Mayor Gives Progress Report
Check out Friday’s video message from Mayor Josh Cohen about the status of the city’s snow removal efforts just days after the city was hit with an estimated 42 inches of snow. With more than 40 machines at its disposal, the City is attacking side streets and cul-de-sacs across Annapolis to make roads passable.
The pace of the removal effort is certainly quickening as the city continues to add contractors to the city’s fleet. The Emergency Snow Routes were made passable on Thursday. The Snow Connector Routes were made passable on Friday. Also Friday: Half of the city’s residential roads were made passable.
Please remember: Crews are trying to make streets “passable,” which is not the same as clear down to bare pavement. As the Mayor wrote on Monday, there’s simply too much packed snow and ice on the streets to do more. We want to remove enough snow so roads are traversable. That strategy is allowing crews to cover more streets more quickly than they would otherwise.
Feel free to leave a comment. Thank you.
I moved here from Colorado a year ago. I understand Colorado is way more prepared for snow, but these storms were pretty ridiculous in the way they were taken care of.
Why doesn’t the city come up with a plan to have people park cars on one side of the street on even days and the other side of the street on odd days ? This would make it possible for the plows to come thru and clear the streets properly. The sidewalks out here are ridiculous and I can’t believe how long it took for them to be cleared…there should be strict fines enforced to those that do not clear their sidewalk within 24 hours of a storm.
The main roads were great the day after both storms but when you can’t even get out of your street it doesn’t help much.
I would like to commend the residents of 1400 West St for promptly clearing their sidewalks. They live at the corner of West and North Cherry Grove, where there is one of the few pedestrian crosswalks across West St. I use the bus stop in this block and must use this crosswalk daily, often when it is dark. If these neighbors hadn’t cleared their sidewalk early and so well, this crossing would have been MUCH more dangerous as pedestrians would have been forced onto the edges of this busy (and narrow) stretch of West St.
Thank you, 1400 West St! You are model citizens.
On Sunday morning 8:45am Feb 7, after the largest snowfall I walked by the Spa Road Public Works depot with a friend of mine. We counted 14 trucks fitted with plows. All 14 of these trucks were sitting there, parked, doing nothing. There were several other trucks that we could not verify having plows attached. This is a fact, not an exaggeration.
I want to know why madison street which is a snow EMERGENCY ROUTE was not cleared curb to curb CONSIDER you called and told us not to park on the steet
Prince George St could use a plow.
I am looking at the snow being removed from the 300 block of third Street in Eastport but it has not yet been removed from Second Street. The Mt. Zion United Methodist Church at 612 Second Street has not been able to be used because of the snow.
Arlene, thanks for your comment. Our crew will that part of 2nd Street today to make sure that people can access Mt. Zion by tomorrow.
Josh
Arlene, parked cars prevented our crew from clearing most of the snow piles. However, we were able to clear in front of the church.
Josh
Can Annapolis make a parking app for the iPhone?
Just a quick comment to pass on. The road behind my office on Forest Drive (Old Forest Drive) was not plowed – and is located just above the Annapolis Middle School. As it turns out, after a few (thousand) phone calls – I was told that this road is actually a state road. In the mean time, i had contacted our Alderman from district 5 (whose name escapes me, sorry) and he was SO HELPFUL in getting the state to come out that day and plow the road. I really appreciate his efforts – if you see him – tell him I said THANK YOU!
Laura, thanks for your comment. I will pass on your thanks to Alderman Mat Silverman. He worked throughout this snow event to make sure streets in Ward 5 got cleared.
Josh
It is great that most of Annapolis is getting back to normal after the big storms, however, I am wondering if there is anybody from the City checking to see if there are streets that have not been plowed at all yet? 300 Burnside St in Eastport has not been plowed at all this entire season. There was one quasi-plow that barreled down the street a week ago at 25 mph with the plow bouncing along the top not moving a single flake – literally. Today’s melting has helped the situation, but many cars trying to navigate down the street earlier in the week were getting stuck and there are two condominium complexes and hundreds of people who live at the end of the street.
Even more disturbing to me is the fact that 5th Street by Eastport Elementary School was not plowed. The City should re-evaluate its placement on the hierarchy so students are not expected to be dropped off on busier roads such as 6th Street and Chesapeake.
I know that this has been an unprecedented season and it would be easy to blame everything on the severity of the storms, but even with the earlier, less harsh storms our street was left untouched.
