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The amount of snowfall this winter has been hard on all of us. I have cerebral palsy, and have had to work from home multiple days to avoid injury. When you have existing balance problems, ice isn’t just slippery—it’s disastrous. Think doing the shuffle without control.
There are many of us in Nova Scotia with mobility issues, more than anywhere else in Canada. Statistics Canada’s 2012 survey on disability found that 19 percent of us over 15 are disabled. That’s one out of five folks. Which means if you don’t have a disability yourself, you likely know someone who does.
I’m used to snow and ice melting within a couple of days, but with storm after storm and freezing temperatures, the roads and especially the sidewalks have remained treacherous for weeks. When I brave it and venture out, I deal with slippery slush or ice and frozen, impassible snowbanks. I have to be escorted from my cab to the door.
“Even with the help of my cane, I often slip on the hard ice or fall while trying to scale the mountainous snowbanks that the plows pile up at curb cuts,” says disability activist and author Kaleigh Trace.
Trace and her colleague Amanda Stevens will be holding a sidewalk protest Friday, February 27. The goal is to encourage HRM’s municipal government to look into this issue further. “We want more attention to be paid to creating accessible sidewalks for Halifax citizens,” Trace says. “We want the city to further invest in equipment and crew members so as to make our city safer.”
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Participants will meet at 4pm across from the Halifax North Memorial Library on Gottingen Street and begin the protest at 4:30. For those who cannot attend, an online discussion is happening in conjunction with the event. Tweeters are encouraged to post pictures of any sidewalks they find themselves unable to access, including the hashtag
#inaccessibleHFX.
Trace and Stevens say they appreciate the efforts of the the city’s snow removal crews and understand that this winter has been an exceptional one, but hope to bring more focus to the issue of pedestrian safety.
Councillor Waye Mason, who sits on the accessibility committee, echoes Trace’s concerns. “Halifax needs to get more equipment, more contractors on the road and make sure the standards are met under normal conditions,” he says.
Since 2013, it’s been the responsibility of HRM to ensure sidewalks are clear and salted throughout the entire Halifax region. Municipal and contracted crews are supposed to have all areas cleared within 36 hours after the end of a snowfall.
Mason’s fellow councillor Linda Mosher brought an idea before council this week to augment the city’s traditional rock salt application with other products that are more effective in cold temperatures.
“We need better outcomes to ensure the safety of residents in our city, especially those who have difficulties getting around in winter,” she explains.
Meanwhile, Haligonians with mobility issues are not only worried about their safety, but eager to resume their daily routines. Trace is managing, but for many, conditions remain impossible. “While I am only sustaining small cuts and bruises,” she points out, “I am quite aware that others like myself who live with mobility impairments may not be able to go outside at all.”
Anyone requiring accessible transit for Friday’s protest can email sidewalks902@gmail.com. For more information, consult the Sidewalk Protest! event on Facebook.
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This article appears in Feb 26 – Mar 4, 2015.
The city cannot afford to clear the city perfectly everytime there is snow or ice, nor can it gurantee that the sidewalks are cleared.
We have it pretty good overall as a city for the snow clearing we get.
Its winter, expect poor conditions, take extra time and precaution when you’re out and about.
Instead of complaining why don’t you grab a shovel and pick axe and chop the ice–oh wait that would be actual work, we’re Liberal Arts majors we expect the government take care of us like babies waah waah. Right now Kaleigh Trace is organizing a protest, 300 able bodied young men and women standing around holding signs picketing instead of working to clear the ice. Why doesn’t Kaleigh Trace organize a work party for people to clear the snow and ice around the manor houses if she is so concerned about seniors and disabled people being able to get around? Oh no that would be actual work.
@Skeptic The writer mentioned she has cerebral palsy. And Kaleigh Trace has a cane. I’m not sure these are the right candidates to be snow shoveling and axe picking. I agree that more able bodied people should be putting in that work, and maybe it’s people like you and I who should be instigating that.
Do we design our snow clearing operations for the 1 in 40 year storm, or the average storm?
I’m sorry, but this is just ridiculous. If these protesters want to pay more taxes to support this I’m fine with that, don’t raise my property taxes for this shit though.
Oh, and my street is one of those with 6 inches of ice and a bunch of ice holes in it. Yet I understand that plows are completely ineffective at clearing that, and that we can’t have salt trucks waiting for the perfect time to salt. Those staff likely have better things to do like clearing the banks on spring garden the other day.
And people call my generation entitled.
Oh, and city council/operations is looking into these other methods of salting with beet juice and the such. Great, sounds like a reasonable thing to investigate. Will it help current sidewalks? I doubt they can turn that around in time. Maybe next time we have this 1 in 40 year winter.
It’s funny because there’s clearly traction gravel under Mr. Mason’s feet in the picture.
