The article talks about other cities where sidewalk clearing is actually enforced; from Madison, Wis., where enforcement is strict, to Bloomington, Minn., where the city actually clears all of the sidewalks using funds from a property tax. The bottom line is that there are a lot of cities out there doing a much better job than Spokane when it comes to snow removal on sidewalks.
There are a couple of points I want to make. First, could the response to this issue from our local government be any weaker?
According to Sheriff Ozzie, he lacks the manpower to ticket everyone who isn't shoveling. This really doesn't make any sense to me. You don't have to ticket everyone. Once you start to ticket people, a lot of people will get a clue and start clearing their sidewalks.
Then you have Mayor Verner basically saying that she is afraid that someone will get shot if they start to enforce the law.
“You can imagine if citizens were frustrated enough to pull arms on snowplow drivers for berms, what would be their reaction if under these circumstances we tried to enforce the code requirement for sidewalk snow removal, especially as it’s come in such huge quantities and it’s become heavier and a lot of it is ice and a lot of it is the result of plowing,” Verner said. “So while we’ve been appealing to our citizens to do everything possible to remove the snow … we recognize that under these circumstances we simply can’t be heavy-handed about the code requirement.”
First off, where are these appeals? I haven't seen or heard anyone at all appealing to Spokanites to clear their walks. Secondly, this argument makes no sense whatsoever. Aren't they worried that someone will get shot over the lack of clear sidewalks? Aren't they worried that someone is going to get hit by a car due to the lack of sidewalks? I guess this is good news for smokers. If you want the health district to stop enforcing the indoor-smoking ban, apparently all you have to do is get "frustrated" and have someone pull a gun on a health inspector. Then the city will be powerless to stop you from smoking at the bar.
And the second point I want to make is that -- in my experience -- the vast majority of this mess does not lay at the feet of residents. The worst sidewalks in town are around businesses and commercial properties. I would guess that probably 90+ percent of the sidewalks in my neighborhood have been shoveled (at least those blocks that have sidewalks -- another story for another time). My suspicion is that those homes that have not been shoveled are either empty or have residents who are elderly or disabled.
The real problem areas, in my mind, are those around businesses and commercial properties. Landlords and commercial property owners are the ones that need to be held accountable. This is especially important, because their properties are typically on arterials, where pedestrians face the most danger.
These property owners can afford to have their parking lots plowed (in some instances the snow is plowed right onto the sidewalks), so I think they can also afford to have their walks plowed. Yet, if the city and county continue to refuse to cite them, what exactly is their incentive to clear their walks? The magical "appeals" don't seem to be doing the trick.
Sadly, I think it is going to probably take some sort of tragedy before our city starts to take this issue seriously.
3 comments:
It seems like Spokane's mayor accepts armed resistance as an acceptable form of public disobedience? Is there some story I'm missing? Did a plow driver get shot at? This story causes mixed reactions in me. I remember the havoc wreaked upon the sidewalks in Spokane by the plows. I never drove in the nineteen years I lived there, and walking in that mess is a total nightmare. It was actually a STRONG deciding factor in me leaving Spokane. On the other hand, you can't leave the streets unplowed. To me the answer has to be in the city finding a way to clear the sidewalks at the same time as they plow. Otherwise, the message is "if you drive a car and consume gas like a good little monkey, we will take care of you, but if you choose to walk and not contribute to this industry, you must suffer in icy treacherous hell and possibly pay with your life"
Oh, to clarify, what i mean is that, if a plow pushes snow up onto a sidewalk, it should be responsible for cleaning that up. Regular snowfall a property owner can usually handle, or find someone to help them with. My family regularly shoveled the walks for an elderly man who lived down the street from us just out of basic neighborliness and my brother and I made christmas gift buying money by going around and shoveling snow for change.
That compacted mountainous post-plow snow though? That crap can be nearly impossible to deal with. Achh. I don't even live there anymore and it still drives me crazy just remembering it.
Well, one person pulled a gun on a city plow driver as he was apparently pissed about his driveway getting plowed in again.
Another person, I believe, shot at a private plow driver, but it sounded more like a road rage thing.
I wonder if the city could just take responsibility for clearing the sidewalks along the major arterials as those are the places that see the most plowing. Of course, that means spending money which means more taxes which goes back to the end point of: probably not until somebody dies or gets seriously hurt.
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