Snow clearing in minority areas

[Anonymous]

Can somebody explain to me why the county will be clearing snow from low income and minority areas? Why this group and the other group? They cite high traffic and accidents but it feels more like they don’t think we are capable of understanding or following laws so they’re just going to lower the bar for us (I’m Latina).

This bothers me because special exemption bills and laws like this end up creating resentment towards all of our groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can somebody explain to me why the county will be clearing snow from low income and minority areas? Why this group and the other group? They cite high traffic and accidents but it feels more like they don’t think we are capable of understanding or following laws so they’re just going to lower the bar for us (I’m Latina).

This bothers me because special exemption bills and laws like this end up creating resentment towards all of our groups.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/government/county-will-be-required-to-clear-snow-from-up-to-40-miles-of-sidewalks/?fbclid=IwAR2FbfodmMH-KNxI0cI-awH1Sag0tpU8G21IKYnoPMNBPibB7iqBHNf_Y-0

The link to the story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can somebody explain to me why the county will be clearing snow from low income and minority areas? Why this group and the other group? They cite high traffic and accidents but it feels more like they don’t think we are capable of understanding or following laws so they’re just going to lower the bar for us (I’m Latina).

This bothers me because special exemption bills and laws like this end up creating resentment towards all of our groups.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/government/county-will-be-required-to-clear-snow-from-up-to-40-miles-of-sidewalks/?fbclid=IwAR2FbfodmMH-KNxI0cI-awH1Sag0tpU8G21IKYnoPMNBPibB7iqBHNf_Y-0

The link to the story.

The article states that there are many more pedestrian fatalities in those areas and they want to try to keep it safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can somebody explain to me why the county will be clearing snow from low income and minority areas? Why this group and the other group? They cite high traffic and accidents but it feels more like they don’t think we are capable of understanding or following laws so they’re just going to lower the bar for us (I’m Latina).

This bothers me because special exemption bills and laws like this end up creating resentment towards all of our groups.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/government/county-will-be-required-to-clear-snow-from-up-to-40-miles-of-sidewalks/?fbclid=IwAR2FbfodmMH-KNxI0cI-awH1Sag0tpU8G21IKYnoPMNBPibB7iqBHNf_Y-0

The link to the story.

The article states that there are many more pedestrian fatalities in those areas and they want to try to keep it safe.

This is what I don’t understand. So instead of enforcing the law, where you have 24 hours to clear the sidewalk, they just threw their hands up in the air and said oh well will do it ourselves?

What does it make sense to me is that people don’t clear their sidewalks all over the county. You have lots of kids walking in the middle of the road on snowy days all over the county.

And I understand what you’re saying but that bar just continues to be lowered and lowered and the resentment rises. It’s not good to expect less from people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can somebody explain to me why the county will be clearing snow from low income and minority areas? Why this group and the other group? They cite high traffic and accidents but it feels more like they don’t think we are capable of understanding or following laws so they’re just going to lower the bar for us (I’m Latina).

This bothers me because special exemption bills and laws like this end up creating resentment towards all of our groups.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/government/county-will-be-required-to-clear-snow-from-up-to-40-miles-of-sidewalks/?fbclid=IwAR2FbfodmMH-KNxI0cI-awH1Sag0tpU8G21IKYnoPMNBPibB7iqBHNf_Y-0

The link to the story.

The article states that there are many more pedestrian fatalities in those areas and they want to try to keep it safe.

This is what I don’t understand. So instead of enforcing the law, where you have 24 hours to clear the sidewalk, they just threw their hands up in the air and said oh well will do it ourselves?

What does it make sense to me is that people don’t clear their sidewalks all over the county. You have lots of kids walking in the middle of the road on snowy days all over the county.

And I understand what you’re saying but that bar just continues to be lowered and lowered and the resentment rises. It’s not good to expect less from people.

This is a direct subsidy to slum lord property owners in low income areas and I would suspect that in looking more closely at the bill, it will also include snow clearing for rich developers as well, such as clearing all of downtown Silver Spring for Peterson.

What’s unfathomable here is that not that long ago Hans Riemer took it upon himself to increase penalties for people who don’t clear their sidewalks and now here he is doing this. So if I don’t personally shovel snow I get a hefty fine thanks to Riemer, but the county will shovel all of Peterson sidewalks for free.

[Anonymous]

Ah, one of the deluded people who think low-income people live a life of ease and can just do what everyone else is doing.

I'm sure some of them can, of course. But plenty cannot, because they often work multiple jobs and cannot always be there to shovel, or do whatever it is you're complaining about.

It makes perfect sense from a government's point of view to help out the most vulnerable communities among us. A culture of punishment, however ethical that is, only goes so far in practice.

