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Some city residents have questioned how strictly the parking and shoveling regulations have been enforced during recent snow emergencies. — Photo by Bobbie Toner
By Jim Clark
At the latest regular meeting of the City of Somerville Board of Aldermen on Thursday, February 23, an order was brought forward asking that the Director of Traffic and Parking report the number of warnings and citations issued for snow covered vehicles following the 9:00 a.m. lifting of the snow emergency on February 13.
Speaking in favor of the order, Alderman At-Large Mary Jo Rossetti told the Board, “I received a communication from a constituent who was broken-hearted because she was witnessing her 80-year-old neighbor trying to clear his property around the car that had been parked in front of his house and not touched for over a week.”
Rossetti went on to explain that the constituent brought to her attention the fact that the city website says that the 48 hour policy will be strictly enforced. She said that the constituent noticed that there were tickets on vehicles in the neighborhood, which they were pleased about, but when they looked more closely they discovered that these were actually only warnings. Further, it was noted that the warnings were issued more than 48 hours prior; 96 hours, to be exact.
“My guess is we’re going to be told there isn’t enough personnel to sweep the city and give the citations,” Rossetti said. “But I do want to see proof of who receives how many citations, how many warnings that result in citations.”
Rossetti said that she promised the affected neighborhood that she would report back to them when she learned more.
The order was approved unanimously by the Board members in attendance.
On a related matter, an additional order was put forward, sponsored by Ward 5 Alderman Mark Niedergang, that the Superintendent of Inspectional Services report to the Board, by ward, on the extent to which “city inspectors regularly patrol the city following each snow event, tracking properties that do not comply with city ordinances for snow and ice removal … and issuing violations” in response to complaints that many sidewalks in the city were never cleared after the last snowstorm, creating hazardous conditions for pedestrians and forcing people to walk in the street.
Alderman Niedergang told the Board, “This is kind of similar to Alderman Rossetti’s order. I received quite a few calls from people who complained about icy sidewalks and sidewalks that had not been cleared at all, and no signs of any ticketing.”
Niedergang said that constituents referred him to the city website where proper snow emergency procedures were clearly spelled out.
“I would like to hear what the program, what the plan is to enforce [the regulations],” Niedergang said. “I should give credit where credit is due, that I think in recent years sidewalks have been cleared much much better than they were previously. But I think we still have a long way to go and we need to enforce the law so that people will clear their sidewalks.”
As Alderman Niedergang’s original order called for enforcement in Ward 5 only, Board President William White suggested that many other residents outside of that area would probably raise the same concerns and that it might be best to have the order apply to the entire city, broken down into individual wards.
The order was subsequently amended and approved, and copied to the Committee on Health and Public Safety.
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From what I was told by Alderman Niedergang, there was also going to be a question raised to the DPW as to why plows cannot slow down enough to prevent snow being thrown back onto already-shoveled sidewalks. I don’t know if that was done.
Too often I believe that the reason for some walks not being cleared is simply because they have already been cleared more than once before plows have gone by and continually thrown snow back to undo what has already been done, forcing some to simply give up due to exhaustion or frustration or both.
I understand completely the need to have sidewalks shoveled after a snowstorm. But to what extent are many residents expected to have to do and re-do the same sidewalks repeatedly after a single storm?
There needs to be some effort to show consideration for those residents who have had to clear large amounts of snow from their properties and sidewalks. It’s easy to move snow when you’re in a plow, totally another thing to do it by hand.
Perhaps if the DPW had their own workmen clearing out the sidewalks, they would better understand how hard it is to do the same job several times over.
Tickets should only be issued to those who are clearly ignoring the clearing of their areas, but if it is evident that there has been efforts to clean snow and that it has been thrown back over by plows, then there should be some leniency.
I have always managed to clear my sidewalk soon after a snowstorm, and many times I have had it undone because a plow flew by and just threw it back onto the curb, forcing me to go back and do it all over again. I’m not getting any younger, and I’m the only one here to do the shoveling for my property. Shouldn’t I or others like me have a right to complain?
The City is getting manual labor done for them for free by expecting residents to clean City-owned sidewalks. The least they owe us is some consideration when we are forced to feel like Sisyphus and have to re-do areas we have already spent considerable time cleaning at our own expense all over again because plows have wanted to get their job done as fast as possible.
They’re getting paid to do their job. We’re not. Maybe the City should start paying US to clear their sidewalks, they’d see a huge rise in compliance and an equally huge drop in complaints.
Way too many houses in ward 5 that do not comply with removing snow and ice from their sidewalks.
Children or adults for that matter shouldn’t have to risk walking on the street because of this.
Time for the city stop start cracking down and start fining people
I think it would work better for everyone if the city cleared the sidewalks, after all they are owned by the city and maintenance are the city’s responsibility. Instead of paying for people to police and ticket homes that don’t clear sidewalks, use that money towards clearing the sidewalks. Sure it will cost the tax payers, but it’s much cheaper on the aggregate.
We are a walking city. Many people commute to work and school on foot. So the same way the city caters to drivers, it should cater to walkers.
MM I agree on specific main roads (Broadway, Medford, Somerville, Elm central, Lowell, Willow) that it could make sense to support commuters getting to and from public transportation, but I hate to imagine what that cost would be, I suspect it would be multiples of the road cost.