“To help ensure that sidewalks are safe during the winter, City ordinance requires residents to remove snow and ice from sidewalks within 48 hours following the end of the snowfall.”–City Ordinance
I am a fan of the city ordinance.
The first winter we lived here, there was snow on the ground from December through March. It was so icy that one day I had to crawl up a hill to work.
This winter it has been “Hello, Global Warming!” We didn’t have our first snowfall till Friday night.
The middle-class and working-class hustle out with snow blowers, the hipsters (and we) use eco-friendly shovels. Trust me: even in boots, you cannot walk safely on sidewalks buried under snow.
But there are reprobates.
Yesterday, forty-four hours after the snowfall, I donned long underwear, heavy jeans, turtleneck, sweater, coat, and boots and took a walk, with R.E.M. blasting on the headphones. It was beautiful until I turned a corner into a revolution of snow ordinance-defiance. I hobbled and slipped in the snow until I turned on a clear side street. But in front of the last three lots on the street, the virgin snow was eerily heavy. SOMEBODY must have had a Netflix binge! Or perhaps they were waiting till Hour 47.
Clearing the snow is a community effort. The neighbors sometime do the whole sidewalk . They even do the driveways sometimes. That is valiant!
I don’t know the people who don’t shovel. Are they ill? Old? Depressed? Exhausted?
It’s information somebody should have, because they need help. But perhaps they don’t want it. You don’t want anybody knocking on your door. It’s a city ordinance, not Russia!
They have the right to be defiant–until the city fines them. And I have to assume that they’re not going to penalize the sick and helpless. But what do I know?
