Never one to support just about anything government does, allow me to provide a slightly nuanced perspective.
Snow removal is a bitch.
My son owns a snow removal business in the northern MI snow belt. 39 commercial accounts. 50-60 residential. This year there have been multiple occasions where he and his crews have worked 36 hours straight. And with so much snow, eventually there is no place to put it. And that means renting a big dump truck and spending hours with a front end loader filling the dump truck with snow and taking it away, dumping it in the woods, and then doing it again. At one location it took them 18 hours to remove enough snow so they could plow and have enough room to put the newly plowed snow. They might have to do it again.
And equipment breaks down constantly which takes crews and plows out of service.
His stories about this year are legendary.
Oh. And there is zero salt. With two mild winters in a row, suppliers cut back on their salt order. He started the year with 200 tons. It was gone by mid January and there is no more to be had within 300 miles. What little remained at suppliers in late December was bought (at premium pricing) by the state.
None of this excuses a city or county with lots of workers and equipment and a budget for OT pay from getting it done. But it takes planning, reliable workers, good equipment. Government is not the best at any of those thing.
And some luck, a lot of salt, and a January thaw always helps. Those have also been in short supply in snow country.
All true, but let's not over-glamorize individual efforts. There were plenty of homes and businesses that had not opened passable lanes on the sidewalks adjacent to their property.
The best single suggestion is public notice of who is resposible for clearing public spaces, including sidewalks at intersections.
Because the local governments are a racket. Lifetime employment. Sweet pensions, extremely generous healthcare benefits, matching 401k and deferred compensation, and you don’t really have to do anything. And that’s just the honest ones.
Not a thoughtful comment. As noted in the article, much of the failure to remove snow was on federal land and the responsibility of the federal government, not local. Second, DC government employees have no defined benefit pension. The health care is rather standard.
The problems were hardly confined to DC, despite what moralizers want to tell you. DC public schools opened late last Thursday. Suburban schools opened late on Monday, four days later. Everyone who's been in the area knows this snow was exceptional. Usually, snow falls in DC melt as the flakes land. This snowfall was precisely the opposite. I've lived in DC for decades, don't own a car, and this is the first time I can remember having trouble walking anywhere since the giant 2009 snowfall. Yes, the DC government is corrupt and inefficient. They weren't ready. But the same is true of the fancy suburbs. The "moral" that libertarians like Suderman (the guy who referred me to this post) are reaching for isn't there.
The expectations seem pretty high for the response to such an unusual event. The big and recurring problem is who is responsible for the sidewlks at intersections. One way would be to make the corner property responsible but provide a bonification in the property tax.
I had a friend from MN drive out to VA to help with snow removal. According to him, a plurality of out of state contractors didn't show up to work. The city hired a out of state (Texas) management company to over see the work, they made serious errors about what areas to prioritize, and how to organize the logistics. For instance, they were asked to complete shift changes in 30 minutes, but hotels were 60 minutes away from areas of operation. They also weren't allowed to park trucks on county or city property.
Another friend who grew up in the Midwest but lives in VA also observed city workers out the window make multiple passes on her road just not knowing how to efficiently plow a road. Sometimes this seems like common sense if you're used to it, but it's not if you've never thought about it before and don't have great problem solving skills.
The reality is that the type of snow systems that came through the sun belt have historically been rare. It's difficult ($$$$$$$) to maintain the skills, organizational knowledge, and resources to address it.
My God man you’ve been captured. None of what you propose will ever happen. D.C. is nothing more than a Cargo Cult that the American People inexplicably sends plane loads of cash to every paycheck. I live here too. The place is a joke. During the Wuhan Boogaloo it revealed itself as a glorified bedroom community and hasn’t recovered any semblance of its self from prior to that.
But now I’m going with my Cargo Cult metaphor as calling the place a Mimetic Society would be too poetic even as much as it does reflect what Luca Dellanna wrote.
"But civic spirit cannot substitute for city services. Not when the stakes are safety, mobility, and basic public confidence."
Ah, spoken like a true Hamiltonian. (And look, I agree with you!)
But Jacksonian America HATES that idea. (So does Jeffersonian America.) The vast majority of Americans are committed to the prospect that to use government to solve collective action problems is tyrannical. The only exceptions are in times of crisis, where such action can be seen as part of national greatness. (The Interstate System probably wouldn't have happened without the combination of the Red Scare and the American mythos of vehicle travel as embodying American freedom.)
As a result of the Great Depression (hey, also a crisis!), FDR managed to unite Jacksonians and Hamiltonians. But that's not an enduring alliance.
I wish Commonwealth well - that's why I'm a subscriber. But Tanner Greer has shown that the New Right's Jacksonians will not submit to common good Hamiltonians. I wish he were wrong.
I think maybe DC just isn't very used to getting much snow.
Here a typical winter sees a couple storms of a foot or so and maybe one of 18" or more, a few of 6". People get used to shoveling. The trick is to get out while it's still coming down and absolutely when it's coming to a stop, you don't want anything to freeze up on you. Another thing is to have what's called a square point shovel but most of us just call it a flat shovel. It's small and good for scraping, and less tiresome if you are shoveling for hours.
