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This morning as we arrived for work at the Chicagoist office, we couldn't help but notice most of the side-streets in the vicinity hadn't been touched by plow or salt in almost 10 days, causing most of the roads to become slick with ice from where drivers had repeatedly driven over the several inches of snow that have piled up in that time. We wondered if we were alone in our consternation and it looks like we are not. Daley insists the city is doing its best to remove side-street snow and ice without resorting to overtime. Meanwhile, both residents and aldermen say requests to 311 aren't being handled in a timely manner.
We understand that the snowfall so far has been in relatively small increments and you can't plow for every single little snowfall. However, there's no question the build-up is creating a dangerous situation and if our streets can't get plowed in the days between three-inch snows, how in the blue hell are the streets going to be plowed if a big snowfall hits? As one of our readers suggested, we think Mayor Daley would do well to just strap some plows to those new police SUVs the city is shelling out for. Economic factor solved!
Update: After reading your comments, we're interested in hearing what streets have and haven't been plowed. We'll start: most of the side streets in the Roscoe Village area remain untouched, save for Roscoe, Damen, and a stretch of Ravenswood.
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Wouldn't it be wonderful that for all his acceptance of corruption; the way he bent over for tourists at the expense of neighborhoods; the way he shoved his Olympic dreams down our throats; how he otherwise rules like a dictator; how he embarks on bullshit projects that will never see the light of day (Block 37); and how many of his projects are over-budget and over-schedule, that Mayor Mumbles, our dear fake-Irish leader, would be undone by the most mundane of things: Failure to deliver basic city services to residents.
No, I don't think it will happen, but one can dream.
Slid through the same stop sign yesterday and this morning (just idling before coming up to it). Side streets in Bridgeport are kind of dangerous this week, as I'm sure they are in many other areas as well. I wouldn't worry quite as much about it if it weren't right next to a school. Why haven't they at least been salted?
Have we gotten that parking meter leasing money yet?
Side streets are skating rinks in my area. Yesterday I was going about 5 miles an hour about 100 feet from an intersection when I realized that I had zero traction and wasn't going to be able to stop. Luckily, I was moving so slow that I actually had time to roll down the window and yell to the family about to cross the street that I couldn't stop. Then I slowly slid right through the stop sign into the intersection, anti-lock brakes trying their best, but useless.
A pedestrian will be killed or seriously injured (if it hasn't happened already), and salting will immediately begin.
Big thanks to Chicagoist for using the Mr. Plow picture for these stories. That was a great Simpsons episode!
I can just hear the song:
"Call Mr. Plow,
That's my name,
That name again
Is Mr. Plow."
walking to the train station, I wondered if I should take up ice skating.
I also have to exercise greater caution at intersections now to make sure any oncoming cars don't skid as they try to stop. One Subaru was having some trouble this morning.
Then I slowly slid right through the stop sign into the intersection, anti-lock brakes trying their best, but useless.
A pedestrian will be killed or seriously injured (if it hasn't happened already), and salting will immediately begin.
I witnessed the same this morning while walking to the bus stop (although not as severe). The streets are packed to rock hard ice now, last night I saw people peeling out everytime they tried to start from a full stop all over my trip across town.
The need to give the side streets a light salting at the very least.
Don't remember the source of this but I was under the impression that the city was going to cut back on side street plowing and salting
At this point, even a mix of salt and sand would be an improvement.
The problem is that they don't want to pay overtime. This is a problem statewide...ask anyone driving to work Wed am after a light snowfall which followed Tuesday's rain.
Well he announced as much a while back. This seems to less a cut back than a total elimination of services. They've never visited my streets this winter.
mike_thoms - We've actually been following it:
http://chicagoist.com/2008/12/02/city_cutting_side_street_plowing.php
http://chicagoist.com/2008/12/05/daley_admits_mistake.php
http://chicagoist.com/2008/12/06/plows_hit_the_streets.php
The thing is, the side-streets that I haven't seen plowed? They haven't been touched since that very first snow way back 12 days ago. The last couple of snows have come and gone with nothing. We knew it would take time, but several snowfalls have happened with nothing.
@Matilda:
Very well said.
I think we are entering a terrifying new era of agreement. Truly, this is an age of wonders.
I have a friend whose street, Malden in Uptown to be precise, has yet to be visited by a plow this season. Last year, they did a run through, at worst, a day after it snowed.
