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City still unsure if it will cancel school tomorrow
By adamg on Wed, 01/28/2015 - 12:14pm
Mayor Marty Walsh said at a noon press conference the decision whether to close Boston schools tomorrow will be made later today.
The parking ban on major routes will end at 5 p.m.
Walsh also pleaded with people to stop throwing their damn snow into the streets (paraphrasing here). And he pleaded with younger residents to help shovel out their elderly neighbors.
If you're on foot and you find yourself walking in the street, take your headphones off, he said.
Also, the city will start using some big-ass snow-melting trucks tomorrow, initially downtown.
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Comments
Flamethrower
I bet that flame thrower idea is beginning to sound a little better right now.
http://cappyinboston.blogspot.com/
Relevant
http://fmobserver.com/fargo-man-arrested-for-clearing-snow-with-flamethr...
I thought Menino's
I thought Menino's spokesperson was too much, but Walsh's press people are going way further trying to put their boss's name and face in front of everything. Everyone in Boston is trying to find out what the city's plan is, so that they can plan their lives and begin coordinating their kids and cars. But instead of sending out a quick e-mail blast or a web site update or a tweet, this mayor delays releasing information just to hold a press conference shown on the 12 o'clock news. I don't like that.
Okay, but?
Where is the snow supposed to go except the street? I can understand in neighborhoods where the houses have yards, but even then, after a while it's difficult to keep piling snow on top of already towering banks.
Cop out
There is always room to put the snow somewhere other than the street. The problem is that carrying shovels of snow a few steps away is work and people are lazy.
On my list of things that piss me off, people throwing snow in the street is second only to people flagrantly littering.
There is always room to put
There isn't, unless you consider the sidewalk fair game. Banks will only go so high before they topple, and there are plenty of streets where the sidewalk is the only thing between the street and the buildings.
Especially this powdery stuff
I made a pile between my car and the sidewalk but it's so light and fluffy that it just kept falling down on either side. I stomped on the snow that slid back into the street or sidewalk to at least make it walk-able, but aside from dumping the snow instead my mean neighbor's fenced-in yard, there is literally nowhere else for it to go.
Agree
This is 100% true. If you live in a neighborhood with few or no yards (and I find that people frown upon you throwing snow into their yard), then the street and the sidewalk are literally the only places to pile the snow. I guess the other option is for people to carry the snow into their bathtub to let it melt.
No true
That's not true. There are actually tons of places in the greater Boston area where there is literally no place to put that much snow. Those places go from street to sidewalk to house with no yard and no or only a narrow ally that needs to be kept clear. I think putting snow in the street is pretty shitty when there's a place to put it, but what do you do when there is actually no place for it? If you don't think those places exist, then you've seen very little of the city.
Why can't we have a better snow removal system that can handle all that snow that has nowhere to go? Why can't plows make it down those streets an extra time to clear that snow, or why can't ice melters do it?
No No No
Side walks have to be 42 inches clear of snow. There is NO way I can do this. There just isn't anymore room to put the snow.
I'll still get a fine even though I shoveled as much as I could and yet my back street is still not plowed.
With this much snow, I can't
With this much snow, I can't imagine anyone faulting you for clearing an 18" path, the width of a shovel.
No place to put it
There absolutely is not always a place to put snow other than in the street. It really depends on where you live. On the north slope of Beacon Hill there is very little sidewalk and no yard. If it's not in the street, then it's on the sidewalk. End of story.
Not the case everywhere
I live on a street of single-family homes and duplexes and every single one of them has a yard and yet there's still a guy down the street who, without fail, shovels snow into the street, causing a bumpy ice sheet because he's too lazy/inconsiderate to throw the snow into his yard.
Screw You
I deliberately throw my snow back into the street, where the city can come by and deal with it.
If they would clean the damn snow off of the sidewalks without this kind of prompting, I wouldn't do it, but they don't, so here we are.
And I'm going to keep doing it and I'm not going to apologize for it.
