Well over one hundred Syracuse residents turned out Thursday evening at Doctor Week’s School for a “Snow Safety Summit” aimed at finding a long-term solution to keeping sidewalks clear of snow. The Walsh Administration hopes to turn the feedback into legislation.
Tony Patane lives on the north side, and says it’s about time the city starts to hold landlords and others responsible.
“I got a lazy neighbor. Nobody has been shoveling snow the whole freakin’ winter long. Not one person comes out and shovels snow. I’m not going to go over to do it. I try to help some of the neighbors that aren’t capable of doing it. But these people are capable of doing it and they’re just not doing it. Therefore, somebody has gotta get at it. Get this job done.”
Patane says landlords are especially notorious for not clearing their sidewalks. One of the ideas being tossed around at the summit was matching shovels to volunteers. Eli McDonald is co-founder of Onondaga Earth Corps, and has been asked to start a pilot program with youth and young adults.
“There’s a lot of youth and young people that need something to do. Helping out the city and stuff like that because our program has been for like 12 years and that’s our goal. We need more youth to pay attention to the community, be in the community, not destroy the community.”
McDonald has a crew of four, but hopes it will grow so they can keep sidewalks clear for elderly neighbors or those with disabilities. The city’s innovation team was also gathering feedback about city plowing. Tina Saraceni said her Eastwood side street doesn’t cleaned often enough.
“They focus on the main roads, which I understand, but you’re focusing on the main roads to get to everybody outside of the county so they can get to work, but I own my home and I’m a city tax payer. So, I pay your salary. I’d like my street done.”
After the last snowstorm, she says it took 36 hours for a plow to make its first pass. I-Team director Adria Finch says they’ll take that information plus feedback from the plow data hackathon to find more efficient and effective routes. She says they also hope to have legislation about sidewalk snow removal ready by the end of winter.
“We’re looking to have a pretty quick turn around, but this is a really important first step to gain that incite from the public as to what they want. So, rather than us just sitting in city hall saying, ‘This is what we should do,’ we’re actually looking for the public to help guide us and tell us what will work best for them.”
