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Call it Hipster Prynne: Somerville to issue 'Scarlet Letters' to property owners who don't shovel walks

Wicked Local Somerville reports Mayor Curtatone is poised to sign a new ordinance under which property owners who fail to shovel snow off their sidewalks will get not just fines but large, colorful placards placed on their doors to let them and their neighbors know just what sort of lowlifes they are.

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Shaming private citizens into maintaining public property at their own effort and expense.

Where's the ACLU when you really need them?

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Either the city starts plowing all the walkways ....

Or the city plows nothing and leaves the streets to the land owners, too.

Remember that Somerville doesn't do school buses unless a kid has special needs, either, which saves a lot of taxpayer $$. That is made possible by land owners shoveling their walkways.

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school buses, then it seems incumbent on them to maintain the PUBLIC sidewalks these kids use to get to and from school, instead of placing the burden on private property owners.

And it may surprise you to know that there are cities and towns in Massachusetts that use municipal crews to clear snow from sidewalks (Bobcats are a very useful tool for this task). So your argument about "clear the sidewalks, but not the streets" falls short.

Perhaps if Somerville wasn't doing things like hiring official poet laureats (explain again why that position is necessary for a city or town to function), or coming up with new and creative ways to further delay construction of the GLX - I think the silliest one was "OMG - you can't build your maintenance facility on the site of an abandoned railroad yard", they would figure out that using public funds to maintain public facilities is what government is supposed to do, and will properly benefit both their citizens and other visitors.

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The Somerville Poet Laureatte is paid $2,000 a year. It's not exactly making a dent in the public works budget.

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principle. Not to mention the money and time spent to solicit applicants and hire the person. And you didn't explain why this person is necessary for the functioning of the City.

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I strongly encourage you to contact the Somerville City Council and educate them on the principle involved in them spending the city's money as they see fit. I'm sure they'll be most appreciative of your input.

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And have a Poet/Shoveler Laureate...

TWO walks diverged in my neighborhood,
And sorry I could not shovel both
And be one homeowner, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the McGrath underpass;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was less trampled down and led towards Dunkies;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In scratch-off ticket debris no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how someone would eventually get it or it will melt in March,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two paths diverged in my hood, and I—
I cleared the one less traveled by,
And then a plow flung everything back on the sidewalk,
And that has made all the difference.

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Thanks, nicely done.

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So it isn't your tax money.

Get in your car and please go away.

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And I work in another town that does, also. In both places, sidewalks are very much an afterthought. While the roads are plowed aggressively, and always clear soon after the snow stops falling, the sidewalks can go for nearly a week before the towns do anything about them. Walking around is an adventure.

The requirement that owners clear sidewalks in front of their property is a state law*. Even though my town does plow them, and even though my neighbors don't, I always clear the sidewalk in front of my place.

* [Edit: I was wrong. State law allows towns to make laws like this, but does not require property owners to clear public sidewalks.]

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I suspect the only reason those towns do it themselves is because so many are ignoring the state law. And they wait a week to do so to encourage people to do it themselves instead of wasting the town's money on something that the residents are legally required to take care of themselves.

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Try "Local Ordinance." And thank you for playing.

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Information in plain language here: http://massrealestatelawblog.com/tag/massachusetts...

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I believe that'ss about private walkways, not public sidewalks.

The article does touch on sidewalks in one of the questions, but a fuller explanation appears in the linked article ("My prior post on the case . . ." ) at
http://massrealestatelawblog.com/2010/07/28/massachusetts-property-owner...

This appears to differentiate between municipally- and privately-owned sidewalks, and implies municipally-owned sidewalks are controlled by local ordinance, not this court ruling:

"On top of their added responsibilities, property owners in several Massachusetts communities . . . are required by local ordinances to clear municipal sidewalks in front of their residences or businesses. . . For towns and cities without municipal-owned sidewalks, sidewalks remain the property of the abutting owner, and must be cleared by those owners."

