(Not) Clearing Sidewalks

i am in a wheelchair. i park in p.o. square every day for work ,and all the handicapped spots are so the drivers door is on the sidewalk side of the street ,wich is all snowbanks.

I am able to walk and I have trouble navigating the poorly cleared sidewalks and intersections. It seems like businesses and residents have shirked their responsibility to clear pathways. And in the few instances where they have been cleared pedestrians face icey / slushy puddles a half foot deep or more that would make using a wheelchair impractical. Looks like this will be a long winter if there are this many problems and it is only our second snow storm of the season.

I'm glad to see this issue getting some attention. I think it deserves even more.

No offense to Mr. Kelly, but what should we expect people to do about this? It is nearly impossible to have all of the snow and ice cleared from the sidewalks and roadways the day or two after a big storm. Our New England meteorological/Climate conditions and available human resources just do not allow for it. We should feel bad that this situation creates significant impairments to handicap access around the city, but realistically what can be done about it? Please make some feasible suggestions as to what accomodations should be made.

We hear so much from the Mayor and Governor concerning safety and how THEY help the handicap. Let's see if they will take the lead to resolve these problems immediately and take action to mitigate these problems in the future, or if they need to be FINED and ORDERED by the AG to comply with state and federal laws regarding handicap accessibility. Would love to see the TV and news agencies getting behind this and do some stories. This IS a community interest issue.

Weekdays 7AM-5PM, call 617-635-4896 for city inspectional services, or the mayor's hotline at 617-635-4500 24x7. That's a lot more productive than posting photos online, but also not as much fun, I suppose?

As a Melrose resident I walk to the Commuter Rail at Cedar Park. Many fellow residents join me. Unfortunately, the residents who live on the upper end of Vinton St near the intersection of West Emerson Street never shovel their walkways. Occaisionally the city of Melrose will come by with a sidewalk plow but it cannot scrape the ground and it leave giant frozen piles at crosswalks and intersections. Nobody takes responsibility for the task of cleaning up. it's an annoyance for me but my spouse is visually impaired and also suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and when conditions are like this it is a nightmare for her just to walk 2 and 1/2 blocks to the T station. And the MBTA is not much better at cleaning up either.

There is NOT enough attention being given tot his problem... especially by the media.
PLEASE CONTINUE to support such advocates!

Most of the worst offenders are not residents. The ice at MBTA "T" stops is terrible. And what about the courthouses? I had jury duty last year, and they expected us to arrive at 8 am, but they didn't do anything about the ice until much later. I walked in with an elderly lady who had a terrible time keeping her footing, and I didn't have it much better. I can't even imagine trying to get around in a wheelchair on the sidewalks.

for Ben...and others

How about the city hiring some of the legions of unemployed people to shovel curbcuts and sidewalks...I just passed a City Public Works yard that hadn't shoveled the sidewalks on a busy walking street. Hire some temporary Inspectional ervice people to tag businesses...or authorize the meter maids.

As far as the media...don't hold your breath. Just look at the crosswalks and curb cuts outside Fox 25 offices at PArk Street and Beacon Streets. 2 feet piles ring the sidewalk.

Everyone should go to www.mass.gov/AAB (Department of Public Safety) and click on the link for the Architectural Access Board. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Forms and Application...then chose Sidewalks or Curb Cuts.

Bill Allan
Disability Policy Consortium

I live in the west Fenway and while the uncleared sidewalks are especially a hazard for disabeled persons they are still a major safety hazard for all pedestrians. The DCR does not do an adequate job of clearing the walking paths through the fens albeit a few major ones, and then seem not to return to re-sand / salt more than the initial time. Furthermore I don't understand the DCR's designation of park drive a tow zone during snow emergencies. During Thursday's storm the state police were more concerned with the handful remaining cars on Park Drive rather than the total gridlock at the intersection of park drive, boylston, and brookline at the landmark center. This gridlock was much more of a public hazard as I'm sure the total gridlock would slow access for emergency vehicles accessing the hospitals, which the frequently do through that major intersection

This city is full of the laziest public employees that you'll find anywhere in this country, and it comes from THE TOP down. Not only are things not plowed properly, but enforcement is a joke. Menino and Patrick should be ashamed of themselves. On top of that, you have some of the semi-private institutions such as the BSO and Northeastern, etc., who are no better. Just think about the impression this leaves on people from out of town?