Just called the after hours hotline (not to complain but to ask if our street was somehow overlooked) and spoke with a very nice gentleman who said that he would tell the driver when he comes in at midnight.
HELP ME UNDERSTAND HOW YOU ARE ENDING FREE PARKING AND YOU STILL HAVEN’T CLEARED OFF STREETS DOWNTOWN? Charles Street only has parking on one side. There is VERY LIMITED PARKING ON MARKET AND CONDUIT STREETS. CATHEDRAL IS ONE LANE AND IT TOOK ME 20 MINUTES TO GET FROM CONDUIT TO WEST STREET TODAY. GREEN STREET IS A DISASTER. I think this is A POOR DECISION ON YOUR PART. We are being penalized for the city not following their obligations? While the amount of snow is unprecedented, here we are two weeks later and many of the roads have been barely cleared. And the bob cats have been parked on our street for days. UNTIL YOU HAVE REINSTATED ALL OF THE LOCAL PARKING, PERHAPS YOU SHOULD CONSIDER EXTENDING THE PARKING TO US.
Thank you Ron!!! I live on Conduit and the parking in that area is terrible! Charles St is a disaster and it is scary driving down Cathedral. They’ve made room for visitors and tourists on Main and Green Streets but what about the residents?? And guess who always parks on our permit restricted streets anyway?? VISITORS! Cathedral is only one lane and God forbid someone drives down that road too fast…they’re going to hit someone or another car. THE CITY NEEDS TO CLEAR CONDUIT, CHARLES, CATHEDRAL, UNION AND MARKET NOW. If those streets are not cleared then it is only fair to extent free parking to residents.
Ron and Thera, thank you for your comments. We extended free parking through Friday afternoon, but it would have been problematic to extend it through the weekend. We all have been affected by the snowstorms, and businesses especially have been impacted. We needed to free up spaces in the parking garages so that customers would have a place to park this weekend.
Our crews are continuing to attack the side streets throughout the weekend esp. downtown.
Josh
I live on Mckinley Street in Eastport, the one-way section of it. I got wedged in between 2 snow banks this morning on am backing out of my driveway. I had to climb thru the snowbank in my good work clothes to get around my car to get to my shovel and dig out! I am so sick of this! I can’t even get out of my driveway. I get it, it was alot of snow but this is ridiculous!
My friends live on Wells Ave and it is so bad that SUVs got stuck on it on Monday.
The city requires us to shovel our side walks in front of our houses or risk a $25 fine. I shoveled my sidewalk, how about you plow my street so I can get to work!!!
Mayor Cohen,
I will be happy to donate to your campaign and even volunteer for your re-election bid if you can deliver on your promise of having all snow routes “cleared to bare pavement curb-to-curb” by 8am thursday 2-18-10.
The Eastport snow emergency routes of Bay Ridge Ave, Sixth St, and Severn Ave are all still terrible. I reside on Bay Ridge and have not been able to park in front of or even near my house in a week and a half.
Please help us resume normal life here in Eastport, we have been patient but we are at the mercy of your trucks and have not had nearly enough help.
Thanks in advance,
Aaron
Aaron, thank you for your comment. It was too ambitious a goal to have every Snow Emergency Route cleared curb-to-curb by 8 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday) morning. However, we will have cleared a large majority of the snow routes by that time, and we will continue to attack the snow routes until every one is clear curb-to-curb.
Crews have been working in Eastport all evening. The one-way section of Bay Ridge Avenue is on the schedule for our midnight shift, so it should be cleared by tomorrow morning.
Josh
Mr Cohen,
Why doesn’t the city crew plowed Bank St. There is a sign that says “maintain by the city”, but no one ever plows. I’ve been living in the area for 16 years and the city has never plowed Bank St. It’s not part of the Cedar Ridge Community which is a private rd. Any information would be helpful.
Sasha, thank you for your comment. I had passed along the message about Bank Street, and our crews were able to get out there this past Thursday, February 18th.
Josh
Josh, I am told that free parking for residents will end at 8am tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 18th. While I am sure we all greatly appreciate this benefit, my street, Cornhill, is still unparkable, so I am wondering where I am supposed to park starting tomorrow morning?
Mike, thanks for your comment. We are extending the free parking until 6 p.m. on Friday.
Josh
Mayor Cohen,
On Monday you indicated that Fairhope Court would receive snow removal by end of day. As of this moment, it has still not happened. Can you please update as to when we can expect to see service?