Come january, when we get a good hard storm, 6-10 inches, probably midweek, and people are socked in, then we shall see just how badly we have been sold down the river.
Honestly, Mayor Maynot is only leaving office in handcuffs, via cardiac karma or retirement. Too many useful idiots out there. Too many voters in Bohemian National and Resurrection "wards"
Up here in Logan Square, the ineriors of the boulevards are pretty horrible (i.e. Logan, Kedzie, Humbolt).
I imagine there are going to be a lot of pissed of people coming out to see there cars have been sideswiped by motorists that can't stop or turn to avoid the collision.
I should mention that the icey roads have yet to persuade the drivers to actually use any amount of caution, of course.
This is going to be a fun winter!
Yeah, Albany, it's odd and a bit awkward, this agreement. Perhaps we can tell each other how much we suck in order to restore balance.
I don't think Daley will let it get too bad--I hate the guy and his management, but I would never call him that stupid, in that he would repeat Bilandic's mistake.
I slid though an intersection on Paulina between Augusta and Chicago yesterday going no more than 10 MPH. Luckily no one was coming from the other way. There's no way they can keep this up.
We should take a poll on how many side streets have been plowed or salted period *so far this winter*. I live in Humboldt and am around the Logan area a lot and have seen NONE PERIOD. So is this a "cut back"? or just elimination of service?
Navin - Fantastic idea. Guys & Gals, let's hear it!
Have your streets been plowed or not? List them here.
@Matilda:
Nah, lets enjoy it while it lasts.
I don't think he's going to repeat Bilandic's error, I think he's going to do something far worse. Ryan was undone by 6 kids dying an awful death due to his corruption. Who's gonna have to die for Richie to get the hook?
This is a mayor who oversaw the heat-catastrophe in 95 and still hung in there. The Tenacity of a Virus this man has.
I know that Uptown is largely un-cleared. Ravenswood and the side streets around Devon Avenue were fairly awful as well.
I take cabs fairly often and make a point to ask the cab drivers what they think of all this. They hate it and have said it's consistently bad across the city.
I broke my foot in 2004 when I fell in the middle of the street and fractured my fibula - that particular winter there was snow and ice on the ground for the entire 6-8 weeks I was wearing a cast, using crutches, etc.
As the streets are getting solidly iced over right now I've had to be terribly careful not to repeat past mistakes. Be careful out there - drivers and pedestrians!
I saw a car take out a stop sign at Maplewood and Fullerton yesterday. None of the streets from Logan Boulevard south to Milwaukee and between Western and California have been touched.
My theory: This is Manny Flores territory. Manny Flores voted against the childrens museum. I wonder how things are looking in Brendan Reilly's ward?
A 50 lb bag of salt is going for $5.50 at Home Depot...it has occurred to me that I may need to organize with my neighbors in order to salt our own street (which hasn't been salted/plowed)...I've also been trying to figure out a cheap and easy way to rig a salt spreader on the typical car or truck- think of it as distributing the work that needs to get done. If the city can't/won't do the salting, we may have to do it ourselves.
Nikkos - On my block, it'd be pretty easy to get a collection of kids on tricycles pulling seed distributors behind them...
@nikkos:
You can buy salt in larger quantities for cheaper than that. Farm and Fleet.
Honestly, why don't they just open up the salt piles to people with trucks and seed spreaders at this point?
LOL @ that Marcus!!!! Just remember they'll need chains on their tires...
On my block, we've been using the blow dryer + long extension cords method to just melt it all away.
Not only is the city not clearing the roads, but my neighbors aren't clearing the sidewalks either. Broken window theory.
Can we use chains on the cars yet?
Curmudgeon - I'm starting to seriously consider this...going door-to-door asking all the parents about it. slow moving kids on their tricycles...it could work...
Edgewater: most of the streets are a mess. looks like rink ice on some streets. Seriously.
I haven't driven much because I have crappy tires and was saving up to by a new set. This no-salting-side-streets (or some "major" streets too for that matter) isn't helping.
I live by the corner of Damen and Cortez, and none of the side streets in the area have been plowed. Saw a car slide through the intersection of Cortez and Hoyne while I was walking my dog this morning. Even the semi-major streets--like Augusta--have been pretty bad in spots.
