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Mayor lacks common sense - needs French Toast Alert widget
By jeffcutler on Thu, 12/18/2008 - 10:34pm
After hearing about cities all scurrying to cancel school tomorrow, I asked a few people what their towns were doing. One town government member - who declined to be identified or to identify his town - told me his mayor was being shortsighted and knee-jerkish.
According to my source, this Boston-area community has handled this first storm of the season with a complete lack of common sense. I've written a post over on my blog about the situation, and here's an excerpt...the entire piece.
A Boston-area politician decided Thursday to declare a snow emergency a full 21 hours before the first flake of snow was expected on his city’s streets.
That seemingly compassionate move was actually short-sighted, stupid and ultimately could put students in that town in school until the first week of July.
You see, in this particular city (like dozens around the Commonwealth) the decision-making process regarding snow emergencies creates a domino effect. First, the city or town hall powers decide to declare a snow emergency. Once the emergency is declared, no resident can park on the roadways so that plows can keep the street clear. These cars have to go somewhere and that somewhere is school parking lots.
But with residents’ cars jamming school parking lots there’s no place for teachers to park. So the school department has to follow suit and call school off. Then the kids get a free day in December.
Friday, all forecasts say that the first inch of snow won’t be on the ground in Boston until about 3-4PM. So, on a day when children could have gone to school, teachers could have been in class, and residents could have avoided the hassle of relocating their cars, one mayor has shaken his personal snow globe and turned the entire town upside down.
And if this same town acts as irresponsibly all winter long - can you say panic-stricken - then students and teachers will be making up lost days for no reason well into the summer.
Another smart move from Boston-area politicians. Another snow-job for common sense.
This column also appears on my site.
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Comments
Towns don't have mayors
so I'm confused by the post.
My bad - used city and town interchangeably
Ron, in an effort to add a little variety to the column I used town and city interchangeably. It is a city. It has a mayor. He already announced the emergency and school has already been canceled. Thanks for reading.
You coulda cross-posted...
You coulda cross-posted... stealing Uhub readers, shameless. ;-P
Tough crowd
I probably would have linked to Jeff's post had I seen it first. What's not to like? It's about snow hysteria and Tom Menino and Tom Menino getting hysterical about snow (for the record, as I posted on Jeff's site, I disagree with Jeff; I think Menino made the right call, based on what happened last year, but that's another issue for the next few paragraphs).
But Jeff beat me to it. Hey, less work for me and it let me finish reading a New Yorker article about some guy who's devoted the last 10 years or so of his life to figuring out the exact dimensions and measurements of the Hiroshima bomb. :-).
If Jeff were linking to every single post on his blog, yeah, I think we might have an issue. But a teaser about something we are already obsessing about (or should that be: Something I'm already obsessing about?). I can live with that.
But you also bring up another point I've long fretted about: As way cool as it is that people find something useful/interesting here, and want to stick around and talk about it, much (most, actually) of what I do is link to other people's work. Do I ever get to the point with some of my abstracts that folks don't click onto those people's posts? You know, the same stuff people worried would happen in Newton when the Globe launched its Newton site. So I'm not sure "stealing Uhub readers" is the right phrase, since a lot of what we talk about here originates somewhere else.
Links
Do I ever get to the point with some of my abstracts that folks don't click onto those people's posts?
I follow most all your links, although I'll often come back here to comment.
RE: Tough crowd
I was just teasing Jeff.
Most people cross-post. Jeff linked with a teaser. I find the former more convenient but I have no dog in the fight.
I am interested in general blog etiquette and/or implications so I find your post interesting. For example, I learned what hot linking is here and why its in bad form.
No.
For starters, you can remove the tinyurl link so we actually know what the hell we're clicking on.
Then, you can stop hawking your blog. You're either posting here, or there. PICK ONE. It's one thing if a third party uhub'er notices your article and writes up a link. It's completely another when you post a "teaser" here.
Edited so entire column appears here
Didn't mean for you to get tired by clicking the mouse once. Have posted the entire thing here now. Enjoy.