We look forward to trash and recycling beginning again today. It says on the twitter feed that it will resume it’s regularly scheduled pick up. I don’t think that is clear to everyone in the city, and I would recommend putting that on the city’s home page. All of my neighbors have both their trash and recycling out for pick up today, Thursday. Our trash pick up day is Friday and our recycling/trash combo pick up is on Monday. Am I correct in understanding that our recycling won’t be picked up until Monday? I would love to think that I am the one who is wrong, as we are desperate for the recycling to get picked up too!
Hi Kirsten, thanks for your question. The refuse/recycling/yardwaste schedule resumes tomorrow (Thursday) according to it’s normal schedule. Only those with regularly scheduled recycling tomorrow will have it.
Josh
From the city website: SATURDAY ~ ONE-TIME RECYCLING DROP OFF LOCATION: The City’s residential recycling contractor, Bates, will provide a recycling trash packer at 935 Spa Road on Saturday, Feb. 20 from 7 to 11 a.m. for city residents to drop off their recyclables. The packer will be parked on the side of the building near the gas pumps and Weems Whelan Field.
OK- we saw a little action at the top of Fairhope Court and a large portion of the snow wall removed. There is a large snowpile in front of someone’s house now(unfortunatley, on the shady side of the street).
Will there be anymore action today? I don’t believe the garbage trucks can turn around yet.
G’day Mayor. Overall, excellent cleanup with this Epic Snowfall. Impossible to get ‘em all.
I would like to take this opportunity to report that the presence of a City Councilman next door has resulted in absolutely ZERO increased attention to our street. OK I guess, but Windwhisper Lane (low digits) was more traversable a week ago. The soft slush there now is just impassable. A “quick hit” of about 10 minutes would do wonders. Any effort would be appreciated. (By the way, the City “owes me a favor” after running a snow plow into my car during the December snow. To your credit, the City is paying the repair bill – 100%. Nice.)
Thanks!
As of Wed, 2/17, Fox Hollow Lane in Hunt Meadow looks like the surface of a planet – snow/ice/slush covered, ruts, craters, mounds. I got stuck yesterday and who knows…maybe today too! Other streets around city, and even in Hunt Meadow, are down to pavement. Mail, paper and even a dump truck got stuck recently. We’ve already hired a plow once, we shouldn’t have to again a week later!! For some reason calls to DPW from residents have gone unheeded – some wonder if it’s because former Republican aldermen Herb McMillan and Dave Cordle live here! HELP US SOMEONE! IS ANYONE LISTENING, DOES ANYONE CARE?
Hi Debbie, thanks for your comment. During my Friday ridealong we plowed all the way down to the end of Fox Hollow Lane and back. We sent crews back into Hunt Meadow today to clean up the roads more.
Josh
Can anyone tell me when the snow mountains on Murray Avenue will be removed? My husband and I have been parking in the Knighton Garage since 2/5 and thought we were doing the correct thing so that our cars would not be in the way for when the snow plows needed to come through and clear the street. Now, any place that does not already have a car parked there has a mountain of snow taking up the space. The free parking will end tomorrow and as of now, I have no place on my street to park.
The people who did not park in the garage, have dug around their car to leave the street and of course as such they place items in the spot to hold it for them to return to. (I do not have a problem with that, it makes sense that if you had to dig yourself out you would want the spot there when you returned) but I would expect that by now, some type of loader/dump truck would come through and take away the piles so that the rest of us can park at home again as well.
Please provide a status – Thank you
Michele, thanks for your comment.
We are extending the free parking in the city garages til 6 p.m. this Friday.
In regards to the snow mountains on Murray Avenue: once we finish clearing all Snow Emergency Routes down to bare pavement, we will send our heavy equipment back into residential areas to clean up many of the side streets. However, despite tripling our fleet of vehicles by hiring contractors and working around the clock, we simply lack the resources to haul all the snow mounds from all of the streets — there’s just too much snow and too many miles of road.
Still, I will make sure a crew gets back to Murray Avenue. Given the narrowness of the street it may be a bobcat or skid loader which should be able to clear a few of the piles.
