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The Challenge of Uncleared Sidewalks
I really thought everyone cleared their sidewalks, but I was wrong
I am shocked at how few people in my new area shovel their walks. I thought it was an anomaly to find a public sidewalk with snow on it, but nope, in this area it’s an anomaly to have actually cleared the snow off.
When the snow first arrived I thought that maybe people just hadn’t gotten to it yet. Maybe they work and didn’t have time to clear the snow right away. The first snowfall didn’t give us much snow so navigating the uncleared walks wasn’t too bad for me and my arthritic knees.
But now we’re in January. It’s snowed enough that a leaf blower won’t remove it (although some people still try) so a shovel is needed. Still, people haven’t shovelled.
To make matters worse, climate change has altered our winter this year. There have been days where it’s warm enough to actually melt the snow. It feels like spring, which is a huge treat, but it’s made the sidewalks hazardous.
I’d hoped it was warm enough to melt all the snow on people’s sidewalks, but nope, not quite. Instead, the warmth created slush which froze the moment the temperature dipped down below zero.
Now many of the sidewalks are covered in frozen slush marred in footprints.