Almost no side streets in Lincoln Square or Rogers Park have been plowed/salted. I had trouble breaking yesterday even when I was only going 10 mph - and my car keeps telling me that it's anti-skid system is out of control. Even Western was a disaster on Tuesday night - I had to drive 15 mph even though the nearest car was a block ahead, just so I wouldn't lose control.
Cornell hasn't been touched; I don't drive, but I noticed cars sliding to a halt in front of me yesterday morning. Even Hyde Park Boulevard has been sort of half-assedly plowed- the sides of the lanes are pretty icy.
This really surprises me, because we're less than a mile from Obama's house, and the motorcade has to deal with that stuff.
It's the same in Oak Park. They are not salting or plowing any of the side streets. I'm literally driving 5 mph down them.
We are one of the most highly taxed areas in Chicagoland.
Oak Park=Pay more. Get less.
I live on Magnolia Ave. in Uptown. It doesn't look any of the streets off of Wilson have been touched by a plow this year.
I live in Pilsen and all the side streets I've seen are doubling as ice rinks for the kids. I've seen a girl on a bike wipe-out from the ice and numerous cars skid through the stop sign on my street. In addition, there are parks on my street (Dvorak Park) and the sidewalks encircling the park have been shoveled and salted, but the track inside the park is an ice disaster.
He should give up his yearly pay for a couple of years. Mr. Arrogant looks like a little puppy inthe window now.
At this point I would be satisfied if I could get the damn "Mr. Plow" jingle out of my head!
Jokes aside, I am quite serious about a street by street, block by block, DIY solution. Organize, people!
The sides in my neighborhood are pretty treacherous (between Kimball, Montrose, Kedzie, Lawrence). The street directly in front of our place isn't to bad due to enough salt being tracked from the main street but by the middle of the block it is a half inch of solid ice.
Having grown up in northern MI I'm used to not actually seeing pavement for a few months, but those roads have almost no traffic or peds and hitting some ice just required powering out of the snow bank. I understand not focusing on the sides during the storm, but we've had a lot of straight time to drop some salt at the intersections at least. I will not reiterate my rant (here) about how to improve efficiency and service of Streets and San, but they could use some smaller salt spreading trucks to hit the sides. Our street is so narrow it is tight in a Camry let alone a giant plow truck.
This evening I think I will lace up the skates and take some photos.
Jokes aside, I am quite serious about a street by street, block by block, DIY solution. Organize, people!
This sounds good but we've already paid for the streets to be salted. Over and over again... property taxes, city sales taxes, parking tickets for pausing at a stop light for five seconds too long, etc. etc. etc. I know it's for safety's sake that you suggest this, but...
If there's any organizing to be done, it should be to march en masse to city hall, drag his flabby ass down five flights of stairs and string him up from the Picasso until he coughs up the dough for the plowing.
yeah, my fancy dancy lincoln square 'hood is sad. western/lawrence are okay, but oakley? terrible. it sounds like a racetrack with people trying to get anywhere.
although, i will say even where there is traction, i always wait for cars in the morning because people often do far worse than a 'california stop.' it's clear that if i wouldn't have stopped, they would have totally creamed me.
and yeah. sidewalks. i fell twice last year ... and i don't think i have fallen since i was a kid or something. for fuck's sake. help a grrl out.
it would be great if this is what undoes daley!
No plowing or salt in Old Irving Park or immediately south of us. Even Irving Park Road is dangerously unsalted, but the "K" streets between Belmont and Irving Park Road -- Kedvale, Kostner, Kenneth, Kolmar, Knox, etc. -- have ice as much as two inches thick for entire blocks.
The side streets in Uptown have not been touched.
Who wants to bet the city is waiting for the 40+ degree weather this weekend to clean the streets for them?
I, too, am in Logan Square and can tell you that the side streets have ice at least a couple inches thick. Last night I slid through two stop signs (going less than 10 mph) and my anti-lock brakes were useless. Walking to and from the train to get to work is a nightmare - with the exception of Fullerton and Milwaukee, every street I cross is entirely iced over. I've nearly fallen several times, and seen other people slip as well.
Oakley between Ohio + Grand, basically everything between Ohio + Grand, and Western - Damen. And its pretty close to the Grand + Rockwell, where all the salt is stashed!
