![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
5:45 am is a good time to get up, right?
According to the City of Waltham it is.
They declared a "snow emergency" sometime on Thursday or Friday (31st or 1st) starting at 12:00 am Saturday. Yes, midnight on Saturday, before barely any snow had fallen. According to the Waltham website, the snow emergency will continue until 7:00 am on Monday, January 4th. Yes, that's 55 hours over a long new years weekend.
It's important to note that the term "snow emergency" as defined in The Waltham New English Dictionary (2005 edition) as "any time the CPW (Consolidated Public Works) director thinks we might get more than two inches of snow" The implications of a snow emergency are that they tow all the cars parked on all the street so they can clear the streets all the way to the sidewalk so you can park there easily and emergency vehicles can get by.
It didn't occur to me that they'd declare a snow emergency until about noon on Saturday when![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lionstar and I were talking about how pretty the snow was and she said, "good thing you're not parked on the street!" Except that we were at her place with her car. Oops. By the time I got home around 2:30 or so, not only had they not towed any cars, but they hadn't plowed. Or at least they hadn't plowed very much. There was a mildly clearer bit in the middle of the street, but the sides, the bits where they they tow the cars so they can plow, hadn't been touched. It was snowing lightly, had only snowed about an inch in the first 23 hours of the emergency, so I figured it was probably safe to stay on the street until I was going to be up and out on Sunday anyway.
But... at 5:45 this morning the cop cars started doing their rounds, barking that cars will be towed if they're not moved off the streets.
5:45 on a Sunday morning 30 hours into a snow emergency that wasn't even that snowy when it's 14° outside. Really? That's the smart way to run a city?
I got up and moved my car. By 8:00 the plow had been by three times (once up the middle, once on each side, parking spots still full depth snow) and none of the remaining cars had been towed or moved.
Couldn't they have waited until... I dunno, 9:00 to start the warnings and towing? Let people sleep in a bit? Would those 3 more hours have made the difference between getting snowed in and not?
What's infuriating is that this policy is pretty new, the word "emergency" used to mean something more than "lack of convenience". I used to dig out my car from two feet of snow. And you know what? That was less of a pain in the ass than having to find some place to put my car every time it snows more than two inches.
Furthermore, the towing policy is pretty blatantly classist. It only applies to people who don't have driveways, and even for those who do park on the street in nicer neighborhoods it's not enforced there. I'm having trouble imagining that anyone in city government parks on the street, or has to move their cars at 6:00 in the morning on a Sunday when it's 15 degrees out.
And finally, it really really seems like the writers of this policy have totally forgotten that the government is there for us, and not the other way 'round. They either have no idea how disruptive it is for those of us without driveways, or they just don't care. Either way, I'll be writing a bunch of strongly worded letters, and following up with phone calls. This is ridiculous.
Now it's 9:00 and the cars have been moved (but not towed, thankfully, that would suck for them) and they've plowed the parking areas.
But there's still no way to know when it's safe to park on the street again without guessing, or periodically calling the CPW.
Oh, right... when you ask the cop, "where can I put my car?" the answer is "I dunno." or "find a municipal lot". But that's it. What exactly are the elderly, pregnant, infirm or handicapped supposed to do?
At least my shoveling is done.
They declared a "snow emergency" sometime on Thursday or Friday (31st or 1st) starting at 12:00 am Saturday. Yes, midnight on Saturday, before barely any snow had fallen. According to the Waltham website, the snow emergency will continue until 7:00 am on Monday, January 4th. Yes, that's 55 hours over a long new years weekend.
It's important to note that the term "snow emergency" as defined in The Waltham New English Dictionary (2005 edition) as "any time the CPW (Consolidated Public Works) director thinks we might get more than two inches of snow" The implications of a snow emergency are that they tow all the cars parked on all the street so they can clear the streets all the way to the sidewalk so you can park there easily and emergency vehicles can get by.
It didn't occur to me that they'd declare a snow emergency until about noon on Saturday when
lionstar and I were talking about how pretty the snow was and she said, "good thing you're not parked on the street!" Except that we were at her place with her car. Oops. By the time I got home around 2:30 or so, not only had they not towed any cars, but they hadn't plowed. Or at least they hadn't plowed very much. There was a mildly clearer bit in the middle of the street, but the sides, the bits where they they tow the cars so they can plow, hadn't been touched. It was snowing lightly, had only snowed about an inch in the first 23 hours of the emergency, so I figured it was probably safe to stay on the street until I was going to be up and out on Sunday anyway.But... at 5:45 this morning the cop cars started doing their rounds, barking that cars will be towed if they're not moved off the streets.
5:45 on a Sunday morning 30 hours into a snow emergency that wasn't even that snowy when it's 14° outside. Really? That's the smart way to run a city?
I got up and moved my car. By 8:00 the plow had been by three times (once up the middle, once on each side, parking spots still full depth snow) and none of the remaining cars had been towed or moved.
Couldn't they have waited until... I dunno, 9:00 to start the warnings and towing? Let people sleep in a bit? Would those 3 more hours have made the difference between getting snowed in and not?
What's infuriating is that this policy is pretty new, the word "emergency" used to mean something more than "lack of convenience". I used to dig out my car from two feet of snow. And you know what? That was less of a pain in the ass than having to find some place to put my car every time it snows more than two inches.
Furthermore, the towing policy is pretty blatantly classist. It only applies to people who don't have driveways, and even for those who do park on the street in nicer neighborhoods it's not enforced there. I'm having trouble imagining that anyone in city government parks on the street, or has to move their cars at 6:00 in the morning on a Sunday when it's 15 degrees out.
And finally, it really really seems like the writers of this policy have totally forgotten that the government is there for us, and not the other way 'round. They either have no idea how disruptive it is for those of us without driveways, or they just don't care. Either way, I'll be writing a bunch of strongly worded letters, and following up with phone calls. This is ridiculous.
Now it's 9:00 and the cars have been moved (but not towed, thankfully, that would suck for them) and they've plowed the parking areas.
But there's still no way to know when it's safe to park on the street again without guessing, or periodically calling the CPW.
Oh, right... when you ask the cop, "where can I put my car?" the answer is "I dunno." or "find a municipal lot". But that's it. What exactly are the elderly, pregnant, infirm or handicapped supposed to do?
At least my shoveling is done.