Shovel-Ready: People Yes, Businesses No?

There's a funny juxtaposition of opinions on snow removal here in central New York, illustrated by a couple of recent news stories.

Start with this one, out of Oswego, on the shore of Lake Ontario.  The 'Onion' of She Made Him Eat Onions, the mnemonic I learned as a child to remember the names of the Great Lakes, Ontario is a lake effect snow machine, and Oswego is typically buried under between 140 -150 inches of snow each winter.  Most people who live there are familiar with what that means -- once winter starts, there will be snow on the sidewalk, and it needs to be cleared so that people can safely walk to work, stores, churches, schools, their neighbor's house, or wherever they want to go. And don't forget the population of folks who use wheelchairs, scooters, and the like to get around -- they're even more dependent on having safe passage in the snow.

Oswego's been experiencing some growth of late, particularly on the Route 104 corridor. If you're familiar with Syracuse, you're familiar with Erie Boulevard - strip development after strip development.  That's the new reality on parts of Route 104. Apparently the new development brought with it new sidewalks, which the businesses have not kept clear.  Equally apparently, there is some confusion as to who is legally obligated to clear the sidewalks. 

Enter the Oswego City Code Enforcement office, with the information that it's not the city, nor the tenant, but the property owner who has the responsibility.  The property owner in many cases for the unshoveled stretches along Route 104 is a real estate management company in Dewitt, a Syracuse suburb.  They'll send someone out to clean up the snow, according to the news report. 

But here's a question for you: if you're a major corporation, like Walmart, or a New York based family company like PriceChopper, do you really need to know who is legally obligated to clear the snow?  Wouldn't you just do it, rather than allow your customers to be at risk? Wouldn't you just shovel the sidewalk?

And if it's not a sidewalk that you can shovel, because say, the people who plow your parking lot or clear the sidewalk at your front door are filling it up with snow, wouldn't you say something? Ask them to clear it, or at the least not fill it up with snow? Call the landlord and ask them where the heck they are? Are these businesses really helpless on this?

That 'just do it' mentality is illustrated beautifully here in one Syracuse neighborhood, on the Near West Side.  There have been a couple of stories about this group, the Westside Residents Coalition, and their efforts at clearing snow from their neighborhood sidewalks. The group meets on Saturday mornings at a local church, and plan their attack.  Grocery stores, the areas around Centro bus shelters and the like are fair game for the volunteers. 

Instead of waiting around for the wheels of justice to plow through red tape, the community volunteers used some grant money to get the tools needed to get the job done. Shovels, vests, maybe some food for the help, and they're good to go.

Legally, the property owners are obligated to clear the sidewalks in Syracuse too, just like in Oswego.  And we could wait for them, I suppose.  We also could wait for the spring thaw to solve the problem. Or, we could rely on the people who are staring at the snow to handle it.

Kudos to the Westside Residents Coalition volunteers, who are making their neighborhood better one shovelful of snow at a time.  And a big fat snowball in the direction of the businesses in the strip developments along Route 104 in Oswego, who waited to figure out who was 'obligated' to clear the snow, instead of just taking accountability and getting it done.