I am really surprised how little is done to clear the sidewalks, not just for wheelchairs, but also for elderly people, parents with kids, etc.
I am from Europe and I have always thought that the US was much friendlier to handicapped than Europe, but after having stayed in Boston for half a year, I don't have this impression any more.

The comment on the list photo on the Flickr set says it all --
DCR told me yesterday "roads are the number one priority. Everything else comes after."

The roads by Kenmore Square were all very passable today. The sidewalks were a very mixed bag. Some were completely shoveled, others, like the Brookline Ave overpass over the Pike, were completely caked in snow and ice. Implicit to all this is that clearing the way for cars is simply more pressing than for pedestrians, and the Globe reporting almost accepts this as a given. An article on the web site earlier mentioned, "Temperatures are expected to top out near 25 degrees, which means pedestrians will continue to slip and slide." Would it be OK if cars continued to slip and slide days later? Another article reported on several cases of severe injuries in local hospitals from falls on the ice.

There are two main problems at work here: lack of funds for the city to do a proper job and lack of will on the part of home and business owners to do a proper job. I encourage everyone to tell businesses that they frequent to keep the sidewalks and curbs clear, shame their neighbors into doing a better job, and pitch in a bit to help out the city. We all enjoy the parks in the summer and I would rather see their budget go towards maintenance than snow removal. Out walking your dog? Take a shovel and spend 15 minutes clearing a couple curbs or part of the sidewalk near the park that your dog enjoys.

Ben,

"Significant impairments"? Understatement if ever there was one. How are these people supposed to get to doctors appointments? To work? To get groceries? The term "impairment" implies that it makes the task more difficult. Their daily activities are impossible under these conditions. What good is handicapped parking (for those genuinely handicapped) if there is a three foot high snowbank blocking their path to safety? What are "we" supposed to do about it? Stand up FOR them, Ben. Ever think about complaining because something is unfair to someone OTHER than yourself? (GASP) These people need us to help stand up for them on this issue. About fifteen years ago, a wheelchair user was struck and killed in Brighton while wheeling down the street because he couldn't get to the sidewalk. It left a lasting impression on me. God Bless, and Ben, remember: There but for the grace of God...

i'm a wheelchair user and work full time, but because of the two storms i can't get past my front door so i've had to call in sick.
it's depressing as hell to be stuck inside for three months a year.

Hey Ben,

Would you be satisfied if you were told "it's nearly impossible to get the streets cleared sooner than 2 days after a storm (or 7, 14, 21)"? Do we expect those who are ambulatory or driving cars to come up with the "better solutions"? No!

This is 2007. How long have there been people with disabilities been around? Long enough for our government and businesses to know better and do better than this!

Let's not forget those of us who diligently shovel our walks including an acces point to/from the street only to have said public works plows come through in the middle of the night and push all of the snow back into your access. I have a cleared sidewalk but no one can get to it because the path I made into the street got plowed in sometime after midnight. Now that path is frozen solid! Shame on the public works dept and it's leadership.

the state of crosswalks in boston is terrible. the mayor is all over tv and radio complaining about how the traffic problems during last week's storm was the fault of everyone but him and his administration, but what about the state of sidewalks and crosswalks? the crosswalks on major streets are not cleared at all and are covered in ice now. major streets are not plowed from one side to the other, and the city seems to have an attitude of waiting for the snow to melt, rather than dealing with it. I'm so fed up with listening to the mayor point fingers at everyone but himself.

Please do not judge me on a personal level Cheryl, etc. I merely posted this comment to play Devils Advocate and elicit a constructive discussion about what sort of actual changes could be done. I put others before myself and "stand up for them" more often than I care to admit. In fact, my life has been built upon putting others first, to the point where I personally suffer just so I can make things better for others. My life and profession are built upon that principle. How many hours did you spend trying to clear walkways this past week?? Personally I spent about 9 hours clearing the sidewalks on my street, my widowed mothers, my 90 year old great aunts, and my disabled nieghbors... II agree that more needs to be done to fix the situation and I would like to see people give good, quality suggestions rather than just berate and downtrod upon others who dare to comment with difficult statements. I am sorry if I offended anyone, especially you Cheryl for you really seem like a true martyr for other people.

