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Passive aggression in Cabbagetown

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We have all been cussing, silently or otherwise, at people who do not shovel their alloted segment of sidewalk. I like shoveling snow — it’s sort of meditative and I’ll do the houses along my street without a thought (no downtown Toronto house can compare to the vast driveways those of who grew up in the suburbs had to shovel). So when slipping on poorly or not-at-all shoveled walks I’ve fantizied about ways to show the offending homeowner, shopkeeper or slumlord my (our?) outrage. On garbage day I imagined dumping full recycling bins onto their porch (oh, but what if she is an old lady?) or throwing snowballs at their windows (what if I see them again though? That would be uncomfortable). I’m having my own silent war with a neighbour whose private Mr. Plow guy always fills in the sidewalks I have already cleared many hours before, so I shovel the snow back onto his property (I think he’s gone south for the winter, so maybe he’ll never know).

Yesterday as I walked along Carlton in Cabbagetown I notice that somebody had taped two identical Toronto Star letter to the editor clippings on the fence of a house that had not shoveled their walk. The letter was in support of a Christopher Hume column back in December that discussed the difficulty of making your way around Toronto on foot. Somebody has been holding on to this one for a while, waiting to use it. It is not as satisfying as some of my (or your) fantasies, but probably get the message across better and in true politely passive aggressive Toronto style.

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9 comments

  1. You might want to crop out the phone number.

    C

  3. I have been meaning to stick a copy of the bylaw in a couple of Coxwell post boxes but never get around to it.

    That said I think it was bloody cheeky of the city to ask homeowners to move snow off the road and onto their property.
    http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=368610

    The social contract (and the bylaw) is that homeowners don’t shovel snow onto public space (the sidewalk/public road) but in a winter like this where front yard humps are measured in meters it’s time for the city to get the snow clearance operation going again.

  4. In Sarnia, people are now being charged for walking on the street because they can’t walk on sidewalks that haven’t been cleared. One woman was hit by a truck while walking on the road apparently because the sidewalk wasn’t cleared, and then she was charged *after being taken to hospital*.

    http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/345151

    It goes to show that not clearing sidewalks isn’t just an inconvenience, it’s a hazard.

  5. I hate this as well. I was in front of the Bell Canada building at Yonge and Finch last night and the sidewalk in front (along Finch) wasn’t shoveled at all – are major streets the city’s responsibility?

    Also, you just gotta love the note.. for more hillarity, visit:

    http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com

    mostly stuff about roommates doing their dishes, it’s no B.A. Johnston song, but entertaining for a few minutes.

    cheers

  7. I have a nice long 2k walk to the subway every morning through residential streets which is sometimes marred by those who don’t shovel their sidewalks. The absolute worst is when they’ve clearly shoveled their driveway, but couldn’t be bothered to do the sidewalk. So they had time to shovel, but just shovel the part that’s for them only. Nice.

  8. I think the Cabbagetown house is the Weenen contractor house, or it was.
    I find it of note that the City – or someone – is able to clear away the ads on the side of the street bins, and hasn’t done a damned thing all winter about taking out the snow in the indented parking bays on College, Spadina and St. George – so cycling is extra bad.
    Having clear, dry sidewalks is a basic issue for urban equity – thanks for highlighting it.