Snow's Limited Judgment

Snow’s Limited Judgment

Snow, rain, freezing rain, and a flash freeze came to Worcester on December 29, 2015. As of late afternoon of December 30, 2015 many of the streets in Worcester are still ice packed and unplowed. The City Manager, Edward Augustus Jr., has stated in his December 30, 2015 public letter, “Many of our streets are not in the condition our taxpayers have the right to expect”.

Manager Augustus has admitted in his letter that the wrong decision “was made”. The use of the passive voice in the assignment of blame leaves open and unclear who is to blame for this mess. Most politicians are skilled at the use of the passive voice.

The manager in his letter also said that the Department of Public Works (DPW) deployed salters and sanders well before the precipitation arrived.  It did not call in the plows because the forecast was for “slush”. I suppose this makes some sense.

When it was clear to the DPW the weather and street conditions would be more than slush, the DPW called in the plows in the late afternoon of December 29, 2015. This does not seem to have been entirely accurate as many of the main streets are still ice covered in the late afternoon of December 30, 2015, especially the break down lanes. I have not seen one plow truck on my street or anywhere in Worcester on December 30, 2015.  Perhaps the Manager can say what streets were plowed.

Mr. Moosey of the DPW said that there was a limited response to the flash freezing of snow and rain as reported in the Worcester Telegram. Unfortunately his response not only did not excuse the error in judgment, but failed to address another important issue. 

The issue of pedestrians was not addressed. Because of the ice and snow the sidewalks have to be shoveled and treated. We pedestrians have gotten used to the failure of some property owners to shovel and treat their sidewalks. Even the City of Worcester fails to do so on some of their properties.  When a sidewalk is unshovelled or untreated pedestrians usually can walk in the break down lanes in the streets.

But this storm we could not. The breakdown lanes were not plowed and were as bad as the unshovelled sidewalks. Plowed streets are important for pedestrians which did not seem to be a concern for the Manager or Mr. Moosey of the DPW. Neither of whom mentioned us in their public communiqués.

This seems to fit the pattern of Worcester ignoring or marginalizing pedestrians. There seems to be about one pedestrian death per week in Worcester. There is a perception that the police look first to see if the pedestrian was at fault and then looking for the fault of the driver in a pedestrian motorist accident. It is time to have a default law assuming that the motorist who hits a pedestrian is always at fault for not yielding to a pedestrian.

Getting back to the snow and ice issues, the City Manager should review how decisions are made in terms of when to do more than a “limited” response to road conditions. The Manager should take full responsibility for any and all errors of judgment and stop using the passive voice in assigning blame.

It was shameful how Governor Baker shifted blame for last season’s MBTA failures. This season’s failures clearly are the responsibility of Governor Baker. I hope that Manager Augustus does not trap himself into this shameful practice of shifting blames. He should own up to this and other errors in judgments he has made.