So today shovel a little at a time, so its not heavy, I didn't have the money to hire someone this time to plow/snowplow. I do a path for the sidewalk and most of the driveway. Earlier plow goes by but I stood in driveway so he wouldn't plow us in again. Well about a half hour or so ago go outside to find a plow pushed the snow all the way up to our lawn and front steps (this has happened every snowfall this year) 90 percent of the snow was gone from previous snowstorms so its not like they plow didn't have anyplace to put it and to add to that across the street where there are NO houses there was NO snow pushed that way. its all on the residents side. NO WAY IN HEL* am I going to attempt shoveling the heavy mess the city made. I mean the snow is literally pushed up to my steps which is quite a distance from the road : ( Anyways going to try and post pics of my sidewalk and how across the street its left untouched.
Take some pictures during daylight and hold the camera more steady, the picture looks too blurry to distinguish almost from the street and what would be the sidewalk.
Make note of these things, the snow is heavier in this storm. Secondly, when a snowplow comes by it is plowing hard packed snow from the street which makes it even heavier. Go to the next council meeting and ask them why you pay taxes and you have to clean up their mess a well and how are you supposed to get money to pay someone when you are paying your own taxes AND downtowns taxes.
If you are on facebook that may be something good to ask and can you ask it of all the council people. Oh, just like DV, the council people (except Riggi) refuse to answer their constituents questions, they refuse to address the concerns of the people who LIVE IN the city and pay the councilmembers' salaries and health insurance.
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
Heres a pic to explain better, I put lines in showing the curb, my lawn with the buses on it, and the red line shows the snow plowed snow going right up on my lawn, there is app two feet of hard packed snow from the plow covering my whole sidewalk.
At least your road was plowed. Some fellow workers said their roads weren't cleared yet this morning.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
The problem with the plowing is one of leadership. You have individuals out there trying, but without any expertise or coordination, so the have to 'wing it', which leads to situations like yours, rp. Grand Boulevard had an impassable wall of snow left between the islands at Garner Avenue. You know, right next to that house for sale in the Mayor's program, the one with the $9,000 plus taxes.
I watched the last committee meeting and how Olsen was talking about how people snowblow or plow snow out into a plowed street and its making it hard for them to keep up. But what about the homeowners who shovel/snowblow or pay someone to do it only to have the city plow feet of snow back onto your sidewalk?
rp, they can't really help that, but in your case, they should be using the side without driveways to the extent possible. One thing that would help, they used to start plowing at the beginning of the storm, coming by more frequently, there is no "avalanche" of snow all at once. I see people shoveling or snowblowing into the roadway all the time now, I think enforcement has been so lax in the city for so long, large numbers of people don't even know it is illegal. Here's my idea- police driving by, when they see this, stop and issue a ticket. Or, better yet, Mr. Olsen drives by, stops and issues a warning ticket, for those who don't know, to educate people. Next snowfall, real tickets with a fine. Also ticket businesses that have the snow plowed off of their parking lots and on to the corner or across the sidewalk. You know, have well-paid public employees get out and handle this stuff, as municipalities have been doing for ages, rather than endlessly debate and whine about what should be done, if anything, about the special snow that only falls in Schenectady, New York, on the special cars on the special streets with the special citizens who HAVE TO, they just HAVE TO, leave their cars on both sides of the streets because they don't have driveways.
some of Schenectady roads are just too narrow. couple that with cars parked on the street............it's a lose-lose situation.
there is still no excuse for some roads not being plowed at all.
So RP....are you responsible to clean your sidewalk of the snow the plows pushed on them?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
That's the key, bt, the cars have to be off the streets, but there are other communities that do a better job with streets just as narrow, including Schenectady, formerly. They (our government) keep making all kinds of excuses, but I can remember the very same streets being in decent shape after biggerstorms, and so can McCheese, he grew up here. Know what's changed? Not snow, not the streets. One thing that helped, back in the day? The workers new the streets, because they lived here. Probably nobody knows that Wagner is even part of Schenectady, waiting to be plowed. If this very highly paid public official who lives out of town were worth his salt (pun intended) he would be figuring out a way to make snow control better than it used to be here in Schenectady rather than whining and making excuses. Maybe get some volunteers from the jail to come out and finish off some of what the plow leaves behind, especially at the curbs at crosswalks. Also offer help to valiant homeowners fighting the good fight, like rp, only to see their work undone. Or, these employees could pick up their paychecks and drive to their homes outside the city, in city-owned vehicles, noticing the marked improvement in the plowing as soon as they cross the city line. One of the problems, maybe the main one, is that we had a period of time with fewer snowstorms, starting around the late seventies, wasn't it? So as our equipment aged, our government, in its wisdom, figured that we could "save" money (use it for something else) by not filling positions and not replacing equipment, because if it didn't snow as much for a few winters, that had to mean it was never going to snow again. I noticed, a few wintersback, there was EXCELLENT snow REMOVAL, not plowing, along the curb on Union Avenue next to Union College, but nowhere else in the city. Maybe Union College did it for themselves, I don't know, but sometimes you have to REMOVE snow, not just push it around, and yes, it is expensive, but last time I looked, my taxes have gone UP, not DOWN.
Logged
