"The man from Minneapolis threw down his shovel and picked up his pen."
Jennifer Brooks on the snowy 'mergency facing walkers and rollers in the Mill City.
The long road to clear sidewalks in Minneapolis
https://www.startribune.com/the-long-road-to-clear-sidewalks/600241576/
Sure, I'm the "end o' story" guy in the movie "Fargo" out here chipping away at the driveway, but it doesn't take that much more effort to clear a sidewalk full-width than it does a goat path.
The block-end plow windrows are terrible and are made worse by those temporary bollard bump-outs the city has put up everywhere. #Minneapolis
I was driving to Bloomington the other day when I noticed the City of Richfield has Bobcats.
@rationaldoge Well, I’ve got 10 years of data from my corner lot that shows it’s actually a lot more work to clear the full sidewalk then I goat path. And, bollards aren’t the problem. BTW, over the past 10 years I have repeatedly got compliments from neighbors about my clear sidewalks. But, there is a better path forward if we simply had effective leader, ship from the mayor, and the head of public works. Both are completely ineffectual leaders. What a joke.
@rationaldoge I don’t think there is a path forward for full municipal sidewalk clearing, but I wish that we had leadership with enough vision to explore other models. That’s why I like that CM Wonsley is pushing the issue. Instead what we see with the Mayor and the Director of Public Works is a very dismissive tone on this issue. Clearly, the current system isn’t working so I’m not sure why the Director of public works wouldn’t want to explore alternatives.
@daphsci Yeah, a corner lot is a lot more work for sure! It's frustrating because for the homeowner-clears-the-sidewalk custom to work, everybody needs to do it to a certain level of service.
Our neighborhood's pretty good but, generally, it's walk-in-the-street season here. And getting to the street over the mounds is a challenge. Always has been but we're having a particularly good old-fashioned winter. #Minneapolis