Josh
Mr. Mayor, I have left your office an email during the first snow fall in December. My concern is two fold. One, I think it’s pretty bad that my child along with several others are required to walk up to 1.5 miles to school. Particularly the spa road route to Bates Middle School. Children who live in West Winds or Avalon have to walk away from the school to get to the only working signal crossing. Two, that singal crossing and subsequent sidewalks are completely covered in snow up to 5 feet deep (drifts or plowed snow) additionally, the entire route to school is covered the same way. Forcing children to have to walk down Spa Rd in the middle fo the street. This is a problem with normal snow fall, but with this record snow it’s 100 percent worse. I wrote your office back in December or early January via the Mayor’s email address and no one has gotten back to me. I think Child safety should be a top priority and should be taken care of before “dog” sidewalks and routes where kids are being picked up by school buses. Please help!
Thank you.
Well, they cleared our emergency route curb to curb and when we returned Monday evening we had to park our car on the street while we shoveled (again) our drive and sidewalk. Hey, the guys have done a great job and we appreciate their hard work!! It was a minor inconvenience for the greater good!!!
Wells street remains terrible. We just watched a car get stuck at 5pm today. It is really not passable except with a high clearance 4 wheel drive. No way garbage trucks will be getting down the street. Also, Adams Street got NO MAIL again today. We got mail Saturday but not today. Where is it? Can we pick it up somewhere?
Question: in your grand scheme of clearing the emergency routes by 8pm Thursday, why does EVERYONE have to move their cars for several days? It is a major hassle for people living on those streets. Why can’t a few streets be designated each day? This kind of “planning” does not inspire much confidence in the ability of the city to get things done.
Sidewalk clearing – I live off West Street and pride myself on keeping sidewalks clear and usually manage a path – if not on the walk, adjacent to it. But this time, the state piled mounds of frozen snow across the sidewalk AND onto the adjacent flat section of my yard (at the height of this mess, it was a mountain about 8 feet wide and over 5 feet high and it’s still pretty wide and about 4 feet high). Then someone (city? state?) cleared our intersection by pushing another 6-foot high snow/ice mound at the corner blocking the sidewalk. I can’t even reach my sidewalk, much less shovel it. The other side of West Street was not piled as high and some of those sidewalks have a small path open. But our side was forced to surrender. Except for the car dealerships near Russell, no one has been able to make a path. While we are EXTREMELY grateful for the clear corner, may I suggest that the only way to clear the sidewalk may be to use snow plowing vehicles – a backhoe/bobcat to shovel the snow off the sidewalk and a dump truck (or two or three or four) to ferry the snow elsewhere. We know it’s dangerous for people to walk in the street, but we need some help this time.
After waitin one week at the end of Annapolis St, I just came home to find the city has put all the snow in front of my house. I am not sure how I am supposed to enter my front door or put my car in the driveway that I shoveled out that is now blocked in with snow.
Patricia, thanks for your comment. I stopped at your house at 8:30 this evening and saw that you or someone had shoveled out your driveway. We emphasize to our crews and contractors how important it is to avoid blocking in someone’s driveway or pushing snow back onto a cleared sidewalk. They make every effort to avoid it, but sometimes it is unavoidable. We have so many roads to clear that our crews and contractors are unable to stop and clear every driveway or sidewalk that they may have blocked with snow — if they did, they would never get the roads clear. Thank you for your understanding.
Josh
Josh, thanks for the follow-up and I appreciate what you did. The crews did fix the issue.
I did not vote for you last time but I will if you run again.
Was happy to see some illegaly parked cars on a nearby side street get tickets the other day and to see some towing this a.m. on Main Street. Yea for the parking enforcement people! Don’t understand why people put trash out on snow clogged streets when the city has said trash pick up will not resume until Thursday; what a mess that is making! Now, I hate to bring up another area that needs attention but the trash receptacles on our streets and parks (Acton Park especially since it is a doggy meeting place!) are overflowing. Please send some crews around to take care of this burgeoning problem . . . ? Thanks for everyone’s hard work and our mayor’s willingness to read the blogs and try to help correct whatever is being complained about.
How can you end free parking for city residents when the streets are unparkable? Do you know it costs $16 to park there overnight?? Duke of Glocester, Conduit, Cathedral, Charles streets are VERY limited in parking. Unless you plan to clear the streets curb to curb, your lifting the free parking is terribly unfair. Not all of us who live downtown are rich. Some of us are renters and have to park on the street. We pay to get permits to park, we pay meters and we pay city taxes and now when there isn’t enough street parking available you’re going to make us pay more of our hard earned money? Shame on the city of Annapolis. Shame on it’s legislature for raising the garage fees. Shame on you Mayor for breaking the backs of residents of the city. I would be amazed if you had any concern about this matter.