Says the anon (not verified)
n/t
Not necessarily in this case,
Not necessarily in this case, but some storms (Saturday's for example) should get pushed into the street. If the day is warm and sunny, the pavement warms up way faster and warmer than the (snow covered) ground is, and as long as you aren't piling it, snow pushed into the curb can actually melt! I understand making a blanket rule is easier for the city to enforce than "don't put snow into the street unless it's above freezing and sunny and you spread it thinly etc" but people who are hard assed about it in all cases aren't really thinking.
You are applying reason & logic to this problem
STOP THAT!
At least try not to put it in the street
I think TRY is the key word here. Sometimes you can't put the snow elsewhere, but I have lived places where people simply throw the snow in the street as a regular method of shoveling and that's a problem. I used to carry a shovel and cat litter in my car for just that reason. My poor little Omni couldn't make it through the extra snow.
It's Not A Problem At All
The real problem is that the city government refuses to do its own damn job and has passed illegitimate laws and uses illegitimate enforcement to unjustly burden property owners with the maintenance of public ways.
And yet people buy into this! People actually believe that the city refusing to clean its own damn sidewalks is the just and proper order of things! It's amazing!
If I wasn't laughing as I shoveled the snow into the street with extreme prejudice, I'd be crying. As it is, when you drive by and see snow shoveled into the street, just know that it might have been my doing, and if it was, I don't feel bad about it. And I'm not going to stop doing it, either.
Do you want to pay more taxes
Do you want to pay more taxes to cover this shoveling service you propose, or would you rather just shovel your own damn sidewalk?
If you also did not believe in the US tipping system, would you just as gleefully stiff servers while advocating for a service charge based system?
http://youtu.be/Z-qV9wVGb38
Cute name for a cat.
Cute name for a cat.
Easy Peasy
They will have to start picking it up out of the streets soon so that may help.
Collect it with large equipment to shave off the snow banks and widen the streets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGoSk9C18p0
then melt it, either with a mobile truck or, more likely, at another location
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oFYISYzCRA
I grew up in the lake effect area east of Lake Ontario. 2-3 feet of snow in a 24-hour period is a once or twice per month event. Large scale snow removal is a normal part of life there.
You haven't live here very
You haven't live here very long, have you?
This is why street cleaning
This is why street cleaning should be year round. Use the days to plow snow to and remove it from the curb. It would keep the storm drains from becoming clogged and flooding to ice too.
The lake effect area east of
The lake effect area east of Lake Ontario gets a ton of snow, it's true, but it isn't a built-up urban area. Spend some time IN Boston, not the burbs, and you'll understand. There really is nowhere to put it, and a storm of say 18" that's no big deal out in the hinterlands is just about at the "not enough places to put it" point in Boston.
Did you miss part of Zunk's comment?
Cities like Montreal, which are every bit as packed as Boston, use snow melting equipment. There was a link in the post for that.
Of course, that requires clear storm drains and treatment of storm water runoff (for which the US has different systems and standards).
Montreal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cfzzaZJc_E
Oh gee, just a minor detail
We'll melt it! And it flows where? By your own admission, exactly nowhere.
I remember last winter taking my trusty Steel Spade to the consequences of water + blocked storm drains. It had flooded a sidewalk about five inches deep, and would have frozen overnight if I hadn't liberated it.
You didn't read anything, did you
In some cases, snow is taken to snow farms and melted where it can drain off properly.
The fact is, this system has been made to work elsewhere under similar conditions and constraints, and Boston is not special.
There may be fewer blocked storm drains if there were less snow around. Imagine that!
That's why it gets melted,
That's why it gets melted, where necessary.
We're not equipped for it
We're pretty well equipped for a foot of snow; that we can make into stable piles on either sides of the street with a clear path on the sidewalk as well.
But at the 2 foot mark, the plows have plowed over our sidewalk (I just got done clearing a 12-foot path for the postman; it's one shovel wide). The top layer was thrown up by the plow; underneath was snow.
Many of our plows are pick-up truck mounted plows. They simply don't go that tall, and when the town's DPW tall plow comes through, it plows up-n-over the sidewalks.