In (minor) defense of anon, snarky as they were
I don't think it's that *you're* hiding anything by using a TinyURL - it's that TinyURLs in general are frequently used to disguise the actual destination of a given link that may contain malware or other such things that are damaging to one's computer. And not everyone has access to use a browser that permits them to install scripts that let one know exactly what the final destination of a TinyURL link is. Plus, many of these URL-shortening services (though I don't know TinyURL's policy specifically) only let their links work for a limited time, so anyone coming to the story late won't actually see your blog link at all.
Basically, it's better overall to link to http://jeffcutler.com/jeff/2008/12/local-mayor-doe... than to http://tinyurl.com/4xpjsj . The former URL is a lot more informative than the latter, and doesn't make it look like you're trying to hide something.
Forecasters agree
Looks like the snow will start around noon, with blizzard-like conditions building quickly. You REALLY don't want to risk having a bunch of kids and parents on the road while that's going on. Menino made the right call.
Agreed. My kid was stuck in
Agreed. My kid was stuck in the mess last December, when we were looking at really similar conditions, and I have to say that was a tad less convenient that having her out of school.
This sort of decision is about risk assessment, and the Mayor made the right call here, and the wrong one last year. But we've seen several times in the last couple of years that a large exodus out of downtown between 1-5 causes massive traffic lockup. That's what is really being avoided here.
We'll find out in about twelve hours whether it is justified.
Huh?
Once the emergency is declared, no resident can park on the roadways so that plows can keep the street clear. These cars have to go somewhere and that somewhere is school parking lots.
First, it's only a parking ban on arterial roads.
Second, in JP alone there are something like 6 public lots. Only a few of the roads are arterial. Don't metered spaces on non-arterial roads become free during a snow emergency?
Third, garages in Boston drop their rates or are free during snow emergencies- I'm not sure if it's required by the city, or what.
Fourth, I see nothing on http://www.cityofboston.gov/snow/parking/ to suggest that parking in school lots is permitted, and it goes against common sense- the city couldn't plow a lot full of cars.
Side note: anyone else find it really, really annoying when the city declares a snow emergency starting late in the evening, and BPD drives up and down the streets, for HOURS ON END, blasting warnings through their cruiser loudspeakers? They once did it in my neighborhood PAST 2AM.
I understand it's an attempt to let us know about the snow emergency and give us a chance to move our cars...but it feels like we're in a ghetto when the cops do it, and it keeps everyone within a block or two radius up all night. Why can't Boston do a telephone-call system instead? Or at least stop doing it after 10PM?
I find it annoying
And I'm glad they didn't do it again. I remember the 2AM rousting well. The snow emergency, which affects my street, starts at 9 AM today, and I'm glad of it.
I hope they actually enforce it this year, instead of just making me move my car off the street so my neighbor can park her SUV in front of my house until the snow all melts. I'd really rather put both cars in the street to make it easier to snowblow the driveway (and prevent my sight lines from being blocked for months by a decaying SUV).
well...
i'm not sure how they really decide on if schools get let out early or dismissed altogether and my mother is a principal of a public school in rhode island. anyway, down here in lil rhody, elementary schools don't get dismissed early no matter if the rest of the schools in the district too. so, elementary students get out at 3pm here in most districts - snow is scheduled to start (and start HEAVY) at noon-2pm. if high school/middle school get let out early, and their busses get stuck, what happens in the chain? additionally - the principals are not allowed to leave the school until all students have been picked up OR after waiting one hour after dismissal to call the police to look over the child. obviously with schools being let out early+snowfall= bad situation for the principals who will be stuck at their school until every child is picked up.
i believe boston and other school districts that are cancelling early are making the right decision. one only has to look at the mess caused by the gridlock of busses trying to get elementary school kids home and early rush hour traffic last year, and that's clearly what superintendents and mayors are trying to avoid this year. so basically, i kind of disagree with most of what you've written - including the "snow emergency" thing. again, in ri, it's a decision made by a number of people and not triggered by snow emergencies... those people include the mayor, superintendent, and what other cities/towns decide to do.
