Yesterday, the sidewalk along Dundas at the south end of Regent Park was covered in snow, four days after the snowfall. The street was dry as a bone, as the snow was pushed onto the sidewalk, where it stayed. Streets need to be cleared, but stuff like this forces people off the sidewalk and onto the street, and underlines that pedestrians still don’t really matter. In the short time we were there, we observed a few people climbing over the hump and into traffic. Further east, the hoarding for the new Regent Park development provided a safe tunnel to walk through. It’s likely this specific spot is temporarily lost in the Regent Park construction, and would normally be cleared, but we see street snow routinely dumped on sidewalks in other places.
Also of note on Friday — garbage collection day — the big blue city truck drove down our street half on the sidewalk, along the ridge of snow between the part of the sidewalk people shovelled by hand, and the road. They did a very good job of breaking up the neat ridge and spreading all the snow back on the sidewalk, making it hard to walk again (things like this probably encourage the purchase of those awful SUV strollers). Certainly this is a minor thing when considering the workings of the whole city and not worth getting very upset about, but it adds another bit to the mental “Wow, they really don’t care” file we maintain in our heads. I don’t know what happens when that file gets too big. Maybe we stop caring too. Not yet though.
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Riding a bike is even more fun! The City does have tendencies to plow all the snow into the bike lanes so they disappear, forcing cyclists onto the sidewalks or transick, or into the car traffic. It’s better this year than others, though the northbound Beverly bumplane was filled up thanks to a City trash/R pickup but they’ve made some effort to move away the snow on the Bloor Viaduct (thanks!). The “carism” of the city is still quite clear though, and while the sidewalks are often clear, bike travel isn’t good.
SUV strollers, brilliant image 😀
I was thinking of snowy Toronto this morning, as I walked along in Edinburgh and saw flowers blooming.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mkultra/394333306/
It’s February! My Canadian sensibility finds it surreal.
Maybe the problem isn’t with them, but with us. Instead of picking up a shovel and doing something about this, we’d rather pick up a digital camera and blog about it.
Since we’re talking about Regent Park and Dundas Street, I hope this isn’t considered too far off topic.
I received this call to action earlier in the week from folks at Regent Park Focus:
This is an urgent request to please contact City Hall on behalf of the youth in Regent Park and demand that there be TTC Service on Dundas Street
East between Parliament and Broadview.
There is track reconstruction starting to take place on Feb 19 and NO plans to provide service between Parliament and Broadview on Dundas. And only a sketchy “November 2007” completion date. There are no plans for shuttle bus service on the affected area.
This primarily affects the low-income, large youth population of Regent Park which is currently taking massive steps to revitalize the neighbourhood.
Please send an email/petition/whatever to
TTC Chair Adam Giambrone
councillor_giambrone@toronto.ca
TTC Vice Chair Joe Mihevc
councillor_mihevc@toronto.ca
City Councillor Pam McConnell
councillor_mcconnell@toronto.ca
Mayor David Miller
mayor_miller@toronto.ca
Is the adjacent landowner (TCHC?) not responsible for keeping the footpath clear?
Scott ^ are you serious? If I’m kilometres from my home I am not going to find a shovel and start clearing a sidewalk. ESPECIALLY when it is the responsibility of the landowner or City. I’ll clear out front of my neighbour’s place, but do you expect people to carry around snow removal equipment? C’mon.
i can see how this would happen around a large construction site like the one in regent park (even though it’s unfortunate), but what gets me mad is big commercial landlords failing to clear the sidewalks in front of their properties. the sidewalk in front of 1525 dundas st. west, for example, is still treacherous from the 13th. on http://www.toronto.ca/transportation/snow/sidewalks.htm it warns of a $105 fine if snow isn’t cleared within 12 hours, but i don’t know if the same applies to commercial properties. anyway, i don’t think they enforce it much, and i doubt $105 is much of a deterrent to a big company. guess i’ll keep my snowshoes handy.
Scott> Well, what Matt said — but also, there is the issue of already cleared sidewalks getting road-snow dumped back on them. If it was reversed, and sidewalk snow was dumped in clear roads, I suspect a fuss would be raised, somewhere.
Jeeff> Indeed. It’s also irritating when store/business owners do the bare minimum — or if they’re on a corner, not bothering to shovel a path to the street. Etc.
I kind of think shoveling is fun and meditative.
Thanks Shawn for bringing this to our attention. This problem is taking place all over the city and is by no means limited to sidewalks in front of privately owned property (keeping in mind of course that Regent Park is City property). The most offensive examples of this are at the corners of intersections where sidewalks meet the road. The snowplow operators dutifully clear the roadway, but large banks of hard-packed snow block the pedestrian way, often days after a snowfall. This simply would not be tolerated if the snow was blocking the flow of cars. I would urge people to ask themselves as they trudge through ankle deep snow on a pubic sidewalk: “could a baby stroller pass here? How about a wheelchair, or a cart full of groceries?” If it is four days since the snow has fallen and the answer is no, then there is a problem. Every person in this city, car owner or not, has the right to mobility, the right to get from A to B, to take children to school, to attend a doctor’s appointment, to get groceries for their family. The City works department, and those they contract to clear the sidewalks, need to do better, and we need to hold them accountable if they don’t.
And Scott, I have a list of intersections that need shovelling if you would like to get started. I’m sure Shawn would be happy to drop by and photograph you for the blog.
When I woke up at 7AM the morning of the big storm, the municipal parking lot just behind the stores on Bloor near Dufferin was freshly plowed.
Wow — even in Montreal and Ottawa, municipal parking lots would usually be the lowest priorities for plowing.
In contrast…
The sidewalk next to the plowed parking was not plowed — it never is. (How hard can it be to start plowing over the concrete of the sidewalk rather than just the asphalt of the lot?)
By the next day (!) the sidewalk on Bloor was properly plowed by the city.
The sidewalks on nearby side streets are never plowed.
Of all the public space to prioritize plowing first, the parking lot should probably be the last in this area.
..
Last year I received a flyer from the city about its snow removal. There’s a map showing 3 tiers of snow removal. The old city, where I presumed sidewalks are used most intensely, happens to be in the worse category of most sidewalks not being plowed. I’ve heard many excuses, including narrow sidewalks (the ones on my street are wider than they were in Montreal) and risks of parked cars being hit.
Every side street around here seems to allow parking on just one side, sometimes alternating mid-way through the month. At a minimum, the city should plow the sidewalk on the side without cars parked next to it. This would provide people with at least one safe and reliable place to walk off the main streets, and void any potential close calls with parked cars if the sidewalks are narrow.
Walking around Toronto this past week has made me nostalgic for my university days in Ottawa, where not only does the city plow both the streets and the sidewalks, but they come back a couple days later and take all the snow away! It’s an amazingly well-organized process, involving people in little machines careening about at night, but it makes for a very pleasant walking environment come morning….
If it’s the owner/landlord’s responsibility to clear snow from the sidewalk, does that include the snow that the municipality plows onto there?
“(…) but also, there is the issue of already cleared sidewalks getting road-snow dumped back on them. If it was reversed, and sidewalk snow was dumped in clear roads, I suspect a fuss would be raised, somewhere.”
In the too-few cases where sidewalks ARE cleared, that snow IS typically pushed onto the road (well, into the non-existent gutter, at least).
There it is heated and churned into slush, and then splashed back onto pedestrians by passing cars.
And so it goes.
In Montreal, like Ottawa, the now-removal process actually included removing the snow, not just pushing it back and forth until it melts.
Of course, then there are cities like Calgary, where plowing of any kind is considered to be for Eastern sissies…