Let's all praise government workers

A favorite sport of too many people is to bash government as inefficient.

Let us consider the many ways that we should be thankful to government.

Let's start with the rather prosaic in Minnesota.  We have had a lot of snow in Minnesota this month.  Schools have been closed and events cancelled.  But the plow operators were out clearing streets and alleys at all hours.  Major streets were opened almost immediately, other streets within a few hours, and alleys within a few hours more.  The plow operators are union city workers that are doing their best to battle nature without damaging parked cars.  Are they greedy union workers or are they people requesting just compensation for the difficult work they do?

A favorite target of many anti-government people is the U.S. Postal Service.  Sometime after nine I got busy on the walkway around our house.  I wanted to make sure our carrier didn't have much difficulty.  I saw her park almost in front of our house rather than down the street, just about on her usual schedule. Before I could even get to the front walk, Sara came trudging up the steps in nine-inch drifts.  She said that if she hadn't seen me, she would have waited until tomorrow to deliver our mail, none of it urgent.  Maybe regulations don't cover her discretion, but she was making a very good effort at delivering important mail in a timely fashion for all on her route.

Then there is the big government operation in Boston.  It is just amazing how the federal, state, and local criminal investigation bureaucracies worked through thousands of pieces of information to determine who the prime suspects were, locate them, and fatally wound one of them.  As I write this, the other is apparently cornered in a boat in somebody's yard.  All of this in less than a week.

Limp or wimp?

Today I decided to make my traditional triangle walk to Bixby's for coffee, UMD for University of Seniors, and back home.  I have been driving to Bixby's because with all the unshoveled walks, walking has been no fun.  However, parking at UMD is no fun during the day.

Because the city of Duluth has partially cleared many walks with a large snowblower, I've been able to stride instead of mince.  Even though it was snowing lightly, off I strode.

Our street wasn't so bad.  Then I got to the first traffic light.  The pedestrian button was unreachable without climbing a thigh-high pile of snow - an icy pile with few footholds.  I got up high enough to push the button, but when I turned around to come down, things looked almost impossible.  I kind of leapt down from depression to depression but my momentum carried me right into the street.  Fortunately for me, no cars were whipping around the corner.

I stood at the corner waiting for the light to change, but guess what?  There was no traffic!  Do I cross now or wait?  I waited.

The rest of the walk to the coffee shop was uneventful.  Some parts of the sidewalk were even, some had deeper snow, none too difficult to walk in the 8-inch work boots I had on.

After coffee I went to UMD for a couple of classes.  When I got to the campus, the walks were freshly brushed with only a dusting of snow.  There were some icy patches at the edge, but I could walk normally.

While I was in the classes there was light snow.  I wondered if I wanted to take a bus home or walk.  As I told a friend, it was a question of limp or wimp - limp on uneven sidewalks or wimp out by taking the bus.  I opted to limp.

Again, the campus walks were no problem at all.  As soon as I crossed into a neighborhood, the situation deteriorated.  The first couple of blocks had wide boulevards and plow snow had not made it to the sidewalk.  But few had shoveled their walks in the last couple of weeks.

When I turned onto the thoroughfare, things got worse.  The city's snowblower had come by, but a plow had been by again, putting snow and "rocks" on the sidewalk.

Now walking became mincing.

Just after I took the picture and stepped off the curb at the corner, a car turned right in front of me!  What nerve!  What luck!  It was my wife who was coming home from her own activities.  I only had about three minutes walk to get home, but I was glad for the relief.

She wended her way through the neighborhood to our alley, and just as she was pulling in the garage, I saw the bus coming down the hill.  I would rather have ridden with her than with a bunch of strangers.

Snow removal – something only higher taxes can buy

To avoid taxes on residents for clearing sidewalks, cities by law expect that residents clear the sidewalks in front of their houses.  But to do so one must spend time and energy clearing the sidewalk or pay somebody else to clear the sidewalk; either one is a tax by inaction.  If one has a friendly neighbor volunteer to clear a walk, that time and energy is a tax on that neighbor.   Add to the time and energy the costs of snow shovels, ice chippers, snow blowers, and ice melt or sand.  Oh yes, gas and oil for the snow blower.  And in some cases heart attacks or muscle pain.

