Our squishy urban winterscape
Nice post today on the Spacing Wire about navigating the snowy sidewalks with a baby. I’m so there. On Monday I walked my son to daycare in his stroller, and we did some serious off-roading in his three-wheeled Zooper. The best fun was the snowbank-hopping: lift the front wheel, take a run at the bank, get halfway up the slope, plant the front wheel, lift the rear wheels, and forge down the far side. My son loved it. But as the week goes on and city crews fail to make further progress while the snow melts, the walking only gets worse—baby or no.
In the Yorkville shopping district this morning, lake-sized puddles created by the glacial thaw had gummed up the Bay-Bloor intersection. (Same thing at Broadview and Danforth.) The frustrations are leading to signal-disobedience anarchy by both drivers and pedestrians. And—yikes!—both the thaw and the last-minute shopping have only just begun. I know city crews are hard at work on this, but what is the point of clearing the sidewalk without clearing the storm drain, except to beat pedestrians a clear path to a swampy impasse?
P.S.: Trash collectors came down my street this morning and rolled along right on top of the snowbank, flattening it out and spilling mounds of slush back onto the neatly-cleared sidewalks, making them impassable for strollers once again. Thanks fellas! I know I’m supposed to be grateful that the trash collectors, like the postal service, are undaunted by bad weather, but there is a better way. Montreal understands snow management best: you can’t just pile it up. You’ve got to cart it away. Fast.
