[bscb-l] snow removal

Wed Mar 24 21:07:11 GMT 2010

In Malden, home owners are responsible for clearing their sidewalks.  Here is a 
portion of that law.

for public use by removing any snow or ice accumulating thereon

or by otherwise make the same safe by covering with sand or other suitable

substance.

B. Removal of hazardous conditions shall be made within the first twenty

four hours after such snow or ice accumulates on said sidewalk. Sidewalks

shall be cleared to provide a minimum passage of thirty six inches in width.

A minimum passage of thirty six inches in width shall also be cleared to the

street. Handicapped access ramps shall be cleared to the full extent of the

width and length of the main slope and side slopes.

C. Violation of this ordinance may be enforced in the manner provided under

M.G.L. Chapter 40, Section 21D in accordance with the following schedule of

fines:

First offense - $25.00

Second offense - $50.00

Third/subsequent offenses - $100.00

Annmarie
***
Music is a healing force all living spirits sing.--Joanna Shenandoah, Oneida 
composer
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "alice dampman Humel" <alicedh at verizon.net>
To: "Bay state (Massachusetts) discussion list" <bscb-l at acb.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 3:27 PM
Subject: Re: [bscb-l] snow removal

As with so many things, with home ownership comes certain responsibilities.
for example, homeowners are required to keep their property free of
overgrowth and debris, and inspectional services can be called if things get
out of hand. There is no reason that the average homeowner can not shovel
the sidewalk in front of his house, especially in this day when so many
people have snowblowers to clear their driveways and parking spaces. They
don't clear the sidewalks because everybody knows that only losers walk, so
why bother? *sarcasm, in case no one recognizes it.*
    If people are too poor to pay the fines, then they should clear the
sidewalk, and then they don't have to pay the fines. It is not "selfish and
heartless" to make people, poor or otherwise, pay fines for breaking the
law. Should poor people not be fined for speeding or running red lights or
littering? What's that silly saying, "Don't do the crime if you can't do the
time" or something like that?
    As for all the red tape involved in exemptions for the disabled
homeowner, why is this red tape any more objectionable than the miles and
miles and miles of red tape that are involved in every other transaction in
our contemporary society? Don't get me wrong, I object to *all* the red tape
and paperwork and bureaucracy, but why only object to this particular mile
of red tape? Not all disabled or elderly would apply for the exemption,
because many (not all) have friends, neighbors, kids, whatever, who will
shovel for them. And I do shovel my own sidewalk and front steps with my el
cheapo red plastic snow shovel. So there are also people like me, who might
technically qualify for the disability exemption who wouldn't be applying
because they can still manage on their own.
    My parents and their neighbors, my aunt and uncle and their neighbors
all cleared their sidewalks as a matter of course, and this was in the days
when it was a person, his back and a shovel out there doing it.
    As soon as kids were big enough, the shovels were passed down to them,
and it became their job. Some kids went around the neighborhood clearing
sidewalks for nothing or next to nothing. Later, my uncle actually did get a
snow blower, and he used to go around the whole neighborhood clearing the
sidewalks of the elderly, the disabled or anybody else who asked him!
    So there are many solutions to this problem, but IMO allowing home
owners to shirk one of their responsibilities for making their neighborhood
a nicer place to live is not one of them. I also know plenty of people who
live in non-owner occupied buildings, triple deckers and such, who go out
and shovel the sidewalks for that very reason...they feel a responsibility
toward their neighbors and their neighborhood. It's the lack of such
feelings that make some neighborhoods such cold, impersonal wastelands.

    Alice

alicedh at verizon.net
----- 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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