Snow Day!
By Mitch Berg
For the kids, anyway:
The Minneapolis and St. Paul public school districts said they are canceling classes and activities today because of extremely cold weather and snow accumulation.
The districts both said it could not guarantee that all buses would arrive on time and on all routes, given the state of the city’s streets in the wake of the weekend snowstorm. That, coupled with chilly weather, the districts decided to close.
I actually impulse-bought a snow-blower over the weekend. Not sure how I got by without one all these years.
December 13th, 2010 at 9:08 am
I bought a snow blower last year so I wouldn’t have to spend half a day shoveling snow. Yesterday I spent half a day BLOWING snow. Thank God for Gaia-destroying petroleum-based technology. Without it I’d probably still be out there with the shovel.
December 13th, 2010 at 9:39 am
In all the excitement, I must have missed Nick Coleman’s latest piece on why the insensitive and avaricious GOP, led by Tim “Darth Vader” Pawlenty, cut the state budget, which led to the calamitous collapse of the Metrodome. Will someone please publish a link?
December 13th, 2010 at 9:55 am
What are St. Paul and Minneapolis school superintendents smoking? Most roads were cleared by Saturday night. Was one of the union teachers too lazy to shovel their walk so they decide to shut down the whole system? No probs in Washington County – buses are running on schedule. And even if the buses were not running, I am sure parents would rather drive their kids to school themselves than take time off work, look for sitters, etc. What a poor excuse for a bunch of whiners.
December 13th, 2010 at 11:01 am
Justplain…..I was out and about yesterday and the side streets were pretty clogged. I’ll give them this one.
Golfdoc….serious? Did he really blame T-Paw? So we have a DFL city, DFL county, DFL state legislature, but it’s the Republicans fault!
December 13th, 2010 at 11:21 am
Cleared by Saturday night? What are you smoking? Snelling was passable — not clear — on Saturday night.
Chuck’s right about the side streets. Many of the day plow routes didn’t get cleared on Sunday. The school bus routes rely on the side streets, and delays would have been significant on a very cold morning. The district made the right call.
I’m feeling my age today. Awfully thankful for a neighbor whose big snowblower cleared most of my plowed in driveway skirt. Next year, I may have to get one of those myself.
December 13th, 2010 at 11:21 am
Mitch wonders Not sure how I got by without one all these years.
You weren’t pushing 50 til now.
BTW, all Western suburb districts opened on time this morning (except Wayzata, the wimps). What does this tell us?
December 13th, 2010 at 11:32 am
Smoking nothing! Like I said, in Washington county most roads where I live had been cleared by Saturday night, including our cul-de-sac which always gets “the last be attended to” treatment.
Pete and Chucker, sorry you live in cities who take their residents for granted. You are definitely not getting your money’s worth.
December 13th, 2010 at 11:44 am
JPA is right, Washington county did just fine in clearing the roads.
It’s that densely populated urban core where you can’t clear the streets because of the behavior of the populace (just how many cars did the plows bury?) and the fact that money is frittered away on Green Roof projects and fancy drinking fountains rather than taking care of core city tasks.
December 13th, 2010 at 11:56 am
nerd…saw alot of that. Cars parked on the narrower side streets, then the plow made a pass through and buried the cars. Then it snowed more.
December 13th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
“Cars parked on the narrower side streets, then the plow made a pass through and buried the cars. Then it snowed more.”
I remember that oh so well as a youth growing up on the Mpls north side during the ’60’s & 70″s. Back in those days though you rarely got towed unles you were on a snow emergency route. The plow drivers would honk their horns, if you didn’t come out they’d plow around you and get the spot you were in on a later passes. You’d have to be passed a number of times before they’d snow bird you.
Moved away from the city over 25yrs ago, how I miss it……..NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 13th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Yep, I’m letting St Paul and MPLS slide on this one, too. My (secondary snow emergency route) road was plowed out fairly quickly, but the side streets (hey, there are a LOT of them in St Paul and MPLS) are either so narrow a bus couldn’t make it thru or weren’t touched this morning when i left for work. And yes, a lot of it is the cars left there during plowing. I am lucky in that my son is just fine at home alone now, and i don’t live very far from work. I would hope most employers would cut some slack for their employees???
December 13th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
One other thing I remember from the days in a Mpls neighborhood was if you parked your car in the garage before a bif storm hit you were going to be one of the last ones to get out. The alleys were the last get plowed. Picture a late ’60’s rear wheel drive Dodge trying to get out of 2 feet of snow in the alley (if the damn thing would even start in the cold). Ahhh yes those were the days!!!!
December 13th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
I agree with the schools – the side streets aren’t plowed, the intersections are treacherous, the wind chill was 20 below this morning. There’s nothing those kids need to learn badly enough to risk standing around out in that weather waiting for a bus that isn’t coming.
The shame is that St. Paul, The Most Liveable City in America (TM) is unable to clear a heavy snow in anything close to reasonable time. 17 inches is a lot of snow, but hardly a record.
It’s Monday night at 7:00 p.m and the City has yet to make a pass down my residential street. Thankfully my neighbor has a 4×4 with a blade so after he finished plowing himself out, he dropped the blade and cut a path to the main street. It’s narrow and I had to shovel 15 feet of street to connect my driveway to his path . . . but I got out.
Hell, private enterprise is good enough for alleys, why not for streets? No, Virginia, St. Paul does not plow the alleys where all the garages are, the neighbors are supposed to band together to hire a plowing contractor at their own expense – make that a plowing contractor Licensed By The City who has obtained a Snow Storage Permit dictating where he’ll deposit the now from the alley. So naturally, the alleys are clear, but you still can’t go anywhere because the streets aren’t plowed.
One nice thing: even though school was canceled and it was a beautiful sunny day, there wasn’t a soul on the $1 million outdoor refrigerated ice rink across the street . . . because nobody could get through the side streets to go skating. That’ll save a lot of wear and tear on the ice, no doubt.
.
December 13th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
JPA, I’m pretty sure if the cities had rules just like the ‘burbs (i.e. no street parking anywhere) then the cities would be plowed just as fast.
December 15th, 2010 at 6:09 am
When I could no longer toss it over the 8 foot high piles, I hired someone with a snow blower on Sunday…Haven’t purchased one myself…yet.
We have a small shopping mall just east of my school. The far end of the parking lot had been used primarily by customers of a recently-closed grocery store. Now it looks like the European Alps!
When the city of Winona was finished plowing my street, they were six feet away from my mailbox. I was working on that crud when the guy with the snow blower came along!
December 15th, 2010 at 6:12 am
Chuckie,
I rather imagine that a lot of snow removal gets…er…got paid for with LGA…Like it or not.