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The state law says "Towns may, ... make such ordinances and by-laws,..."

I was misled to make my earlier comment by a memory of Gov. Patrick announcing a crackdown on non-shovelers. I took it to mean that state law applied to public sidewalks, and I was wrong.

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New York City is way bigger and somehow manages to plow the sidewalks.

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Shaming private citizens into obeying the law?? How dare they??

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into obeying an IMPROPER law. Unless you see no issues with forcing property owners to maintain PUBLIC property they don't own.

And if people aren't complying with the law, the perhaps it's time the law is changed. But no, let's put up silly red stickers on their houses instead. That'll solve the problem for sure.

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Feel free to propose a tax increase so the city can clear the sidewalks instead. Unless of course you're volunteering to do it yourself for free.

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Let's assume, for the sake of simple math, that every single sidewalk plower is a featherbedded union job just waiting for creation, and the combined salary and benefits divided over a year's worth of man-hours breaks down to just around $36/hour. We're going to need about 10 of those guys, so $360/hour - and of course, we can't just hire them for four months out of the year, so that's $750,000 of new salary on Somerville's books.

Let's add the bobcats, at, oh, say $6000 per plus $10/hour upkeep and maintenance. We're up to a once every life-of-bobcats cost of $60,000 plus $100/hour of plowing.

Somerville is 4.2 sq mi. Let's say that of that 4.2 sq mi, 15% of it is plowable sidewalk - or, total sidewalk area of .63 sq mi - 17,563,392 sq ft.

If it takes one guy with a bobcat an hour to do 12,500 sq ft (or about 3.5 sq ft per second) of plowing, then the team of five will be entirely done in about thirteen hours at a cost of $1300 on top of the sunk costs of the patronage jobs and the bobcats - in otherwords, negligible. So let's just ignore that and stick with the $810,000 figure we come up with assuming ten dudes with full salaried positions as bobcat driver and brand new bobcats every single year.

Do you know what Somerville's operating budget in the year of our lord 2014 was? It was $195,746,045. Adding another $810,000 onto the books represents an increase of roughly 0.4%.

I am hereby proposing to the good people of Somerville, Uhub, and all the backwards cities that offload their sidewalk cleaning costs onto property owners that the city raise taxes by 0.4% and reassume the cost of plowing their own damn property.

Who is with me?

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Just shovel the damn sidewalk [and not half-assed but the whole width] like a considerate neighbor should.

Who is with me?

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And I shovel mine better than anyone else on my block. Now talk to the 100 homeowners (many of whom have rented out their house and not bothered to hire snow removal - now illegal in Mass) whose sidewalks I walk through every day on the way to the T, often walking through a one-person wide gap in the ice pack in February.

This doesn't work. Fantasizing about people doing it won't work any more than the fines they never bother to issue as it is. Just charge everyone and have it done correctly. If you want a walkable city you have to pay for it.

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The cheapest brand new Bobcat goes for $23,000. Plus you need to include insurance for the city on the machine and the operators.

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Given how timely snow removal often is on my side street, I expect many homeowners would wind up doing it anyhow, to get to the cars, grocery store. etc...

Additionally, if you don't shovel, your neighbors already know... (though sometimes it is good to know that there are repercussions...)

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I think the idea of the placards is inspired. Public shaming sometimes has its benefits. I would love to try this on people who put the trash out on wrong days in Boston, thereby attracting rats to the street. Giant pink pig placards on their doors. I think I have an idea for a small business!

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...on how I can shame dog owners that let their dog crap on the sidewalk and don't pick it up?

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Put the dog crap on a placard on their door.

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in fact, it's the law in most urban and suburban areas in the country (and Canada). the difference is, in Allston, we will be fined - you have 24 hours after the end of the storm to clear in front of your property. In Somerville, they get a sticker. The alternate is delayed clearing and increased taxes. Move to the country if you don't like it!

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Where is your unshoveled walk? I'll point it out to a school bus full of lawyers.

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Snow shaming? I can dig it!

