GM heard a rumor that the mayor and Jack Evans were out and about Georgetown watching over a new strategy for side-street clearance. He rushed down to Cambridge St. with his trusty Nikon and snapped a photo of the pair.
The new strategy involves driving a Bobcat (actually this was technically a Mustang) with a crew of shovelers. And it’s pretty effective:
Buuuuuuuut, how’s R St.?
Not so great. (The cab was stuck, by the way).
GM asked the mayor whether R St. was on the menu for the bobcat/mustang. He said he thought the big trucks could fit on R St.
You don’t say…
It’s nice that they’ve come up with a strategy for the side streets, but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to have Avon Place pristine while R St. is still a single lane mess. (As of 9:00 this morning, R St. has still not been plowed).
But all things considered, GM would prefer to cut the mayor and DDOT a little slack. It was a once-in-a-century snowstorm. If it takes us a week or so to get back to some sense of normalcy, then I’d say that’s not so bad.
What do you think?
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
Events like this bring out both the best in people and the worst. Yesterday and the day before, there were neighbors and strangers helping each other out with the digging, and today there are people in automobiles racing down the streets, yakking on their cell phones, playing chicken with pedestrians, and making the world worse for being in it.
At least on my street, the crooked timber of humanity seems to be winning.
I’ll just make the observation that the lion’s share of angst over snow removal is premised on the notion that cars are essential for mobility.
I believe that for most people in Georgetown that’s not true (even if they don’t realize it themselves).
For me, it’s not my attachment to my car that creates angst over snow removal. In fact, one of the things that I love about Georgetown is that we can walk to most destinations and don’t need to drive.
Rather, as a taxpayer (of significant amounts) to the DC government, I believe we are entitled to some basic, competent public services in return — including keeping the streets clear and operable. That’s a pretty fundamental job of government.
True, this blizzards was a historic occurrence. But that does not explain why 25% of plows were out of commission when the storm struck (if you were running that division of DC goverment, you probably would consider it your job to have your fleet in good repair at this time of year — the fall is the perfect time to do such preparatory work), and a blizzard does not disable people from exercising sound organizational skills to the snow removal effort and directing the plows to clear the important thoroughfares, such as R Street, and 28th Street, first before hitting small cul de sacs such as Cambridge Place (but apparently that did not occur to anybody in charge).
I can give a break for undue circumstances, but regrettably we have witnessed some plain old fashioned, and expensive, incompetence. Six days is just too long to let major roads go untouched, even accounting for special circumstances. I am willing to bet that a neighborhood association could fund and execute a plow job for Georgetown that would cost less and happen faster than the DC goverment is managing it.
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While I was happy Cambridge PLACE (a one way street, not a cul-de-sac) and Avon Place were being plowed since we were the last to be plowed after the Decemeber storm, I was surprised that we were put in front of N, R and the numbered streets – all of which have traffic lights for crossing either Wisconsin or M. I assumed it was because we were getting the bobcat, while the other streets were getting actual plows. Apparently, they got bobcats too so go figure. As for the Mayor’s visit. Was he out there wielding a shovel when the bobcat got stuck in the snow or did he arrive just after it was freed?