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311 complaint of the day: It's been six days, way past time to salt your sidewalk
By adamg on Thu, 12/26/2024 - 2:32pm
Across Boston, disgusted residents are filing 311 complaints about sidewalks that are still unwalkable nearly a week after the snowstorm, such as this one about the conditions on Neptune Road in East Boston.
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Comments
It has gotten worse
I think it is time that the city increases fines for not shoveling/ treating with salt. Too many people expect things to be done for them- it’s laughable and unacceptable. Go through that 311 log, quite a few of “the sidewalk in front of my address has not been shoveled”, well bucko break out the shovel and get to work and in the meantime here is a ticket and thanks for reporting in yourself. Like who does that person think is going to do it.
Landlords are typically
Landlords are typically responsible for snow removal, so it could be tenants trying to get their landlords fined so they do their job.
Too many people expect things
Yet you are literally expecting everyone to shovel the sidewalks on their property for you. Be careful of hypocrisy.
It's not the worst thing for snow removal to be best-effort. It always melts eventually.
Renters
Yeah but some of this is renters who don't know any better.
Most (not all) snow removal is the landlords responsibility. But some smaller rentals or single family homes its the renters. Its why its important to read your lease. If you get a ticket (haha), the landlord will pass it on to you!
It is always the owners
It is always the owners responsibility. There is no standing of any ‘lease agreement’ that would transfer any responsibility to the renter.
Just get out there and clean it up!
unshoveled and wicked icy
The deadbeat ownership of 145 North Washington hasn't shoveled their side walk in 5 years....call Ad Meliora, 2 Oliver Street and complain. Should be taken by eminent domain.
rock salted streets
South Boston has its share of slippery walkways also. Wasn't there a fine for letting this happen?
That always happened in old
That always happened in old Souhie.
Why does it always have to be
Why does it always have to be about South Boston?
The worst offenders
In my opinion and experience the worst offenders are The City of Boston and The Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And it’s the same locations every year
Neptune Road
Most of that stretch of sidewalk on Neptune Road is the city's responsibility. There are no residences there. It's a bridge of sorts over an essentially unused portion of Rt 1.And before the stretch of highway was bult it was old, unused freight railroad tracks. You don't think the city is going to do it, do you? In all decades I have lived in East Boston I have never seen that area get shoveled.
Pretty brutal.
About 15% not shoveled and consequently have turned to ice. Have not seen any inspectors out issuing fines either.
It's been 6 days
Mind you, doing it on Friday night or Saturday would have made the work easier, but still, 6 days is a decent amount of time to have gotten the work done.
And, over in the Hub, SCF is
And, over in the Hub, SCF is blowing up with reports of naughty, unneighborly Cantabrigians neglecting their patch and leaving behind the icy, compacted betrayal of civic duty.
I don't understand why the city doesn't take this more seriously
I'm a perfectly capable walker and I've fallen twice since the most recent snow. It's just dumb luck that I haven't been seriously injured. I know other people who have fallen. It's an objectively dangerous situation. The city is capable of proactively having people go out to ticket and tow cars every day, but not ticket for unsafe sidewalks? I don't understand that. It doesn't help that these are especially bad times to be walking in the streets, and getting off the sidewalks by stepping over piled snow covering a layer of ice to try to avoid unwalkable areas is also dangerous. It's unavoidable as a pedestrian. The larger problem are people who have mobility issues for whom walking the sidewalks is challenging at best. What are those people to do? We either care about accessibility or we don't. The city has been sued, and as a result has committed to replacing all curb ramps to make them more accessible. This work is happening right now at great cost (millions of dollars). What's the point if we're going to ignore impassable walkways every time is snows a little. It's absurd. Obligations to residents don't go away whenever it's inconvenient for Boston.
Accessibility nightmare
Right, these uncleared sections, most of which are the city's responsibility, make it pretty much impossible for people with mobility disabilities to get anywhere. I wonder what would happen if some disabled folks filed an ADA complaint with the city? It would take years to get anywhere, which is by design and is why most people don't bother to get the ADA enforced, but the DOJ could require them to submit a budget and a plan for having consistently clear sidewalks.
Snow Removal
Much of Eastern MA and I think this extends into NH, VT, RI, CT, and Maine a bit...
We just don't take snow removal seriously enough as a whole. This issue with this iced over sidewalk is just part of a much larger problem with New Englanders attitude about snow removal. You don't walk down icy sidewalks in Montreal or Toronto, or even Chicago or Minneapolis and have issues like this (where it's plain old neglect). It doesn't happen because they have comprehensive snow removal plans.
Here it's a hot potato. Who's job is it? In other cities, the city rents bob cats purposely designed to plow snow along sidewalks. They go in and remove the big snow banks, plow to the curb, and clear out the corners and crosswalks so its safe. They cart all the snow elsewhere to be melted. And its done in a well orchestrated, yet very fast event. The residents do little except in suburbia where they have walkways and driveways of their own to do.
Year after year we complain about these issues, yet little is done. I don't get it. This would be a easy political win... except for the abolishing of space savers as apart of the process . o O (which is why its probably never been done!) O o .
This is very true Montreal
This is very true Montreal does an excellent job with snow removal. Instead of using tax dollars on creating more traffic on Columbus Ave, Blue Hill and Cummins Highway, we should invest in better show removal and clean up. For this last storm, there was no pretreatment and clean up right away. A complete disaster.
