[Vision2020] Snow Grouch

chasuk at gmail.com chasuk at gmail.com
Wed Dec 31 01:51:10 PST 2008


On Dec 30, 2008 9:18pm, Craine Kit <kcraine at verizon.net> wrote:

> 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.

You are right. I don't know you, except for your exhibited tendency to  
embellish what you read.

> 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

Quite admirable. Sincerely.

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

You introduced the word "whining" to this debate, not I.

> 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.

I didn't suggest that anyone be excused from anything. That's not my  
position in life.

> 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.'

Poppycock.

> 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.

I'm fat, suffering from gout, with a heart condition, and my balance is  
atrocious. I'm not bold, brave, physically perfect, or able to skate, so I  
have an "up-yours" attitude towards myself, apparently.

> 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.

I disagree. In a perfect world, everyone would meet all of their  
responsibilities, and all sidewalks would be cleared. But we don't live in  
a perfect world. We live in a world where bullshit excuses mingle with  
legitimate ones; where your excuse is another person's valid reason. You  
apparently don't like this world, but it's the only one we have. If you  
unfailingly meet all of your responsibilities, then I honestly commend you.  
There will always be a certain percentage of Muscovites who can't, or  
won't, meet all of their obligations. I have empathy for you, but I also  
have empathy for them, which is what I was trying to convey in my original  
reply. I'm not a Christian, but I still like to think positively of anyone  
who hasn't given me reason to think otherwise. This is supposed to be the  
season of good cheer.

> 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.

If that is what you truthfully believe that I have done, then my apologies.  
I don't want to deny anyone anything. I'ma liberal. If it were up to me,  
all of the streets and sidewalks of Moscow would be clear of snow,  
virtually always.

I think the city should invest in "snowmelt" technologies. We aren'ta  
metropolis, so it wouldn't be prohibitively expensive. Yes, it would take  
years to deploy, but it would eventually make shopping and strolling easier  
for everyone, without having to factor in the fallibility of humans.

Chas
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