I thought he was talking
I thought he was talking about somerville ... where I lived last year and where it seemed there was a no emergency every other day. You are meant to park your car in one of the school's lots during this time.
I live back in Downtown Boston now and would love to know which garages lower their rates or offer free parking during snow emergencies??
On a general note: Give this guy a break, will you? This was beginning to sound like a boston.com message board.
Late Arrival and Early Release
Our city had to cancel the entire day because they don't have any provisions in their transportation contracts for early release or late arrival schedules. My son is very upset to lose rehearsals for the play that his class wrote, planned, and is producing. I don't fault them for calling school, but it really ticks me off that they just don't get the words "two hours late" as I have a kid who walks and we have had some downright dangerous treks on days that would have been delayed in any sane place.
Part of the problem is the weather patterns seem to be changing, at least short term, to more ice storms. This area doesn't seem to be used to such things on a regular basis (my husband, a native, agrees), and the tree damage in central Mass shows us that even mother nature isn't used to it either. Having grown up in the northwest, where ice storms are far more frequent and snow is a novelty, schools there coped with the ice by having plans for "2 hours late" or "early release" to get in as much school as possible. (they also put tire chains on the buses ... whump whump whump whump ...) I'm hearing a lot more early close and late start schedules on WBZ these days, which means districts are starting to adapt.
The other problem: snowstorms are worse at following time tables than MBTA buses and commuter rail trains! We know we are going to get it. We know about what time. We don't know exactly what time, and schools have to plan ahead for transportation with a decent window of uncertainty.
I think this must be
I think this must be something that varies community by community? Certainly, when I was growing up in Danvers (I'm 30, so this would be 15-25 years ago), we had late starts and early dismissals, so it's definitely not a new concept. I think in some cases school systems shy away from shaving off a few hours here and there, because you never get to make those hours up, unlike a full day which is tacked on to the end of the year.
'When did New England become a bunch of wussbags?'
Riggs just doesn't get it:
Yeah, sounds like me. You'd
Yeah, sounds like me. You'd think the population of San Diego had moved to Boston. The blizzard of 1978 knocked the gonads right out of eastern Massachusetts' politicians and administrators. Now they all seem to want to be the first to pull the trigger and shut down the region.
This comes from a city in Siberia:
No traffic jams in Siberia
When you live in alpine or arctic conditions, you have the entire infrastructure built around it. Vehicles are properly heated, there are block heater plug ins at every parking space, etc. There are also much fewer people.
The reason people get concerned is that fast moving storms kill. The '78 blizzard killed people and paralyzed things for a week because people were out when the worst of it hit. Had they been home, the cleanup would have been easier and faster.
Think of this one day as an investment in not being shut down until Christmas.
As somebody who lived through that storm ...
It was the sheer intensity of it that caused the most problems, not the number of people on 128 or at the Beanpot at the Garden.
My college was basically cut off from the rest of the world (well, save for commuter rail, which kept running, which is how I managed to get into Harvard Square to buy a couple of "I Survived the Blizzard of '78" certificates) not because all the streets around us were filled with cars but because we got a ton of snow that was then whipped into giant drifts by gale-force winds.
And let's not forget that Hull was briefly turned into a tiny peninsula and two islands by the force of the waves.
In contrast, last year's storm didn't result in a record-breaking amount of snow, but caused all the problems it did because, yes, everybody and their brother left work/school just as the storm was intensifying, keeping the plows from doing their jobs.
God, I can't believe I'm talking about the Blizzard of '78 again :-).
I, too lived through the Blizzard of '78.
I was attending college downtown--B. U., to be exact, and living in the dorms. It was kind of eerie, but in a way interesting, how everything was shut down, and everybody was out walking around. It was like one big festival, yet I wouldn't have wanted this to last forever. Classes were cancelled for that whole week, but, since I was living downtown, I was able to do a lot of work in the metalsmithing studio. That helped a lot.