All of this is inefficient and more.  Hired snow clearers do a couple of houses in one area and move on to another.  Individual homeowners may or may not clear their walks at the same time or even on the same day.  Depending on the size of the boulevard, the sidewalk snow may be thrown into the yard, to become melt water in warmer weather, run across the sidewalk, and then freeze in colder weather.

People who might normally walk now drive for their own safety and comfort.  Parents who are concerned about their children's safety demand school buses, even for walks of less than a half-hour.  School buses are operated with tax money.

This cycle can be repeated several times in any given snow season, the snow pile getting higher and the frozen melt getting thicker.

Wouldn't it be more efficient and cost effective if the city were to remove as much plowed or blown snow as possible after each storm?  The state certainly does it on bridges and underpasses.  What if as soon as possible after plowing, the city came back with large snowblowers and trucks and removed the snow on boulevards?  What if next the city came back again and cleared and removed the snow from sidewalks?  It may be a lot of money up front, but the overall savings to the community might be very large.

If all else fails, let's resort to the argument that snow removal creates jobs.  Gosh, if there is tax money to induce a business to move to a city to "create jobs", can't there be tax money to "create jobs" to make a city more livable?

We need to do a makeover of Duluth

In 2007 I wrote an article for the Reader Weekly, "Economic development to beat all economic development" about tearing Duluth down and starting all over again.

As I've been clearing plowed snow off our sidewalk and getting ice out of the sump pump hose, I've been thinking about this again.

Snow plowed from the streets onto sidewalks is an old issue with me.  Suffice it to say that streets widened to accommodate more traffic mean narrower boulevards (tree lawns to some) to store plowed snow.

Much of Duluth has an early 20th century sewer system.  This means that storm water run-off often got into the sanitary sewers and filled the sanitation holding tanks past capacity.

First we had to have a sump pump installed and any basement drainage into the sanitary sewer blocked.  This meant that water that had been put into the sewers was now dumped out on the lawn.  Because Duluth is built on a hill, this meant the water would often run onto the sidewalk causing ice buildup in the winter.

Next we had to have our sanitary sewers from the house to the street replaced because ground water was seeping into them, contributing to the capacity problem.  This also meant that the ground was even more saturated after rains or thaws, and that meant that even more water flowed onto the sidewalk.

Add to this overflow problem that the snow bank acts as a dam and that many sidewalk sections are tilted away from the street, the overflow stays on the sidewalk.  This then means that homeowners need to spend hours each week to ensure that the sidewalks in front of their houses are accessible and safe.

Revisiting the ideas in "Economic Development", when we level Duluth to start again, we should include double sewer lines from houses, one for sanitary waste, one for ground water runoff.  We should rebuild all streets with a minimum of four-foot wide boulevards.  We should rebuild all sidewalks with a slight tilt toward the street, and we should place them higher than both the curb and the boulevard.

I'm sure you can add many more ideas about improving walkability in Duluth, but I'll limit this little essay to dealing with snow and ice.

The high cost of no new taxes

In my part of Duluth we had about 12 inches of snow on the night of 2010-12-20.  The city snow plow drivers did a great job of clearing the streets, but the result is heavy packed snow on our sidewalk, too much for this little 5hp 22in snowblower, and definitely too much for my back.

According to city ordinance, home owners are responsible for clearing their sidewalks within twenty-four hours of a snowfall.  However, if the city plows push snow on to the sidewalk, the city is responsible for clearing the sidewalk.

Even if I made a Herculean effort to clear the sidewalk, it would be futile.  When the plows come by again, there will more heavy snow on the sidewalk.

If last year's Christmas week storm is any guide, the city won't clear our sidewalk for at least a week.  Meanwhile, pedestrians of all ages and abilities have to walk in the street; they are taxed for the city not raising taxes.

Snow removal done in the wrong order by the wrong people

The cities and counties clear the roads as fast as they can. In fact, because we want efficiency, they go so fast that packed snow gets thrown on the sidewalks. It is now the property owners responsibility to remove this snow within 24-48 hours.

