Dump snow on Boston Sidewalks? Sure
In Boston’s Back Bay.
From The Boston Guardian. This article, slightly edited for New England Diary, is by Daniel Larlham Jr.
(Robert Whitcomb, New England Diary’s publisher/editor, is chairman of The Boston Guardian.)
There are only so many places for the accumulated snow to go as Boston waits for it to melt away, Back Bay resident Martyn Roetter was quite perturbed to hear from a neighbor in the early morning of Feb. 13 that snow-removal contractors were clearing the snow from the bike lane and onto the sidewalk in front of their Beacon Street building.
Cyclists have recently expressed frustration over the lack of clear bike lanes across the city, with some going as far as clearing the lanes themselves.
But Roetter, who recently stepped down as chair of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay and remains a member, says he was surprised to hear from his neighbor of 20 years that snow was being moved into the already cleared sidewalk path.
When asked by the neighbor, Roetter alleges, the workers claimed that they were contracted by the city. The neighbor was able to convince the crew to re-clear the snow from the sidewalk paths.
“Why would you clear snow from the bike lanes, which are hardly used at all of course at this time of year and certainly not under the snowy conditions that still prevail, why would you take snow from that and dump it from sidewalks which had been cleared?” Roetter added.
Later in the day Roetter took stock of several Beacon Street blocks from Clarendon Street onwards and noted that the bike lane had been cleared as well, with the snow moved to the sidewalk snowbanks, and not the paths.
“I think it’s important that we provide residents with the most professional snow-removal process as we can to ensure residents are safe crossing our streets and walking our sidewalks, especially persons with disabilities, our seniors and young children going to school,” said City Councilor Ed Flynn, who represents part of the Back Bay. “It’s about public safety. It’s about quality of life for all of residents.”
Flynn added that so far this year, the rank-and-file public-works team did the best job that they could at snow removal under difficult circumstances.
“However, I don’t believe the mayor’s office and the city council provided the critical support to effectively remove the snow. Leadership is about accepting responsibility, and that responsibility rests squarely with the mayor and the city council.”
Others have been quite pleased with the city’s snow-removal efforts this year (at least before the Feb. 22-23 storm), Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president of the Back Bay Association, said that this year’s plowing and continued snow removal have been superior.
“What we saw in the Back Bay, sort of the business portion of Back Bay, was the prioritizing of and the full clearing of travel lanes.
The way we saw that function, was there was capacity for vehicles to be able to function in the Back Bay in a way that was far superior, than say, the last few years.”
Mainzer-Cohen explained that as a kind of step one in the snow-removal process. The next was to triage and remove some of the large and problematic snow piles that accumulated.
On Berkely Street, Mainzer-Cohen said that there had been signs posted less than a week after the original plowing notifying of additional snow removal. Later, the snow in the bike lanes had been removed.
She added that if any snow had been spillover into the already clear sidewalks paths, it was likely done by mistake.
“The snow is going somewhere, and there can be inadvertent placement of snow in a place that had been shoveled. Really, the whole goal is to hit all these marks.”
The mayor’s press office did not respond to requests for comments by deadline on whether bike-lane clearing was a current priority for the administration or if contractors had been instructed to clear snow onto the sidewalks.
Daniel Larlham Jr. reports for The Boston Guardian.