Comments on: society is breaking down

By: juli

juli — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 05:32:55 +0000

i love how you broke that down sara, quite amazing how i can dig my car out 3 times in as many days and yet it takes 9 days for a plow to come down and free my entire street.
the parking chair thing, i have to admit this is the first time i have ever done this, but to be fair i leave on a dead end road that public works refused to do. i literally called my districts public works office and the lady answering the phones told me she didnt give a crap about me and hoped i froze over and died. nice isnt it? good to see my tax money at work. even though i am doing the parking car thing it is not in front of anybodies house and is almost 5 blocks from my own home so that means i have been walking in knee deep snow for 9 days to get to my car then digging it out!

By: Sara

Sara — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:33:54 +0000

Breaking it down a bit differently (repost from a friend):

according to the post-gazette, there are 2,000 lane miles of streets in the city.

there are 51 trucks. assume that 5 are broken down.

that’s 46 trucks.

That’s just 43 miles per truck.

By: Frank

Frank — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:55:13 +0000

Kelly said: Getting the car to the house was a whole separate ordeal that took several hours and resulted in two flat tires and a close brush with frostbite. I don’t want to talk about it.

Oh please do!

By: Sweetney

Sweetney — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:49:49 +0000

“What day was it? How long had we been here? Where was everyone?” — Oh my god, you’re living my life.
.-= Sweetney´s last blog ..Previously On… =-.

By: Beth

Beth — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:46:55 +0000

I totally would have moved her chair. I think it't ridiculous. Normally I wouldn't move it, but holy hell, that was blatantly rude on her part. Or maybe she was saving it for you? .-= Beth´s last blog ..Snowmageddon =-.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:15:17 +0000

And that was more like four things.

Plus a fifth: the backhoe driver? Nice guy. We gave him some Tylenol and water, he said he’d had three hours of sleep in almost as many days. Nice. There is not an unlimited workforce here…last I checked we weren’t staffed with robots.
.-= Laurie´s last blog ..(Don’t) Let Her Sing =-.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:13:09 +0000

Okay, two things. My gym is awesome on Facebook and Twitter, they updated closings and delays all week, around the clock. First person to comment? Pointed out a typo in the date on their Web site: “Please fix the Web site.”

I had to comment below, not addressing her, but thanking this guy for keeping me informed so thoroughly as a customer. Who has a Wii Fit AND a shovel to keep my heart rate up.

Then? We “finally” got a big backhoe on our court on…whatever day it was. Monday? My neighbor who is, admittedly, an older woman but is still working and mobile every day had gone out after they moved a bunch of snow near her car the day before and stuck a BROOM in it, with a sign: Do not move any more snow here.

Seriously? There was nowhere to put it. The guy had to work. She came out and chewed him out, and then moved her car and SAT in her car in the way of him and his partner in a pickup truck. My mom finally went over and asked her to move so they could finish. She came back before they were done. No one would say anything, so I did. “PLEASE let them finish. Please.” I felt bad but honestly? Probably 100 people live here. It’s not about any one person in particular. And no one was taking her space, trust me. The dude next door? WATCHED me poke around at my poor buried Beetle and said, “I don’t like that snow going behind my car.” I stopped because I didn’t want to escalate him, but he has a huge Bronco down the street.

And I’m sorry, but that chair in the space in front of your house? Inexcusable. I don’t know what happens to people. And I don’t like how angry this behavior makes me. It makes me feel irrational and retaliatory and I don’t like that.

I have a disabled uncle stuck in his house with no electricity. Thank God my sister is close so she can walk to him if need be but it’s tough going out there now. It hurts my head to think about pregnant women and people with medical needs, not to mention people who have no homes or sketchy situations. I am a county/employee with the days off and electricity (so far) plus the wherewithal that got me my own food and facility management around here so I’m straight. And now my apologies for length and I will stop and hog my own bandwidth. Good post.
.-= Laurie´s last blog ..(Don’t) Let Her Sing =-.

By: Dean J

Dean J — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:10:58 +0000

Child care for plow drivers is a new one for me; never really considered it.

All the plow drivers I’ve ever known (which, admittedly, is only 3 or 4), LOVED heavy snow, as it meant crazy-good overtime.

By: kdiddy

kdiddy — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:02:14 +0000

@Dean J, it's also very important to consider that the DPW workers are affected citizens themselves. I'm sure many of them are having a very hard time getting to work and are having to find alternate child care. I'm just not convinced that this is the civic failure people are making it out to be.

By: Dean J

Dean J — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:43:49 +0000

Luke cut the budget to the plows by 20% this year, which was just unfortunate timing; this really is a twice-a-century amount of snow, and planning for this would be dumb.

The problem is that it’s been six days, and I’m yet to have seen any of the main streets be well plowed; Forbes, Fifth, Centre, Baum, Friendship, and Penn Ave were all terrible two days ago, before the second round of snow started. I still have 18″ of snow on my street, as the last plow through was Friday. The only plow I *did* see was rolling down Baum… with the blade up.

I don’t think Luke dropped the ball, but something between Luke and the drivers just ain’t right. At the very least, clear the main avenues well.