Who knew there were actual
Who knew there were actual buildings with a Neptune Road address?
I’d like to know who shovels the other part of that street, east of the Blue Line tracks, where all the houses were condemned and demolished due to airport noise. It’s now a dead end surrounded by high fences, but it’s still a tree-lined street with sidewalks and a grassy median.
Buildings on Neptune Road
"Who knew there were actual buildings with a Neptune Road address?"
People's lack of knowledge of East Boston is astounding. Next you'll be telling me it's an Italian-American community.
There certainly are buildings on Neptune Road, mostly businesses (although there may be some residence above the businesses), including a 7-11, a liquor store, a UPS store, a small Latino-owned clothing store and a mysterious flat building resembling the buildings on the Flintstones that has never been occupied for more than a few months at a time in the last 50 years. It is this building that is seen in the photo. The photo also looks like the Bennington Street side of the Neptune Road/Bennington Street intersection to me. There's also a bus stop on the Bennington Street side, but the T does nothing. Somebody picked the wrong corner to make a cause celebre out of, because in all my decades in East Boston I have never seen it get shoveled.
It's a pretty well-kept secret
Can you blame people not from East Boston for not knowing the name of this street? BTD does a pretty good job at keeping it a secret, since there are NO signs for Neptune Road at the following intersections:
Frankfort St: https://maps.app.goo.gl/57KhtygqitH6oRvg6
1A North ramps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/geWj4186kBGn8wLR6
Bremen St: https://maps.app.goo.gl/rsje6Bwa3p7EqUmK8
Saratoga St: https://maps.app.goo.gl/FSamBxVWPc8ZDs6x5
Chelsea St: https://maps.app.goo.gl/n6z5vW5JPyWTSjrp9
The only known signs for this segment of Neptune are a pair of signs at Bennington St: https://maps.app.goo.gl/uct1y7U4qx7y1vfr9
But hey, the ghost portion of Neptune east of the Blue Line has a shiny new sign: https://maps.app.goo.gl/MjKrGowE7i646ux56
Massport
Massport probably. They own the buffer park there and probably just do the whole area since someone comes by with a snow blower.
Neptune Road
Didn't Massport tear down all the houses on this street because of airport noise, leaving it a pretty useless cul-de-sac? I don't know why anyone would want to walk there.
Neptune Road crosses under 1A
And ends either at Saratoga St. or Chelsea St. If you're coming from the area east/north of Day Sq., that's how you'd walk to the Wood Island T (and make a left on Bennington).
Frankfort Street
Frankfort Street
plenty of people do
I live nearby and pass by regularly. Just look at street view and there are people walking in front of that building. There's even a crosswalk right in front of that massive ice patch.
Nah
Neptune runs to Chelsea Street. The UPS Store and the Laundromat / Convenience Store both have Neptune Road street addresses.
I think you are thinking about Frankfort street which basically ends at a fence that separates it from the Wood Island busway.
I read somewhere there's been discussions about connecting Frankfort street to the Wood Island Busway so the buses can use it. It could be a bit faster for the 120/121 and 112 to that way than wait at the light at Neptune @ Bennington Street.
There’s a severed piece of
There’s a severed piece of Neptune Road east of the Blue Line tracks which is a ghost street as Ron describes.
Frankfort Street is similar. It still had a triple decker standing in 2011 street view, since demolished.
Fines are way too low, enforcement is a joke
$50 at the lowest, $200 at the max and thats only if Bos311 actually responds to your ticket or code enforcement happens to see it.
Entitled property owners would rather risk the minor fine, which they might not even get, than pay crews to remove the snow or do it themselves. Or in our case, having tenants that shovel multiple times during a storm.
My partner slipped and fell on ice earlier this week walking to work, bruised elbow and backside. Opened a ticket and Bos311 said their was no violation. I walked to the location after the ticket was closed and there was still a clear patch of ice. The new ticket is still open but the ice has since melted.
A two-family home near us has barrels, ropes and cones out blocking the sidewalk rather than removing the ice. Might be a drainage issue, as this is a recently renovated property but it is no excuse for this: https://311.boston.gov/tickets/101005833537
But don't worry, the roads were clear the night of the storm.
the roads were clear the
Yep, which they accomplished as usual by pushing whatever's on the road up onto the sidewalk, blocking crosswalks, driveways, and storm drains, and un-doing whatever sidewalk shoveling somebody may have done. I shoveled our sidewalk the night of the storm and in the process got splashed by filthy street slush when a team of city plows went past at 30 mph.
all because
nobody spent the 10 minutes it would've taken to shovel the snow before it froze into a hardened ice waffle. hell, even 30 seconds spent clearing a 24" linear path with one push of a snow shovel would've been appreciated.
City worst offender
The city is the worst offender. I've called about places like central sq Park. Covered in 3 inches of solid ice. Not one walkway shoveled. Along with that 6 Handicapped ramps around the park 100% buried in snow ,a n d ice.
I'm in motorized wchair, and I had to go in the street from gove,and Paris because NOT 1 of the h c ramps were cleared. Along with 12 bus stops.
So before you condem residents,do your job and put public works to work.