You advocates are rediculous. This is winter in New England. If you don't want any snow or ice on any sidewalk or curb. move to a warmer climate.
Sure it;s hard everybody, but let's be realistic. Reasonable accomadations
mean REASONABLE , not perfect, no ice, no snow on sidewalks or curbs.
Non disabled persons have a harder time getting around in the winter and disabled persons can't expect everyday in the winter to be like a day in July. Every sidewalk or curb will not be passable a day or two after a storm for anyone. Get a grip. Everyone has a harder time in the winter, but to expect perfection, is unrealistic.

Thank you for bringing this issue up. I slipped five times walking only four blocks today, and I can't imagine what it's like to try to get around in such a mess with a wheelchair.

The previous poster has a good point about having all the snow and ice shoved back into the area you cleaned out overnight. Because the stuff is always pushed to where there's room for it to go, it's the people who dig out their sidewalks and cars who are punished the most by the next plowing.

I never thought I'd point to my hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma as having something that Boston should emulate, but here I go... They have large areas designated for flash flood water because they have a perfect storm of flash flood risk factors. Why not make the New England equivalent -- a designated area every few square miles to put plowed snow, so that plowing doesn't create just as many problems as it solves?

Leo L people with disabilties don't expext perfection but they do expect an effort to be made. Not clearing access to handicap spaces or curb cuts is unacceptable. The city of Boston and all communities in Mass. as well as the residents need to do a better job of clearing their streets and sidewalks. If all parties did their job we wouldn't be having this dicussion.

I work for a muncipality south of Boston. The 1st priority IS the roads (for emergency vechile access). We just spent the night (12 hours) cleaning up the Downtown area and school walking routes. The cost was about $30,000 (for one night and less than 2 miles of sidewalk!). The staff, after a storm on Thursday, cleanup Friday, Storm on Sunday, Cleanup Monday, and a full night of removal last night, are exhausted. Far too much is expected of municipalities at the staffing levels provided in the era of Prop 2 1/2. We are all probably "preaching to the Choir" here, but next time you vote down Prop 2 1/2 override for General Fund operating budget, you can bet that it is the fundemental services of a community that will be further strained.

I think the best idea is for the city to hire some of the unemployed people around to both help them and improve the sidewalks everyone. Ideally the city(boston, somerville, cambridge, etc) would each buy a small fleet of snowblowers and have the unemployed temporary workers use them to clear sidewalks all over. The easiest way to accomplish this is to have people that are interested signup on a city website then have them get a call in order when they're needed and if they're available they do it for a few hours. I would love to not have to navigate sidewalks and ice plus for everyone else that needs even more reliable walkways this would be great.

So, Leo, if you were suddenly injured and lost mobility, by your statements I am to believe that you would move to Florida rather than expect that, like any Massachusetts resident, you should be able to leave your home and continue daily activities as necessary?

It is not "expecting perfection" to desire that areas designated for travel are accessible when storms are finished. It is not "expecting perfection" to believe all people, regardless of mobility, should have equal access to sidewalks, roads, and crosswalks.

New England is home to a diverse population including people of all physical capabilities. They know what the weather is like, and they still choose to live here. Survival of the fittest is not, and should never be, Boston's motto.

I think, Leo, that you might very well be the one who needs to get a grip. The people who expect equality and decent human treatment--those people have already grasped something huge--and fundamental to human dignity.

To Leo L. and others, why are you so desperate to be miserable? I've heard several people since last week's storm get defensive and say "this is winter here-deal with it" as though nothing can be improved and we shouldn't try. Which is crap. On this board alone there have been several plausible suggestions. Put some pressure on the administration and come down harder on business owners and property owners. Lots of landlords in Boston own several properties and are too cheap to maintain them properly. Start giving them tickets (Boston seems to love giving tickets for everything else anyway) and use the money collected to pay for more snow removal. This might be a "New England culture" thing but it does seem that certain residents take personal insult at any attempts to improve quality of life.