As the manager of a shop on Main Street (yes, MAIN street), I can tell you that the snow removal so far downtown is attrocious. We have had several backups on Main today, up to a half hour, because trucks and buses are unable to make it all the way up the street past all the parked cars & mounds of snow. Everywhere I travelled this morning has been a mess. Even Conduit, where I saw a front loader the other day, is only cleared on the Main Street end.
I agree with others who have pointed out that plowing as it snows, rather than waiting for a huge pileup is probably a good idea. I’m a little stunned by the one person who mentioned plows being dedicated to certain streets & continually plowing them even when they were clear, while other areas get more & more buried.
I saw 2 front-loaders at the Academy stadium lot this morning- only one of which was running at 11am I might add- clearing that lot. Ironically, if they would be put to work on ANY of the streets downtown, residents could return to their normal parking and downtown merchants, consumers & workers could go back to parking on-street and in garages.
Debbie, thanks for your comment. I agree with you that the condition of streets downtown does not allow for much parking. Our first priority has been to make all roads passable throughout the city. Now that we have achieved that (even though some roads are still rough going) we are re-focusing on the Snow Emergency Routes to clear them all curb-to-curb by 8 a.m. on Thursday morning. We will have Main Street cleared on both sides to allow for on-street parking once again, no later than 8 a.m. Thursday morning.
Josh
Re sidewalk clearing: Could city government enforce the sidewalk clearing requirement for the St. Mary’s portion of the DOG sidewalk? The lower portion of this sidewalk, which is a heavily traveled pedestrian throughway, is completely blocked by snow. The sidewalk itself is treacherous and has never been maintained to a safe level, but now the entire walkway is useless.
J, I am very familiar with that stretch of sidewalk. We have encouraged property owners to clear sidewalks as they are required to do by the City Code. However, the City has refrained from enforcing that rule during this unprecedented snowfall because in many cases snowplows have ended up pushing snow from the roads back onto sidewalks that were previously cleared.
Contractors will be clearing Duke of Gloucester Street and all other Snow Emergency Routes curb-to-curb by 8 a.m. Thursday morning. Once the roadway of Duke of Gloucester is cleared, we will be more rigorous in making sure that property owners clear their sidewalks.
Josh
I live on Van Buren Circle and it has not been plowed at all. I would settle for a salt treatment, sand treatment or the like. We are not fortunate enough to have a four wheel drive vehicle to get out of our cul de sac. Van Buren has been cleared (twice). It would take two to three swipes to get us so we can negotiate the 6 inches of ice and the unpassable ruts that have been created. I pray to God I don’t have an emergency. I was wondering who do you have to know to get plowed?
Most of the side streets in Eastport are still bad. As of 7:00 a.m. this morning, Wells Avenue is virtually impassible in anything short of an SUV or truck. The same is true of Adams Street. I haven’t been able to move my car since February 5th. Please plow Wells Avenue.
Fairhope Court, which shows as a city street, has yet to be plowed. There seems to be some confusion as to who’s responsible for the plowing. Over the years we tend to be ignored when it comes to snow removal. At this time the residents of the court have dug themselves out, but have left piles of snow on the court that will make it very difficult for trash and recycle trucks.
Mike, I drove down Fairhope Court earlier today. You’re right that the piles will make it difficult if not impossible for a trash truck to get down there, unless it is able to go down there in reverse. I will make sure a crew gets in there to haul some of the piles away. We are focusing our heavy equipment on clearing the Snow Emergency Routes curb to curb but once that is accomplished a crew will get to Fairhope Court.
Josh
I live on Chester Ave (800 block) and it has been passable, due only to a good-hearted neighbor with a blade on his pick up truck, since last Thursday. State St did not see a city truck until yesterday. This has been unacceptable performance.
In spite of the lack of attention by the city, people in our neighborhood have been getting themselves out since last Thursday evening to do the normal things that people do–work, doctor’s appts, shopping, etc.
What is hard to understand is why the city can’t get the trash picked up when by all accounts, while very white, the streets are now driveable, the alleys are passable, UPS/FEDEX/USPS are getting to their deliveries, flowers were delivered on Valentines Day! Even little cars without any traction are out and about. The city gets a D- for this one.
