Hey, there! Log in / Register
Guys, you need to wait until after it stops snowing to complain about somebody not shoveling their sidewalks
By adamg on Sun, 02/12/2017 - 1:00pm
Shortly after noon, somebody got very angry while walking down Forbes Street in Jamaica Plain, angry enough to file 17 complaints (with 17 photos) with 311 about houses whose owners he or she wants cited for not shoveling their sidewalks.
The city quickly responded to each complaint with a message along the lines of:
NO VIOLATION. SIDEWALK HAS BEEN SHOVELED FROM PREVIOUS BLIZZARD. CURRENTLY SNOWING.
Neighborhoods:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Wow
Whoever filed these wins douche of the year award.
Why live so close to other
Why live so close to other people if you can't stand them?
He's a miserable wretch?
He's a miserable wretch?
I was going to defend the citizen
Until I looked at the photos. These sidewalks were by and large definitely shoveled on Thursday/Friday. The snow in the photos was from that glorified dusting yesterday. Yes, I shoveled it out, but I also walked on unshoveled sidewalks, and it was nothing.
The citizen can do a photo essay again on Tuesday. That will make sense.
It makes it so uncomfortable
To walk down Forbes Street in my flip-flops!
Hard to be certain from the
Hard to be certain from the pics, but the 2nd, 3rd, 4th from last don't look they were properly shoveled after the first storm.
Wheelchair users, cane users, service dog users, and people with invisible disabilities, need 42" clearance to safely travel in the sidewalk.
In a perfect world
"Training" of those responsible for enforcing the sidewalk shovelling laws and any/all MBTA supervisors and executives would include snow day outings where they would have to navigate a specified route and board buses, etc. while using a wheelchair.
Also, property owners found in violation more than a certain number of times would be required to do the same.
Come on
Elderly people with canes? Wheelchair users? Cmon, they shouldn't be outside in these conditions in the first place.
They don't need your permission to leave their homes
That's why.
Of course, you are probably one of those people who love to tell people to stay in, and then bitch and whine and moan about how much of *your* tax money goes to those *lazy* people who won't just get a job and get off of public assistance.
Hint: it is hard for people with disabilities to hold a job when asshats like yourself continue to think in patronizing 19th century terms. Or in highly self-centered terms.
Why do you hate the people who got their legs blown off by the Marathon Bombers so much?
um...
Who says it's even up to them? I'm sure a lot of people would love to have the privilege of not having to deal with the snow and just stay in. That's not an option for many, and people with mobility limitations are no exception. Or maybe it is a choice, and they just choose to go out instead of getting cabin fever. None of your damn business to tell people they "shouldn't be outside."
Well the gov'na asks people
Well the gov'na asks people to stay home and
the may'a asks people to stay home, and
the conducta's trains can't move so you might as well stay home.
So if you're an owna u ain't obliged to shovel til the storm is ova -and it ain't ova yet
So might as well stay home
Shut up. Just shut up.
Shut up. Just shut up.
Sadly people who have
Sadly people who have physical disabilities who may need a motor vehicle to get to the grocery store or a doctor's appointment have become demonized in the city of Boston. Don't expect compassion for those with physical challenges from the cycling community... public transportation, uber, taxis, private vehicles are despised by cyclists. Pedestrians, skate boarders, joggers, wheelchair users, those walking with canes, parents pushing strollers... we're just in cyclists' way on the sidewalk and in crosswalks.
WTF
Are you talking about?
The cycling community has advocated for any number of important accommodations that serve people with disabilities quite well.
It isn't a zero sum game, dear. Not at all, not ever. Cyclists shouldn't be on the sidewalks anyway (and I rarely see them on sidewalks). Meanwhile, the only pedestrians I come close to hitting are the ones who are jaywaking or creeping into the lanes when they should have their feet on the curb.
Why don't you organize to change things like cyclists have instead of bitching about it and marching armies of strawmen around the internet?
My sidewalk isn't 42" wide.
My sidewalk isn't 42" wide.
The person sounds like your
The person sounds like your typical UHub commenter. Adam, maybe you can give them a slot for a weekly article.
Granted 17 snitches is a lot
However, the photos are marked as being submitted yesterday 2/11, prior to the latest snow. The response was from today, 2/12. A few of the pics were clearly unshovelled, others, not so much.
Ah, you're right
The city responses were all today. Same principle applies, though.
No!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no0qB8CVspY
Here in Somerville I had
Here in Somerville I had someone ring my doorbell to complain about my building's sidewalks not having been shoveled yet at 11 pm while it was still snowing during that first storm we had this year.
Some people just get off on complaining.
Hmmm, one address is missing...
Number 67 is clearly missing from all the snow reports. Knowing the guy who lives in that house he is a total complainer (more like whiner who likes to inflict his unhappiness on others), he'd do something like this no question, he has 12 self identified complaints mostly about snow in the street, I'm just saying.
As predicted...
This is a classic example of ongoing abuse of the 311 system that is going on around the city. Some people out there are appointing themselves to be super heroes with their cell cameras and are going to change the world.
This is one easy example of someone with a chip on their shoulder abusing a worthy system to vent their personal gripe.
I am personally aware of people in this city being harassed like this for non-violations, or facing violation checks as they were in process of fixing something. Examples include snow removal, tree branches down in a storm, or even that discarded Dunkin Donut coffee cup that was tossed from a passing car.
The city needs to get a handle on this. While it is a valued service it has obvious abuses.
You can almost follow these self-appointed complainers by street and address as they go along snapping pictures and sending in complaints like this one. You can tell they are joggers or dog-walkers, or just on the way to work especially when you get a string of complaints in the same area over and over.
Get a life.
And the city is on it ...
Try to file a snow-shoveling complaint right now. You can't, because the city's disabled it in the app until after the snow stops. Or so I've been told.
neighbor feud?
Something tells me this has been building, and the 311 abuser jumped at the opportunity to narc on a neighbor they don't like.
Arguably
Yes the sidewalks had been kind of shoveled before...
but half-assed shoveling is almost as bad as no shoveling at all.
I am never satisfied unless I see bare concrete the entire width of the sidewalk. That is how I was taught to shovel by my parents, thoroughly.