Today's wintry (cold, bitter) thoughts

[vulgarweed]

So I was walking to my bus route and back, and mentally wanting to put a Molotov cocktail through the window of everyone who couldn't be arsed to shovel or put down salt. Because you might think the ice on your stretch of sidewalk is no big deal. For yourself.

BUT...if you're clumsy and have no health insurance (cause you're underemployed and broke, as many of us are these days)--and are in the US;I'm ranting about Chicago people here--you know damn well that every chance you have of falling and hurting yourself might mean that your parents could lose their house if you wind up suddenly hospitalized. For us pedestrians, it's often safer to walk in the street than on the sidewalks, and even so we have to go slow and grope the iron fences.


Mostly, the worst offenders are yuppie condos. People who have garages right under their lofts, and so have no vested interest in the general communal life of the city, which involves WALKING.

Comments

[mikekellner.livejournal.com]

In Madison, it is a $115 fine for not clearing your walk within 24 hours of a storm. They actually enforce it too.

That means the walks are way better than the streets, most of which would draw fines using the standard they set for walks. But who can write the city a ticket for poorly plowed streets?

mk

[clodia-metelli.livejournal.com]

We get snow so rarely over here that when it happens (as in the last couple of weeks), it always comes as a real shock. I didn't see a snowplough out till last Wednesday, when it had already been snowing for a week. It's stopped now, but the temperature's been around zero so it hasn't melted and the pavements outside the town centre are still layered with several inches of extremely compacted snow. And there are still icicles clinging (dripping) to a rather alarming number of gutters all over the place.

But... free(-at-point-of-use) healthcare. Breaking something would be a painful inconvenience, but that's about it. It must be scary for you. I hope people get your route clear!

[eveiya.livejournal.com]

Next to nobody here in Scotland ever shovels or salts their stretch of pavement when we get snow - not homeowners in the suburbs and not shop or business owners in the city centres either. At most they might dig their own driveway enough to get their car to the road. Apart from that they just whinge about the Council not gritting pavements - which, right enough, they don't.

But yeah, free health care here, at least.