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How are the streets and sidewalks in your village?
by village14 | Mar 4, 2019 | Snow, Snowy Sidewalks | 23 comments
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Newton should be fining (or simply shoveling and billing) those who do not shovel their sidewalks within the allotted window (I believe 24 hours after the storm ends) and putting that money towards green energy and environmental preservation so that we do our part to protect the planet.
Future storms will be stronger than those today, and it is up to us to do our part, however small, to preserve our environment.
Streets are (surprisingly) fine given the extent of the storm. Sidewalks not so much. But I’ve seen many folks actively shoveling, including businesses.
Our street is so so. A front loader came down but left a pile of snow in the middle of the road. Sidewalks are looking pretty good as neighbors have used their snowblowers including helping those of us who do not have them. I typically am diligent about shoveling my own wide walk and try to shovel it wide enough so strollers, wheelchairs etc can get through. In a storm like this it is a challenge both due to the bulk and heaviness of snow but also due to the fact that we don’t have a curb in our section of the st so the plows tend to end up pushing snow over into the sidewalk. The last few storms they didn’t plow anywhere near the true edge of the St so it wasn’t an issue. I generally feel that we should be u
good citizens and clear the sidewalk however right around the corner from me the sidewalks are plowed by the city. They seem to have extended how far they go from the school and now do both sides of one street near us which is great for giving kids a way to walk to school however I was pondering the fairness of this. Some citizens get their sidewalks taken care of for free and with no effort on their part whereas others may be penalized for not clearing their portion of the city sidewalk. I am still going to clear my sidewalk and hope others do the same but the discrepancy did get me thinking about it.
In Newton Centre, the sidewalks are pretty good but hardly any crosswalks have been shoveled (which I think falls on the city) I would get to the end of a sidewalk and then couldn’t cross. Had to walk my dog in the street on both Beacon and Centre
Newton Highlands – we are shoveled out and our sidewalks are clear. We live on a deadend street, and when I reported that the street was blocked in because the cross street plow left snow at the base of our street, I was told the plows are still out. I haven’t seen a plow in three hours, and they aren’t taking requests. We can’t get out of our street (should we want to) and I am working from home.
I did errands by foot in West Newton and the sidewalks are OK (not perfect but OK) the curb cuts are really bad! Almost all were blocked on the stretch of Webster where I walked. Also not all of the sidewalks surrounding West Newton Park have been cleared. Isn’t that city property?
I don’t know….call me silly but can we give the City a chance to finish their work before we start complaining? I get it that there are sidewalks and curb cuts that are still not shoveled or cleared but the snow JUST stopped.
Our small street was plowed to one very narrow lane early this morning. Then by 11 a.m. or so, a truck came by and did an excellent curb to curb job. I think that was an entirely acceptable approach for a side street.
Our little slice of heaven near Charlesbank is quite well-plowed- curb to curb.
there are a couple of cars on the street the plows had to go around, but to be honest they didn’t cause too much of a problem.
Also, a gracious neighbor kept running his snowblower up my drive, so I took the extra time to cear our curb a little more throughly, and to make sure the sewer grates were clear and draining as much melt as possibly before tonight’s freeze.
Snow was heavy-ish but could have been worse. No complaints.
I wrote crosswalks and I see that the correct term is curb cuts
So back to the original intent of this thread….I was up and out at 7am as I was not gifted with a snow day or delayed opening!
Our plow man had used the snowblower and cleaned our entire sidewalk from edge to edge by 7am. It was lovely! And then the City plows came by to “plow to the curb” and all the snow (and more) ended up back on the sidewalk. It’s a pain but that’s just how it goes. So we shoveled the sidewalk again at lunch time and all is well. My biggest issue with how the City plows is that they don’t plow to the curb to start with. Push the snow back and keep the streets as wide as possible.
My other complaints are about residents/private plows that think it’s okay to use a snowblower and blow everything into the street, or plow from private property onto the streets and leave it for the City to deal with. And then there are the private plows that plow from a yard across the street and dump all the snow on the sidewalk in front of the house across the street. Where did this sense of entitlement come from? Why does snow on your property become the City’s problem to deal with.
As is often commented on here, sidewalks need to be cleared so people can safely walk on them. But the fact is the City owns the sidewalks and SHOULD be responsible for clearing them. But they don’t so just be a good person and shovel your sidewalks.
Mostly nice and black, with the melting since the plowing and sidewalk shoveling. Big mounds on the corners, but even the path I shoveled through the corner mound (not quite at the tactile strip, but close) looks a little wider with the melting. Maybe I can find the tactile strip before everything freezes.
