Merry Christmas to all you Village14’ers. Our merriment has been tempered a bit this beautiful snow filled morning by an old festering thorn in our sides.
I just got a call from my next door neighbor Bobby. He’s fed up and annoyed once again and so am I. I’ve been living in Newton for nine years and in that entire time I’m guessing there have only been maybe three snows that the city plowed our street without being 311’ed, begged, cajoled, and whined at to do it. Each time we deal with the city, aside for asking to get plowed, we ask them to address whatever systematic problem they seem to have – add us to the map, put us in the GPS system, add us to the checkboxes, whatever it takes so that getting this most basic of city services doesn’t have to be treated like a special favor, over and over , and over again.
Yes, Spring St is a very small street. We understand that it won’t be one of the first streets plowed, but when every other street in the city has been done, please, please, please take a pass at Spring St.
I’ve long since accepted that we’ll never get the Tab delivered, I even grudgingly accept (though I shouldn’t) that I have to haul my trash to a neighboring street to get it picked up every week, but is it too much to ask that we get that most basic of city services – plowing, without it being a special favor that we have to beg for over and over again.
Last year, my neighbor reached the breaking point after one of the storms and walked down to the City Yard on Elliot St and exploded. He cleared out of there as they were calling 911 on him. I don’t blame the yard workers, an angry Bobby would scare the hell out of me too.
Can someone out there figure out how this can be fixed? Can you bring winter joy to Spring St? Can you keep Bobby from getting arrested for assault? Is it too much to ask?
That’s what we here on Spring St want for Christmas this year.
Routes are assigned to a specific driver, maybe a private driver like my street. Then there is a chaser who drives along the route to make certain it is done. Contact DPW in a non snow time and find out what is the plan for your street. Good luck!
@Jerry. I think that maybe just the fact you posted this will result in some action.
It may have been the emails. It may have been the 311 request. It may have been this Village14 post …. or it may just have happened. However it happened, Spring St was just plowed. That’s good news for the here and now – thank you DPW.
We’ll have no idea if the root (route?) problem has been solved until the next time it snows and the time after that.
How about truly thanking our hard-working DPW crews for spending their Christmas holiday away from their families, plowing City streets? Instead we complain that one particular side street wasn’t plowed out quickly enough? The snow just stopped falling a few minutes ago. Geesh.
1:30 and Indiana Terrrace still hasn’t seen a plow.
Seriously? It is Christmas morning! I live on a fairly well traveled through street near Newton Center and no plow had been through at 1pm. Nor did I expect it to be plowed. We pay a guy to plow our driveway and had no expectation that he leave his family on Christmas morning to plow my drive.
@Al. Jerry was venting his frustration about the fact that Spring Street just hasn’t been plowed over the several winters he and Marie have lived there. I think today’s storm might have motivated him to post, but it wasn’t the root cause.
@Al & Claire – Yes, as Bob said my post is about nine years of snow storms, not this morning’s. I took the opportunity of Christmas morning to wish for a present in the coming winter, and the next nine years.
@Al – BTW. I did thank the DPW crew (see above).
I’m sure many of our police officers and firefighters would have prefered to be home with their families today too. When you’ve got a job to do, you get your behind out of bed and you do it. I don’t care if it’s Christmas, New Years, The Fourth of July, or your own darn birthday. Clear streets and sidewalks are a core public safety issue.
” I think today’s storm might have motivated him to post, but it wasn’t the root cause.” Three inches is hardly a storm! Historical frustration aside, I don’t think there was any public emergency. If I HAD to move my car I could easily have done so (even more so since they hadn’t plowed my drive way in) Plenty of cars traveled down my street today.
I don’t think it’s nitpicky to complain. It’s a safety issue for roads to remain unplowed.
It is reasonable to expect that your street will be plowed, even on Christmas. Have you raised this with your ward councilor? They can be very convenient in situations like this 😉
I’m curious Emily. I don’t see a time of posting but the first comment was just before 1pm. I got my SUV off the street around 7:30am and the snow hadn’t started in ernest. I took a walk at 11:30 am right after the snow stopped. So is it reasonable that all Newton streets have been plowed by 1pm?? Frankly, I’m glad they weren’t as there is nothing better than the peaceful walk down an unplowed side street to marvel in the beauty of the new fallen snow without the fear of being plowed down by someone in a hurry to get somewhere. Now if it had been a weekday I might have felt different but it was Christmas day!!
I had a man is an SUV with his son behind me crawling slowly behind me before I noticed him. I waved his past apologizing for holding him up and he couldn’t have been kinder saying he didn’t want to honk and scare me.
So yes all streets should be cleared…. but within a reasonable time frame given the circumstances
FYI- it is 9:05pm and many street still haven’t been plowed or salted.
the last 45 minutes of this storm was a huge burst of snow that wasn’t predicted and I believe the city didn’t have enough drivers today.
you just can’t battle with mother nature.
While Jerry may have been guilty of premature expostulation in the case of today’s snow, let’s not lose sight of the bigger picture – the reason he was quick to assume the street wasn’t being plowed is because of years of experience of not being plowed.
When something happens (or, rather, fails to happen) over and over for years, one tends not to wait several hours before assuming that today’s the same old, same old. @Jerry – I’m glad that wasn’t the case today.
Jerry, you have every right to complain. When you bought or rented in Newton you entered into a contract…you pay your property taxes or rent and the city agrees to give you city aervices to every household….regardless the size of the street. If they dont plow, theyve breached their contract with you. This might be an ovwrreaction, but the next time give the city notice you will pay for the plow and deduct it from your propeety taxes. Just a auggestion.
@Meredith – Yes, ” premature expostulation” is definitely an affliction I’ve been saddled with my whole life. I’ve learned to live with it but it’s definitely hardest on those around me. Thanks for your sympathy and understanding about this heartbreaking chronic condition.
@Jerry – as a fellow sufferer, I empathize. 🙂