The Gadsden Flag flying guy across the street has a ride on mower with a plow and also a snow blower with chains on the tires for when it gets deep. He plows both sides of the street, one side up on the next street where his uncle lives, and one side of the side street where a retired school teacher lives. The flag guy used to be a volunteer fireman so he's big on helping neighbors.
We usually shove before he even comes so those people headed down for coffee walk on a clean walk. Others don't shovel at all, and that's ok. No one really minds if you choose not to shovel, this is the west, we like to live and let live.
The fact that private owners could rudimentarily clear their sidewalks within 24 hours and make them wholly walkable within 48, while the city simply piled snow along curbs, making crossing at intersections mountain climbing exercises, is further indicative of the unaccountability of DC "snow removal." And today - 9 days after the storm - G St NW between 19th and 20th has effectively only one to one-and-a-half lanes that are truly passable for cars because half the street has been consumed by insane "bicyclist" dedicated spaces -- which have NOT been plowed.
The article is worthless because based on a false premise at the start. It was an exceptional snow storm, not from the total amount of snowfall, but because the conditions that made the “snowcrete” are rare and much harder to clean up with normal tools at normal speed. Most locals who tried to clean up their own little patches will readily confess this reality.
Weather (especially winter weather) often paralyzes cities. More so in the mid-Atlantic states where it doesn’t make economic sense to have the numbers of proper snow removal equipment on-hand, (purchase, store, maintain, replace, and have a sufficient number of trained operators) for the rare needs, vs. New England, upper Mid-West, and mountainous areas, with more consistent and recurring needs.
It may take patience, and a few good days of a thaw before a mid-Atlantic city approaches safety / normalcy.
Even with proper equipment, last Sunday, the outer Cape Cod towns in Massachusetts had ~16” of snow. Main roads were clear almost the entire time (but travel was not advisable), and secondary roads took 2-3 days. Everyone was competing for the same resources at the sa,e time.
Like MoodyP said, there's been a massive salt shortage everywhere this winter. In North Carolina, we waited for days because we had the equipment but not the salt.
Never one to support just about anything government does, allow me to provide a slightly nuanced perspective.
Snow removal is a bitch.
My son owns a snow removal business in the northern MI snow belt. 39 commercial accounts. 50-60 residential. This year there have been multiple occasions where he and his crews have worked 36 hours straight. And with so much snow, eventually there is no place to put it. And that means renting a big dump truck and spending hours with a front end loader filling the dump truck with snow and taking it away, dumping it in the woods, and then doing it again. At one location it took them 18 hours to remove enough snow so they could plow and have enough room to put the newly plowed snow. They might have to do it again.
And equipment breaks down constantly which takes crews and plows out of service.
His stories about this year are legendary.
Oh. And there is zero salt. With two mild winters in a row, suppliers cut back on their salt order. He started the year with 200 tons. It was gone by mid January and there is no more to be had within 300 miles. What little remained at suppliers in late December was bought (at premium pricing) by the state.
None of this excuses a city or county with lots of workers and equipment and a budget for OT pay from getting it done. But it takes planning, reliable workers, good equipment. Government is not the best at any of those thing.
And some luck, a lot of salt, and a January thaw always helps. Those have also been in short supply in snow country.
All true, but let's not over-glamorize individual efforts. There were plenty of homes and businesses that had not opened passable lanes on the sidewalks adjacent to their property.
The best single suggestion is public notice of who is resposible for clearing public spaces, including sidewalks at intersections.
Because the local governments are a racket. Lifetime employment. Sweet pensions, extremely generous healthcare benefits, matching 401k and deferred compensation, and you don’t really have to do anything. And that’s just the honest ones.
Not a thoughtful comment. As noted in the article, much of the failure to remove snow was on federal land and the responsibility of the federal government, not local. Second, DC government employees have no defined benefit pension. The health care is rather standard.
The problems were hardly confined to DC, despite what moralizers want to tell you. DC public schools opened late last Thursday. Suburban schools opened late on Monday, four days later. Everyone who's been in the area knows this snow was exceptional. Usually, snow falls in DC melt as the flakes land. This snowfall was precisely the opposite. I've lived in DC for decades, don't own a car, and this is the first time I can remember having trouble walking anywhere since the giant 2009 snowfall. Yes, the DC government is corrupt and inefficient. They weren't ready. But the same is true of the fancy suburbs. The "moral" that libertarians like Suderman (the guy who referred me to this post) are reaching for isn't there.
The expectations seem pretty high for the response to such an unusual event. The big and recurring problem is who is responsible for the sidewlks at intersections. One way would be to make the corner property responsible but provide a bonification in the property tax.
I had a friend from MN drive out to VA to help with snow removal. According to him, a plurality of out of state contractors didn't show up to work. The city hired a out of state (Texas) management company to over see the work, they made serious errors about what areas to prioritize, and how to organize the logistics. For instance, they were asked to complete shift changes in 30 minutes, but hotels were 60 minutes away from areas of operation. They also weren't allowed to park trucks on county or city property.
