Monday, January 24, 2011

City should stop shoveling shit and start shoveling snow


From the Times Ledger:

Sanitation officials reminded New Yorkers to shovel their sidewalks following the worst of the Dec. 26 snowstorm, but many Maspeth sidewalks in front of city property remained covered with a treacherous layer of ice even before the latest bout of winter weather this week, a civic leader said.

“In the middle of Maspeth, there are railroad areas that the city never shovels,” said Robert Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association. The sidewalks in question run along railroad tracks or under city-owned overpasses and in front of city parks.

“If it was us, the mayor would give us fines, but this is his property,” he said.

Holden said that as of Monday the stretches of sidewalk along both sides of 57th Avenue between 74th and 83rd streets — which abuts the Long Island Expressway and a railway track — had not been shoveled, forcing some students of IS 73, at 70-02 54th Ave., and PS 58, at 72-50 Grand Ave., to walk in the street.

And the longer the city waits, the harder the sidewalks become to shovel, Holden said. The snow melts and freezes again, which tempers it to a hard, crusty shell.

And after the city’s response to the second snowstorm Jan. 11, Holden said some of the city’s strongest should have picked up a shovel.

“I found it ironic that they are doing it overkill with these plows now that they are scraping the blacktop,” he said. “Why don’t they put a couple of guys on the city sidewalk?”

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whitestone and Astoria is a sheet of Ice. Non of the roads have been plowed nor salted.

Anonymous said...

They cant hop out of the trucks and shovel the sidewalks. This is a union job, and union workers don't do shit. Anything more than 1% extra effort over their contract obligations, its not happening.

Anonymous said...

In the past the city would hire shovelers for crosswalks, bus stops etc. What's wrong with a call for day laborers?

Anonymous said...

Ready for Wednesday with catch basin STILL covered in snow and ice? Fun city!!!

JO said...

The ticketers should only ticket after they remove their own snow.

georgetheatheist said...

Truly, the Winter of our Discontent.

newtownpentacle.com said...

This is the case every winter. LIC- the sidewalks around the G train haven't been touched. Astoria/Sunnyside- the bridges over Sunnyside Yards have 18-24 inches of snow on the sidewalks. You can tell where a private residence or shop's property lines start and the city's starts by the snow line. Only thing that City workers actually shovel are their own private parking lots.

linda said...

now now you know the city won't be around maspeth anytime soon to clear the sidewalks.. i'm grateful that sanitation plowed and salted the roads. finally parks dept. was at the triangle near ps 58 and made a walk path for the children..

Anonymous said...

Nothing new about this story. Give the shovel to Bloomberg and commissioners - let them know what it's like to be in the DS

Anonymous said...

What about giving summones to all those lazy people who own property and never shovel. The law says that 4 hrs. after the snow stops falling you must shovel your sidewalk. I'd be the first one to be fined if I didn't do mine but these folks always get away with it. That's why the drivers don't have to shovel shit. That law is repeated continuously on every news station whenever we have snow. Wait...we still haven't been hit with the money that has to be paid to all the sanitation workers for their magnificant work at removing all our snow so quickly and efficiently. That jerk in city hall should be made to pay not us. We did their work and now we'll have to pay them. What a wonderful city we live in.