9 before (although very little of it is actually on the city map of officially plowed routes) but they do not plow after every storm and have not yet done so for this one.
Tab came this morning. 🙂
My Tab came too! No mail.
Streets outside of Centre in my neighborhood are a still a bit messy but passable. It’s just a huge storm so i try to maintain my patience.
I did notice that the bridge across the Pike in Newton Corner had not been touches (East Side), but for the sets of footprints of the pedestrians that have to trudge through it. I’m not bus commuting these days, but that sort of thing still bugs me. I guess we’ll see how things are faring once we get past the weekend (and a couple of smaller snowstorms forecast)
My mail just arrived.
Still no mail and no Tab. Hopefully soon.
OK, we’re now Day 3 post-blizzard, Day 2 back in school, and most of the city’s snow plow route around Burr School is impassable, including the sidewalk directly across the street from the school. Not only is this long stretch of sidewalk (in front of a private condo complex) unshoveled, snow from private driveways on either side is piled in huge mounds on the sidewalk. I get that they can’t do everything, but they can’t clear their own snow plow routes that lead up to elementary schools? What’s up with that?
Get a grip folks , the automobile rules.
There has been no mail because the post office hasn’t gotten delivery from the airport etc.
there is/was no mail to deliver!
My neighborhood remains very walkable, thanks to residents, but the critical sidewalks on the city plowing route, including those leading to Bowen and major intersections Newton Centre, remain in pretty bad shape. The delays are understandable, but even when the crews arrive, the equipment does not seem to be doing the job. The DPW is continuing to widen streets and intersections and melt snow in parking lots when a better first pass must be made at the sidewalks. As long as those priorities remain, yes, the automobile will continue to rule.