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clearing snow from sidewalks
Dec. 28th, 2010 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adrian_turtleWe just had the first major snowstorm since my town passed more rigorous laws requiring property-owners to clear their sidewalks. It's a real improvement. It looks like 3/4 of the sidewalks have been shoveled, and half have been shoveled really well (as wide as the sidewalk, clear down to pavement, with a path cut through the drift at the busstop.) It's not enough...I know that having FEWER impassable barriers between me and where I want to go is really no solution at all.
In places where hardly anybody clears their sidewalks, it's really hard to complain when a particular uncleared section is making my life difficult. It feels like I'm exposing a hidden disability, demanding special privileges, being generally unreasonable. (That's what it feels like, at least.) If sidewalks are mostly getting cleared, it starts to feel like there's a cultural expectation that they're supposed to be cleared. Knowing that expectation is there in the background among my neighbors is valuable to me, and it makes it a lot easier for me to speak up about the uncleared sections.
Easier. Not actually EASY. (That's why I'm posting about it here, in hope that you'll back me up and tell me I'm not being at all unreasonable to complain.) The new CVS in Arlington, MA had their parking lot plowed, and cleared a little path (maybe 18" wide) from the parking lot to the front door. Most of the sidewalk in front of their building and lawn is covered with deep snow. Their neighbors cleared their sections of sidewalk, but there's no safe way to cross the street in the middle of the block. I tried to talk to the store manager about it this morning (almost 24 hours after the end of the storm.) She said she had no control over the snow removal, and suggested I contact headquarters. When I talked to CVS HQ (800-746-7287), I waited on hold for over 10 minutes, then tried to alert them to the problem (with store #278, at 833 Mass Ave, in Arlington, MA). The person I talked to gave me the option of an anonymous complaint, or giving him a bunch of information about my CVS loyalty card and the reasons I shop at CVS, so he could follow up with my complaint. I'm feeling a bit dubious about the whole project.
In places where hardly anybody clears their sidewalks, it's really hard to complain when a particular uncleared section is making my life difficult. It feels like I'm exposing a hidden disability, demanding special privileges, being generally unreasonable. (That's what it feels like, at least.) If sidewalks are mostly getting cleared, it starts to feel like there's a cultural expectation that they're supposed to be cleared. Knowing that expectation is there in the background among my neighbors is valuable to me, and it makes it a lot easier for me to speak up about the uncleared sections.
Easier. Not actually EASY. (That's why I'm posting about it here, in hope that you'll back me up and tell me I'm not being at all unreasonable to complain.) The new CVS in Arlington, MA had their parking lot plowed, and cleared a little path (maybe 18" wide) from the parking lot to the front door. Most of the sidewalk in front of their building and lawn is covered with deep snow. Their neighbors cleared their sections of sidewalk, but there's no safe way to cross the street in the middle of the block. I tried to talk to the store manager about it this morning (almost 24 hours after the end of the storm.) She said she had no control over the snow removal, and suggested I contact headquarters. When I talked to CVS HQ (800-746-7287), I waited on hold for over 10 minutes, then tried to alert them to the problem (with store #278, at 833 Mass Ave, in Arlington, MA). The person I talked to gave me the option of an anonymous complaint, or giving him a bunch of information about my CVS loyalty card and the reasons I shop at CVS, so he could follow up with my complaint. I'm feeling a bit dubious about the whole project.