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wouldn't the unshoveled sidewalk be shameful enough, and pretty visible too?

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Apparently not.

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Sometimes public censure in the form of something shaming is the way to go.

Seriously, are people really that lazy that they can't shovel their sidewalk like a good neighbor? And creating an argument that pits the people against the city? You are the city. Public works can't be everywhere. We can't pay for all of it. Just get off your butt and help out a little.

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....where the readers criticizing about having to shovel public property live? Who clears all the sidewalks in that community?

As a longtime Boston resident; I am accustomed to having to clear the sidewalk in front of my home. I don't particularly enjoy having to get out there, but it must be done. I imagine business owners are not all that thrilled having to clear the sidewalk in front of their business either.

If funds were available; I would rather see Bobcats clearing sidewalks of the "Main Street"/retail areas in our neighborhoods. Perhaps Mayor Walsh will be able to allocate funds for the monster snow eater that was borrowed from Massport a few years ago. Trying to get onto a Centre Street sidewalk in winter can be downright dangerous. The snow is piled high and there are no access points between intersections.

Geesh. It is much too early for me to be thinking about snow, shoveling and the nasty weather. I am happy with what Mother Nature has recently provided. Is it unrealistic to hope this is what the weather will be like straight thru April?

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That church is actually in Boston and I've always found the sidewalks in Cambridge to be very well-shoveled.

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For residential properties, at least, the sidewalk is a public easement, but you still own (and pay taxes on) the area covered by pavement. You are required to keep it unobstructed and usable by the public whenever possible.

If you don't wish to shovel sidewalks, don't buy a property with sidewalks, or move to a town which shovels them. Most municipalities lack the budget and equipment to shovel the entire town; they'll clear the sidewalks for public offices, schools, hydrants, and sometimes public transit, and require business owners and residential owners to shovel their sidewalks.

Note, if the snowplows shovel in our cleared sidewalks (which has happened to our corner a few gazillion times), we shovel a path out from the driveways and complain to the city. I'm not reshoveling a 5 foot high icepack (not possible, not safe). And if the city's agents (plow drivers) re-obstruct a cleared way, it's then their responsibility to re-clear it.

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On account of the unshoveled sidewalk and all?

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I think the idea is to let the owner of the property know that the city knows they didn't shovel the walk, and that Something Bad may happen if they continue to not shovel. Sort of I know what you did last snowstorm.

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will continue to not care a-one bit, and they can be some of the worst offenders... every. single. winter.

you can't shame someone who never steps foot on the property they're required to maintain.

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The only sidewalks I don't see shoveled are in front of churches who don't get fines anyway. Is he going to shame Jesus?

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and we are required? encouraged? (not sure) to not only shovel in front of our own property but also maintain the grassy strip between the sidewalk and street in the warmer months. I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THIS. It's called being a good neighbor. Besides, It's where I live, I want it to look good and not be dangerous to traverse. But I have to say that I do HATE shoveling, but that's only because I'm older.

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"Why the public shaming? Why not/also include a fine?" (paraphrased):

Read the article before commenting. There will be a fine. The placard is being included as a way to let those of us trying to walk by know that the city has been notified and has already fined the property owner.

Public shaming, and public notification that keeps recurring complaints (and time spent responding to multiple complaints on the same property) down. All with increased fines from where they stand now.

Also, before the Rage Commenters can jump on this (again, without reading the article), the city is proactively working to connect seniors and disabled residents/homeowners with volunteers and a city-hired youth shoveling crew to help out. ALSO, if you're away on vacation, you can appeal the fine.

I, for one, think this is awesome.

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I was just going to ask if there were a charity, like Meals on Wheels, that helps the elderly and people with disabilities with snow removal...

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and everyone in my building rents. It is the responsibility of our landlord (who does NOT live in Somerville) to shovel our sidewalks. It's actually strictly forbidden (for a multitude of legal reasons) for renters to shovel the sidewalks. This 'colorful placard' will do nothing, except maybe remind us residents that our landlord isn't the best.

