Sorry for being late getting back on this ...
It seems that the mayor has a dedicated parking spot behind City Hall, at the police station (as I believe a couple of people pointed out), so the wording about Green Street was removed from the ordinance.
Now if we can get the city to change the wording in the ordinance about regular people AND POSSIBLY business owners being responsible for clearing the sidewalks, we'd be all set. The city (sometimes, I guess) plows the sidewalks downtown and ... well, I wrote all about it for NBPT Biz so I won't re-hash the facts.
I'm not necessarily against the city doing this, and I have since heard that most landlords to a really good job at keeping the sidewalks clear - except for Water St. between Market Sq. and the laundromat (it's awful!) - but it is a law, with a fine of I think $50 for not following the law.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
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6 comments:
Gillian-
the business community does do a great job of keeping the sidewalks clean of snow.
the problem is actually with some of the homeowners in the rest of the community. i believe there is an ordinance that requires homeowners to keep the sidewalks in front of their homes clear of snow and ice...
this is a two-pronged problem- most critically, it results in kids who are walking to school stepping out into the street to get by snowy icy and un-kept sidewalks- very dangerous. and if the budget crunch results in fewer kids on buses, it will really be a problem.
a number of homeowners are older, and have trouble keeping their sidewalks clear. we should be trying to match up volunteers with elderly homeowners, so kids don't need to walk out in the streets to get by.
still, it would be interesting to know exactly how many tickets have been issued to landlords or homeowners for unclear sidewalks.
i'm not betting very many...
"we should be trying to match up volunteers with elderly homeowners"
why don't you lead the way bruce
Believe me, many of the homeowners who don't shovel are not elderly. They're just inconsiderate. My child has had to walk on the street to school for a few years now. These neighbors just don't care.
Anonymous: I believe there are teenagers on a list at the Council on Aging to go out to shovel for elderly. They are there, you just need to call.
Anon2
Last year, I volunteered to issue tickets in the South End for a percentage of the take. No one seemed interested.
The Council on Aging offers a program to match shovelers with the elderly. Of course, I registered with them some months ago and have never been offered any assistance. Maybe I have to call for each storm, but since I found someone to clear my driveway, I turned out not to need them, so I didn't call.
Bruce, my old friend, rather than looking for "volunteers" to clear the sidewalks in front of the homes of the elderly, and worrying so much about precious Trevor and Olivia having to venture into the street when a stretch of sidewalk is not clear; maybe it would be cool to suggest Trevor and Olivia grab a couple of shovels, knock on doors, and offer to clear the sidewalks for folks, for a small fee of course, the way my parents had us do when I was growing up.
It was called, I believe, instilling a work ethic.
But, nah, the children of many of Newburyport's bourgeois bohemians are above such menial labor, even at 12 or 13.
How foolish of me to have even suggested such a thing.
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