Everything for drivers, nothing for pedestrians. That's the way it is after snow storms such as we've had. The streets are clear and soon dry, the parking lots are emptied and snow piled in mountains next to the main roads, the sidewalks right in front of the stores: 'clean as a whistle' as my friend Yori says.
But if you're on foot, or with a baby carriage or shopping cart, or with a cane, or a a walker (forget a wheelchair), you get to walk out on the street because the sidewalks are not shoveled at all, or if shoveled, only in the form of a lumpy narrow track (certainly not the required 42 inches), and tracks sometimes dead end where the next property owner has failed to shovel. Then it's backtrack or stumble over a wall of snow out onto the roadway.
What about bus stops? What indeed? 'I saw one old woman standing in the road right at the exit from the shopping center, cars whizzing around the corner as they do to get on or off American Legion Highway. Her bus stop was completely snowed in. If she were at the bus stop, she couldn't get to the street over the snow. So she had to hope the bus didn't run her down. It makes me furious.'
His eyes flash as he recounts all this in my living room this afternoon, our first chance to get together in over a week. 'It's the responsibility of the property owners,' he says, 'not the city, no matter what they say. They have their parking lots clean just hours after the storm is over, but not the sidewalks, even days later. They just don't care.'
He's reported violations and some tickets have been issued. He's sat down with city inspectors. He's taken pictures. He's called managers, and had a area police official call managers. He's gone up hierarchies as far as they'll let him. He's kept a log of all his contacts. But behavior hasn't changed, or if it has, only grudgingly and temporarily.
'It's not that hard,' he notes. 'The property owners just have to hire a sidewalk cleaning service as they do a parking lot plowing service, but they don't.'
You have gotten some results,Yori. I remember walking home from dropping off my car for new tires, and finding two flush-faced young men tunneling through a small mountain at the corner of Mt Hope St, in front of the company owned ultimately by an oil company notorious for its environmental insensitivity. You got a canyon but with a trail going through it.
I'm in awe of your relentless, righteous rage. You've put in hours of work already this winter, forgetting what you did last year. This isn't your problem (except when you risk your life trying to take pictures of it) but you feel it's part of Boston making provision for all its residents, not just some. You may be quiet but your voice is full of power. I know it's exhausting for you, but it's inspiring for me.
You got me to sign onto the city website and make a complaint. Okay, scofflaws, we're on the look out.
But if you're on foot, or with a baby carriage or shopping cart, or with a cane, or a a walker (forget a wheelchair), you get to walk out on the street because the sidewalks are not shoveled at all, or if shoveled, only in the form of a lumpy narrow track (certainly not the required 42 inches), and tracks sometimes dead end where the next property owner has failed to shovel. Then it's backtrack or stumble over a wall of snow out onto the roadway.
What about bus stops? What indeed? 'I saw one old woman standing in the road right at the exit from the shopping center, cars whizzing around the corner as they do to get on or off American Legion Highway. Her bus stop was completely snowed in. If she were at the bus stop, she couldn't get to the street over the snow. So she had to hope the bus didn't run her down. It makes me furious.'
His eyes flash as he recounts all this in my living room this afternoon, our first chance to get together in over a week. 'It's the responsibility of the property owners,' he says, 'not the city, no matter what they say. They have their parking lots clean just hours after the storm is over, but not the sidewalks, even days later. They just don't care.'
He's reported violations and some tickets have been issued. He's sat down with city inspectors. He's taken pictures. He's called managers, and had a area police official call managers. He's gone up hierarchies as far as they'll let him. He's kept a log of all his contacts. But behavior hasn't changed, or if it has, only grudgingly and temporarily.
'It's not that hard,' he notes. 'The property owners just have to hire a sidewalk cleaning service as they do a parking lot plowing service, but they don't.'
You have gotten some results,Yori. I remember walking home from dropping off my car for new tires, and finding two flush-faced young men tunneling through a small mountain at the corner of Mt Hope St, in front of the company owned ultimately by an oil company notorious for its environmental insensitivity. You got a canyon but with a trail going through it.
I'm in awe of your relentless, righteous rage. You've put in hours of work already this winter, forgetting what you did last year. This isn't your problem (except when you risk your life trying to take pictures of it) but you feel it's part of Boston making provision for all its residents, not just some. You may be quiet but your voice is full of power. I know it's exhausting for you, but it's inspiring for me.
You got me to sign onto the city website and make a complaint. Okay, scofflaws, we're on the look out.
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