Some property owners get out promptly, often after removing the natural snowfall. Some property owners are not strong enough to do it at all. And some property owners don't even think about shoveling snow or downright refuse to do so. "The city put it there; let them remove it."

Meanwhile, the poor pedestrian is left to slog through this mess, sometimes with threat to life and limb. Some pedestrians walk in the street, putting both themselves and drivers at risk. Oh yes, don't forget the brave or foolhardy runners who are out everyday no matter the conditions.

In the interest of energy conservation, maybe we should reverse the responsibility. The city should be responsible for clearing the sidewalks of snow, and the property owners should be responsible for clearing the streets of snow.

This would discourage people from driving and encourage more walking and bus ridership.

It would also reduce taxes. Less expensive equipment and operators would be needed to clear sidewalks than to clear roads.

Snow, new taxes!

Here are a couple of pictures taken after I spent over an hour removing snow in front of our house that was dumped on the sidewalk by snowplows.

This is after I used an ice scraper to break the packed snow up, blew the snow up over a high pile in my yard, and finished the job with a snow shovel. You can see what the neighbor has yet to do.

The clear spot farther down the street was done by a neighbor with a bigger snowblower than I have. I don't know how long it took him, but he didn't do as many lots as he does when the snow is fresh.



Here you can see how high I had to throw the snow. Granted that the yard is sloped, but the snow is at least four feet deep as you can see from the neighbors railing. Note also that the snow is not pristine white, but brown from the street slush. No way can I throw snow over this for more than a few minutes at a time. One could consider having to have a snow blower an additional tax. Let's see, I think this little guy cost $700 or so. If it lasts 14 years, then that is an additional $50 a year tax.

Let's see, if we assume $7/hour for general labor and $280/year real estate tax to the city, then I am paying an extra 2.5% tax each time the city plows move snow from the street to the side walk. If this only happens four times per season, I should be so lucky, then I am paying an extra 10% tax each winter. Add the snowblower cost, then I am paying about 28% more taxes just for snow blowing.

Thanks a lot, "No new taxes" proponents. May you have a higher snow tax than I do.

Taxes are not just in money

Too many government critics act as if we were still ruled by the government in London with no benefits from the taxes and regulations imposed from there. We now have taxation with representation, but because the representatives don't agree in lockstep with the critics, all taxation and regulations are bad.

We are in a financial fix now partly from our own profligate ways, partly from lax government oversight, and partly from insufficient taxation. The "no new taxes" proponents look on tax revenues as going to someone else, not to themselves as part of a well-functioning society.

Well, I have just come inside after spending a half-hour paying a "no new taxes" tax. Our sidewalk, previously shoveled, is now covered with three-inches of hard-packed snow plus several large snow "stones". This "new" snow is because a snowplow came through to widen the street. I managed to get a shovel width cleaned in a half-hour, partly with a brand-new "sharp" shovel and partly with an ice scraper. I'm too winded to continue for another hour or so.

Supposedly the city should clear sidewalks that the plows put a lot of snow on. I did call Duluth's "Snow shoveling hot line" yesterday about this, but nothing has happened yet. Since two neighbors on our block had already cleared their part and then some, I should make an effort.

I should also make an effort for civic reasons. I don't like walking on unshoveled sidewalks; I don't think others should. I know that one grade school kid has to pass our house to the school bus stop, that at least two middle-schoolers, probably a dozen or more have to pass our house, and there are many women and children from the women's shelter going to and from the bus stop. In the half-hour I was working outside, two women walked by in the street.

Not only is the dumped snow a tax on me as a homeowner, it is a tax on all the people who walk by.

You never know when you might have influence

Today's Duluth News Tribune had an article on the city council having a retreat to get to know each other and discuss some of the issues the face.

It was interesting to note that the council president, Roger Reinert, was interested in two issues that I had published this week: "snow removal and bringing train service to Duluth."

My "Local View", "Streets are plowed, but walkers must tread on ice" was published in today's Duluth News Tribune.

My regular bi-weekly column in the Reader Weekly was titled "Can even Superman stop this speeding locomotive?"