This is a special kind of winter. I feel for anyone that can’t get around easily but I think the city is doing the best they can to deal with it. I am able bodied and I have as much salt as I need and I can’t keep my own driveway clear this winter. I am not sure what protests are really going to accomplish.
Well said, eastcoastkid, same point I’m making, but you put it much better.
Guess all you lovely people think the city shouldn’t be clearing the roads either then? I mean, if they’re not going to clear the sidewalks for the pedestrians, then “don’t raise my property taxes” to clear the roads for the cars. If drivers all wanted safe and clear streets, they’d go out with the shovels themselves, right?
How super entitled do these disabled folks have to be to demand the kind of city where they can ACTUALLY LEAVE THEIR HOMES to do things like GO TO THEIR JOBS. Isn’t it awful of me to think that I should be able to carry my two-year-old 2 blocks on Quinpool from daycare to the bus stop without wiping out and hurting or killing her?
Most of these comments are pretty sickening, and at best, overly privileged. Able-bodied people with cars who pay property taxes, who clearly think the services that cover their asses are enough. Would you all be saying that the city is doing the best it can if it were the roads that were sheets of ice instead of the sidewalks? No. No you would not. Why should the sidewalks be less of a priority than the roads for your precious property taxes, Take A Step Back? Halifax is more than just car-owning, able-bodied people. This is our city too.
I don’t think people are understanding how limiting the snow and ice ridden sidewalks are for persons with disabilities. Do you not think that if they were physically capable of clearing the sidewalks they would, being dependent on a clear pathway is something most don’t depend on but the ones that do are now trapped in their homes dependent on the kindness of others for their everyday needs, some are just going without. If we don’t take care of our most venerable that speaks volumes about us. A call in line for persons with disabilities to have their route cleared even if it is just to the store and back might be a start. My heart goes out to all who are suffering because of this. Step up HRM set our people free.
Not sure where you got all that roads vs sidewalks stuff. Did you miss the part where I said my street is pure ice and ice holes and that I don’t expect a plow to be able to clear it?
I’m all for clearing sidewalks, I’m all for people walking vs driving. I do when I can and admire those who bike and walk over driving. Its not possible for me considering where I work. I’m all for doing the best we can within reason. I don’t think its reasonable to clear the 4-6 inches of pure ice from the 1000s of kms of roads AND sidewalks. Without an army of people with pick axes I’m not sure there’s much we can do. Drastically increasing the budget for an uncommon event isn’t a good operations strategy.
So next time you call someone out like that don’t put words in their mouth. In the end, council will decide the best way to spend our money. It’s my opinion that it would cost far too much to get us out of this situation. If they decide to go for it, I won’t complain, they will have more information than I to make tat desicion, but while people are discussing this, I will offer my opinion. That’s the beauty of living where we do.
Just drove from Fredericton to Halifax today, and the highway conditions in Nova Scotia are embarrassingly bad in comparison.
It was an obvious switch, as soon as we crossed the border into Nova Scotia, there were ice ruts, uncleared passing lanes and dangerous road conditions.
New Brunswick was perfect. 100% clear dry roads.
There was about 20-30cm of snow in NB yesterday, but you’d never know it on the highways.
This isn’t a snow vs rain/freezing issue either. 1km into the NB side was perfect. 1km on the NS side was a mess. This is a laziness and failure to mandate service quality in the same way. So there it is. This isn’t just a Halifax issue, it appears the province also has the same issues. But everyone involved should be embarrassed and held accountable.
I be training for my walk to work!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkESodXYDR…
We did not have the same issue and did not need more staff when last year we had much more snow and snow storms were much more frequent. The problem is this year we have faster temperature variation – changes from positive to negative numbers and reverse. As a result we have more freezing rain falls or rain falls and freezing temperatures right after. For me it is not an issue to hire more staff but in the first place to find a better way to prevent the formation of these icy conditions. Sometimes it is even better TO DO NOT CLEAR snow before rain falls if freezing temperature comes right after. A good strategy is a key. After all, it is not only about the people with mobility issues but it is also about elderly people for whom these sidewalk conditions are dangerous to their health and even life.
As a former resident of Halifax/Dartmouth and NS in general, couldn’t hurt to y’know, clear the whole walk in front of your property. I remember the frozen sidewalks and slush walks that soaked my boots and froze my feet. In A LOT of cases, it was sheer laziness on the part of the property owner NOT clearing their driveways, walkways and sidewalks. I used to do that myself at an apartment building I lived in. If I had to leave early and it wasn’t done, I just grabbed a shovel myself and did when I woke up. It sucked bad, but man, it kept things nice around the building at least. Everybody wants to blame the city, but it’s your city too, you can help. That being said, clearly the city has to do their part as well, ’cause not everyone is able to pitch in. The city could just blow it’s budget knowing it has to deal with this, couldn’t it? Could some summer road work that no one asked to have done maybe just not get done in exchange? Is there no auxiliary dump site that could be utilized for snow removal and clearing? Could and extended effort be made to keep storm drains cleared and maintained to aid with flooding sidewalks and roads? I certainly don’t have the answers, but I can guarantee that no protest that I’ve ever witnessed in Halifax has ever made a difference. I wish you luck, you’ve all been hammered with ridiculous snowfall and freezing conditions this year.
