Winter Walking and Cycling

[panamaniac]

Just because I feel like a record of these things is important (and I'd like even more opportunity to vent) this post gives the information on sidewalk clearing.

For context, main road in Waterloo Region were completely clear as of Monday morning.  My coworker drove in from Guelph with incident or even slowness.

Sidewalks however, are completely 100% blocked.  I walked from my workplace, down King from Columbia down to Downtown, and only one block from Green St. to Andrews St. was cleared.  Every single other block had at least one property or curb cut that was uncleared.

Kitchener bylaw enforcement did not go out Tuesday on account of the 1-2 cm of snow that fell on Monday.

They went out Wednesday, and give property owners 24 hours to clear snow.  After 24 hours (assuming no snow) they will go out and inspect again and put in requests for snow clearing.  That will be Friday.  I am told that they will not clear snow on the weekend, so Monday is the first day that snow *could* be cleared (again assuming no flurries of any kind).

This is a run out the clock situation for property owners.  Given the current weather forecast, snow will have melted by Monday.  The city bylaw will have done absolutely nothing to clear any sidewalk in the city.

For the city of Waterloo, things are even worse.  Some city trails remain uncleared even this afternoon.

Worse, I have been unable to contact ANYONE at city of Waterloo snow removal bylaw for a statement.  I can get no information on what is being enforced or when.

Those are the facts.

Here's a strong opinion...the bylaw and enforcement is a tax paid for program that pretends to do something about snow removal without actually doing anything.

This will be my ONLY election issue.  I will give my vote to anyone who I believe will work to improve snow removal, and I will not vote for ANYONE who doesn't convince me of this.

I cannot accept watching another elderly or disabled person be carried onto a city bus because they cannot scale the snow bank at the bus stop.  I cannot accept trying to help an elderly person over a snow bank to get to the grocery store across the street from their house.

This is not something we should or need to tolerate in our society.  Anyone who isn't willing to spend 26 dollars a year in additional taxes to stop this is a cruel and selfish person.  I'm happy to disagree on the methods, but the current situation is utterly broken, that isn't up for debate, and there is no need for "creative" solutions, there are dozens of options we can try, all of which are better than this.

It surprises me that GRH, SunLife, and the two schools would not have their sidewalks cleared on a weekday morning.  No excuse, istm.