Too many excuses and not a good enough plan by the mayor’s office and the public works department to provide the snow removal and trash pick ups that we all are entitled to.
Another thing, several businesses (Shell, the boat dealer next door, the Mercedes dealer, Royal Farms) on 6th street have not cleared the sidewalks in front of their businesses. If I’m not mistaken, that’s an ordinance that should be enforced so that people don’t have to walk in the streets or climb over 6 foot snow piles.
Rick, thanks for your comment. The decision to cancel trash collection earlier this week was one that we debated for a long time. Ultimately we decided to err on the side of caution. Although some roads were clear down to bare pavement, and all streets were minimally passable, many streets would have not be safe for our heavy trash trucks to drive down. Many streets were still pretty rough, many still just had one navigable lane and many had hard-packed ice with minimal room to maneuver. It would have been asking for an accident to happen to ask our crews to go out on the roads. Waiting a couple more days has allowed our crews to make many more roads much more drivable and significantly reduce the risk of accidents.
Josh
Jackson Street is still unplowed as of 7:00 am Tuesday morning 2/16/10. The intersection with Brashears (which was plowed) is particularly bad. That is where people (note the plural) are getting stuck.
S.Southwood Avenue is a city street, the city tends to ignore it lately. I believe it was Mayor Johnson (no relation
) when the city last paid any attention to it.
Mayor Cohen has done a fair job in clearing this unprecedented series of snowstorms the most in my recollecetion since the 1979 storm. He is to be commended for responding to this blog on a regular basis.
The mayor is to gbe commended for making the best of a very poor situation in regards to snow removal. I’m not referring to the unusual volume of snow — it’s the lackadaisical attitude toward the basic functions of a city government that he inherited. Millions for mismanagement of projects such as the Market House and the Taylor Avenue police station, great sums of money to build and operate a fitness center, a plan to buy and operate a golf course, plans for an artists’ colony on West St.. Those should not be taking money away from the fundamental services that a city government should provide. And that includes keeping streets passable.
Just read the press release email from the Mayor today entitled “Next phase of Mayor’s Snow removal plan: Clear snow emergency routes”… “After a herculean effort to make all city roads passable over the holiday weekend…” Herculean? Give me a break. I am the only person at my place of work whose street was only first touched by DPW this weekend. I am also the only person who lives in the city of Annapolis. I used to think it was a good thing. But all of the surrounding towns and counties as well as the Eastern shore were all cleared before us. And now apparently the next phase of the mayors “plan” is to clear the emergency routes curb to curb requiring people to move there cars again. What was the point of the parking ban in the first place if it wasn’t to clear the entire street? Did people move their cars for nothing? Nobody expected us to be ready for snow of this magnitude. However, after the first blizzard in Dec 09, (when we were NEVER plowed) there is no excuse not to have a PLAN in place that actually works. I’m sure this blog gives people a warm fuzzy feeling to post there street is not plowed and the mayor writes back that they are coming. But come on – why can’t the city effectively and efficiently know what streets are and aren’t plowed? Annapolis really isn’t that big. Our friends living two miles away in the “county” had their trash picked up today while ours continues to rot. This “plan” needs to be extensively reworked before we get any significant snow again (hopefully not this year). Mr Mayor – you seem to be fond of creating committees – why not create one to help formulate and effective snow removal plan that will not paralyze our city for more than a week? Playing ride along in a snow plow and blogging about snow removal is not obviously not working.
The city has cleared the snow emergency routes but has left other streets on which cars must part only cleared in the middle of the street. In fact, College Avenue on which 25-30 cars regularly park cannot have cars park on it because the last 2 feet of snow next to the curb has not been plowed–a tragedy for those of us who have to park on the street. For other roads that have cars on them carefully parked behind walls of snow, each of those streets are only able to park about half of the cars they regularly park because the City has not posted the streets to have the cars move for a few hours and then clean the street. Even for the few cars that might not move, even clearing most of the street would be a huge benefit. I suspect that nearly half the cars that normally park on the streets in the Historic District are being forced to stay in the garages or elsewhere. There is no reason why the City cannot do what they have done on the Snow Emergency streets by posting to get the cars off and then cleaning them of snow.
Lynn:
Thanks for your comment about clearing roads in the Historic District. I share your concern about the lack of on-street parking due to snow piled in the roadway along the curb. This is the reason why we are going back to hit the Snow Emergency Routes, all of which are now passable, to clear all remaining snow from curb-to-curb and open up more on street parking. College Avenue is designated as a Snow Emergency Route between King George Street and Church Circle, so we will be enforcing towing along that stretch of road effective 8 p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday) night.
