With winter in full swing, I'm thinking about snowy and icy sidewalks on a daily basis. Over the weekend, I saw a number of problem spots in Cambridge and Somerville. Of course, there's the typical sidewalk that didn't get cleared after snow, and has been packed down by pedestrians into an uneven, pitted layer of slick ice. These are a pain both for people walking by and for the homeowner who suddenly realizes that it's now or never to clear that ice before the next storm, and I saw (and thanked) a lot of people who were out chipping ice during the day on Saturday.
I also saw a number of crosswalk push-buttons buried behind a big pile of snow, meaning that in order to reach the button to get a walk phase at that intersection, I had to climb up on an icy pile of snow. In most cases, this was due to the city's snow plowing, and Cambridge should know better!
However, the thing that jumped out at me most was businesses that hadn't cleared their sidewalks. This stood out to me because I have an easy action item coming out of it: when I see an uncleared or poorly cleared sidewalk in front of a business, I can either pop in and tell them that I'm concerned about the state of their sidewalk, or call them later to complain.
I've started doing this with the business at the end of the street where I live, which rarely clears their sidewalk on my street, and I was delighted to see that this morning, for the first time this winter, they'd shoveled along my street! Now, I'm going to call them to say thanks.
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2 comments:
What kind of responses do you get from businesses? Is it ever confrontational, or do they tend to be nice about it? (This makes a difference as to whether I'm likely to talk to businesses in person vs. call!)
So far, people have been polite! I've only called two businesses, though, so I don't have a broad range of experience. The time that I was tempted to go in was past 6pm on a Saturday, and I thought I wouldn't get to talk to anyone who was actually useful, so I haven't tried the face-to-face approach. I'm kind of shy about that!
My "script" is pretty friendly, too. I take the "I'm your neighbor" approach with the business down the street from me, and with the place I didn't go in (a Rite Aid), I just said I was walking by and found it difficult and I was very concerned, etc, etc.
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