“I am getting a bit annoyed at the constant reference to enforcing the ‘eight-hour-clear-your- sidewalk’ ordinance only with respect to residential property owners. If you read the ordinance, you will see it applies to businesses and governments as well,” said Vernon, a resident in the Eastern Market neighborhood of the District.
Vernon was one of several people who chastised me for allegedly failing to mention businesses in my mild screed last week against those who don’t shovel their sidewalks. I called for the government to ticket violators.
I’m only half-guilty of Vernon’s charge. I mentioned businesses — not governments. Their indisputable inability to remove snow from the streets in a reasonable time already had everyone steaming hot. On 41st Place Northwest in the District, residents didn’t see a plow after the first storm. By Saturday, well after the second one, they still were waiting for equipment — any equipment: front-end loader, tractor, traditional plow — to rescue them. Send something, they pleaded with Department of Transportation Director Gabe Klein and their Ward 3 D.C. councilwoman, Mary Cheh.
Those residents on 41st Place Northwest and others around the city can take solace in the fact that the government isn’t completely inept. Their tax bills will arrive far more expeditiously than snowplows.
“In my neighborhood most residential property owners do a great job of shoveling their sidewalks,” Vernon continued. “However, the city and National Park Service seem to do next to nothing with the walks under their responsibility. Try walking down Pennsylvania Avenue Southeast from the Capitol to [the] Eastern Market Metro; you will encounter a number of ‘pocket parks’ that have never experienced the touch of a shovel. There are no paths on the esplanades to help us cross the street.”
But wait, haven’t elected officials been promoting the District as a “walkable city”?
I know I’ll receive e-mails reminding me the federal government was closed four days last week. But, what happened in December? The National Park Service didn’t clear sidewalks along its property then, either. Officials there are disciples of the Marion Barry school of snow removal: “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.”
Meanwhile, residents suffer: An elderly man carrying a cane inches along the patch of icy sidewalk at the park near Columbia Road Northwest and 16th Street. A woman, well into her 70s, tries to cross the path on the bridge near 16th Street and Military Road Northwest; the District government didn’t shovel the sidewalk after the first or second storm. She is forced to walk in the street. There won’t be any relief for her in the next block: The NPS hasn’t shoveled the sidewalks that frame the outer edges of Rock Creek Park.
Vernon’s right: The federal and District governments are first-rate violators of the city’s sidewalk clearing ordinance. And, if they feel comfortable breaking the law, why on Earth would residents feel compelled to obey it?
Jonetta Rose Barras, host of WPFW’s “D.C. Politics With Jonetta,” can be reached at [email protected].