Once we clear all of the Snow Emergency Routes curb to curb, we can take up your suggestion of restricting parking on other streets for a period of time so that we can clear those streets curb to curb as well.
Thanks again for your suggestion.
Josh
If removing the snow curb to curb means tons of snow will be plowed onto our cleared sidewalks and driveways this is not acceptable. This is what happened, I understand, on Forest Drive and has happened across the street from our house.
We appreciate the hard work of everyone during this exceptional winter!
Richard, thanks for your note. This has been one of the most frustrating aspects of this snow removal effort. Many citizens have dutifully cleared their sidewalks and cleared their driveways, only to have plows push snow right back there. We have emphasized to all of our crews and to our contractors to make every effort to avoid this. Unfortunately, sometimes it is unavoidable, particularly with snowplows that do not remove snow but instead push it out of the roadway.
Most of our contractors are using heavy equipment such as front end loaders and bucket hoes to haul snow away rather than push it off of the roadway. These hauling efforts are able to avoid pushing snow back onto sidewalks better than snowplows do. But, even with the heavy equipment it happens. We cannot afford for our contractors to go back and clear every sidewalk and driveway that they block with snow; otherwise they would never finish clearing the streets. But they understand the importance of keeping sidewalks and driveways clear.
Josh
Please, Mr. Mayor, if you will, describe to us what the City means by “passable?” Does it mean destroying only part of your car’s undercarriage as opposed to all of it?
Jadwiga, thanks for your comment. I appreciate the frustration evident in your comment. Given the magnitude of the snowfall, the standard of “passable” that we have been working to achieve is one that may still be rough going for smaller vehicles that have low clearance.
If we had the manpower and equipment to get every street down to bare pavement, or even to get every street smoothed out, we would do so. We don’t. Despite tripling our fleet by hiring contractors and working round the clock for 10 days, the magnitude of the snowfall combined with packed ice on the roads and days of below-freezing temperatures has made it impossible to get every street to a level of smoothness that we would like. While we have gotten streets down to bare pavement in some places, we have been unable to achieve that standard on all streets. The best we have been able to do is to make streets passable, for vehicles with front wheel drive and average-to-high clearance.
Josh
Thank you for all the work you have been doing to clear the snow in the city but Murray Avenue has been neglected thus far. We did have someone come through yesterday (2/14) and clear down the center of the road but the snow has eliminated all the parking on the street (which we all have to park on the street). I have been parking in the garage since 2/5 and currently if you stopped the free parking, I’d have no parking on my street to return to.
Do you have a response to the first post regarding Fair Hope Court? The court has yet to see a plow or salt truck and the stuck ambulance made the packed snow/ice conditions even worse. The court has not seen a plow after any of the storms this winter!
Re: Fairhope Court: Thanks for your comment. One of our crews will be there tonight (Monday).
Josh
Awaiting there arrival as of Tuesday AM.
Mayor Cohen,
The residents of Fairhope Court have yet to see a snow plow or snow removal team on our court (Tuesday 11:30 a.m.) Please advise
Mr Mayor, it took 8 days of inattention, but at 9:00 pm last night, we on Spa View Avenue finally were dug out and liberated from our isolation. A front loader, from a private contractor you all hired, I believe, arrived and proceeded to help us on the unplowed section of Spa View Avenue. Neighbors came out and we helped by shoveling snow so as to aid his scooping. He was great. Thank you.
I know you will hold a post mortem, and I hope it doesn’t mince words. We could have done much better. Too much attention to Emergency Routes when real emergencies couldn’t be handled since such vehicles couldn’t get through the neighborhoods. Using the small pick-ups with blades to do residential streets while the snow is falling (as done in the past) where it is low enough for them to be effective. Pre-arranging outsourcing help, potentially with modest retainers. And, most important, never again have plow trucks assigned to “plow” the same residential street four and five times when there is no snow on the ground, all the while ignoring nearby streets which are impassible. Thanks again for getting to us.
