Tube City Almanac

February 09, 2010

Complaints Deep on the Ground, Too

Category: Commentary/Editorial || By

Since the Steelers swan-dived this season, Western Pennsylvania has had little need for Monday morning quarterbacks.

Instead, they've all re-invented themselves as Monday-morning snow-plowing experts.

It doesn't matter if the most complicated piece of equipment you've ever operated is a fork to your mouth --- everyone has a theory about why it took so long to clear the roads.

Especially people on Twitter, Facebook and, Lord he'p us, talk radio. They've kept the lines buzzing on KDKA, the official radio station of people who get up three times a night to pee.

. . .

One guy called Marty Griffin --- the only man! in Pittsburgh! who speaks! In exclamation points! --- and recommended a certain brand of road-grader. He was giving out the name of the dealer that handles that particular make when he was cut off.

Marty, giving credence to my Monday-morning quarterback comparison, had his own theory: "It's like a football game! And the plow crews got behind! You can't do that! You can't get behind in the first half!"

No doubt snow-plowing, like football, is a game of inches, and you've got to give 110 percent, too, and execute the plays, and blah blah blah.

. . .

Mostly, people were just complaining. "You ought to come out to McKeesport, the streets are like driving on a washboard." "We haven't seen a plow in New Kensington for three days." "We have two feet of snow on the street in Brighton Heights."

On and on it went, community after community. I was waiting for Grandpa Simpson to call: "I'm cold, and there are wolves after me."

The people who really made me laugh are the ones who said --- and I quote --- "I'd gladly pay more taxes if they'd plow the streets better."

. . .

Har-har-hardee-har-har. If any municipality raised taxes but promised to hire more public-works employees and buy more snow plows, the mayor and council would be boiled in oil.

Pittsburgh Councilman Bruce Kraus, also on KDKA: "We just need to find the money. I'm the chairman of the finance committee, I'll find the money."

Wanna find some money, councilman? Eliminate four of Pittsburgh's nine full-time paid council members. I'll bet that would pay for more plows and drivers.

. . .

Now, it's possible that every single community in Allegheny County has incompetent public-works officials. Or, it's also possible that usual plowing techniques don't work when you have 22 inches of heavy snow and ice.

I did some complaining myself. Sunday morning, I went out to help my neighbors dig. "I haven't seen the borough's plow since Friday night," I said.

"Not true," my neighbor corrected me. "They were past here at least five times last night. It just isn't doing anything."

. . .

Later on, I tried to get my car out of a parking space. It took two road flares, a pound of salt and an ice-pick to chip away the frozen snow under the tires.

When the borough's plow went by a few minutes later, I watched the blade bounce uselessly off of the road.

On Monday morning, I saw city crews plowing Walnut Street in tandem --- using a backhoe to scrape ice and following along behind with a conventional snow plow.

. . .

Old neighborhoods with narrow streets present another problem. Big dump trucks can't make it through older streets, so many local public works departments use pickup trucks to plow instead. But they're not heavy enough to bust through the snow, and one local cop tells me the pickup trucks are getting stuck, too.

Why are some communities doing a better job? Well, I suspect they have fewer alleys and less densely populated neighborhoods.

And their streets are wider --- they were planned in the 1950s and '60s, not the 1850s --- and their residents have off-street parking. My street, built in the 1920s, is a mess. Nearby post-war streets with newer homes look pretty good.

. . .

By way of disclaimer, I should admit that my grandfather drove a snow plow for the old state Department of Highways (pre-PennDOT) and Port Vue Borough.

Admittedly, he loved this kind of weather. Snow plowing "was like hunting camp for him," says mom. "He got away from us, loaded up the Thermos and disappeared for a couple of days."

(He died in January 1996 during a tremendous blizzard that forced us to delay his burial several days. I still maintain he would have thought that was hilariously ironic.)

. . .

So, maybe I'm soft-hearted. But even though I was stuck in my neighborhood for two days, I still suspect local governments are doing as well as can be expected.

And seriously, just where the hell do we all need to go so badly? Everything's closed. I got two consecutive snow days for the first time in my working life.

Two free days of paid vacation. I'm not complaining.

Nevertheless, I did venture out again on Tuesday. I went Downtown to the state store and got a bottle of scotch.

Sorry, but after listening to people bellyache about snow plowing for four solid days, I needed to get a little plowed myself.

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Your Comments are Welcome!

Jason – Bill Peduto is the Chairman for the Committee on Finance and Law. Bruce Kraus chairs the Committee on Public Works.

I wouldn’t be too hard on Councilman Peduto. – He was expressing his, and his constituent’s frustration with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s lack of a contingency plan for clearing city streets after a heavy snowfall. Many secondary roads were untouched; days after the snow stopped falling, navigating Fifth Avenue was a two-lane adventure through the east end of the city. The main roads through other parts of town were as bad, or worse.

I suggest that Councilman Peduto should actually be congratulated for his fortitude. For context, consider this quote from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

“With the city fielding more than 1,000 calls about unplowed streets this week, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl intends to pull out all the stops — and a few more snow plows as well — to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

An admittedly frustrated and upset mayor said yesterday that city workers will inventory all public works vehicles to see if some, including garbage trucks, could have snowplows mounted on them to help clear streets.

Then, by next winter, Mr. Ravenstahl wants an automated snow removal routing system in place to determine the most efficient way to use the fleet.”

From: Mayor Declares War on Snow, by Steve Twedt, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Saturday, February 16, 2008.

May I emphasize that date? February 16, 2008!
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08047/858003-53.stm

I suspect that many of those three-times-a-nighters that complained on the radio were city residents who repeatedly cast a “give the kid a chance’ vote for Luke.

Enjoy your scotch.
Strisi (URL) - February 10, 2010




Where did we all need to go? How about work? Or how about getting TO our houses, because our idiot managers decided to send us to work in the Ohio snowstorm over the weekend.

There are plenty of valid reasons to want to get someplace, especially when a lot of those people were without power for a couple days.
John - February 10, 2010




It’s just that hand-out, palm-up mentality. My 76-year-old next-door neighbor actually shovels the patch of street (his side only) in front of his house. If everyone acted like him, not only would there not be a need for a plow but the snow could be put where you want it…not against your vehicle or an impenetrable barrier at the end of your driveway.
Thee Dude - February 10, 2010




If the storm hadn’t been accompanied by the power outage I experienced, I too may have been contented to watch the snow pile up with no intervention by Public Works, but yesterday (Tuesday) an elderly woman I know near Serra was taken to dialysis by the National Guard because her street was impassable 3 days after the snow stopped falling.

Fault me, if you wish, for thinking this is not good enough from both the municipality and the neighborhood.
susanlu - February 10, 2010




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- January 20, 2015




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