The Blizzard of '78, however, was unusual.
I agree that last year's first storm of the season was handled quite poorly all around, which contributed a great deal to the mess that happened. If people have to drive somewhre in this kind of situation, it's one thing, but as I pointed out, too many people who could've avoided it and taken public transportation chose to drive to work or school, making it sheer hell.
February, 1978
Many people have still not recovered!
The Hurricane of '38
.
Also...
This:
is something that I totally agree with.
Why in the world do various things get cancelled that people here in the city can either get to via public transportation, which, with rare exceptions, is always running, or, on occasion, depending where they live, can hoof it to? Really, it's ridiculous how events often enough get cancelled because people from the outerlying suburbs can't get there with their cars.
Another thing that I find bothersome overall:
Another thing that I find bothersome overall when a major snowstorm hits this area is the fact that this city, considering that just as often as not, is known to get hit with a great deal of snow, just doesn't handle it very well, overall. People often don't move their cars before a snowstorm hits, making it virtually, if not downright impossible for the Public Works Department to do a decent job of plowing the streets, particularly on the side streets.
Also, NYC has the right idea on how to handle big snowfalls of six inches or greater; They've got big machines that get attached to the city's sewer system, which not only suck up the snow like a wet-vac, but suck up all the trash as well. Boston and the surrounding towns and cities could learn from that and take a hint. Other cities that get hit with a great deal of snow in the winter handle it much better and much more efficiently than the Boston area does.
In praise of the Boston DPW
I know people down in the Grove in West Roxbury hate the Boston DPW with the blinding white fury of 10,000 suns, but up here in the Clarendon Hills of Roslindale (i.e., Metropolitan and Grew hills), they generally do a very good job. You go, Mr. Backhoe Dude who Always Comes Down Our Street!
Given how much money and effort has gone into cleaning up Boston Harbor, I'm thinking we don't want giant vacuum cleaners just dumping millions of tons of trash-laden slop into the sewer systems.
On the other hand ...
Cities like Montreal actually have passible sidewalks after storms. Why is that?
Because they actually remove snow from them, that's why. The city doesn't wait for landowners to get around to it, and then never fine them if they don't.
I've met a number of people from cities as snowy or snowier than Boston who are puzzled at the lack of care given to sidewalks, especially given how many people walk around here. I know a couple in my neighborhood who don't own a car who wonder why so much tax money is spent on plowing the streets, yet so little on clearing city property or T stations of hazards.
Your post says it all in a nutshell, SwirlyGrrl
Because these cities and towns, including Montreal know that they have the problem and are far better-prepared to deal with it than Boston is. Part of the reason for that, too, however, is the fact that our winters are often quite hit-or-miss....milder, warmer winters with less cold and snow one year, and colder, harsher winters with more snow the next year, and vice versa.
Boston seems to deal with snow just fine, in my opinion
I've been out and about all day in Boston and have to say that the sidewalks are shoveled and in good condition for walking. In which areas of Boston do you have a problem with the sidewalks?
Perhaps since I grew up with snowy winters in NH where the plowing was far less frequent and less efficient, I think there's nothing wrong with Boston. I often find that people who grew up in New England don't seem to mind the snow as much as those who were raised elsewhere with different expectations. Of course this is just my very subjective and personal opinion.
How long have you lived here in Boston, o_brien?
Just curious, because in many places, people aren't known for taking responsibility and clearing off and salting/sanding the stretch of sidewalk that goes past their business and/or residence, the way they're supposed to around here. Also, back in the 1970's, Cambridge used to enforce their "No Parking During Snow Emergencies" policies, where any car parked on the street would be towed, so they could plow the streets. Nowadays, people are totally uncooperative and that policy is no longer enforced. The result is that many streets, particularly the secondary and/or side streets are poorly plowed, or in some cases, not plowed at all. There's no excuse for that.