Super packing snow for my neighbors across the street who always have a tall snow castle!
I continue to be one happy resident. This is the first winter in the ten years I’ve lived in Newton that our little street has been getting regularly plowed every storm without having to call the city and wait hours. I’m loving it.
DPW did a great job in our little slice of Upper Falls.
Sidewalks depends on each neighbor.
> then there are the private plows that plow from a yard across the street and dump all the snow on the sidewalk in front of the house across the street.
This is snow dumping, with its own fine ($100), generally taken seriously. Please report it.
On my way to Franklin this morning, there were three locations at T-shaped intersections where the snow from street had been plowed high onto a curbcut. These are all on heavily walked streets within a couple blocks from school.
In one case, the snow pile was plenty high not just to be hard to traverse, but to hide a smaller child from view.
I have reported this problem every snowstorm. In some cases, a front loader has been used days later to get rid of the snow. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help on the couple of days just after the storm, which seem the most dangerous.
In dense school neighborhoods in particular, pedestrians need prompt access. If it is a choice between curb to curb plowing and leaving curb cuts open, I would take the curb cuts open on wider, lower traffic streets.
Leaving snow on the edge of streets where possible, rather than plowing onto the sidewalks, would make resident snow clearance much easier, and melting would happen faster.
I suspect this happens already to some extent, but I would like for the City to make an better trade-off here between passable sidewalks and curb to curb plowing. We don’t want more cars on the street after a storm.
(Before someone replies, yes, some roads in Newton are too narrow. But if a road permits parking, it is probably wide enough, especially with the winter parking ban.)
I’m generally very pleased with the snow clearing this storm. The walk to Bowen this morning was easy. Sidewalks and curb cuts in my neighborhood were done well. Roads to Newton South were not too bad; sidewalks, many not plowed by the city, could have been much better.
The curb-to-curb requirement may be as much about proper drainage as it is accommodating parked vehicles, but I agree it seems we could get away a little less attention to some smaller streets, more attention to others where problems are predictable (e.g. Cypress near Bowen, though contractors plowing driveways may be to blame there)
My biggest pet peeve, not seen since previous storm, is when the plows choose to alternate whether they plow on the right or the left side of the street when they go curb-to-curb. I noticed one large city piece of equipment makes exactly three passes to clear my street. For those of us who actually rely on physical labor to clear the snow, the extra work is a big deal.
Not necessarily Newton-related, but:
Yesterday afternoon between about 4pm and 6pm I walked from Downtown Boston to the West Roxbury MBTA Commuter Rail station, and I’d like to give a big shout out to Boston property owners for their excellent snow removal.
Along all of Washington Street I encountered only three stretches of sidewalk that hadn’t been plowed – two abandoned lots between Dudley and Egleston in Roxbury, and an Enterprise Car Rental in Roslindale.
On Centre Street in West Roxbury, the Hess gas station decided to plow a couple of 50-foot snow mountains onto the sidewalks, but that was the only problem along the whole stretch.
So Boston seems to have >99% compliance in sidewalk snow removal the day of the storm.
They also ticket.
What irks me is that Newton does not punch out the sidewalk curb cuts for the feeder roads to Newton South (philbrick, Sheldon, olde field, Hagen, Brandeis, and clearly does not ticket homeowners along the route for failing to shovel the sidewalks. This is where enforcement should begin (but only after the cut the city created mountains….to be fair).
@Mike,
You can report it and the offender (if identified) can be fined. But it does not solve the problem of a now blocked sidewalk. Contractors are not forced to return and clean up the mess they made. I still think of this as that sense of entitlement that says it’s okay to disrupt someone else as long as MY yard is clear. You can’t make people “do the right thing”….
And although I agree that curb cuts in school walking areas are a priority, wide streets are a necessity as well. Emergency vehicles need to get down streets and if they are narrowed due to poor plowing and cars are parked, this makes it difficult and in some cases impossible for emergency vehicles to navigate. There should not need to be a this or that choice…the City needs to do a better job clearing streets and walkways.
And as a good citizen, I shovel the sidewalk in front of my house. But I will be unlikely to pay any fine to this City if I fail to clear THEIR property.
Sidewalks on the west side of Grant Avenue are entirely cleared from Commonwealth Ave to Beacon St except for 2 multimillion dollar homes right next to each other. Compared to twenty years ago, this is wonderful, and greatly appreciated. (Except, of course, for the 2 homes that cleared their driveways but not their sidewalks and put pedestrians in busy Grant Avenue).
Still lots of blocked curb cuts on Webster.
Looked like the plow person was trying to create a comma at the intersection of West and Middle.