Hey I have a suggestion for all you global warming hippies, Lets put some CO2 up there and then we won't have snow. Sweet.

Seriously, this is Boston, this is winter. We get snow and ice, its a fact of life. You can't expect that because your in a wheel chair there should be a red carpet laid out in front of you. The fact is there are limited resources and not everything can be cleaned up at once, and if it is where do you expect them to put all the snow?

Im sorry to say this, but if you don't like snow and ice on your sidewalks dont live in a northeastern city in the winter!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leo,

For someone in a wheelchair, its not just "harder" to travel in the days after a snowstorm when the city or town they live in has done a terrible job clearing snow...its impossible. Do you get that term? This is different from you waking up, seeing snow outside and saying, "oh what an annoyance, I might have to trudge over some snow to my car and scrape some ice off of my windshield. Oh darn." This is someone in a wheelchair waking up, seeing snow outside and saying, "well, guess I wont be leaving my house for a week. Better call my work and tell them I will be using up all my vacation time. I guess I will have to cancel that trip I wanted to take in a few months."

See the difference?

Boston should do what they do in Montreal, all the parking meters, light posts, etc. are up against the walls of the buildings so that there are very few obstructions on the sidewalks between the curbs and the streets. Newspaper boxes and trash cans should not be allowed to obstruct the sidewalks either. This makes clearing the sidewalks much easier.

Wow, I read these comments and hear alot of frustration and even bitterness towards the disabled/non-disabled. This is a societal issue that we all need to deal with. I am a wheelchair user as a result of being struck by a car while going through an intersection. Unfortunatley, the person who struck me wasn't paying attention. Reading all your comments also tells me that no one is paying attention to the big picture; we all must help eachother to make our society work, not complain about what we see as our own individual problems. Every persons problem has a ripple effect that eventually reaches our entire society.

As the disabled person who occasioned this discussion, I'm really happy to see such a wide variety of comments. A lot of people really are hostile to access, and it is good to see them post comments. Unfortunately, we only hear in the comments section from the the "Boston, love it or leave it!" patriots, while the major stumbling blocks to access are located in the rarefied atmosphere of aesthetic preservationists (e.g., Back Bay/Beacon Hill), aesthetic gentrifiers (e.g., the Fenway Alliance along the Avenue of the Arts/Huntington Avenue), and property value maximizers (e.g., developers and the BRA). I hope some of you will check out the Neighborhood Access Group website at http://www.neighborhoodaccess.org for more discussion of lots of these issues.

ML gets at a truth that people just don't want to hear, namely that even if the Department of Conservation and Recreation or just about any city really wanted to clear all the sidewalks and curb cuts and crosswalks, it wouldn't be able to. We found this out when then-Governor Mitt Romney decided to look tough after those high school students got hit in West Roxbury. DCR employees testified regarding the huge staffing cuts. So DCR came up with a snow removal plan, available at http://maps.massgis.state.ma.us/DCR_Snow_Priority/viewer.htm . It has very little correspondence to reality.

It's great to see so many people with disabilities and our allies chiming in , and I hope that you all continue to speak out and complain. Not until sidewalk access is seen as an issue for everyone (and it of course it is, as the occasional reports from the hospital emergency rooms well document), and not just an onerous burden on "normal" by another demanding special interest, will we start to see some progress on this issue.

People who say that the present system can't deliver clear sidewalks and curb cuts are right -- a cynic might say that it's not really designed to. The city of Boston announced that it had written 250 tickets in six days for lack of snow removal, but I remember city officials chortling over the 4812 tickets and 942 cars towed during a 36 hour snow emergency in 2006. Now that was some prioritizing!

We have the same problem in Evanston, Illinois. We shovel, the city plows push the snow back into the curb cuts. It's exhausting, not to mention frustrating.
Why would a city spend money to create curb cuts for accessibility only to fill the with snow in the winter and make accessibility impossible for people who use wheelchairs.