Thank you, everybody, for your continued comments. Our crews have cleared many of the areas that you have identified as needing attention. Our crews our continuing their efforts today and tonight (Monday). The areas they will cover tonight include the following ones that you have identified on this blog:
- Lockwood Court and Creek Drive
- Jackson Street
- Bank Street
- 300 block of Annapolis Street
Mr. Mayor, It’s 2:20 pm on Feb. 16 and Bank Street is still not ploughed. In fact, it’s never been ploughed since the 1st snow almost two weeks ago. What explanation do you have for that? The other day I spent abt an hour helping to dig people out.
JACKSON STREET — My neighbor just got stuck trying to pull out of her driveway and had to be dug out.
I spoke with Mayor Cohen this morning (around 9:30am) as he was driving around the city checking on street conditions. Yesterday afternoon a crew of front-loaders and dump trucks finally cleared our street. We on Granville Ave. much appreciate the street clearing and Mr. Mayor’s personal attention to the matter.
Will Jackson Street in Eastport EVER be plowed? s it because we are close the projects–is that the reason Jackson Street hasn’t been plowed?
THANKS so much – in advance! They haven’t arrived on Ellington Dr as of 11:20am.
I went out with my shovel (getting nowhere fast!) tried to get up some of the soft parts, meanwhile one of my neighbors came out to go to work and got stuck.
Hope to see the crew here soon! Will be looking for them.
When will end of Annapolis St be plowed? Is a week not a reasonable amount of time to have a plow back there?
The residents on S.Southwiood had to get a private contractor to plow our street, one pass. And yes it is a city street. It could use some salt also. (and repaving badly).
Excellent work! I read a remark a few days ago that said “Practice Makes Perfect”. Initally, I was like… “whatever”… but after watching the video of the Mayors tour of the DPW… I thought, very good. I have been to DPW and I have never seen that many people in that office. So, good to know a plan of action was implemented to manage and triage the phones and complaints. (Soooo sorry to hear about your experience Dino…something tells me that person will get some coaching and will do better next time) Good Day.
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Mr. Mayor,
I’m sorry, but I give the city an F for snow removal planning and another for execution. Specifically, inner West Street was not cleared until Tuesday February 9, of snow to the pavement. As of this morning, February 15, it had not been cleared to it’s full width. Ditto for Main Street and Hilltop. Duke of Gloucester Street was not plowed until Wednesday night or Thursday morning–especially the section just above Compromise Street. AS of this morning it is still only one lane. Severn Ave between Sixth Street and Wasshington was plowed last night, February 14, but is essentially one lane. Sixth Street from the bridge to Severn is one lane each way, making the turns difficult. Bay Ridge Avenue is not plowed. My Street, Boucher, is one lane–this for a street that is a busy secondary road. Meanwhile, the county’s roads are clean (Route 2, Forest Drive, Route 214, Carrs Wharf Road, Riva Road, etc.)
I’ve had plows go up and down Boucher all week with their blades up or just touching the surface, but not plowing. Most of the removal was don by the sun and finally, this past weekend, a plow removed some snow.
Whatever the plan is, it’s bad. Snow emergency routes should be cleaned to their full width immediately, then the major secondary roads should be cleaned, then the tertiary roads. The pattern I’ve seen is scatter shot at best. It seems now the city is responding to whomever complains.
I know the crews are working hard and are very tired (my son-in-law is a fleet manager for a private company and hasn’t been home for a week), but the planning in this city is bad, and the execution worse.
There is no execuse.
Prayint that we get a PLOW (not more salt) on Ellington Drive BEFORE we get more snow tonight – then we would get pushed to the back of the list YET AGAIN.
Karen, thanks for your comments. We have a crew coming to Ellington Drive today.
Josh
Mr. Cohen,
This is my 3rd request to you to get Ellington Drive plowed. I’ve called the APDW twice and they assured me that we would get a plow. The snow is deep, but it WAS packed. Hard, but driveable. The city truck came on Sunday and spread salt which made the snow deep and soft, now everyone is getting stuck. I called this morning and talked to a lady who said she would relay the message to the 2 guys that are working today. A truck came to (the corner of) Ellington & Janwall at approx. 9:45 and spread more salt. I got stuck in it yesterday and I am afraid to leave today for fear of getting stuck again. What is the problem? Why can’t get our street plowed.
In reading some of the comments on the log, it seems that some of the residents complaining that their streets have not been plowed, live on PRIVATE streets and that this is not City responsibility.
Maybe developers of these communities should be required to put up signs at the street entrance that these are private streets so that all residents are aware of this.
This has been a tremendous snow period, and the City crews and contractors have tried to do their best.