Hey Cyclists, this is where bikers and cagers can find some common ground! Come on you hippies*! Lets raise some damn noise!
*Hippies in the kindest sense.
Someone asked about Brendan Reilly's ward...I live there. The only difference is that most "side streets" in the 42nd Ward see significantly higher traffic than many "secondary streets" in other wards. My experience only deals with LaSalle, Clark, Goethe, Schiller, and Division, and they are all clean. But I'm willing to bet Dearborn and State are clean too.
That's what you get for living "downtown" though. The flipside is that unlike most of Chicago, street cleaning here is weekly the rest of the year. So it balances out.
On the plus side, when taking the dog for a walk it is pretty funny to get her to chase a squirrel while standing on the ice. It is straight out of the cartoons with the legs going a 100 mph while she is not going anywhere.
Everything is ice right now. The city isn't salting or plowing and my hipster doofus neighbors aren't shoveling their sidewalks. I'd walk in the parkway, but these same hipster doofus neighbors don't pick up their dogs' shit.
As all of this has turned my heart to ice, here is my hope: the general downturn cause property values in the Ukie Village collapse, my neighbors lose all of their "wealth" tied up into their homes and shitty cinder block condos, the city loses all of the property tax revenue and closes up shop, and Chicago becomes a vast wasteland inhabited only by vampires and the Daley clan.
Near Clarendon & Buena here - yesterday morning the streets had definitely not been salted or plowed. I didn't really notice this morning, but I think they looked better.
As a pedestrian/CTA-rider I'm slightly more peeved at unshoveled or unsalted sidewalks. I slipped and fell on my butt yesterday - luckily no injury. There's a city ordinance that building owners or residents are supposed to clear the sidewalks - the Uptown Update blog said last week that one can report people to 311 if they don't. I hadn't known that before, and might have to try it. (not that I'll hold my breath for it to work.) My other thought was to print copies of the ordinance and tape them to doors...
a vast wasteland inhabited only by vampires and the Daley clan
Isn't that a bit of a redundant statement?
Albany,
I'm currently biking/driving/cta'ing.
It sucks no matter how you get from A to B. I wanted to ride today since it was pretty warm but those side streets are solid ice. I know some people are riding on that but screw that I say. I've already munched it on my bike on an icy side street once during this period. I don't want to do it again and fall underneath a passing car or something.
Ha,
Good call Jonny, they're probably pleased as hell that Saturday's supposed to be so warm. I wonder if it'll actually be warm enough to get rid of all that ice.
Isn't that a bit of a redundant statement?
There's still no PROOF that the Daleys are vampires, only two holes in the neck of every taxpayer in the city. Those holes totally could be natural or maybe caused by a rogue hole-puncher.
not sure if we're the only ones who not only slid through a stop sign, but also hit a car in order to stop. on one hand, thank goodness there was a car to stop us from entering the intersection, but on the otherhand - i was one block from my house with a rented car.
AJayne:
With the exception of Canal, 18th Street and Cermak things east of Halsted look the same way. :/
A Halloween costume of mine, a few years back, required lots of fake blood, so I figured, "why not stock up on a gallon of the good red stuff?"
I put it to good use in the winter months by "decorating" sections of sidewalks with it - especially in front of my own building where I can crack the window in the daytime and listen as people exclaim, "Looks like someone got stabbed out here!," or "I wonder if there was a shooting here?" but the best, given the weather, is always when someone says "Someone must have busted their face on this ice!"
I truly make lemonade when life gives me lemons.
'Someone must have busted their face on this ice!'
omigod...that made me laugh out loud. I don't know why...I busted my face falling on ice a couple of years ago and that didn't make me laugh.
around chicago and damen nothing has been plowed at all. The side streets have been an ice rink. this afternoon a salt truck did go down my street for the first time this winter. I'd like to think it's a result of the scathing e-mail i sent to Daley yesterday, but I doubt it.
Maybe when the lawsuits start rolling in from every broken hip and car or bike accidents on the icy side streets, the city will learn that areas revolving around safety aren't the areas to cut corners.
Curmudgeon FTW.
nothing south of division to augusta, between western and damen, has been plowed. neither have any sidestreets off roscoe, and north bucktown.
based on this thread, sounds like none of the side streets have been plowed. ice several inches thick everywhere i go beside the main streets.
wtf?
