clearing snow from sidewalks

[adrian_turtle]

We 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.

Comments

[automaticdoor]

They shouldn't be asking about your loyalty card. I called HQ once about a nasty pharmacy experience at my local CVS, and I never had to provide any of that information. It sounds like they might be trying to force you to give up on the complaint? Whatever is up, it sounds suspicious.

[jadelennox]

Also, this. maybe try to call back, and if they ask you for the personally identifiable information, ask to speak to the person's manager. Although I have had CVS staff refused to let me talk to their managers.

"My manager will tell you the same thing I'm telling you, so I'm not going to get my manager."

"I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to tell me that."

"Well I'm telling you that."

[adrian_turtle]

That's a very good point. I didn't think of asking for the manager of the call center worker, because I was thinking of "calling HQ" as escalating above anything on the store level. But obviously there are further levels to escalate above that.

It didn't occur to me to suspect they were actively trying to shunt me off and ignore me, when I walked into the store this morning and asked the first employee I found, "Good morning. May I please speak with your manager?"

Her response: "I'm on the team. How can I help you?"

I explained the problem with snow clearing, and she convinced me that she sympathized, but was powerless to do anything about it. Well, yes. That's why I asked to talk to the manager. She convinced me there wasn't anybody on site who could help me, and the only way to get anything done was to call HQ. In retrospect, I don't know if she meant the store manager didn't have the authority to deal with snow removal, that the store manager wasn't in the building and wouldn't want to talk to me (so go away), or that the store was managed remotely (from HQ).

It's been almost 10 years since Walgreens did something really outrageously offensive to me. Maybe I should change my prescriptions over. *sigh*

[jadelennox]

now I wonder if refusing to let you speak with a manager and claiming powerlessness is something CVS trains its employees to do. Interesting.

For what it's worth, I've only ever once had one negative experience with the Rite Aid in Davis Square, and that was because the pharmacy was so overwhelmed one afternoon that they brought the regular cashiers to work pharmacy. But for the most part I find that to be a very pleasant place to pick up my prescriptions.

[pauraque]

The unfortunate thing in retail sometimes is that there are managers who get angry when their employees refer complaints to them -- they think the employees' job is to deflect complaints so they never reach management. I can't speak for CVS because I've never worked there, but it could be not so much that they're trained not to go to the manager, but that they dread getting in trouble themselves for "bothering" the manager. (You know -- bothering them with actually doing their job.)

I used to be in retail management so it's a problem I know all too well. Often I'd be the ONLY managers employees would refer issues to, because they knew I was the only one who wouldn't get mad at THEM for allowing a customer to (gasp) actually speak to me.

[adrian_turtle]

Well, they did give me the choice of an anonymous complaint or giving personal information so they could follow up on the complaint. (It was nicely ambiguous about whether they meant "follow up" by dealing with the problem, or by calling me back to let me know how it went.) I figure anonymous complaints are more effective if there are lots of them, if anybody has spare time and energy lying around.

[jadelennox]

I actually think it's easier to complain to business owners than residents.

Last year I complained to the owners of Menotomy Beer and Wine about how they only cleaned access from the parking lot and they didn't do a good job shoveling their sidewalks and their curb cut. They apologized, and promised to do better. As of yesterday, they had done better than usual, but still not good enough for real accessibility -- but that was early, only a few hours after the snow had stopped falling. I figured I would check on them again later this week and complain if they haven't fixed it.

I'd like to say that your best bet is complaining to the town to see if they ticket the offenders, both business and residential, but I'm not sure if they will. God knows the town needs the revenue, so they might.

Now, as may be evident from the reference to "Menotomy beer and wine" above, I have a vested interest in more people around here complaining. So I hope you do, but that doesn't mean it's the best thing for you.


Yesterday when I was going out after the storm I started making up the hypothetical post I'll never actually make, with lessons in shoveling for people who AREN'T douche bags, but just don't understand accessibility. Things like "I know it's easier to shovel a path to the street somewhere other than the curb cut, because the plows cover the curb cut with about 7 feet of snow, but by not shoveling out the curb cut you are one of the reasons that people with mobility problems have to spend the entire winter indoors."

