Shovel Your Sidewalk, Yes, You

What is it with people who live on corner lots that they think they don’t need to shovel the sidewalk along both sides? Above is the house at Potomac and O. The O St. sidewalk was clear last weekend, but the Potomac street side was a treacherous sheet of ice.

When people allow this to occur they are revealing  just how little regard they have for their fellow citizens. It’s a thirty foot long middle-finger to the world that says “I really couldn’t care less about you or your safety”.

Yes, some residents physically can’t clear their sidewalk. But there were plenty of entrepreneurs roaming the neighborhood all weekend offering to clear the snow for a fee. If you still can’t get your sidewalk clear it’s because you’re a bad neighbor and you just don’t care.

And there really seems to be a direct relationship between the value of the home and the amount they can’t be bothered to care about anyone else. Here’s an example on P St.:

The only reason there’s a path through the snow is that people walked it. By failing to clear the snow in time, a thick layer of ice formed. It’s dangerous for an able-bodied adult to walk on it; but it’s down right hazardous for an elderly person or someone of limited mobility to travel on.

Businesses were on the whole not bad this storm (they were pretty awful back in the big storms of 2010). But we still have situations like the Shell gas station:

They cleared their lot of snow by simply plowing it onto the sidewalk. Thanks assholes!

No, you don’t own the sidewalks. And yes, it would be marvelous if DPW had the means and the desire to clear all the sidewalks. But they don’t (and the same types who fail to shovel their sidewalk are probably the same types who would be livid at having to pay the taxes to provide this government resource). Until they do, you have a choice to be a decent human being and do the right thing or shrug your shoulders because you can’t be bothered. This isn’t rocket science.