What I sent to the governor's office on Monday, and what happened next

Posted by John B. Kelly

Last Monday evening, I sent an e-mail with map, along with photos of the problem sites, to one of Governor Patrick's assistants in the governor's office. I wrote that

the problem with DCR and snow is systemic and long-term. It has never in my 20 years of living here followed requirements for clearing snow. It seems to have long ago decided to ignore the Fenway except for a few sidewalks. As far as I can tell, it doesn't bother with curb cuts (maybe because they have to be done by hand), and leaves quite a few sidewalks untouched, also.

DCR came up with a snow removal priority plan, probably as a result of the West Roxbury high school students being hit on VFW Parkway three years ago. The plan is here: http://maps.massgis.state.ma.us/DCR_Snow_Priority/viewer.htm . The most valuable part of the plan for me is that it establishes jurisdiction. Here is a portion of the map with some of the problem areas (I assume there are big problems all the way around The Fens).

All of the marked areas are impassable for disabled and elderly people.

1. Curb cuts at Westland Avenue/Hemenway Street, the North Side. Also adjacent sidewalk on Hemenway Street.

2. Curb cuts on the South side of the intersection. Also adjacent sidewalk on Hemenway Street.

3. Sidewalk between 60 the Fenway and main walkway. This problem quarantines residents of 66 the Fenway.

4. Fenway crosswalk just south of Boston Fire Alarm, 59 The Fenway. Also adjacent curb cut at the northern edge of the service road.

5. Agassiz Road crosswalk.

6. Curb cut at southern edge of service road.

7. Sidewalk along The Fens from Agassiz road heading south. I saw high school students walking in the road on Monday, December 17.

Tuesday:
A truck with sand backed to and fro across the crosswalk at Agassiz road/the Fenway (#5 in the map), for what seems like quite some time, before just driving off and doing nothing.

Wednesday:
A work (prison work release?) crew comes to the same crosswalk, mostly stands around with only a few shovels, and clears a few feet of the curb cut on each side of the crosswalk. Beyond each cleared patch it remains solid ice. The (in)action is captured at Flickr.

None of the other problem areas are touched.

Globe's Edgers Opens up Dialogue on Snowy Sidewalks

Posted by John B. Kelly

Boston Globe arts reporter (and access advocate) Geoff Edgers's Boston.com blog, "Exhibitionist," is devoted to the arts, but that didn't stop him from posting the above picture of me squeezed between a car and a hard slush at the corner of Westland Avenue and Hemenway Street.

I had sent Geoff and a bunch of other people an e-mail invitation to view 35 pictures of access violations in the Fenway, but until the the picture hit Boston.com, it had received a total of 59 views. After the exposure, views went over 3000.

People responded so enthusiastically to his posting that 16 comments came in within hours, that he put up another posting about this representing the most feedback he had ever gotten on a blog item.

The comments make great reading, in large part because people are remarkably honest. One fellow, Ben, asks the big question:

what should we expect people to do about this? It is nearly impossible to have all of the snow and ice cleared from the sidewalks and roadways the day or two after a big storm. Our New England meteorological/Climate conditions and available human resources just do not allow for it. We should feel bad that this situation creates significant impairments to handicap access around the city, but realistically what can be done about it? Please make some feasible suggestions as to what accomodations should be made.

The answer is to change from doing what doesn't work to what might work. Bill Allan of the disability policy consortium suggests hiring people to shovel, and I think that is the right direction. Let's make it neighborhood-based, and have competitions between the neighborhoods on which can be the safest after a snowstorm. The group that could provide the most leadership would be teenagers, junior high and high school students. They could have competitions against each other, they could document violations, and be empowered to turn in evidence against violators. They would have a list of elderly and disabled people whose homes should be shoveled out as a public service.

All that is needed is the political will.

