by Barry Rafkind in Announcements, Public Health & Safety
Posted on March 29, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Last Modified on March 30, 2009 at 8:56 pm
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This past January, when my wife was 31 weeks pregnant with our baby, she slipped on an icy patch of sidewalk in Somerville, did a belly-flop, and ended up in the hospital with pre-term contractions as a result. A group of residents is organizing to advocate for more effective snow removal policies and stronger enforcement.
Fortunately, my wife’s early contractions subsided and she carried our healthy daughter to term. Our story is just one example of how poorly maintained sidewalks represent a danger to everyone. Especially the elderly, the disabled, the young, the injured, and pregnant women are challenged by snow and ice, but even otherwise strong and healthy adults are not immune to slips and falls.
Poorly-shoveled sidewalks divert pedestrians into the street where they are at risk of being hit by cars and bikes. In heavy snow, some mobility-challenged people avoid leaving their homes for fear of an accident. These are circumstances that no one should be faced with, but they occur every Winter in Somerville.
If you care about this issue, please join our email discussion Google group: Somerville Snow Removal. This group is born out of discussions at the last meeting of the Somerville Human Rights Commission.
[Update: Thanks for extra publicity about this article from Kat Powers at the Somerville Journal in She’s OK, but you need to clear the sidewalk and by Adam Gaffin at Universal Hub under Ice-free sidewalks as a basic human right.]
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hi every one i am tring to find a study on how much snow one person can remove in a certain time frame, along with breaks in between . can some one guid me . thank you
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No idea, john. I’d think it depends on many factors such as age, arm strength, and physical fitness. Why are you looking for that information?
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1) Barry, grab your testicles and don’t let your pregnant wife walk to the super market for Chunky Monkey next time!
2) When it snows, BARRY, people shovel/plow the snow. So at the first sign of flakes people should be out there so craving-mommy-to-be’s can walk to Shaw’s at 11:30pm?
What if it snows at 7am and continues to snow until 11? Should we call in late for work to shovel or would you have the common sense to tread lightly where snow levels are visible?
Harsher punishments?
Somerville is Nazi Germany already and the fence-jumpers suffer none of it.
Trash fines, parking fines, weed fines (overgrown hedges not ganja)
But the SPICnish who jumped the fence can relax because the mayor is a eunuch!
I’ve just become mexican.
i refuse to pay taxes, obey laws and im going to suck the tit of the welfare system like a newborn baby who will never learn English!
Gimme Gimme – IM A DEMOCRAT!
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Tim,
For your information, my wife fell when she was walking home from the T station after a day at work.
I would hope folks would have the courtesy to shovel their walks either before they go to work or at least after they return home.
By the way, no thanks for your racist remarks which have nothing to do with snow shoveling.
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