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| After “plowing” (twice) |
Why you ask? Because it's a lot easier than doing it on the ice rinks which pass for the streets of the Capital City (see photo above). These days one has to learn tricks and tips to survive the post-apocalyptic anarchy that is the bureaucrat-autocracy of our fair City.
Plowing. Why oh why can't the City of Saint Paul plow? We have become the butt of a joke by residents of the soulless suburbs and, gasp, that city to the east, Minneapolis. They are all laughing at us. After all, we are all Minnesotans. When it snows 6", 12" or even 18" our response is "we got this."
Well, we used to have it. I know there are problems with clearing snow in a city that suburbs don't have; cars parked on the streets, narrower streets, more traffic. But this isn't about comparing ourselves to the suburbs, but to who we used to be.
Forty years ago, it took three days to clear the streets. Day one was emergency snow routes, day two North-South streets and day three East-West streets. Then some cleaver person figured out how to do it in less than two days; night routes and day routes.
Genius.
I don't think people appreciate how this new system was a model of snow removal other snow-bound cities envied and copied. Of course Minneapolis wouldn't deign itself to do what its bratty little neighbor was doing. But from out East, in the Midwest, in Canada and the foreign shores of Scandinavia and Korea, cities paid homage, visited and lined up to figure out the miracle of Saint Paul's 48 hour plowing.
What happened? How did we get from there to the current disaster of fewer emergencies called, fewer and older plow trucks, blades not being dropped to the pavement and streets that resemble a Humvee obstacle course or the Antique Autos track at Valleyfair. The answer is obvious. The larger the City government grows, the less it does for the common citizen. At no time in its history have more people worked for the City, and yet for the first time in its history, it is unable to take care of its largest asset, its streets, by either paving them or plowing them. Heck, the City can't even remove snow and ice from the public sidewalks in front of its own property (I am looking at you, Highland Library).
The City has engaged in a number of ancillary activities which have diminished its capabilities to clear the streets. Some because the money spent on them could have been used for a newer truck, a newer plow or the ability to call more snow emergencies. Some because they are physical hindrances to good plowing. This list is long: bike lanes, roundabouts, curb bump-outs, narrowing of streets, the current mania for high density.
Perhaps the biggest factor, though, is that the city went from a government run by elected representatives to one run by bureaucrats. City counselmembers themselves used to be the department heads. This included Public Works. If a particular city counselmember failed to do their job as head of a department, the electorate could remove them from office.
Now we just hire ex-city counselmembers as bureaucrat department heads and no one holds them accountable. And instead of the core city departments of Public Works, Public Safety and Parks, we now have sixteen departments and nothing gets done. Why should it? Which public official is going to get removed from office? No one when the city attorney's office in the last few years negotiated contracts bordering on malpractice. No one when Safety and Inspection is so corrupt the State had to take over its functions. No one when as the police idly sit by as the murder rate rises and people are defecating in the Target parking lot. No one from public works as the streets go to ruin, potholes are not filled and snow and ice are not removed from the streets.
No one.
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Saint Paul's City code says, "The owner or occupant of any building or lot abutting a public sidewalk is responsible for and shall remove any accumulation of snow and/or ice from said public sidewalk within twenty-four (24) hours after the snow and/or ice has ceased to fall, gather or accumulate." St.Paul City Code, §113.02. Violators of this ordinance are subject to being deemed a nuisance, having it removed by the City and charged, an abatement, a tax lien and a petty misdemeanor. St.Paul City Code, §§113.03, 113.07 - 113.08.
The City can hold us responsible for snow removal on our private property. But no one can apparently hold the City responsible when it fails to remove any accumulation of snow and/or ice from its streets within twenty-four (24) hours after the snow and/or ice has ceased to fall, gather or accumulate. No one is subject to being deemed a nuisance, being charged, subject to a petty misdemeanor or removed from office.
No one.