We also have anywhere from 5K to 25K population per square mile, here. You put the snow from your driveway and what's underneath the plow-thrown stuff into your (postage-stamp) yard, and you pile the dirty stuff street-side between the sidewalk path and the street. And one side of the street probably has cars parked on it as well, which shovel out onto that sidewalk-side pile. These piles get up to 6 feet, and nobody is shoveling higher than that.
If we can find the money, I think the MWRA should start setting up snow farms and melt/filtration systems, but that's a fuckton of money for dealing with snow in the cities.
No place for the snow?
No place for the snow?
Please.
There's plenty of space.
Ban storage of private property on public streets during snow times.
BAM,. an 8 foot wide strip for snow storage so we can keep the driving lanes and sidewalks nice and clear.
But the people entitled to free and unlimited parking will whine, whine, whine.
clueless
Where do you live? Let us know so those of us who live in dense yardless neighborhoods can dump our shovelled snow into your yard.
I doubt you even picked up a shovel during this last snowstorm. Just because you don't drive, doesn't mean you can't pitch in and shovel out the nearest fire hydrant or a few feet of sidewalk. Help out and stop whining.
So where to park?
I live in Roxbury. We have one of two driveways on our street. Much of the street is townhouses without driveways. Where are they supposed to go?
Braintree.
Braintree.
As both a BPS teacher and
As both a BPS teacher and parent I'm pretty invested in what they decide. I do have the advantage of instantly being available to babysit of course, but still just make a call and be done with it! Sounds like they want to open, nobody likes those late June days, but the city isn't giving them the green light just yet. I'm reasonably confident I could get to work and swing the drop-offs, but I'm wary of my one bus rider having to deal with the great white unknown.
This morning was tough, I had
This morning was tough, I had some snow drifts and plow piles that were about seven feet tall in some instances on our sidewalks.
Most of the building was done when my shift was over, but the big problem will be what the plows do overnight. The curbs on both sides of the school are full of snow 3-4 feet high and deep and it's not the fluffy kind. Hopefully Public Works can remove it tonight.
Couple pics from today.
http://s2.postimg.org/et2lgkbyx/1964776_10153578405401562_67099917106399...
http://s1.postimg.org/no7i4jlfj/1977201_10153578405566562_26097407012879...
http://s23.postimg.org/k6hmcpmi3/10384065_10153578775856562_689987582502...
Snow removal
So removing all snow from walks, etc... is the job of the custodial staff at schools? Are you responsible for the lots as well?
We don't do the parking lots,
We don't do the parking lots, not sure if that's Public Works or if Facilities Management has a contract. But Custodians do all the other snow removal of school property.
The city use to have a melter
The city use to have a melter ,
http://p.o0bc.com/rf/image_700w/Boston/2011-2020/2015/01/12/Boston.com/B...
Cancelled on Thursday!
Boo! Hiss!
Did they close the schools for three days last time we got two feet of snow? I feel like they didn't?
2013 blizzard (nemo) was on a
I thinlk the 2013 blizzard (nemo) was on a weekend. So I don't think we had as many school days lost.
Simple solution
Extend the street sweeping schedule through the winter and remove the snow from the road and sidewalks on those days if needed. Melt the snow, dump it in a snow farm, send it to the Berkshires - just get it off the streets.
Also, can I expect a millicent deposit in my checking account for using the captcha?
Blocked sidewalks
One of our neighbor kids walks from his house about three blocks to the bus stop.
Currently, there is no way for him to do so without walking in the street due to City property being unshoveled at best and used as a dumping ground at worst. The sidewalk along the nearby community garden is blocked by a six-foot high snow pile, and the poor kid is four feet tall at best.
Are Boston Public Schools subject to Boston Regs?
This said, Reg - wise -
I live in Somerville. We got some new, stricter regs on snow removal for whatever reasons. After doing the normal that we normally do, have seen that The City is seriously less in compliance than the residents. (Keep in mind that we all have until Tomorrow Noon to comply).
I could swear I heard the mayor say
Inspectors were going to be writing tickets to city agencies for bad shoveling jobs.
Dump it in the Harbor
The city should be allowed to dump snow in the Harbor on days like this. It's not like the snow is THAT dirty. Most of it isn't touching the ground.