We had 12.5" of snow yesterday, which is a large storm for this area. I shoveled my drive and sidewalks before going to work. This morning, 24 hours later, driving down my street, I notice only about 10% of homeowers manage to shovel their sidewalks. The local schools, which have a stellar 40% graduation rate, had to cancel classes for the second day in a row – mostly because kids can’t walk in deep snow, and no one shovels their walks. Without clean walks, there’s also nowhere for kids to stand and wait for buses, except in the street – also not safe. Pretty much no one around here is willing to shovel their walks, despite the fact it’s required by law to do so within 24 hours of a storm.
I think maybe I am expecting too much, as it seems no one is willing or able to take care of anything anymore. Houses falling apart. Litter in the yard that the homeowner refuses to pick up. Grass, shrubs, weeds, left to grow for months. Junk cars. All of this, even in nice neighborhoods.
Growing up in WI, it seemed a point of pride that everyone got their walks shoveled in a very timely manner. Houses were well kept. Yards mowed. Shrubs clipped. Litter? It was picked up and thrown away, whether you generated it or not.
Is the trend toward not caring about your home, property, etc a uniquely Indiana thing, or is this the typical attitude everywhere now?
well I think most people have just given up as we’ve been told that we are all going to die because of global warming. Yep the same global warming that caused the snow storm I guess.
90% of the people in my neighbourhood have their walks done at least 24 hours after a snowfall. Usually first thing. We have a bylaw though that says if the homeowner doesn’t do it and the city has to, they pay for it.
M~
My little suburban neighborhood doesn’t have sidewalks. The kids wait for the bus on the curb, in the street next to the curb, or on my lawn (my daughter’s stop is at my corner :-). We had about 1-2" of snow the other day, and our road was plowed before 6am. Still, the schools all closed, but that’s due to the expectation that the snow would change over to sleet and rain, making dangerous roads. I don’t think our school district allows kids to walk to school.
My neighborhood in NJ, and the previous one also in NJ, had pretty good maintenance by homeowners. No cars allowed on streets overnight, no cars on property other than driveways. Everyone did a pretty good job of upkeep. The one exception really stood out: at least it was a matter of ridiculously large shrubs that hid most of the un-maintained house…
Is the trend toward not caring about your home, property, etc a uniquely Indiana thing, or is this the typical attitude everywhere now?
I have noticed this. It seems to be especially worse this year because we have already had a full season of snow and we are barely half over. I think people have just bunkered down to some extent knowing that sometime in late-March it will be gone on its own.
I was out running the other day in the city that is near where I work before my shift started. It was about 24 hours after a 6 inch snow fall. I couldn’t believe some of the sidewalks that weren’t cleared. INterestingly they were sidewalks in front of schools and municipal buildings and this was along a main bus route, so kids have to walk on it in order to get to the bus stop. Also, it was even worse because the street plows had come through and the snow from the plows was pushed onto the sidewalks. The ironic thing is that this City has an ordinance requiring homeonwers and businesses to have their walks and drives cleared within 24 hours of a snow fall. It seems you would lose your moral authority to enforce such an ordinance if you can’t even do your own.
We don’t shovel snow in eastern NC. Occasionally one neighbor doesn’t mow his yard frequently enough. Maybe you need a warmer climate and/or a better neighborhood.
My mom is 85. She lives in an apartment and still shovels her own walk because she can do it herself and doesn’t need the maintenance men to do it for her. Hell of a lady. If you are lazy you are lazy, regardless of what the task.
Everything except the walks in front of city owned property gets shoveled quickly.
Since we frequently get Chinooks people check the forecast before shoveling and the city decides whether to plow the main roads or not. A strong Chinook can melt a foot of snow in a day and snow storms are often followed by Chinooks so there is no point in shoveling. The Chinooks convert snow directly into vapour so there is no water runoff either. You can shovel in the morning and by noon the snow has all melted.
The neighbor to my left keeps a BBQ smoker and two lounge chairs on his front lawn. The ones to my right park two cars in their driveway and another two on the lawn.
We don’t have any snow down south, but I noticed a lot of people down here throw trash out their car windows. It drives me nuts! I want try the PIT maneuver on those ass wipes! Some people just don’t give a shit about anything.
We don’t have any snow down south, but I noticed a lot of people down here throw trash out their car windows. It drives me nuts! I want try the PIT maneuver on those ass wipes! Some people just don’t give a shit about anything.
I particularly like the ones that empty their ashtrays at the traffic lights.
well, considering it’s almost 70 degrees today and there is not a cloud in the sky…no, it’s not like that everywhere. Hell, we don’t even have bus service for our kids - they either get driven or walk. That being said, our neighbors all keep their homes in very good condition, they have too because we have a very strong HOA. Also, another benefit is that the HOA is responsible for maintaining the front yards. Of course, I do have a neighbor that uses a leaf blower on his grass for upwards of an hour per day, 365 days a year…there are negatives to living in California.
Have you considered that some people have better things to do than shovel snow on your schedule?
Sure, except it’s not my schedule. The city asks its residents to take care of this within 24 hours, maybe 3-5 times a year, mostly so that little kids don’t have to walk in the streets in the dark, and have a safe place to stand waiting for school buses.
We’re talking about maybe 15 minutes of work here…if that. It’s not that people have better things to do, it’s that they are lazy and don’t care.
Maybe you’re right and most of these folks are lazy and don’t care. That just seems like a very unproductive conclusion to jump to about your neighbors. What form does the city use to inform it’s citizens of this requirement?
Maybe you’re right and most of these folks are lazy and don’t care. That just seems like a very unproductive conclusion to jump to about your neighbors. What form does the city use to inform it’s citizens of this requirement?
I am not sure where you are from. But here in Michigan, and I assume Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and other snow belt States, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the snow needs to be shoveled. But it is quite true that some people just do not do it. Thus the rationale for City ordinances that require it for snows over a certain depth.
You ask how the Cities inform the citizenry of its ordinances? How do they do it for any of them? How do you know what day is garbage day? Any citizen can go and get a copy of local ordinances. Neighbors who are fed up with one person’s sidewalks will often inform them. When they get the fine from the City is another time they will learn. The Cities also go out of their way to remind people in the newspapers and they post it on public access channels. In some Cities, there are sirens that go off that tell people it is a snow emergency which requires them to remove their cars from the streets and shovel your walks.
This has always been a source of frustration to me even when I was a kid. I used to deliver the Detroit News and it ticked me off back then when people wouldn’t shovel…and even now as a fire fighter, it pisses me off. I can’t tell you how many homes I go into that we can’t get up their driveways with our stretcher to haul them off to the hospital. If it is only the patient and they are a senior citizen or frail in some way, I can get over that…in fact, I have even grabbed their shovel and done a quick push job to help them out. But usually the house is full of able bodied people that are just too fucking lazy to shovel the snow…much less take their Mom to her Dr.'s appointment. The other day, one guy was hiding in the back bedroom so we wouldn’t “know” he was there. His mom ratted him out!
We also have very few sidewalks, which is a big complaint of mine … especially since students cannot ride the bus unless they live a mile or more away from the school … unless they live in a “hazard zone” (have to cross railroad tracks, busy street, etc).
We had 3 climate/snow days in a row 3 weeks ago, something I’ve never experienced before.
The rationale is that it is too cold (-16 one day + windchill) for kids to wait for the bus, and if the bus’s fuel lines freeze, it would create a major situation.
In the era of liability, I am finding that scholls, more and more, are erring on the side of caution.
I admit I did not shovel my sidewalk the day it was -16. I don’t think I went outside at all.
