Snow Excuse
Credit: William Neuheisel
During the debate over President Obama’s stimulus bill, one of the most overused buzz terms was “shovel-ready.” Now, after back-to-back blizzards, the nation’s capital is itself shovel-ready. But not enough shovels are in action, and the city’s lax sidewalk clearing ordinance may be to blame.
The city snow removal ordinance requires all tenants, landlords, and business owners to clear the sidewalks in front of their properties “within the first 8 hours of daylight after the ceasing to fall of any snow.” But you certainly wouldn’t know it by looking around.
The snow began falling in earnest late Friday and by Saturday morning Washingtonians had taken to the streets—slipping and sliding alongside snowplows, SUVs, police vehicles, and the occasional stranded car. Ped X-ing was an extreme sport, but with limited subway service and no bus service, people didn’t really have a choice.
The snow ended on Saturday, but broad swathes of city sidewalks were still impassable on Monday (and completely out of the question for the elderly and disabled). By then the typical pedestrian could be seen weaving back and forth between areas of cleared sidewalk and semi-cleared streets. Now, after a day of heavy snow and high winds, people are back to risking their lives in the streets.
It doesn’t have to be this way. A tweak of the city sidewalk clearing ordinance could make all the difference.
Right now, the city is inadvertently letting sidewalk scofflaws off the hook. If a sidewalk isn’t cleared, the city is supposed to clear it and charge the cost to the responsible party—plus a $25 maximum fine. That sounds good in theory, but the city simply doesn’t have a shovel-wielding army to unleash on city sidewalks. The result is that many sidewalks go uncleared, and nobody pays for it—except for the city’s pedestrians.
Washington needs an ordinance that has teeth and can be enforced. If some residents, landlords, and business owners are unwilling to clear their sidewalks, then the city should be able to issue citations akin to parking tickets. The police and public works employees clearly have their hands full during snowstorms, so citations should be issued primarily by other city employees (e.g. parking enforcement staff). And the city could prioritize enforcement by relying largely on tips from 311.
I, for one, would eagerly phone in a report about about a grocery store near me—fully staffed and open for business, but with unshoveled sidewalks—or the gas stations I’ve passed with plowed and salted lots but unshoveled sidewalks. But without a revised law on the books, there’s little any pedestrian can do but trudge on in disgust.
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Allison in Washington, DC on Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 12:22pm
I agree! I wrote about my perspective on The City Fix blog (http://dc.thecityfix.com/snowstorm-erases-pedestrian-connections-in-d-c-–-again/) and sent that to a few friends at DDOT who said they are looking at increasing the robustness of their sidewalk removal policies.
It’s an interesting dilemma, because only half of my block is cleared (all residences) and much of North Capitol is not cleared - especially in front of commercial establishments and large office buildings. But the fundamental question for me is - even if everyone clears their own sidewalk, who clears the crosswalks??? There are huge snow drifts in the medians and no one is clearing them.
A more enforceable policy is certainly needed, but perhaps so is better information - I didn’t know that residents were required to shovel their walk within 8 hours until this week. Maybe snow-related press releases could remind us, or landlords could put it on the lease? Just a few ideas…
John Reinhardt on Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 4:40pm
One of the big problems is absent institutions (vacant embassies on 16th Street NW), and the National Park Service (in all three snowstorms, the sidewalks in front of Meridian Hill Park have been atrocious). Areas around various NPS owned triangles are similarly neglected. Any suggestions for NPS shirking it’s duties?
Rebecca in Washington, DC on Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 12:42pm
Sad that we should have to encourage civic responsibility good neighbor behavior via ordinances, but I don’t think DC laws place enough responsibility on property owners/occupants/tenants in any weather—let alone snow. Shouldn’t we all be responsible for keeping the area around our homes and businesses trash-free and pleasant? For instance, I live near one the National Park Service areas at 16th and Park NW, and trash is allowed to accumulate for weeks in good weather. I have neighbors, many of them are even social service agencies and churches who are in theory there to contribute to the community who are among the worst offenders. Discarded food and drink containers and other assorted urban trash sits on their sidewalks, shoved into their shrubbery and laying in their front yard areas.
Most Saturday mornings I head out with a trash bag and gloves and pick it all up. But it really irks me that these “do-gooders” don’t extend their good works past the confines of their walls and at least into their front yards.
Rolf Pendall in Ithaca, NY on Sun, Feb 14, 2010 at 8:09am
In Upstate NY, some of us have been thinking about the importance of sidewalks as public infrastructure. Even though it snows a lot more here, sidewalk clearing hasn’t become a big enough priority to get it done right. Here’s an opinion column by Jason Haremza and me about this. We disagree completely with the idea that we should fine residents (often low income, disabled, and elderly tenants) who don’t clear their walks. Instead we should de-privatize sidewalks. http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2010/01/clearing_the_way_on_sidewalks.html