I just returned from downtown, and I'm still shaking ... the roads out here are better than the ones in the city. The roads in Newbury are better than the ones in the city.
But that's not what left me shaking. It was the 'excitement' of the Green St. municipal parking lot. I mean really, why is it always such a big mess after it snows? If cars park there overnight, they should be towed (as far as I know, it isn't a designated overnight snow parking lot - but I could be wrong).
Several near-collisions later, I fled back to the island where sanity reigns. (Until I got to my street, where my elderly neighbor decided to pull into a side street and then back out again without checking to see if any other vehicle was approaching. That would have been my Jetta.)
And then there are the sidewalks downtown, which are alternately clear and ice covered, especially State St.
So far it's been a bad day. I have no water, the city came out and said the line is clear to the meter, so .... yay.
Monday, December 22, 2008
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7 comments:
Will you PLEASE stop impeding the travel of H. H.!!!!!!
I guess I should have let him smoosh into me ... with his truck, that is.
I just walked downtown for my annual trip to the bank (our children have already spoiled our grandchildren so much, the only thing left to give them is cash. :-(). The sidewalks are in terrible shape. If I were a shopper, I'd get back in my car and go to the mall. The only clean sidewalk is in front of the Greeting Card Store on Pleasant Street.
Of course, the walk to downtown was mostly in the streets, since so many homeowners either did not clean their sidewalks, or did such a terrible job that they are unwalkable. When we lived in Boston, sidewalks like that would have cost us $50. And, they did enforce the law, as Newburyport seems not to do.
Our city needs money. Here's a few grand just waiting to be picked up. And, if manpower is a problem, I'll take a few blocks for 20% of the take. :-)
This all reminds me of when we lived within the city limits of Flint - and the city cleaned the sidwalks. They had this special little vehicle.
Flint aside (they probably don't do that anymore anyway), I find it incredible how people don't shovel in front of their property. Even more incredible is the city not ticketing.
Driving to and from Gloucester today, I noticed a vast difference in road/street condition between the communities of Newburyport, Newbury, Rowley and Ipswich. Both Newburyport and Ipswich are terrible.
On the other hand, my little street (5 houses) was plowed long before the one my sister lives on in Malden was.
Hi,
Upper Crust and the Thirsty Whale also cleared all the way to the brick.
Of course what will happen tonight when the water that melted during the day freezes and there is no snow to provide traction?
Dick, I like your idea. I've always said i'll sit outside of Starbucks and ticket everyone that parks illegally for part of the take. You could retire on what that would bring in.
thanks,
sds
Thanks, sds. You take Starbucks and I'll take either Richdale or Flukes.
Funnily enough, when I was walking around the other day, I saw lots of tickets on cars parked along Pleasant St. - even though the Green St. lot only had about half the usual spaces because of possibly ineffective plowing and too much icing.
So they are not letting people off the parking time limits, even during really, really bad parking days.
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