Don't know what they're doing in Cambridge at this point, but I do know that in Somerville, they've enforced a Snow Emergency Policy (when 4 or more inches of snow is predicted), where parking is allowed on only one side of the street, and that Somerville residents who're unable to find parking on the side of the street where parking's allowed, are being permitted to park in school and/or municipal lots throughout the city until the streets are plowed, the snow stops falling, and the snow emergency is lifted, at which time they get a certain amount of time to remove their cars from those lots. I think it's a good policy...and it seems to work, from what I understand. Okay...I don't have to worry, because my car's in a garage, but, as I said before, I'm glad the policy has been enforced.
There are many parts of this area, including parts of Somerville, where people don't bother to clear off and salt their sidewalks. I don't know what the law regarding this is in NH, but I do know that here in Boston, and the Bay State at large, and probably lots of other places, if a person fails to clear their walkways, steps, sidewalks, etc., and someone walking through falls and gets injured, the residence or business owner who goes derelict on his/her responsibility could be liable...in a big way. Moreover, a homestead won't protect them from that kind of expensive lawsuit, because a saavy attorney could get around that with no trouble.
Pretty good job
From up here in the Grove, I have to defend them a little - most of the time they do a great job on my street, which is not easy. OK, sometimes I go out & jump up & down to get the plow driver's attention & try to stop him from dumping the snow in my driveway, but most of the time my street is as well plowed as any others in the area.
It used to be that one of the neighbors drove the plow - the best way to get your street plowed well is to have a neighbor driving that plow, or to have a politician living nearby.
Well,
where do you live, Grover?
In the Grove
Well, I'm not going list my address here - I'm on one of the bigger streets in the Grove. Why, are you up here? How was the plowing in your section?
They cleared the street near where I am, and salted heavily, so it's not too too bad, but the area plowed & salted is very narrow, just the width of the plow/front-end loader plow. I've been getting in & out OK.
I live inear the Somerville-Cambridge line,
and some of the plowing and salting, at least right near where I am isn't all that adequate.
You Want Bothersome?
I got your bothersome right here!
What date will the 351 cities and towns declare that they've used up their budget for plowing? I say December 21st.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Well,
a lot of cities and towns will go on removing snow after storms anyway.
Oh, Sure, I Know
I wasn't truly complaining about a lack of services or something. But, some year, wouldn't it be nice to see that they actually budgeted for it correctly?
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
It's agreed...
inefficient budgeting is a problem.
One thing I don't miss about covering small towns
Having to write stories that start like:
New York does WHAT again?
Last time I was in New York during a snow storm, all I saw was snow plows attached to the garbage trucks. The snow was being picked up by back loaders and trucked to the garbage scows that took it to the dump.
EPA regulations no longer allow snow to be placed in the sewer systems or dumped in the water. Boston use to clean off the streets a bit faster because they could dump the snow in the ocean. Now they have to haul it to dumping sites, which slow down snow removal.
So how do those sewer dwelling wet vacs work? Does a giant tube come out of the sewer?
fibrowitch
Yup.
They do get attached to the sewer system.
No-win
He gets shit for being prepared. He gets shit for not being prepared. The life of a politician? :)
Correct. It's easy to
Correct. It's easy to criticize when you don't have to make the decision affecting thousands.
Poster mixed-up on school bus logistics issues
This post (and a couple of comments) show a lack of knowledge about why Boston Public Schools likely cancelled school in advance.
Here are some important parameters:
Cancelling school for the day was a good move. Superintendent Johnson and Mayor Menino should be commended for their pragmatism -- well, today at least.
The snow came down fast and funky up here
I had to run out around 2, just as the storm hit. At the first rotary I traveled (60 and 107) in Revere, I saw the first 360 of the day. The snow was not even thick enough to need to clear off the car, but some body was already driving as if they had been pithed.
That's the problem, some how when the snow falls, the connection between the brain and the body gets cut.
I remember the storm of 1978. I was stuck at home for a week. My father worked for the gas company, he was picked up by the national guard and we did not see him for 3 days.
fibrowitch