This article appears in Dec 18-24, 2008.
Ice
Dear HRM,If you are going to do a shitty job plowing the sidewalks and use absolutely NO salt, then don’t bother. I would rather treck through snow than risk breaking my neck on the fresh sheet of ice that is created.
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Agreed, I end up walking in the snowy grass most of the time because it feels safer than walking on the “cleared” sidewalks in the city.
i was JUST logging in to bitch about this when I thought I’d better have a check first in the LTWWB section. I could not agree more. My walk down Robie street last night left me wondering why the hell this seems to be rocket science to HRM. a slip and fall for someone like me might just end up with a sore butt, but for someone elderly or frail you could be looking at hospital time. Tim, I am sure the coast can help point us in the direction as to who at City Hall is responsible for sidewalk maintenance.
Call 490-4000. It’s the generic helpline, but they’re there for this kind of thing. You’ll have to be specific as to what area you’re talking about,though. They can’t put in the system “crappy sidewalks everywhere”. It’ll be forwarded to the works department in charge of snow removal. Sidewalks are contracted out, so if the contracted company isn’t performing to standards, then HRM has to know.Agreed as to what you’re talking about. I usually just walk in the tread marks left by the plow. It’s much safer than actually walking on the sidewalk. I’d rather they left the sidewalks alone if there’s less than six inches of snow. It’s easier to walk in the snow than on a glare of ice or smoothed snow.
I often wonder how hard it is to remove snow in the city, it SEEMS like a simple enough process but takes them forever. Especially when a salter can be attached to the back of whatever is doing the plowing.
In the suburbs, plowing the sidewalks is contracted out. In the city, though, it’s the responsibility of stores and houses to shovel and salt the sidewalks in front of their places. I’m sick of this too, but you need to report the store/houses to HRM, and HRM will fine them. It’s not HRM’s responsibility downtown.
ghost – thanks for the info, i will be calling today. just to specify from my previous post – It was not in front of a residential or commercial property, it was the stretch of sidewalk that runs ( on both sides ) on Robie street between Spring garden and Quinpool. I walked all over downtown, up spring garden and finally down that stretch of Robie last night around 6:30 pm and my feet never touched a grain of salt once i was past spring garden and South Park.
Yes, you’re right, I forgot about Halifax being different from the rest. It’s the responsibility of store owners and homeowners on the peninsula to clear and salt the sidewalk in front of their residence/business within a certain time frame. The procedure would still be the same for contacting- call the 490-4000 number and report the area not being cleared properly. Actually, here’s a link with all the info. It’s way too long to try to condense here. http://www.halifax.ca/Works/streets/servicestand.html
Prince and Granville Streets are fucking dangerous, especially around the government buildings. I guess we’ll have to wait until an MLA trips and breaks his ass before anything’s done. What a disgrace.
I had to come back to this bitch today because it took me an extra 30 mins (on top of the usual 20) to walk to work today because its such a mess out there. And all the “plowed” sidewalks, are now giant ice slip n slides. I spent a lot of time looking for tread marks to walk in and walking in the snow up to my knees so that I wouldn’t fall and break something. Add to that the 100mph winds and the power outages and it makes for a pretty scary walk.I dont know why they can’t use some salt after they go through the trouble to plow the few sidewalks that they deem important.