[jackandahat]

If there are fines for not shoveling outside, are there any options for people who can't? I'm curious because there's nothing like that where I am, and thank god, because otherwise it would effectively be a tax on being disabled. (Yeah, I get that it needs to be done - it affects me too. But that doesn't change not being able to, so I'm curious.)

[jadelennox]

Yeah, the town bylaw states:

The Board of Selectmen is authorized to promulgate rules and regulations consistent with this section relative to the ticketing procedures to be utilized; the Board is also authorized to exempt citizens upon petition showing demonstrable extreme hardship due to a combination of health and financial duress.

That "combination of health and financial duress" is presumably because the fine is only $25/day, and you can get a kid to shovel your walk around here for $30. So basically, if you can show that you can neither shovel it yourself nor afford to $30 to pay local kid to do it, you can get out of paying the fine.

(I physically can't shovel my walk either, so I usually end up paying the local kid $30. Although this year my neighbor did it for me, because he's a sweetheart.)

[jackandahat]

That's good - I was hoping there would be something like that in it. Where I've just moved from, we weren't on speaking terms with any of the neighbours, so there's no chance of getting it done even with offer of money, and no way could I afford to pay half my income to have it done.

Was just one of those things, they pop up and make me curious. Thanks for explaining.

[jesse_the_k]

We've got a city-wide service which pairs HS kids with those needing help with shoveling.

[adrian_turtle]

The requirement isn't that property owners shovel the sidewalk themselves--the requirement is to have it shoveled. Lots of people hire others to clear the snow. As Jade Lennox explained below, our town has an exemption for people who are both disabled and low-income. The next town over has a clever arrangement, where some of the money from the fines is used to subsidize snow clearing services for elderly and disabled homeowners.

[jackandahat]

Right, but I didn't know that when I asked.

[wheelieterp]

This is what I was thinking, too... If my city did this, I'd have to move. I can't shovel the sidewalks since the snow makes them inaccessible to me as well and I can't afford to pay someone to do it.

[adrian_turtle]

I actually think it's easier to complain to business owners than residents.

That's very true for me. It's not just that businesses have somebody there at predictable times. It feels more like they're set up to interact with the public--I don't feel like I'm intruding on somebody who just wants to mind their own business and be left alone. If they wanted to mind their own business, they wouldn't have a business in the first place.

[jesse_the_k]

Sounds like you're doing a wonderful job, and I totally ID with that tipping-the-balance between the culture of skanky-ass shoveling vs the culture of Access for All.

I'd try another call to CVS, and describe it as a fire hazard. (Hey, in a fire people would have trouble exiting quickly.) Or as a maintenance issue.

It's warming up here so I decided to risk it and schedule no paratransit rides tomorrow. I'm on my own! Wish me luck. The hardest thing is boarding the bus from the gutter, when the ramp tilts at maximum.

[trixie]

The thing that finally got my apartment complex to listen to me about what needed to be cleared last year and got the sidewalk that would link me to the Metro station was calling my City Councilman. Obviously your mileage may vary depending on your Councilperson, but it's the kind of thing that generally like to deal with, because it takes very little effort on their part to call the CVS/Apartment building etc. and creates a lot of voter goodwill. And local businesses tend to respond to that.

[yarram]

I have been tempted to make up signs stapled to stakes that read "wheelchair users not welcome", "mobility aids not welcome", "falling hazard", "pedestrians must use street", "this gas station does not want you to ride the bus", and other snarky comments for all the folks who don't shovel their walks in my area or do the curb cuts. Our city goes through once the night after every storm, so there's no reason not to have the curb cuts done within 48 hours after a storm. [We have a local "no overnight parking" ordinance, which explains why our streets are always plowed reasonably quickly.]

[ladygzb.livejournal.com]

If the city has laws about it, why not complain to the city?