You know what I would have liked to do on Sunday when the weather was grand? Go for a bike ride. You know what I had to do instead? Drive all over the damn state looking at beat up old cars to buy. And you know what got in the way of getting that miserable task done? Some neighbor of mine called the town to complain about my failure to clear the sidewalk in front of my house, so the cops came and told me to do it, so I had to do it.
Now, I know what you're saying. You're saying, "Cry me a river, El Prez. It is your civic duty to make the sidewalks passable, and as an advocate of non-motorized transportation, you, of all people, should take this sacred trust seriously." To that I say, Fair enough, but peep this: My house in on a corner and there are sidewalks on two sides. On one side, the sidewalk connects to the rest of the block and is used by schoolchildren on their way to, you know, school. On the other side, the sidewalk dead-ends at my driveway and there is no more sidewalk on the rest of the block. (See diagram below; click for larger, legible size.)
So I cleared the sidewalk that goes somewhere and left the sidewalk to my driveway completely unshoveled. Why? Because if that part is unshoveled, you have to walk in the street, but if it's shoveled, you still have to walk in the street, because there are no sidewalks on the block!. But apparently, that's not good enough for some suckers, so I had to spend a couple hours chiseling away at the six inches of ice that had accumulated under the foot and a half of snow. And for what? So that some people get to walk thirty feet more on a sidewalk before they have to go in the street, which, by the way, they can only do by trespassing across my driveway. I am strongly tempted to build a little wall on my driveway at the end of the sidewalk, just to spite the trife individual who complained. But then the mail wouldn't get delivered.
Honestly, I just want to be done shoveling and scraping and buying a stupid car and get to the important business of riding my bike around. I totally need Voltron right now.
Monday, February 2, 2009
A Message for my West Hartford Neighbors
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7 comments:
Civic duty, man. Civic duty!
It makes me angry that the police go to your house to harass you about the lack of shoveling on a pointless stretch of sidewalk when 25-30% of the sidewalks I run on go regularly uncleared. Why don't they spend their time harassing these people? Perhaps they are just jealous of your relationships with intergalactic crime prevention which reminds them that they are merely lowly sub-urban sidewalk ice monitors.
On the wall idea I think it is a good one, just build a little door and put a lock on it. Kindly give a copy of the key to the mailman and ask for his compliance. I think he will understand. That is, unless he regularly uses your stretch of dead-end sidewalk.
I should point out that my comment is not to downplay the importance of maintaining cleared sidewalks but rather that A) your neighbor could have mentioned something to you instead of calling the cops, and B) I think clearing through-way sidewalks should be more of a concern to the police.
I'm also surprised that someone remember that you had sidewalk there if it never gets used.
good 'ol west hartford, the town of marshmellow fluff...
There's a hotline listed on the WH town website where people can complain about the sidewalks that aren't cleared.
The thing that really ticks me off is a certain convenience store in my neighborhood that doesn't always have its sidewalk shoveled.
Dogmatic busy bodies! Think of the futility and waste of enforcing this nonsensical situation. The spirit and purpose of this law is to assure that people can safely & conveniently walk without getting hit by a car. The problem is that people like this "dead-end sidewalk nazi" go around having things enforced like this to serve no other purpose than to badger a fellow neighbor and to make their little lives seem significant. I've ran into a few town officials having a similar dogmatic track and it's a shame.
I applaud you for your efforts! If there were more citizens like you then maybe folks would focus on more things that really make a difference. Just beware that this jerk may be plotting other nefarious manipulations of the town codes for revenge against your clever protest. Good Luck!
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