 |
| I know this photo of the sidewalk in front of our house and property on Norwood Avenue looks ridiculous posted like this, but Blogger won't let me move the image or wrap text around it for some reason. I'll try to resolve this soon, but the image should do the job for the moment. |
Been using this blog for some COVID posts for the past two years or so, with just one non-pandemic post, but Buffalo's winter has been a pain in the ass for several reasons, and one that just won't go away/get better despite apparent reasons how it could.
Buffalonians/Western New Yorkers, especially us natives, often like to think we're too tough to be bothered by winter weather, and handle it in such a good fashion that many often laugh when other parts of the country report they are at standstills when they receive way less snow than our normal amounts. But as well as a lot of whining after serious snowfalls and sub-zero temperatures starting about a month ago, the response of both private homeowners and residents and the official City of Buffalo "efforts" in clearing streets and pedestrian areas have been woefully lacking to the point of incompetent and almost dangerous. Way too many side streets did not get plowed for days, if not weeks, and a much higher percentage were not sufficiently cleared. Sometimes, the snow was cleared off streets onto sidewalks (Buffalo does not clear snow from sidewalks unless official city property, and even then...) and bus stops, the responsibility of the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, were either unplowed/shoveled or plowed in. I must say, as an employee of the Erie County Department of Social Services, I am lucky because the snow clearing/removal operations at the Rath Building in downtown Buffalo, where I work, have been excellent. But you can read more about this from the news media and social media; I don't want to be repetitive.
But Saturday, February 12, 2022, when I took our dog Harold on our walk, I got as mad as I can recall for years back, because the conditions of the sidewalks, intersections and elsewhere remain atrocious, verging on the dangerous. We were fortunate not to fall on the walk that took us from Norwood Avenue near Bryant Street down Norwood to West Utica, then to Richmond, down Richmond across West Ferry to Breckenridge, back to Norwood to West Ferry, to Ashland back to Bryant to home, about 1.5 miles through Buffalo's Elmwood Village/West Side. Every street brought us at least one or two amusement park-like scares and thrills, except they weren't entertaining, but degrees of danger. Whole properties of sidewalks were uncleared, and not just of snow, but of inch or more thick, slippery ice, and many intersections either had paths barely cleared or foot worn down or none at all. This ran the gamut from owner occupied homes and rentals to facilities and development projects such as the former church at West Ferry and Richmond (which I took photos of during the week). Some of these paths hadn't been plowed or shoveled of snow in weeks, and had foot paths worn in them so that the ice was quite smooth and slippery; despite wearing hiking boots, I had to grab onto fences, rails, cars, garbage totes and even Harold to keep from falling. Whether any kind of salt or deicer had been used on so many of these properties is unknown but doubtful.
Before anyone tries to make too many excuses, remember this: despite suffering a heart attack in October 2017 and undergoing massive, life-saving open-heart surgery in November 2017 at the Cleveland Clinic, I cleared 2-3-inch thick ice from our driveway, sidewalk and path to our porch using a garden shovel, some deicer and the great repair work from the Cleveland Clinic medical staff over several days. I have been fortunate to have received a lot of help removing the snow, but I took it upon myself to clear the ice, as well as shovel out the ice chunks the street plows left. Also, we own the lot next door to us, so I have been shoveling ice from a double wide berth. So, unless you've undergone more surgery than me or have other medical reasons, or you own larger sidewalks/properties than us, I have little patience with excuses for not clearing walks at this point. Sadly, this also feeds into the City of Buffalo "Mayor" Byron Brown's administration's opinion that residents' poor parking/snow clearing efforts are at least partly to blame for the city's inadequate response.
The city workers themselves are themselves putting out admirable efforts, but no apparent snow clearing plan, a patronizing attitude from the mayor and his administration on just about everything and suspicions of favoritism (including possible instances of less than full committal to clearing areas of the city that backed India Walton during last year's mayoral election), combined with truly crappy weather in heavy snows and brutally cold temperatures, have left streets and sidewalks in poor shape and citizens, both property owners and those who don't, with little confidence that the Brown Administration has the competence or will to properly clear the snow. Sadly, too many people are also falling into the no hope/don't care trap and not clearing their own sidewalks and driveways of both snow and ice. Clearing your own walks not only make them safer for other people to traverse, they are safer for you to go about your business outside. It's not like we have suddenly forgotten how to do this or know that it works.
I believe the city needs to start looking into buying smaller plows that can be used on sidewalks, even as a pilot program or for certain neighborhoods with needs such as large numbers of senior citizen residents. This would entail Buffalo Common Council members to engage the public and advocate for change, and yes, increased spending at first. But if this was an issue to possibly increased the funding of the police department, in personnel and/or equipment, there would barely be a question of if but of how much and how soon. This is a matter of public safety and needs to be addressed now; it isn't going away, will be back next winter if not again this winter, and will get worse. Hell, on the micro level, I have noticed that Harold, our 11-year old (next month) pit bull/mastiff blend, has adopted his walking gait to the snowy and slippery sidewalks, often mirroring mine. If he knows there is a problem, there's no way city officials, even the clown car of our mayor and his administration, don't know there is a major problem that needs to be changed, if not solved.