Another friend who grew up in the Midwest but lives in VA also observed city workers out the window make multiple passes on her road just not knowing how to efficiently plow a road. Sometimes this seems like common sense if you're used to it, but it's not if you've never thought about it before and don't have great problem solving skills.
The reality is that the type of snow systems that came through the sun belt have historically been rare. It's difficult ($$$$$$$) to maintain the skills, organizational knowledge, and resources to address it.
My God man you’ve been captured. None of what you propose will ever happen. D.C. is nothing more than a Cargo Cult that the American People inexplicably sends plane loads of cash to every paycheck. I live here too. The place is a joke. During the Wuhan Boogaloo it revealed itself as a glorified bedroom community and hasn’t recovered any semblance of its self from prior to that.
But now I’m going with my Cargo Cult metaphor as calling the place a Mimetic Society would be too poetic even as much as it does reflect what Luca Dellanna wrote.
"But civic spirit cannot substitute for city services. Not when the stakes are safety, mobility, and basic public confidence."
Ah, spoken like a true Hamiltonian. (And look, I agree with you!)
But Jacksonian America HATES that idea. (So does Jeffersonian America.) The vast majority of Americans are committed to the prospect that to use government to solve collective action problems is tyrannical. The only exceptions are in times of crisis, where such action can be seen as part of national greatness. (The Interstate System probably wouldn't have happened without the combination of the Red Scare and the American mythos of vehicle travel as embodying American freedom.)
As a result of the Great Depression (hey, also a crisis!), FDR managed to unite Jacksonians and Hamiltonians. But that's not an enduring alliance.
I wish Commonwealth well - that's why I'm a subscriber. But Tanner Greer has shown that the New Right's Jacksonians will not submit to common good Hamiltonians. I wish he were wrong.
https://scholars-stage.org/the-problem-of-the-new-right/
DC has a snow budget of $7 million, yet has 500 plows ready?
Anyone expecting anything beyond bare bones service from that disaster of a government deserves what they get.
The disaster of a government is Doanld Trump. Whatever shortcomings of the DC government, the federal property was a total mess.
I don't doubt that, but they probably didn't blatantly lie about how many plows they had on hand.
I think maybe DC just isn't very used to getting much snow.
Here a typical winter sees a couple storms of a foot or so and maybe one of 18" or more, a few of 6". People get used to shoveling. The trick is to get out while it's still coming down and absolutely when it's coming to a stop, you don't want anything to freeze up on you. Another thing is to have what's called a square point shovel but most of us just call it a flat shovel. It's small and good for scraping, and less tiresome if you are shoveling for hours.
The Gadsden Flag flying guy across the street has a ride on mower with a plow and also a snow blower with chains on the tires for when it gets deep. He plows both sides of the street, one side up on the next street where his uncle lives, and one side of the side street where a retired school teacher lives. The flag guy used to be a volunteer fireman so he's big on helping neighbors.
We usually shove before he even comes so those people headed down for coffee walk on a clean walk. Others don't shovel at all, and that's ok. No one really minds if you choose not to shovel, this is the west, we like to live and let live.
Yes, and once people start walking on it, the snow is tamped down and much harder to remove - better to get out there right away if you can.
Because voters vote for feelz rather than use of their tax dollars.
The fact that private owners could rudimentarily clear their sidewalks within 24 hours and make them wholly walkable within 48, while the city simply piled snow along curbs, making crossing at intersections mountain climbing exercises, is further indicative of the unaccountability of DC "snow removal." And today - 9 days after the storm - G St NW between 19th and 20th has effectively only one to one-and-a-half lanes that are truly passable for cars because half the street has been consumed by insane "bicyclist" dedicated spaces -- which have NOT been plowed.
On our NW DC street, people who dig out their cars are putting chairs in the spot to save it. God help anyone who takes it.
The article is worthless because based on a false premise at the start. It was an exceptional snow storm, not from the total amount of snowfall, but because the conditions that made the “snowcrete” are rare and much harder to clean up with normal tools at normal speed. Most locals who tried to clean up their own little patches will readily confess this reality.
Gee, think of LA fires. Same thing. Dysfunction at many points of government.
“Snowstorms don’t paralyze cities, systems do.”
That’s simply incorrect.
Weather (especially winter weather) often paralyzes cities. More so in the mid-Atlantic states where it doesn’t make economic sense to have the numbers of proper snow removal equipment on-hand, (purchase, store, maintain, replace, and have a sufficient number of trained operators) for the rare needs, vs. New England, upper Mid-West, and mountainous areas, with more consistent and recurring needs.
It may take patience, and a few good days of a thaw before a mid-Atlantic city approaches safety / normalcy.
Even with proper equipment, last Sunday, the outer Cape Cod towns in Massachusetts had ~16” of snow. Main roads were clear almost the entire time (but travel was not advisable), and secondary roads took 2-3 days. Everyone was competing for the same resources at the sa,e time.
That’s it. Logistics and time. It is that simple.
Like MoodyP said, there's been a massive salt shortage everywhere this winter. In North Carolina, we waited for days because we had the equipment but not the salt.