Maybe it's not all bad living on a Snow Emergency Route

[dreamshark]

I'm beginning to appreciate the benefits of living on a Snow Emergency Route. Not only do we have constant access to a street that is pretty much guaranteed drivable at all times (40th), the adjacent side streets get plowed almost immediately once the Snow Emergency moves into the second phase. The even side of Pillsbury was plowed to the curb by 10am Sunday!  Really, to the curb. The intersections are kind of a mess, but they did an unusually thorough job on the street. And our awesome neighbors managed to get every single car off the even side of the street, so it is now possible to drive from one end of the block to the other without weaving or getting stuck. 

On the downside, Snow Emergency Routes are busy.  And NOISY.  And since we live on a corner, we have to clear an enormous amount of sidewalk, only to have parts of it filled in again when the plows go by and shove more snow over the top of the snowbanks. We're also responsible for shoveling out the essential pedestrian walkway right at the corner (repeatedly, as the snowplows fill it in again). I get that people in some neighborhoods feel like they aren't doing anything to clear the snow because their streets are still impassable. But believe me - the snowplows have been running full tilt.

And, of course it is almost impossible to use our garage during a snowy winter because it opens directly onto the Snow Emergency Route. Which means that it is not just blocked ONCE by a waist high bank of packed snow. It is blocked by a waist-high snow bank that is constantly being replenished as the plows churn up and down the street every few hours. My car may be garaged until spring at this rate. Considering how much snow had to be moved to get it into the garage, it is a little discouraging to look at the vastly greater amount that would now have to be moved to get it out again.  But it's nice to know it's somewhere safe.  I drove the van to work today.

Comments

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's noisy for me, too, overlooking Lake St. Still, as you point out, the trade-off is convenience. We (the condo association) pays money to plow our garage/parking lot, and the city takes care of Lake, Nicollet and Blaisdell.

The window people are expected to start here tomorrow. I have to get my apt. ready to be open to the elements... originally scheduled for today, tomorrow will be warmer... I hope.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I certainly like living on a snow emergency route -- I pretty much always have in Minneapolis, E. 28th was and Minnehaha Ave. was and Blaisdell Ave. is.

I never have noticed street noise, particularly . I notice the building shaking -- but that's mostly city buses, and they don't run on Blaisdell so I don't get it that much any more (sometimes when a big fire truck goes by -- usually the "wrong way" on the one-way street).

Our garage is on the alley. Saturday afternoon I got stuck on 37th St. trying to get to the alley entrance (and decided even trying the alley at that point was insane). Probably should have moved the car to the back early, and given up on Saturday errands and probably on getting out at all until Sunday. But so often the storm is less than predicted.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

"I never have noticed street noise, particularly."

Well, general noise like fire engines and people revving their engines is part of the extra traffic on SEMs. But the real snow-related racket is something you probably aren't aware of, living in the middle of the block as you did. It's the Corner Monsters.

After the first snow clearing excitement is over and the streets are passable they send around a phalanx of front-end-loaders to clean up the mess they've left at the street corners. These guys make a huge amount of noise, backing and filling and beeping. They also crash into the curb occasionally, making the house shake. And after all that commotion they sometimes don't even get the job done properly, leaving big churned up drifts that people get stuck in when they turn, causing them to spin their wheels frantically and loudly.

But the corners are such a disaster right now, I'm looking forward to the advent of the Corner Monsters. They can't really make it WORSE. Well, I guess they could if they cave in the sides of the canyons that we carved out when we cleared the sidewalks. But almost anything they do to the driving lanes at the corner will be an improvement.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's probably far enough away I wouldn't hear it. I also haven't happened to see it, not as a regular thing at least. But on consideration, I see that some such thing must happen.

(Incidentally, sympathies on the sidewalk length plus plow ridge breaking duties at the crosswalks. It's not just coincidence that I live in the middle of the block.)

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Maybe we can have a pre-carolling, shovel-the-garage-free party Sunday?

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the offer. Let's wait and see what the situation is by the end of the week. As they seem to be rebooting the snow emergency to start up again tonight, I think I'll leave the car where it is until all the musical cars games are over.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

What I've been impressed by is how good a job the city's been doing on getting the snow humps cleared at the corners of most of the blocks here downtown. They're clear to the pavement and wide enough for four or five people to walk abreast.

Traffic, today at least, has been really bad. Hennipen was busy when I left for the DADT protest at 3:30pm and even worse at 6:30 when I got back home.

Surprisingly enough I don't hear much in the way of traffic noise, but facing the courtyard of my building, rather than an outside apartment probably explains why that's so.

[drblkcrab.livejournal.com]

Wow I hope you are all safe in the mountains of snow you have received recently. I don't think I could live anywhere there is snow to that degree.