[Anonymous]

Because the low income areas are where they people live who makes this country go. The bus drivers, restaurant workers, delivery drivers, grocery store workers, daycare workers, hospital aids.

[Anonymous]

As yankee import: the county doesn’t clear everyone’s sidewalks? You should demand better of the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As yankee import: the county doesn’t clear everyone’s sidewalks? You should demand better of the county.

You’d be paying higher local taxes and/or losing other local services if they did that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As yankee import: the county doesn’t clear everyone’s sidewalks? You should demand better of the county.

The government clearing sidewalks is not practice where I lived in CT.

You just had an annual service contract with a company and every time it snowed they would come and clear your sidewalks. If it didn’t snow a lot that year you over paid. If it snowed a lot you got good value.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Ah, one of the deluded people who think low-income people live a life of ease and can just do what everyone else is doing.

I'm sure some of them can, of course. But plenty cannot, because they often work multiple jobs and cannot always be there to shovel, or do whatever it is you're complaining about.

It makes perfect sense from a government's point of view to help out the most vulnerable communities among us. A culture of punishment, however ethical that is, only goes so far in practice.

So if having a busy life is sufficient for services, why doesn’t the county clear the sidewalks of all working single mothers?

[Anonymous]

I don't think it is good policy to clear sidewalks based on the percentage of the minority population.

If it was done according to the number of accidents or other relevant data, fine.

But this is sure to arouse resentment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it is good policy to clear sidewalks based on the percentage of the minority population.

If it was done according to the number of accidents or other relevant data, fine.

But this is sure to arouse resentment.

In the linked article, Evan Glass used as justification county wide accidents and pedestrian deaths totally unrelated to snow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can somebody explain to me why the county will be clearing snow from low income and minority areas? Why this group and the other group? They cite high traffic and accidents but it feels more like they don’t think we are capable of understanding or following laws so they’re just going to lower the bar for us (I’m Latina).

This bothers me because special exemption bills and laws like this end up creating resentment towards all of our groups.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/government/county-will-be-required-to-clear-snow-from-up-to-40-miles-of-sidewalks/?fbclid=IwAR2FbfodmMH-KNxI0cI-awH1Sag0tpU8G21IKYnoPMNBPibB7iqBHNf_Y-0

The link to the story.

The article states that there are many more pedestrian fatalities in those areas and they want to try to keep it safe.

This is what I don’t understand. So instead of enforcing the law, where you have 24 hours to clear the sidewalk, they just threw their hands up in the air and said oh well will do it ourselves?

What does it make sense to me is that people don’t clear their sidewalks all over the county. You have lots of kids walking in the middle of the road on snowy days all over the county.

And I understand what you’re saying but that bar just continues to be lowered and lowered and the resentment rises. It’s not good to expect less from people.

It seems much more efficient to identify those areas where snow clearing is needed to avoid pedestrian accidents and access to transit and just do it rather than paying enforcement to go out and ticket people, process those tickets, and then hope that eventually influences behavior in the next snow storm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can somebody explain to me why the county will be clearing snow from low income and minority areas? Why this group and the other group? They cite high traffic and accidents but it feels more like they don’t think we are capable of understanding or following laws so they’re just going to lower the bar for us (I’m Latina).

This bothers me because special exemption bills and laws like this end up creating resentment towards all of our groups.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/government/county-will-be-required-to-clear-snow-from-up-to-40-miles-of-sidewalks/?fbclid=IwAR2FbfodmMH-KNxI0cI-awH1Sag0tpU8G21IKYnoPMNBPibB7iqBHNf_Y-0

The link to the story.

The article states that there are many more pedestrian fatalities in those areas and they want to try to keep it safe.

This is what I don’t understand. So instead of enforcing the law, where you have 24 hours to clear the sidewalk, they just threw their hands up in the air and said oh well will do it ourselves?

What does it make sense to me is that people don’t clear their sidewalks all over the county. You have lots of kids walking in the middle of the road on snowy days all over the county.

And I understand what you’re saying but that bar just continues to be lowered and lowered and the resentment rises. It’s not good to expect less from people.

It seems much more efficient to identify those areas where snow clearing is needed to avoid pedestrian accidents and access to transit and just do it rather than paying enforcement to go out and ticket people, process those tickets, and then hope that eventually influences behavior in the next snow storm.

This doesn’t make any sense. People that don’t clear their snow causing accidents get rewarded with free services while everyone else gets stiff penalties?

If snow clearing is going to be need and risk based, then have the county do it where it is deemed necessary for safety or whatever and then leave everyone else alone.

Having stuff penalties for one set of people who don’t comply but free service for another set of people who don’t comply is not just poor incentives for noncompliance, it’s Kafkaesque. Totally inexplicable.