Why has DC failed so badly on clearing the streets?

[Anonymous]

Come snow then sleet*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Move your trash cans to the front this week. They're not messing with the alleys.

Where are you reading this? The last post I read from the mayor said that they are sending bobcats into the alleys to access the garbage cans.

I follow Mayor Bowser on Facebook.

Just looked again, it looks like they aren't saying this. But I think they should. We have over a foot of solid ice in our alley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve lived here since 1993 and have never seen a storm like this (snow then sleet that quickly compacted into ice, followed by a record-breaking cold snap). I shoveled multiple times on Sunday and the ground was already concrete by early evening. The vast majority of the plows in DC can easily handle snow but not a slab of ice. I’m not sure what all the people whining about this wanted the city to do?

And the whiners — almost all of them very recent transplants — also conveniently neglect to point out that things are just as bad in Virginia, Maryland, Philly, NYC (the crowing by Mamdani fanboys has been overtaken by complaints, and how many homeless there have died because of his new policies) and Boston. They act as if DC alone is struggling.

NYC got 15 inches of snow. Boston got 23 inches. DC got 6.

Also, it seems rich for longtime DC residents to accuse transplants of being whiners about the weather. Have you lived anywhere north of here? Where I grew up, they don't cancel school unless it's snowing so much that you can't see the road in front of you.

You forgot to include the 3" of sleet which has a snow equivalence of 12".

Sleet is simply pellets of ice. Not freezing rain. If they got on it right away, it’s easy to get rid of. And it’s still 3”

Not to quibble but I was out on Sunday during the storm and it actually was freezing rain, not sleet. It was coming down in unfrozen drops that froze into ice immediately when it hit the ground. Sleet is basically slushy snow and that’s not what this was.

I’ll quibble. Sleet is ice pellets, not slushy snow. We had both sleet and freezing rain after the snow on Sunday in my NE DC neighborhood. It was sleet most of the day, and toward evening we got maybe 1/4 inch or so of freezing rain.

[Anonymous]

I haven’t read this thread but MOCO has done the worst job ever in my 56 years in this area. Connecticut Ave and East West are still not fully plowed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all those saying the streets are a mess because there was sleet - that is a partial truth.

There is so much the city could have still done and did not.

They could have proactively salted all residential streets. I’m in the palisades and our roads were not pre-salted. Not a single plow came down our block, or multiple others in our neighborhood and in AU park on Sunday. Monday afternoon a plow finally tried to come through. We live on a hill and the plow did 1/3rd of the incline ascending, then backed up and left. Another plow never came again. So our street was never pre-salted, and only partially plowed. We live one block off a major throughfare. The dc plow tracker was then updated to our street having been plowed - false.

This was just abysmal planning and management.

Come snow then spend then whatever, if all roads had been presalted and plows had been running continuously and the plow tracker had been updated truthfully, then the city would have better awareness of the conditions and residents would have more accessibility.

It is too cold to presalt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven’t read this thread but MOCO has done the worst job ever in my 56 years in this area. Connecticut Ave and East West are still not fully plowed.

They are struggling in Virginia too. FCPS superintendent sent out an email over the weekend begging people to help clear the sidewalks at bus stops. It apparently didn't work.

[Anonymous]

It’s the lack of immigrants.

[Anonymous]

Come out to MoCo. The below freezing temps are the problem. I watched five grown men workers with metal shovels a pick axes attempting to chip away at the ice at a bus stop so pedestrians could get to it. Theu had to climb over ice mounds (not snow mounds) to get to the bus stop shelter. They made no progress and I’m sure they likely injured themselves in the process of trying to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Move your trash cans to the front this week. They're not messing with the alleys.

Where are you reading this? The last post I read from the mayor said that they are sending bobcats into the alleys to access the garbage cans.

I follow Mayor Bowser on Facebook.

Just looked again, it looks like they aren't saying this. But I think they should. We have over a foot of solid ice in our alley.

They just cleared our alley with a bobcat.

[Anonymous]

I came to DC for work today. My walk from metro was fine. A but of snow at intersections but manageable. I am not even wearing boots. It was COLD though

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I came to DC for work today. My walk from metro was fine. A but of snow at intersections but manageable. I am not even wearing boots. It was COLD though

I demand to know why our councilmember isn't doing something about this. It's like they don't care!

[Anonymous]

The trash truck just came to pick up the trash from the front of my house.

I had no idea they were coming. You might want to put your trash in the front.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The trash truck just came to pick up the trash from the front of my house.

I had no idea they were coming. You might want to put your trash in the front.

What day do you normally get trash pickup?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I came to DC for work today. My walk from metro was fine. A but of snow at intersections but manageable. I am not even wearing boots. It was COLD though

I demand to know why our councilmember isn't doing something about this. It's like they don't care!

It's weird that some people defend the city here. The DC government's reaction to the snow has been a failure in almost every conceivable way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The trash truck just came to pick up the trash from the front of my house.

I had no idea they were coming. You might want to put your trash in the front.

What day do you normally get trash pickup?

Trash (or recycling?) truck just passed our house and we're normally a Wednesday pickup. Good job on the communication Bowser!