[bscb-l] snow removal

[Annmarie Strazzullo]

Listen, Alison, there is such a thing as snowblowers.


Annmarie
***
Music is a healing force all living spirits sing.--Joanna Shenandoah, Oneida 
composer
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alison" <alison2911 at comcast.net>
To: "Bay state (Massachusetts) discussion list" <bscb-l at acb.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 2:20 PM
Subject: Re: [bscb-l] snow removal


I agree that we should fine homeowners who actually shovel snow onto the 
sidewalks, just as it is currently illegal to shovel snow into the street.  But 
forcing homeowners to clear the sidewalks otherwise is unreasonable in so many 
cases, it will never be enforceable.  Forcing people to apply for disability 
exemptions will end up being a headache for everyone, since you know it will 
involve a lot of hassle and red tape, and forcing poor people to pay fines will 
never really work because nobody is going to let us be that selfish and 
heartless--it will not be enforced.

If we think it's so easy to shovel the sidewalk, then we should go out with 
shovels and do it ourselves.  If we think that's too much to ask, then how can 
we force other people to do it? Because this policy so obviously unfair to some 
people, it will never be enforced, and all the "exemptions" will leave us with 
basically the same mess we're in now, except that homeowners with disabilities 
will also have good reason to think BSCB hates them.  Why would we fight against 
so many other people with disabilities just to pass a law that isn't going to be 
enforceable anyway?

--Alison



----- Original Message -----
From: "alice dampman Humel" <alicedh at verizon.net>
To: bscb-l at acb.org
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 1:18:13 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: [bscb-l] snow removal




Actually, many cities and towns in many states have and successfully enforce 
ordinances that require people to shovel out their sidewalks. I think the fines 
should be raised to much higher levels to "encourage" people to clear their 
sidewalks. Many cities and towns simply tack the fines onto the homeowner's tax 
bill.
The solution to the problem of disabled homeowners is called "exemption." They 
apply and are exempted from the ordinance.
How many homeowners and/or renters refuse to shovel their sidewalks, but are 
perfectly capable of shoveling out their precious cars, parking spots, and 
driveways and leave a 5 foot high mound of snow right smack in the middle of 
their unshoveled sidewalks making walkking on the sidewalk an impossibility? It 
may be possible to slog through an unshoveled sidewalk, but it is not possible 
to get past these mounds without going out into the street, and of course with 
all the snow, one has to go further out into the street than for a non-snow 
off-curb obstacle, thus endangering both person and dog, if there is a dog.
Technically, you are correct that the sidewalks are city property, and that the 
city is responsible for keeping them in good repair (and they can't even manage 
to do *that* much of the time). But as a homeowner, one has responsibilities 
that transcend the tecchnicalities, and it would not be possible for a city or 
town to clear all the residential sidewalks.
Of course, in a place like the former Soviet Union, the sidewalks in residential 
areas were indeed cleared by government crews, but I can hearr the conservatives 
screaming "socialism" all the way from here. Additionally, European urban 
landscapes are quite different from American ones. Very few people own 
one-family homes inn the cities or what we call suburbs, and there are more 
apartment buildings, so that social structure is different as well.
There are many solutions to this problem, but I doubt the current American 
social, political or economic climate would embrace any of them.
I do agree about the snow plows, though, and they leave those insurmountable 
mounds on streets and at corners. And because those mounds are so enormous, they 
stay around for months.
There's another problem involved with snow that we might as well address...in 
for a penny, in for a pound. And that is the grossly extreme overuse of chemical 
melting compounds on the streets and sidewalks that turn them into vast oceans 
of caustic slush and muck. God, I'd rather deal with ice and snow than with that 
sludge.
Alice


alicedh at verizon.net
alicedh at verizon.net
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