The late Mayor Tom Menino would have by no means let this occur.
Three days after a serious snowstorm hit Boston with almost two toes of snow, many sidewalks and facet streets stay snow-clogged – forcing folks and kids to take their probabilities strolling within the slushy streets.
Hyde Park Avenue was just like the Wild Wild West, with motorists dodging big snow banks, pedestrians, faculty kids and MBTA bus riders who had been compelled off the sidewalks. Some pissed off householders merely tossed the snow into the center of the streets.
It’s wintertime in Wutopia.
The complete metropolis is a Slip and Fall case for Morgan & Morgan.
And the place is Mayor Michelle Wu?
Off to Washington D.C. to hobnob with the elite, burnish her nationwide credentials and brag concerning the metropolis’s alleged low crime charge.
Wu apparently thinks it’s high quality to depart the town in such a harmful situation, which is squarely the fault of her administration.
Wu deserves an F for storm cleanup in Boston, which continues to be suffering from unsafe situations for pedestrians and motorists.
And no excuses about how property house owners needs to be shoveling their very own sidewalks and fireplace hydrants so that they’re clear three hours after the top of a storm. That’s a cop out.
After getting hit with a 13% property tax hike, it’s an insult to damage to pressure folks out into the frigid air to shovel heavy moist snow. Inform that to the emergency docs treating a surge in coronary heart assaults this week.
Menino prided himself as an “city mechanic” who obtained the streets plowed on time and on price range.
“If we work collectively as a metropolis, we’ll hold issues working easily throughout the winter months,” Menino wrote in a newspaper column in 2009.
And when that didn’t occur, he owned as much as it.
After a 20-inch snowstorm in Feb. 2013, Menino publicly apologized for the sluggish tempo of cleanup, which left many facet streets and sidewalks impassable. Faculties had been closed for 3 days, which additional irked Menino.
The mayor blamed the sluggish cleanup on the plow contractors but in addition took duty, and launched a full investigation of the Public Works Division’s poor efficiency.
“We’ll get there as rapidly as doable,” he promised. “Typically it’s important to be affected person in a storm of this magnitude.”
Even Gov. Deval Patrick was sensible sufficient to not flee the town in the course of the storm’s aftermath, and toured the flooded houses and streets in Scituate.
When he was mayor, Raymond L. Flynn rode with the snowplow drivers to supervise storm cleanup. It created an indelible picture in residents’ minds and was an enormous purpose Flynn obtained re-elected handily.
Within the Sunday storm this week, Wu phoned it in – actually. She referred to as in to native TV stations to offer updates on the cleanup and posted on social media about how a lot snow was faraway from roadways and crosswalks.
“Thanks to our Public Works groups working 24/7 to clear the snow,” she wrote on Fb. “One of the simplest ways to report snow points and different issues that want the town’s consideration to 311 is with the BOS:311 app.”
Are you able to think about Tom Menino lecturing residents to make use of the town app?
This week, Boston colleges had been closed for 2 days as a result of sidewalks had been impassable and a few streets clogged with snow.
That’s not ok.
In an replace for the media, Boston Public Works claimed to be working “24/7 to clear snow, widen roadways, enhance visibility round intersections and to make sure secure entry to crosswalks and curb ramps.” And Public Works warned residents they are going to challenge citations to those that don’t keep a 42-inch huge path of journey.
“As of this morning, Code Enforcement issued 332 violations and has continued to reply to complaints all through the day and will likely be working an in a single day shift,” based on Anne Roach, communications director for the Workplace of Streets.
BPW supplied the media a photograph op of the town’s snow farms. That’s it. A lot for transparency.
“Public Works isn’t scheduling interviews at the moment,” Roach mentioned.
Subsequent time an enormous storm hits, which may very well be this weekend, Wu must be extra seen and never depart the town’s residents and guests within the lurch.
Perhaps she needs to be much less targeted on making TikTok movies about President Trump, and extra targeted on retaining the town secure.
