The dignity of snow shovelers

Calsailor,

Please support your weather "prophecies" with references to the soothsayers of these prophecies.

Yeal9

While federal employees coming in from the suburbs is a major traffic flow, after storms like the ones that DC has had this year, one of the most impacted areas of DC are residential, not main arteries. The road plan for DC was designed in the 18th century, for foot traffic, horseback and wagon. It is composed of a radial pattern superimposed on a block pattern (or vice versa...take your pick), with weird exceptions, traffic circles, etc. The city has height restrictions on buildings, so building UP is not possible, the result is a horizontally tight building pattern; many services, like trash are picked up through a system of alleys, and what used to be slave homes behind the main houses have become houses in their own right. The roads, once you get off the main arteries, are very narrow, combined with limited off street parking, means that large snow removal equipment like I saw in Minnesota, for instance, impossible to use effectively in neighborhood streets.

Add to this is a topography that is hilly ("Capitol Hill" is called that for a reason), in basically a southern city which normally sees a few inches at a time and you have paralysis. Many people simply ignore the snow for a few days, and it typically melts. This has made for an area that is woefully unequipped for huge storms. Schools are closed after only a few inches of snow; without a school bus system for most students, DC children rely on city transportation or must walk. When the streets are dangerous for pedestrians, school must be closed.

The global weather change models indicate that DC is going to have more and more years of increasingly significant snowfall, so they may have to change the budgeting model in the future. In the meantime, DC, like Atlanta and other southern cities which normally see little snow in a normal year, has a problem recovering. These snowstorms have been record breaking, and volunteers are one part of this year's solutions...but they cannot replace the heavy equipment that other areas have. It has been a wakeup call for many, especially, we hope, in the DC council.

Pr Chris

Mjk62,

Your reasoning simply shows once again that the Federal government is too large requiring expensive roads and subways to shuffle over-staffed, underworked bureaucrats to their DC "jobs" from the Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia burbs.

WAS NOT POPE LEO THE FIRST POPE THAT WANT THE GENERALLY OF THE PEOPLE TO FEEL THAT HE WAS JUST ONE OF THEM SINCE THE LOSS OF THE PAPAL STATES WHEN HE WAS THE FIRST POPE TO SPEAK OUT ON COMMON ISSUE OF MORAL JUSTIC OF THE PEOPLE?

Yeal9:

The "big deal" is due to multiple factors: 1) unlike Syracuse, DC spends a small amount per road mile on snow removal. They budget for equipment/people assuming an average of 7-20", not 40+ in a 5 day period. It's unreasonable to budget the capacity that would work in Syracuse which expects much more snow; 2) there is therefore a far smaller number of trucks and other equipment to use in a short period of time to remove the snow; 3) there is very little place to push the snow (imagine streets that are in their prime condition barely two lanes, with cars on either side, are reduced to one lane, and intersections with 8 foot piles of snow all around)--dense, urban environments are a serious challenge; and couple all of this with a region that has some of the worst traffic in the best weather conditions. Reduce lane volume by half, and you can imagine what the "big deal" is. On top of all of that, the subway was not operating outside of the underground, so all of the outer regional areas (above-ground tracks) had no service--putting those people on the tight roads. And, the sidewalks--half unshoveled.

Snowmaggeddon" of 2010--?? DC's snow is the typical snowfall places like Syracuse NY get every year so what is the big deal?

This was a really nice piece, taking all one's experience at the moment and fusing it into a statement. This is artistic, philosophical living. There is no scientific method by which one arrives at such a piece. One can use scientific insights but ultimately what a person is depends on artistic type of living, integrating all one's experience. Again, nice piece.

The irony: Much of the snow removed from walks and driveways is being done by illegal aliens.

In the parking lot of my building in Bethesda, it's the women (many well past 50) who shovel out the parking spots for their cars and those of their older and disabled neighbors. We labor while the able-bodied young male residents cruise the lot for a pre-shoveled space.

thought about that for a second, whatyoutalkinboutman, except three other neighbors use that door, so not an option!

My father-in-law was from a family that labored in the anthracite coal mines of eastern Pennsylvania. I still remember his theology of snow shoveling (which I have made my own, except in cases of dire necessity):

Let the man who put it there take it away.

Sometimes a snowstorm is the only confetti a working man can get...

When you cleared the sidewalk where your new neighbor had added more snow you should have *DUMPED IT* right back on his sidewalk!

Petty, yes! Effectively sending a message, ABSOLUTELY!

I *am* part of the labor who shovels out the snow. I get paid on a per car and per job basis. I won't get to sleep tonight before about two or three AM because I've been hired to do the $50 job of digging out a dumpster so the folks in the building can have their garbage picked up tomorrow. Also, one woman who lives in that building asked for my number, saying she would call me early in the morning if the snow was bad.

I'm an ex-foster child, ward of the state, with some formal education beyond high school. I guard my dignity; I have worked for the very wealthy in other capacities (as a guitar player) to know what it is like to be treated as part of the "help".

Someone below me said that snow brings out the best in people. Maybe it's just my own small town, but I get a bigger thrill out of making sure some older fellow or older woman who can't get her car out but needs to get to the store can do so. If it were just about the money, I would hang it up and hit the showers. It's not though. It's not just helping others either. Part of my dignity is in the physical work I do, the time that belongs to me that I barter for the money that belongs to someone else. I come inside to my small home and my muscles ache and I talk to my girlfriend far away on the phone and it feels good.

While we're appreciating the laborers who dig out our sidewalks and driveways and cul-de-sacs, as well as bag our groceries and sell us our gas and tend our gardens and clean our houses and all the other many, many things they do....please let's not forget that many of them are so-called "illegal" immigrants in this country...many here alone, without friends or family, sending money home, unable to get legal no matter how many hundreds or thousands of dollars they spend on lawyers, no matter how long they wait, in virtual "prison" because they can never leave here, can never go home to visit their relatives for fear of not being able to return to their menial jobs (that at least allow them to survive, unlike what they'd find at home)-- jobs that allow the "professional" class to go about their business every day. By an accident of birth they are "illegal" here, but they are as law-abiding as anyone born here and they are holding up our society. I have been shocked and disgusted at the vitriolic, reactionary statements on many websites ranting and raving against Immigration Reform in the name of "real Americans." The people I am talking about are as "real" as they get and deserve to be recognized for all they do every single day. Several of them dug me out the other day and I know they'd been working through the night and were as nice and kind and hard-working as can be, and they went off to go dig out more of my friends and neighbors who because of back problems or age cannot do it themselves. Come on people, wake up!!!! It's not "us" and "them" -- snowstorms and other catastrophes help us realize it's all "us" and let's not forget this after the snow melts.

Perspective and respect for those who labor was acquired in the past when youth worked after school, weekends and during the summer doing things like delivering newspapers (putting each paper neatly in front of the main house door), cutting grass, and shoveling snow. Today in the neighborhoods of the middle class and professionals, youth who so working are rare. And so understanding and respect for those who labor are not acquired, and the schism between classes grows.

I live in a townhouse community in Manassas. Snow seems to bring out the best in most people. It is wonderful to see neighbors helping neighbors, who are physically unable to shovel. That makes up for the ones who think it is ok to push their snow out in the street, so they can get their car out.