APS VA Snow Day Projection

[Anonymous]

At some point they just need to open the schools and the parents have to drive their kids in. In Arlington with small children, you should have one car. Foot traffic for everything doesn’t work. If you don’t want to do that, keep your kid home. If the walkways between my house and the high school suck tomorrow and the day after, my kid will just have to stay after and do homework until one of us can pick him up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At some point they just need to open the schools and the parents have to drive their kids in. In Arlington with small children, you should have one car. Foot traffic for everything doesn’t work. If you don’t want to do that, keep your kid home. If the walkways between my house and the high school suck tomorrow and the day after, my kid will just have to stay after and do homework until one of us can pick him up.

I believe that point is tomorrow - most of the districts that closed said they did so with the plan for a 2 hour delay Tuesday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At some point they just need to open the schools and the parents have to drive their kids in. In Arlington with small children, you should have one car. Foot traffic for everything doesn’t work. If you don’t want to do that, keep your kid home. If the walkways between my house and the high school suck tomorrow and the day after, my kid will just have to stay after and do homework until one of us can pick him up.

I believe that point is tomorrow - most of the districts that closed said they did so with the plan for a 2 hour delay Tuesday.

But why couldn’t this just have been the plan for Monday? What does the extra day do?

Absolutely nothing.

[Anonymous]

I'd feel less consternation about them closing today if it felt like they were working over the weekend. We are close to 2 schools which barely have one lane access on the streets that approach them. Not a plow in sight since last Tuesday. I kept expecting smaller "detail work" to come through and there's been nothing. We had sports this weekend so drove all over the county and visited 4 schools. NO one was from the county (not APS, I put this on the county) was working anywhere near them. I didn't see a single plow or bobcat or team working all weekend.

That is the frustration. I realize this is a rare, difficult storm. It will take time. But it doesn't feel like they are using the time. The sidewalks leading up to schools are packed with snowcrete. So what is the plan to get kids to school? Ignore it? Remove it? There needs to be a list of actions out there so we can see progress. Which major streets still need attention? Which streets with schools still need work? Which crosswalks needs to be cleared? Instead it's radio silence and school closures. That's the frustration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd feel less consternation about them closing today if it felt like they were working over the weekend. We are close to 2 schools which barely have one lane access on the streets that approach them. Not a plow in sight since last Tuesday. I kept expecting smaller "detail work" to come through and there's been nothing. We had sports this weekend so drove all over the county and visited 4 schools. NO one was from the county (not APS, I put this on the county) was working anywhere near them. I didn't see a single plow or bobcat or team working all weekend.

That is the frustration. I realize this is a rare, difficult storm. It will take time. But it doesn't feel like they are using the time. The sidewalks leading up to schools are packed with snowcrete. So what is the plan to get kids to school? Ignore it? Remove it? There needs to be a list of actions out there so we can see progress. Which major streets still need attention? Which streets with schools still need work? Which crosswalks needs to be cleared? Instead it's radio silence and school closures. That's the frustration.

They are going to ignore the snowcrete and open tomorrow. Which just proves they could have done the same today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At some point they just need to open the schools and the parents have to drive their kids in. In Arlington with small children, you should have one car. Foot traffic for everything doesn’t work. If you don’t want to do that, keep your kid home. If the walkways between my house and the high school suck tomorrow and the day after, my kid will just have to stay after and do homework until one of us can pick him up.

I believe that point is tomorrow - most of the districts that closed said they did so with the plan for a 2 hour delay Tuesday.

But why couldn’t this just have been the plan for Monday? What does the extra day do?

Absolutely nothing.

Custodians can dedicate the whole day to removal vs. what they can fit in between regular duties

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At some point they just need to open the schools and the parents have to drive their kids in. In Arlington with small children, you should have one car. Foot traffic for everything doesn’t work. If you don’t want to do that, keep your kid home. If the walkways between my house and the high school suck tomorrow and the day after, my kid will just have to stay after and do homework until one of us can pick him up.

I believe that point is tomorrow - most of the districts that closed said they did so with the plan for a 2 hour delay Tuesday.

But why couldn’t this just have been the plan for Monday? What does the extra day do?

Absolutely nothing.

Another day to clear more snow/ice.

You think they are doing nothing today? GTFO.

[Anonymous]

Looks like they worked on our road and nearby intersection more either late yesterday or early today. Wider and a shit ton of salt.

We are on a few bus routes. Looks like a bus could make the turn now.

[Anonymous]

I had written in to the county about a large stretch of sidewalk on a main road that is a major path for students and the community. It’s apartment building management who should have cleared it. Got this message back.

Greetings,

The Arlington County Manager has suspended enforcement of the snow removal ordinance due to the weather conditions. Where it is practical, please do what you can to help to keep Arlington's sidewalks safe, accessible, and welcoming for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d love my trash to get picked up, too, but that’s the nature of this storm.

Good news. Unlike schools, trash pickup back to regular schedule this week.

Not true. Arlington limited pick up to trash and recycling. Not green cans

This was an extraordinary weather event. Ice and terribly low temps. It isn’t snow removal but ice block removal.

Warm up starts Tuesday.

Ease up. No city could have handled this.

This is absurd. Many cities handle this all the time. People should be respectful when discussing this, but it's not "hysterical" to point out there are some lessons learned. In the era of climate change, we're going to get more extreme weather. Time to do some thinking on how to better manage these situations. There are so many things we could be doing better and planning for ahead of time. Stating that your government should do this type of review and asking questions and pointing out problems is normal.

[Anonymous]

APS at a minimum should have a dasboard of lots/school entrances showing current status in real time.

Show some kind of graphic of buses and where they are and how many have done practice runs.

A lot of this is a comms problem and we know they have a giant comms staff. I got my black history month email promptly this morning from them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d love my trash to get picked up, too, but that’s the nature of this storm.

Good news. Unlike schools, trash pickup back to regular schedule this week.

Not true. Arlington limited pick up to trash and recycling. Not green cans

This was an extraordinary weather event. Ice and terribly low temps. It isn’t snow removal but ice block removal.

Warm up starts Tuesday.

Ease up. No city could have handled this.

This is absurd. Many cities handle this all the time. People should be respectful when discussing this, but it's not "hysterical" to point out there are some lessons learned. In the era of climate change, we're going to get more extreme weather. Time to do some thinking on how to better manage these situations. There are so many things we could be doing better and planning for ahead of time. Stating that your government should do this type of review and asking questions and pointing out problems is normal.

Liar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d love my trash to get picked up, too, but that’s the nature of this storm.

Good news. Unlike schools, trash pickup back to regular schedule this week.

Not true. Arlington limited pick up to trash and recycling. Not green cans

This was an extraordinary weather event. Ice and terribly low temps. It isn’t snow removal but ice block removal.

Warm up starts Tuesday.

Ease up. No city could have handled this.

This is absurd. Many cities handle this all the time. People should be respectful when discussing this, but it's not "hysterical" to point out there are some lessons learned. In the era of climate change, we're going to get more extreme weather. Time to do some thinking on how to better manage these situations. There are so many things we could be doing better and planning for ahead of time. Stating that your government should do this type of review and asking questions and pointing out problems is normal.

Liar.

Some of you have clearly never lived anywhere with actual snow and ice and cold conditions. You think this type of event has never occurred in the history of the world or something? Totally laughable.

[Anonymous]

One thing that would help considerably is much more aggressive salting before during and after the event. This area doesn’t do that.

[Anonymous]

What did you expect?

Happy Groundhog Day!