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Shovel Your Snow ...Or Else! — Brooklynian

Shovel Your Snow ...Or Else!

Comments

  • gypsy
    gypsy
    Non shoveling on my block (st. mark's btw vandy and underhill) is a major problem. One of the new condo buildings has not shoveled and the community garden has NEVER shoveled their sidewalk in the 10 years I've lived in this neighborhood. If there are any members of the garden reading this, please shovel! I have to walk everyday on this street and almost seriously hurt myself this AM
  • crowhiller
    crowhiller

    Subject: Shovel your snow....or else

    I have read the Daily Heights since it started, and posted a very few entries, but have,not so rarely, found some of the comments & attitudes of my neighbors a bit troubling. So I've kind of given up. I hardly comment any more-- but this, "...or else," deserves a few words.

    Some of us have lived here for many years. Some of us are the products of generations of families from Prospect Heights. It's just an assumption, but I've felt that the comments that I have found the most disturbing are not from the people who have been here for many years. I may be wrong.

    I understand the danger of an icy sidewalk and the emotional tidiness of complete homogeneity, but I would never call 311 on any neighbor who didn't shovel snow unless I knew their situation. They might be sick or elderly. They might not have the financial means to handle a $100 ticket. Would you bother to find out before you, "dropped the dime?" I would think it would be more neighborly to try to identify and/or contact the offending party before calling the officials; find out who they are before you offer yourself (perhaps "yourself" should be capitalized) as the hammer of Justice. If they are not physically capable of shoveling (even if they are), perhaps you could offer to do it for them, and in the process you have met and helped a neighbor--a fellow human being--and put a face and a story on a numbered house you pass every day. A thirst for punishment is not kind and often not effective. It certainly isn't Christian/Jewish/Islamic (the good parts). Don't be afraid of "us" or "them"- we're your neighbors.

    Safety is very, very important, but empathy and humanity is priceless.

    All this being said.....if you find they are, strong, healthy, non-broke, lousy, inconsiderate, selfish, lazy bums, and you are certain--feel free: call the cops! See.....I really am from Brooklyn.
  • sweet tea
    sweet tea
    Wow, crowhiller. Well spoken (wish you'd post more).

    Regarding the garden:

    As a member of that garden, I'm embarrassed to admit that I hadn't even thought about the snow in front. Like most of our members, I don't live on that block and don't necessarily walk by outside of the growing season -- except for composting needs, which are easy to put off in this kind of weather!

    At any rate, I've alerted the garden membership to the problem and it will be addressed today.

    As a community garden, the last thing we want is to alienate our neighbors. (We think of non-members in the neighborhood as kind of a shadow membership, in that you are not entirely separate from us, even if you never even come in during open hours -- but please come in during open hours!)

    If anyone reading this has future problems like this with the garden and is looking for someone to tell, please feel free to pm me, and I will do my best to see that it is made right.
  • inpixels
    inpixels
    -or else- is snarky.

    Please use good judgment if you call 311.
    There are plenty of apartment buildings that never shovel and are repeat offenders.
    This would be a great example.


    My family grew up across the street from where I now reside.Nouveau heights I am not.

    Cheers!
  • acataca
    acataca
    Why is the police station on Park and Grand/Washington seem to be exempt from this? They never shovel their sidewalk. They finally shoveled a tiny bit of the sidewalk on Grand but the sidewalk along Park still remains unshoveled.
  • catwalkertexasranger
    catwalkertexasranger

    Subject: Re: Shovel your snow....or else

    crowhiller wrote: I have read the Daily Heights since it started, and posted a very few entries, but have,not so rarely, found some of the comments & attitudes of my neighbors a bit troubling. So I've kind of given up. I hardly comment any more-- but this, "...or else," deserves a few words.

    Some of us have lived here for many years. Some of us are the products of generations of families from Prospect Heights. It's just an assumption, but I've felt that the comments that I have found the most disturbing are not from the people who have been here for many years. I may be wrong.

    I understand the danger of an icy sidewalk and the emotional tidiness of complete homogeneity, but I would never call 311 on any neighbor who didn't shovel snow unless I knew their situation. They might be sick or elderly. They might not have the financial means to handle a $100 ticket. Would you bother to find out before you, "dropped the dime?" I would think it would be more neighborly to try to identify and/or contact the offending party before calling the officials; find out who they are before you offer yourself (perhaps "yourself" should be capitalized) as the hammer of Justice. If they are not physically capable of shoveling (even if they are), perhaps you could offer to do it for them, and in the process you have met and helped a neighbor--a fellow human being--and put a face and a story on a numbered house you pass every day. A thirst for punishment is not kind and often not effective. It certainly isn't Christian/Jewish/Islamic (the good parts). Don't be afraid of "us" or "them"- we're your neighbors.

    Safety is very, very important, but empathy and humanity is priceless.

    All this being said.....if you find they are, strong, healthy, non-broke, lousy, inconsiderate, selfish, lazy bums, and you are certain--feel free: call the cops! See.....I really am from Brooklyn.
    Stop snitchin' in a polite form. Put up with dirty streets because of humanity. Simple civics shovel if not for yourself for the good of humanity. Live by an old forest ranger saying "even if you don't bring trash,take some with you". Better yet shovel 2 doors left and 2 doors right and everybody wins. Stevie Wonder sang about things being old but never dirty in the city. How shoveling your snow has to do with race or religion or to quench a thirst for punishment is @#cking stupid.
  • inpixels
    inpixels
    311 can also be called for Social Services if a person is so incampacitated they cannot get a person to help them shovel the snow and has no connection to the community to help them do so would be a good example.

    I've sprained my ankle badly on the ice and I can understand that there are extenuating circumstances but the snow should be shoveled. If $100 fine is going to prevent you from buying food to eat put a d@mn sign on your front door asking for the kindness of strangers to help out and if they don't (who is going to read this sign on the door?) then it should be a message to someone intending to give a citation that maybe social services should be called instead. It's unfortunate if you see people as hopeless/helpless victims because they will only see themselves that way.

    There are people willing to help.

    I wonder what would happen if an elderly person called 311 up to say that they are to old to shovel the snow and can't afford to shovel it themselves? Perhaps that initial dialogue would better their lives.

    But no, I should slip on the ice, grin and bear it!
  • roux42
    roux42
    The sidewalk in front of the garden has been shoveled by members of the community. Not to get into a snarky 'pissing' contest, but it was shoveled after the storm in December.
  • withachaser
    withachaser
    there are a couple of unshoveled and icy patches in front of homes on prospect b/t vandy and carlton that i've found myself navigating, with my big dog who gets too excited to resist pulling and sometimes an elderly person, in tow. people should definitely be fined, but i've always found offering to help my less-able neighbors or just shoveling for them is a better approach. i'm more distressed by the businesses along vandy that dont shovel. THEY should be given tickets as soon as their legal grace period expires.
  • inpixels
    inpixels
    Where to Turn Volunteer Snow Shoveling for Seniors
    http://volunteer.nycservice.org/org/opp/10347832216.html
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