A Corner On Stupidity

Every winter is a fight. Getting around Plattsburgh on foot. Cold temps, slippery conditions, exposed to the raw elements – the problems car drivers don’t have to worry about while enclosed in their climate-controlled protective boxes.

What makes the long hard slog a lot easier is when sidewalks are cleared of snow as required by the city. Most people have done this with the last storm. Thanks.

But there’s always a few that don’t get it. For example, take the property on the corner of Cornelia and Margaret streets where a hair salon used to operate. Next to that building there’s a for-pay parking lot. The snowplow did an excellent job of scraping that lot clean – while blocking the sidewalk.



Today it’s a small hill that able-bodied people can step around or over. (If you’re a disabled person using a wheelchair or motorized scooter, you’re screwed.) After the next storm it’ll become a mountain.

And there’s the sidewalk on the Cornelia Street that hasn’t been shoveled. Pedestrians have been forced to walk in the street or tramp down a path on the concrete.



After all the complaints and news stories over the years, a property owner must be stupid – or just a rude jerk – for not clearing the sidewalks adjacent to his property. Then again, this corner lot featured ugly weeds all summer, so why worry about some snow? Time to talk with the turkey responsible.

Gee, how will the city be able to contact the scofflaw property owner?



And don’t forget: you can’t use the parking lot there during the winter unless you have a pair of permittens.