I just came in from shoveling not our sidewalk but the neighbors on both side because they never bother. I miss living in Royal Oak where we had a cute little broom mobile that swept the sidewalks for us.
I would like to propose that plowing right-of-ways for taxpayers inside of motor vehicles but not for taxpayers outside of motor vehicles is a violation of the Equal Protection clause.
Last year, Kansas City had an unusually snowy January. Some parents were featured on the local news describing how their kids couldn’t walk to school because the sidewalks were not being cleared. There were lots of people (mostly of a certain generation, it was obvious) in the comments on that news item talking about the entitlement and laziness of elementary school children wanting to be able to walk to school and not being willing to shovel the mile route themselves. Somehow that logic never applies to people who expect their roads to be cleared enough for them to drive. I lost the battle that day to resist getting into Facebook comment arguments.
It does seem like there is a logistical issue here though that I wonder how to solve. Often, road snow removal means pushing snow onto sidewalks. So someone shoveling the sidewalk has to contend with extra snow and ice. And there may be nowhere to shovel that snow except back onto the road. Especially in urban areas, it is hard to find places to put the snow.
I think this is backwards. We certainly have an overdosing problem with the numbers of vehicles, their sizes, and overuse, but the formal characteristics of our streets are far more important and daunting. I want to scream every time someone posts a before-and-after meme of Paris. In the US, most cities could only dream of the before photos of Paris.
I just came in from shoveling not our sidewalk but the neighbors on both side because they never bother. I miss living in Royal Oak where we had a cute little broom mobile that swept the sidewalks for us.
I would like to propose that plowing right-of-ways for taxpayers inside of motor vehicles but not for taxpayers outside of motor vehicles is a violation of the Equal Protection clause.
AMEN
Last year, Kansas City had an unusually snowy January. Some parents were featured on the local news describing how their kids couldn’t walk to school because the sidewalks were not being cleared. There were lots of people (mostly of a certain generation, it was obvious) in the comments on that news item talking about the entitlement and laziness of elementary school children wanting to be able to walk to school and not being willing to shovel the mile route themselves. Somehow that logic never applies to people who expect their roads to be cleared enough for them to drive. I lost the battle that day to resist getting into Facebook comment arguments.
It does seem like there is a logistical issue here though that I wonder how to solve. Often, road snow removal means pushing snow onto sidewalks. So someone shoveling the sidewalk has to contend with extra snow and ice. And there may be nowhere to shovel that snow except back onto the road. Especially in urban areas, it is hard to find places to put the snow.
I think this is backwards. We certainly have an overdosing problem with the numbers of vehicles, their sizes, and overuse, but the formal characteristics of our streets are far more important and daunting. I want to scream every time someone posts a before-and-after meme of Paris. In the US, most cities could only dream of the before photos of Paris.