From the “I Told You So” Department.;
Using bob-cats to clear the walks is the wrong tool for the job. There is no way the sidewalks can be cleared down to the concrete (as is the requirement)
It failed last year. It failed this year. It will fail next year. But the genie is out of the bottle and we’ll never go back…
We can blame all of the bad sidewalks on Linda Mosher. It was her that proposed the city take on the sidewalk clearing.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/community/112…
It was doomed from the start. Now she’s trying to find a solution in beet juice.
The only way to have the walks clear is to have the home owners responsible.
Unfortunately, once something is the “government’s responsibility” it will never go back, no matter how poor the service.
It’s obvious that something needs to be done. Right now we’re pretty much just paying for a bunch of construction workers to drive up and down the streets in Bobcats. Either cancel the whole thing and put the money back in our pockets, or rewrite the contracts based on getting down to the pavement. There are no other options.
We can do better. Dal and SMU strangely have no problem getting their sidewalks down to the pavement – funny how people start giving a shit when they know they’re going to be held responsible if someone slips or falls!
No naming names if you’re going to harp on snow removal.
I went out for a simple walk to grab some groceries and get some fresh air – no biggie right? Wrong. I could not believe the state the sidewalks were in. Not even 15 seconds after leaving the parking lot of my home, I am immediately faced with a snow, icy covered sidewalk. I was at a loss of words, really. What is normally a 5 minute walk, turned into a long and unnecessary ordeal, trying not to fall while basically sliding on the sidewalk – I almost turned around and went back home but alas I went to do my errands as painless as possible.
I remember back to last year, the sidewalks were NEVER this bad! Sure, there were times where it was very icy and inaccessible, but they were cleared up within 48 hours and were at least somewhat usable. This year, it’s like they don’t even care for the citizens of Halifax. Not everybody can drive, not everybody is able to walk, not everybody is healthy – there are MANY people in this city who cant even do anything because they fear they might break some bones.
I can now see why many people are complaining, rightfully so. I just want this city to at LEAST remove the ice from the sidewalks. I don’t mind walking on a sidewalk that has a bit of snow on it, at least I can get a good grip. The ice is what makes it 100x worse.
20 min walk to the gym took 45 this afternoon. I left when school let out; kids were sliding all over the place, and not for fun.
@Si35 You say you drove from Fredericton to NS on the 26/Feb, I live in NS but work in NB I drive up on Monday back on Friday every week and spend the days between driving around all of NB I have done for over 3 years, Believe me the roads in NB are just as Bad, the TCH and other main Highways in NB are terrible most of the time only 2 tracks the other lane snow or Ice covered believe me NB is just as Bad if not worse than NS, they Do not clear the main highways in NB take it from me.
One of the two contractors responsible for the sidewalks was in the Metro today, giving their side of the story. Apparently, it’s not their fault either. So to recap: The state of the sidewalks are not the fault of either the City or the contractors. Logic then tell us only one other party remains – the public. Therefore… WE, the PUBLIC, are to blame for everyone’s broken bones, poor health care and overall snow issues. Please line up for lashings this afternoon at Parade Square. 4pm sharp else you will have to endure additional lashings.
I have sympathy for the city and I think the plow drivers have done their best; this year was miserable for weather. simply clearing the driveway was a sisyphean task. The snowfalls, followed by a thaw and a flash freeze, repeated nightly some weeks, have created a crust of ice that no machine can conquer at this stage. However, I would really like to see some gravel put down. It would make all the difference. I walk downhill on Connaught all the time and it’s brutal, there is barely a sprinkling put down most of the time, and the salt is just disappearing boring tiny little holes into the 4 inches of rink that our sidewalk has become. If it had been in the hands of homeowners this year we’d be seeing a lot of back injuries and fines.
It’s these kinds of winters where a city can show it’s resiliency and greatness. Step up to the plate and offer something better than ‘just OK’ to it’s citizens. Become a success story for other cities on how to deal with this kind of winter. Instead, HRM has done exactly what I’ve come to expect of this poor, under privileged city… less than spectacular. I have no sympathy for the city officials, plow crews or anyone involved the “Snow removal process” this winter. As for me grabbing a pick axe, that’s what I’ve been doing all winter.. on my own driveway… the problem with me doing it on a sidewalk is that I’m paying the city to do it!
My opinion.