But I saw a city street sweeper going south on the 6100 block of Broadway about 2:30 this afternoon.
Gee, I had no idea the newest idea was to sweep up the snow & then dump it later!
Update from Logan Square - it looks like salt trucks have finally made their way through the 'hood, so now there's a nice layer of slush on top of the ice.
The side streets and sidewalks in Bridgeport, west of Halsted anyway, are all covered in ice. I was in the Taylor Street neighborhood tonight and it's just as bad over there.
Ohio west from Western - Oakley. Sucks.
Oops, Ohio east from Western-Oakley. Still sucks.
We should privatize the roads and the salt.
I'm in Lincoln Park, and it looks to me like my street has yet to be plowed. Almost slid through a stop sign right into Fullerton yesterday, and it's still icy tonight. Most of the other side streets don't look plowed, but instead have a groove where cars have driven over them.
This is deplorable, in all honesty. My family is from Buffalo, NY, which is probably one of the only cities more fiscally irresponsible than Chicago. And they NEVER have a problem getting the streets plowed.
Get on it, Daley.
I biked from Addison & Cicero all the way to the lakefront this morning, mostly down Roscoe and Grace. Solid ice nearly all the way, maybe 3-4 blocks clear. Much better this afternoon, though I think the temperature had more to do with it than Streets and San. I'm sure it's out there freezing right back up tonight, and there won't be any thaw tomorrow.
If this was an election year Daley would be fixing to get tossed right out on his ass.
I took a walk through the Old Town Triangle tonight when I was visiting my sister, and to no surprise the side streets were plowed and salted.
This just might cost Daley his job. I honestly don't think that the Machine is within control anymore, which is going to cause him some stress.
And for the record, Leavitt is plowed/salted between North and Milwaukee, but Concord and Caton have a good half inch of ice covering both of them.
If this was an election year Daley would be fixing to get tossed right out on his ass.
If this was an election year, the streets would be clear and property taxes would go up shortly after 80% of Chicagoans voted for him again.
How's that TIF slush fund doing?
My wife nearly slid into a pedestrian crossing the street while driving 5 mph two days ago. As of this morning, the intersection at Argyle and Oakley still hasn't been cleared. When I walked past last night, it looked like a huge bloodstain was embedded in the ice where a car would turn from Argyle onto Oakley. So either this speed skating run has already claimed a victim or someone read Curmudgeon's prank idea and decided to give it a go...
The Side streets in the St. Ben's/North Center/Roscoe Village area are horrendous.
Didn't help that the City still had Leavitt just north of Addison torn-up until yesterday. Why is the City doing major street-work in November/December? Dumb.
The side streets are awful. Luckily I have 4x4, but that still doesn't help when you're trying to stop on a 3-inch sheet of ice.
I work in Park Ridge and the Edison Park/Norwood Park streets are just as awful. Park Ridge, of course, is clear.
Ainslie is a sheet of ice from Western to Damen.
Avondale/Logan Square area is pretty bad, but the worst I've found personally is George and Sacramento. Saw a two car pile up, people outside their cars exchanging information, and another car slowly sliding sideways towards them. It would have maimed/killed them both, but he let off the brakes and went into the intersection.
Albany Park is pretty nasty, ice-wise.
And unfortunately, what's even worse than the streets are the sidewalks on the corners. Nobody who lives in a corner bungalow shovels. Like it was some surprise when you bought your house that you'd have double the walk to shovel. There's a special place in hell for people who don't shovel walks in front of an elementary school.
On Berwyn just west of Broadway, nearly all of the people with corner homes on Magnolia and Lakewood shovel their front sidewalks but not their Berwyn sidewalks. Bastards. This route is traveled by hundreds of commuters and Jewel shoppers a day. And there is a church with a school nearby. The unshoveled snow gets packed down to ice very quickly. This has gone on for years and it is shameful. Most of these are nice big houses whose owners could probably afford a $40 per instance snow removal service. I've always wanted to shame them and hang signs on their properties that say "Attention commuters, children, elderly, disabled people and postal carriers: the owner of this property doesn't give a damn about you."
Sometime during the day on Friday the streets in my hood got some salt, four days after the snow. Today all the snow melted. Great job, Daley! You might as well have just sat it out for another 24 and saved the money on salt.
Has anybody been fortunate to see a plow yet?