But I ran into the reality that he describes today, when Patty Provenzano, DCR director of community relations, told me that not only would it be impossible to clear the snow in my or any neighborhood within the three hour limit set by the city, but that DCR isn't even bound to by city regulations. I asked her, "are you sure?" She said she was. I'm thinking that we will certainly have to see about that!

I called inspectional services, and got the "hold on," followed 25 seconds later by the sudden cut off. It's amazing how many times I get "accidentally" cut off when I am making a complaint about being excluded from the streets of the city. Why just the other day, I got accidentally cut off talking to the DCR official who argued that DCR had 24 hours to clear its sidewalks, that "roads are priority one; everything else comes after."

Who knows, maybe they do have their own rules.

More snow violators in the Fenway

Posted by John B. Kelly

There is another group of photos over at Flickr, showing pictures taken today around noon by Justin Loomis.

The Department of Conservation and Recreation has almost completely abandoned this area.

DCR Snow Follies

above: Fenway crosswalk near fire alarm center, tonight.
below: Westland at Hemenway, tonight.
Photos: Rob DuBuske

posted by John B. Kelly

The heavy wet snow fall from earlier in the morning has long since turned to rain. The temperature is now comfortably above freezing (40° out my window at 3:52 p.m.), so the snow is shovelable (if wet), but time is running out. With a deep freeze coming in tonight that will last through the week, the grim probability is that very little shoveling of any kind will get done by tonight.

There never has been an effective penalty for not shoveling, so why should anyone bother?

What we can expect the next is that peculiarly Bostonian "act of nature" mentality, in which nothing can be done about the snow and ice blocking the sidewalks, and we all must resign ourselves to waiting for the warming rays of the December sun.

Meanwhile, government and media concentrate on road clearance, perhaps because as a group they all drive cars. The hundreds of thousands of people in the metropolitan region who don't use automobiles are thrown off the sidewalks, tethered to our houses, or admitted to emergency rooms.

Boston inspectional services, with its tiny core of inspectors, will write a few hundred tickets and call that a success.

If this approach works so well, why don't we switch to having abutters clear roadways and highways, too?

Getting back to reality, I decided I had to do everything in my power to get these sidewalks cleared before the ice cometh. I called up the main DCR number, got an emergency number, and was very politely referred to the Storm Center at 617-727-1680. This is the number I have often called regarding snow emergencies and HP parking thieves.

"Hello, my name is John Kelly from Neighborhood Access Group in the Fenway. And I'm calling to find out when the DCR plans to shovel off the walkways in the Fenway."

DCR: "We have crews going out at four or 5 p.m., but I can't give you a time. Where you talking about"

NAG: "The walkways in the Fenway, in my neighborhood. The service road near 60 the Fenway, a walkway towards the Westland Gates, all this is DCR property. The sidewalk along The Fens between 60 and 114 The Fenway hasn't been touched since the Thursday storm"

DCR: "Were adding people all the time.”

NAG: "But do you plan to follow the law regarding clearing the snow?"

DCR: "We've got 24 hours."

NAG: "In Boston, you've got three hours."

DCR: "Hold on."

We become disconnected.

"Hello, this is John Kelly from Neighborhood Access Group again."

DCR: "Yeah we got cut off. I'm trying to get that for you."

NAG: "What?"

DCR: "The law, do you have a number? I'll get back to you."

NAG: "It's three hours. What's your e-mail address? I can send you the law."

DCR: "Actually, I don't need the law. Were working on the roads right now. They are priority one. Everything else comes after"

NAG: "So you don't have a policy of following the law?"

DCR: "Apparently not. Do you want the complaint line? I can give that to you."

She persuades me to take the complaint line number, for all the good it's going to do me. It's for Christina , who will be in first thing tomorrow morning at 617-626-1413.

I always wonder in these circumstances how best to characterize someone. Was the person I spoke to ignorant, because she said that DCR had 24 hours to clear the walkways (when she really had three); or was she contemptuous, by, in consecutive order: cutting me off, pretending to look for a law, and then finally telling me flat out that "roads are the number one priority."