Too small to clear the sidewalk?
(Alt text: Photo of a parked sidewalk plow)
This morning I got up early to go for a cold but sunny walk with CBC reporter Darrell Roberts to check out walking conditions three days after the latest storm. You can hear about what we saw here.
Darrell also did an excellent multi-platform report last week on sidewalks and safe routes to school. Thank you so much, Darrell and CBC, for your unwavering support on this fundamental human rights issue!
Something I may not have said as clearly as I would have liked in these interviews is this: Why do spokespeople for the City of St. John’s say over and over that it’s too challenging to provide safe routes for pedestrians when they would never say that for drivers? On Monday, Lynnann Winsor, deputy manager of public works, said that all the streets had been plowed at least once but sidewalks would have to wait as “a lot of sidewalk snow-clearing equipment is too small for the current amount of snow.” Last week, Councillor Jamie Korab, Lead for Public Works, said “hopefully in future years more money will be invested” in sidewalks and then went on to talk in some detail about what they do “to make sure all roads are clear” even though he had been explicitly asked about sidewalks.
I understand that conditions are a factor but that excuse is not used for leaving streets uncleared. That just never happens. I guess my real question is why are pedestrians considered expendable when conditions get challenging?
Road Rage 
I heard this interview on CBC radio this morning and I sympathize with pedestrians, as walk about 5 – 7 km every day and I’m all too familiar with the aggravation of walking in the winter-time… That said, I think some sensibility needs to be brought to mind as well…
Yeoman mentioned similar “snowy” cities such as Montreal and Quebec city and how well they clear sidewalks etc… What she conveniently overlooks, is that Montreal is a city of nearly 2 million people, the 3rd largest Canadian city with regards to commerce. So it has a generous tax-base to draw from to sustain such services. Quebec city has over about 1/2 million people…. Moreover, Quebec has a provincial population of 8.5 million…. St. John’s has a population of 112,000 in a province of 1/2 million people. Is this begging to make sense now??
Furthermore, here are these city sizes by area…
Montreal – 166.60 sq mi
Quebec – 187 sq mi
St. Johns - 172 sq mi
Despite the glaring disparity in population size / tax base, Yeoman expects the same level of municipal snow-clearing as these other cities. Isn’t this woman an Education professor of all things? Can she do simple math? Does she have clue? Not only is she not comparing apples with apples, she’s not even comparing fruit.
Do I think St. John’s can do a better job with snow-clearing? Yes!!! I think they could leverage their current resources better without costing the taxpayer additional money.. However, we simply don’t have more $$$ to throw at it. Further, a zero tolerance policy with regards to private snow-clearing operators pushing snow onto city sidewalks. They should be fined heavily.
Leaning on the taxpayers is not the way to go with this, as it will simply raise the cost of taxes and push already marginalized people out of the city as result.
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Great points: I guess this means we should stop greenlighting future suburbs and road-building in St John’s until we can afford to properly support the infrastructure. The fact is, pedestrians *are* taxpayers and are not receiving the services they are due. In fact, how about we set up a taxation system that accurately reflects how use and cost should be distributed, based on km driven per year. We could account for a baseline entitlement for all drivers (say, half the Canadian average), then rapidly index/escalate tax rates above that. Pay for your own damn plows and potholes.
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There’s a lot of segments of society who are not receiving the services they are due. That doesn’t mean that $ is suddenly going to appear out of nowhere to pay for these services.
Further, suggesting that “drivers” are the only beneficiaries of road infrastructure is moronic. How do you think your groceries arrive at Sobeys? How do you think heating fuel gets to your homes? How do you think goods get to stores and businesses? By drone? How do you think the 25% of the city’s work-force get here everyday from places 30 – 60 km outside the city? The list goes on and on.
Oh wait, let me guess… You were hoping for some elaborate public transit system that covers every nook and cranny of the province? There isn’t enough money in the world to finance that.
As I said above, I walk more than most people but I also don’t have my head up my ass with regards to the economics of the situation.
Wake up and smell the Folgers!
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First I will say that I find it disheartening that your comments to others are so demeaning. If you want to express your opinion about other’s comments, perhaps try to be less personal and more kind. We are all entitled to an opinion and sometimes we differ. That makes the discussion all the more enriching. Secondly, the main point to this article was that pedestrians are taxpayers too and we are just not getting a return on our tax dollars when we cannot function as pedestrians in our City during winter. Not all suggestions for improvements during winter involve increased taxes. The City should start with better planning, coordination, and oversight of their snowclearing operations. That alone would make a big difference.
