[Vision2020] Snow Grouch

[Craine Kit]

Chasuk.

I have been struggling with how to respond to your comments on this  
topic. I've decided to replace political correctness with honesty.

You are full of SHIT and you owe me an apology.

I have worked for years to prove the need for winter pedestrian  
safety AND to design a system that balances safety goals against the  
effort required by property owners to reach those goals [perhaps Tom  
Hanson will provide a link to the appropriate section of the Feb 26,  
2007 Public Works and Finance committee meeting]. My proposals have  
included an city financed program wherein PCEI connected volunteer  
shovelers with property owners who were physically and financially  
unable to fulfill their responsibilities to keep their sidewalks free  
of ice and snow (implementation for the winter if 2007-08; dead the  
following year).

My programs DIED because you and your kin define public requests for  
safe winter sidewalks as "whining".

My programs DIED because you and your kin find all sorts of reasons  
why property owners should be "excused" from their responsibilities  
rather than finding solutions to legitimate problems.

My programs DIED because you and your kin turn to those who  could be  
injured by the negligence of the property owners and say 'if you  
don't want to be hurt, get off the sidewalk.'

My programs DIED because you and your kin have an "up-yours" attitude  
towards anyone who is not bold, brave, physically perfect, and able  
to skate on public sidewalks.

Property owners who accept their responsibility to protect  
pedestrians crossing their lot find a way to clear their sidewalks.  
Those who don't have some bullshit excuse that makes pedestrian  
safety the pedestrian's problem.

Chaduk: You do not know me. You do not know my story. You do not know  
what I have paid in PAIN since 1976 to keep my sidewalk and driveway  
safe for pedestrians. You do not know what it costs me in pain and  
dollars to attempt to walk on ice or through deep snow. Your denial  
of my right to walk on a public sidewalk on the basis that a property  
owner is too fat or too busy or too self-centered to keep it safe is  
inexcusable.

Shame on you for sentencing me and my dog to a winter being banned  
from the public right-of-way for my "crime" of being crippled.


Kit Craine




On Dec 30, 2008, at 12:21 AM, Chasuk wrote:

> Saundra,
>
> I didn't get my driver's license until I was 26 years old.  It expired
> when I turned 30, and I didn't get another one until I was 42.  I'm 48
> now, and I still walk nearly everywhere, during good weather and bad.
> I'm not fleet of foot.  When I walk onto campus -- if there is any
> hint of ice or snow on the ground - I fall.  I understand the perils
> (and the joys) of being a pedestrian far more than most.
>
> But I also understand that not everyone can live up to their
> RESPONSIBILITIES as easily as others.  Life has dealt them different
> hands.  I urged consideration for those people, nothing more.  They
> have no militant anti-pedestrian agenda.
>
> Note that I responded to Kit in kind, by the way.
>
> As I said before, this is a problem without an easy solution.
>
> I have no idea as to the expense of fitting our streets and sidewalks
> with snow-melting apparatus, but it seems to me that it would
> ultimately prove cost-effective, and quite logical in this region of
> recurring snow.
>
> Chas