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But I don't think it is "strictly forbidden" for tenants to shovel sidewalks. As I understand it, the responsibility and liability always falls to the owner/landlord, and that it cannot be forced on the tenants via lease requirement.

HOWEVER, a landlord may offer incentives (such as reduced rent) for a tenant(s) to shovel. The landlord still would generally be liable for any issues that arise from non-shoveling or injuries that come from incomplete shoveling, for instance. So it's a bit of trust on the landlord's part that the tenant will actually keep their end of the bargain up.

If any other keyboard attorneys know better, feel free to chime in, but this is a situation I came across a few years ago and looked into a little bit from a layperson's perspective.

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A landlord can forbid their tenants from shoveling, which is what I think the parent was saying.

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So, my Somerville lease specifically says it's my responsibility to shovel. Is there a law that overrides it?

I'll be shoveling anyway, but it would be nice to get confirmation that my landlords just made up a bunch of stuff and threw it in the lease because prospective renters around here have no leverage whatsoever.

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It's been a clause in 4 of my 5 Somerville leases so far. But the landlord has provided shovels and salt, or reimbursed me the cost of same.

Many of my neighbors own (Spring Hill area) and are good neighbors, so I like to be a good neighbor back and I would probably shovel anyway. It would be very apparent if I didn't since houses on both sides are always well cleared. And in cases of heavy snow, my neighbor helps me out with his snow blower. We are on the plowed-in side which makes his help very welcome when it's 20s and below.

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I've never heard of such a thing. Please link to or otherwise cite the law you are referring to.

My landlord's management company does an excellent job, but even still I sometimes help them out by shoveling out the corner when it gets plowed in.

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Put liens on people's property for failing to shovel. Anything short of this will be absorbed as maintenance costs by lazy/absentee landlords.

Either that, or have the city do it, as mentioned elsewhere, which I'd also be in favor of.

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Bravo!

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The problem with the ordinance is that it is blatantly designed to be selectively enforced. Which is total BS.

As I've seen various people say in other fora:

have mixed feelings about this as well. I really like that sommerville wants to take snow covered sidewalks seriously. But I really don't like laws that are put on the books that people aren't intending to enforce as written. Because that easily leads to selective enforcement. And if people do intend to enforce it like this, that creates a huge burden on people who don't work 9-5

and

I think this has the potential to catch a lot of people in the crossfire, forcing serious fines on lots of well-intentioned people whose schedule/health doesn't fit those new rules. If the intent of the law was to shift behavior for the people who never clear their sidewalks, then it should have been configured to hit these people: $500 fine for people whose sidewalk is not cleared within 48 hours.

and

My problem with this law is that it penalizes people who don't work 9-5 (or have to work two jobs). If you work the standard "second shift" (ie from 4 - midnight) or many evening retail positions there's no way you can be in compliance with this law without hiring someone to shovel your snow for you.

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I'm not sure it's as much of a problem as your complainants think. I think the city would give them a break if they know the person has a different work schedule. If the city can keep track of disabled homeowners, I bet they could do the same for shift workers. They could even work a deal with a neighbor, covering for each other in storms that are inconvenient for each.

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"I think the city would give them a break if they know the person has a different work schedule."

That's exactly my point. Selective enforcement, which is BS.

If the safety & convenience of the Somerville public really, honestly, actually requires the sidewalks to be cleared by 10am for an overnight/morning storm and by 10pm for a day/evening storm, then working the swing shift, etc. is no excuse for not getting it done.

Write the law for what you are actually planning to enforce, not something to allow you to punish people you don't like and give favors to people you do.

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If the safety & convenience of the Somerville public really, honestly, actually requires the sidewalks to be cleared by 10am for an overnight/morning storm and by 10pm for a day/evening storm, then working the swing shift, etc. is no excuse for not getting it done.

I hope you're not picked to administer this. By your reading, handicapped and aged people would likewise have "no excuse" and would be penalized.

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