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Thanks, Anne. I am able to approve or delete comments here and I approved these ones from Frank because he expresses opinions that are not uncommon but I agree he could have been kinder and not made personal remarks (that actually aren’t correct, except I do like lattes, ha!) And yes, there are many things that can be done (and some that are being done recently) to improve pedestrian safety without raising taxes. It’s also well documented that making communities more walkable can be good for local businesses and lead to very substantial economic savings (mostly in health costs) as well as making getting around more affordable for many people. There’s a good review of these issues and more at this link.
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Thanks for the comments, Arn and Frank. I agree with you, Arn, that it isn’t just about what we can afford but about priorities. Some cities prioritize pedestrians because they are the most vulnerable, and also because by walking they are contributing to a better environment and to their own health and well-being. According to the provincial Health Accord, this province has the worst health outcomes in Canada and inactivity is one reason for that. St. John’s strategic plan has goals of “Working collaboratively to create a climate-adapted and low-carbon city,” “expanding and maintaining a safe and accessible active transportation network” and “making a safer and more effective transportation network for everyone, regardless of their mode of travel.” The City can do better on these goals.
Frank, your challenge about whether I can do simple math made me think some more about the examples I gave. I did give others as well as the ones you mention, smaller cities like Moncton and Saguenay for instance, but Quebec City was one of the comparison cities in St. John’s’ own Review of Winter Maintenance Services. Although it’s bigger it does have quite a few things in common with us. So let’s look at the kind of basic math you are using. According to your figures, Quebec City has about four times the population of St. John’s but is fairly similar in terms of area. Quebec City clears all its sidewalks and walking trails, stairs, etc. within 4-8 hours of a snowfall. Pedestrians are their top priority. We clear 12.5% of our sidewalks within 5 days. We do clear stairs and a few pedestrian paths but not trails. Pedestrians are our lowest priority. Based on the simple math of size and population, we should be able to do 25% of sidewalks and trails within hours of a storm, not days, since we have 25% of the tax base of Quebec City. That would be a huge improvement on what we are doing now. Thank you for the math challenge!
I should also say, Frank, that I agree with you that St. John’s could probably do better by allocating and coordinating current resources differently, and that they should enforce the by-law against dumping snow on sidewalks.
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I think you and Arn have an allergy to reality.
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Roads are a priority whether you like it not because emergency vehicles have to access them 24/7… Further, the snow composition in St. Johns is quite different than that of Quebec City, where it weighs ounces/shovel as opposed to lbs/shovel… If you think this that doesn’t make a difference to the speed of clean-up, as well as the wear/tear on machinery, then you’re sadly mistaken. I have friends who have heavy equipment contracting businesses here and in Alberta… The wear/tear and usable life on machinery in NL is 1/2 that of other places due to our whether… Bottom line…. $$.
As for the obesity rate here, there’s more to it than accessing sidewalk in winter… It’s a cultural problem.. It’s not a situation of “clear the sidewalk and everyone will suddenly be healthy.” Tell me you’re smarter than that…
Take $ from one area of gov’t coffers and another area suffers… Pick you poison. I’m not thrilled that all the sidewalk aren’t cleared either… But I’m less thrilled about having to pay even more taxes… Oddly enough, the ones screaming about snow-clearing are the same ones screaming about homelessness. Well if city taxes increase, then mortgages and rents increase as well, displacing more people…. Many city residents aren’t enjoying the sunshine list like yourself … Think about that while you walk unfettered to the local coffee shop for your latte, while you pass people on the sidewalk begging for a dime..
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Interesting to note that my response to Arn’s comments was not posted. Amusing but not really surprising.
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I think I approved everything that came in. If something is missing you can try re-sending. Thanks.
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Elizabeth…
I apologize if I offended you. Clearly the snow-clearing issue has people on all sides a bit frayed these days. The state of the economy doesn’t help with that. I’m neither anti-pedestrian or anti-snowclearing, quite the contrary, I walk a lot…. However I am firmly against increased taxes. The government has their hands in our pockets a little too much for my liking. If they want to increase the snow-clearing budget, then they should find the funds through innovative means or cut costs elsewhere. Cheers and safe walking.
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