Cleveland Heights and University Heights Observatory

Today I did some hand snow clearing, pushing with my heavy duty metal shovel, on the east sidewalk between Clarendon and Ormond on the east side of Lee, and between Scarborough and Coleridge on the west side. This opens the sidewalks between Fairfax School and the main library. I got thanks from two different adults. The kids are out of school now, but the snow clearing becomes more important when school is in session. Anybody want to pitch in, you will be welcome. It's aerobic, for sure.

There is a new slide show (16 photographs, from March 1) up, with a quite a bit of commentary at...
<http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050360&id=1039645808&l=398bc512d5>

It focuses on the problem of using the sidewalks of Cleveland Heights (and elsewhere, of course) in the winter months. Students; people who use public transportation to get to work or the grocery store or doctor, the elderly; people without cars and/or without driver's licenses -- all suffer in the winter months from virtually being unable to use sidewalks on major streets on a number of days.

The photos were shot over a 30 minute period at the 3 o'clock hour on March 1, on the stretch of Lee Road between Fairfax School and the Main Library.

Check it out.

You write about INABILITY to use the sidewalks, but some of your photos depict kids of a wide age range using snow covered sidewalks. With proper footwear, there's no reason most kids can't handle incleared sidewalks. In elementary school, my friends and I actually AVOIDED the plowed sidewalks because it was more fun to clamber over big snow piles, and there weren't such innovations as gore-tex and thinsulate to make it easier. Then again, the media weren't constantly wringing their hands about childhood obesity either. Hmmmm

There are plenty of less important items in the city's budget than plowing sidewalks. Snow removal should be a top priority for economic development reasons. A business owner doesn't want to locate in a region that shuts down due to regular, periodic, and predictable weather events - it means lost time and productivity.

Someone advocated human power instead of sidewalk plows for the sake of carbon footprint. A human at rest puts out about 5 liters of CO2 per minute; exertion like shoveling will double that, so manual shoveling generates 5 extra liters per man-minute.. A snowplow with a 1.2 liter 4 stroke diesel engine running at 2000 rpm will put out 180 liters per minute (passing it's full displacement of gasses every 2 revolutions, and the last 10 E-checks I got indicated 15% CO2.) However, in that minute, at 10 mph, it will clear 880 feet of sidewalk. In the same minute a person will clear less than 10 feet. 88 man-minutes at 5 extra liters per minute equals 440 liters, far more than the 180 produced by the snowplow.

As has been said, the only way it's going to get done is by plowing. It's the only efficient way.
Sidewalk plows and their operators don't come from pixie dust, though. The voters need to decide if passable sidewalks in winter are more important than other than all the other frills from city hall, like the rec mall, staff specialists on every pet cause from aging to preservation to arts, etc., micromanaging residents lives so their neighbors can't live too differently, increasing population density, subsidizing harebrained business ventures, and publishing glossy propaganda rags. Based on past municipal spending habits, and the rate of incumbent re-election, apparently they've decided that passable sidewalks aren't as important as all those other special interest, social engineering agenda items.

Great photos, Jim. I've seen many similar scenes throughout the winter. Not just school children, as depicted here, but older folks walking too and from bus stops on their way to work or shop in the winter.

Keep taking those pictures as it sends a very visible reminder to property owners to do their part to keep their sidewalks clear.

The photos are only part of it. I really put more effort into the text part. The last photo has a set of solutions, which I will put into the discussion as soon as I can.

I don't think the sidewalks in the residential sections of the major through streets are ever going to be cleared on a consistent basis by the tenants, landlords, and resident property owners on Lee, Coventry, Noble, Monticello, etc. One basic fact: individuals cannot keep up with snow plows. The individual with a shovel solution is a polite fiction for these major streets with narrow tree lawns.

<http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050360&id=1039645808&l=398bc512d5>

Cleveland Heights SOLUTIONS for winter walking access to schools, libraries, grocery stores, pharmacies, bus stops in a time of difficult budget cutbacks?


1. COOPERATE AND COORDINATE: the City of Cleveland Heights, with partners the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Library and the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Schools and the business district associations. (While citizen volunteers are a good thing, there is no way they are sources of a solution on the main through streets, day in, day out; season in, season out; year in, year out.)

2. SLOW THE SNOW PLOWS on major thoroughfares to 15 mph so much less snow flies onto the sidewalks - Taylor, Noble, Mayfield, Coventry, Lee, Monticello, Euclid Hts., Superior, Fairmount...

3. STUDY the city closely, looking for KEY SIDEWALK LINKAGES between schools, libraries, and shopping areas. Build on the strips already cleared. Clear those key walks.

4. Clean the sidewalk on only ONE SIDE of a given major road. Walkers will learn to cross over to the clear side.

5. TARGET ACCESS TO KEY BUS STOPS . People will walk in the side streets, but they need to avoid having to walk in the street on major thoroughfares to reach bus stops. Make sure there is a couple of feet of open access to the bus at the stop itself.


6. As far as SIDE STREETS go, strengthen the language of the present city ordinances 521.04 and 751.06. Specifically include new language targeting the frequent practice by commercial snow plowers of pushing driveway snow into MOUNDS blocking public sidewalks. These mounds, often as much as 5 feet high, make any attempt by residents to clear the sidewalk down their street hopeless. Both the homeowner/landlord paying for the service and the operator should be subject to a $100 minor misdemeanor - and this specific ordinance language should be actually enforced. Enforcement would result in a dramatic drop off of this practice.

Okay...

Do it all in a skinflinty, miserly, smart way - but DO IT!

These are good suggestions. What has been the city's response?

Would you care to write an opinion piece for the April Observer? We go to press April 6 and the story deadline is soon, but looks like you have most of it already. I would be interested in response from the city, schools, library and SIDs.