Shovel Up Or Shut Up

At this link you can read a Cheers & Cheers column (1/3/10) written by the Press-Republican that includes this statement:

"JEERS to landlords who don't keep their sidewalks and driveways shoveled. We don't know that this is a widespread problem, but one person who gets around in a wheelchair indicated it is for a few, anyway. City law says property owners must clear sidewalks after snow has fallen. More importantly, so does common courtesy."

Really. Check out the photo below. Notice how one private property owner has shoveled up to the PR property where -- Surprise! -- the sidewalk adjacent to it isn't shoveled. The snow is so packed down that it appears to have remained uncleared for some time. And even if the sidewalk had been cleaned but a passing snowplow messed it up, if a private owner can go out and reshovel, so can the PR.



The photo was taken Saturday night, 1/8/10. Guess what the sidewalk was like the next night? No change.

Check out this link from last year when the same situation occurred with the Press-Republican. You'll see in the photos how the building owner next to the PR cleared his sidewalk but the PR -- hey, they don't call that hypocrisy, do they?

You can find the same situation over on Miller Street. The flower shop on the corner of Miller and Cornelia has shoveled but look up the street at the sidewalk in front of the MLD building lot:



Beyond MLD where the Post Office sits -- a bare sidewalk thanks to the attentive efforts of local USPS employees.

Remember: Plattsburgh City will supposedly will fine you if you don't shovel the sidewalks along your property. Notice in the next image that a center path up the front steps to City Hall has been cleared but as for the public sidewalk that wraps around that building -- packed, slippery snow, as seen in the second image.






Sidewalk adjacent to City Hall, on the Trinity Park side: unshoveled. But up the street from there, Trinity Church has a bare sidewalk. Thanks, TC staff.

And thanks to everyone else who does engage in "common courtesy." As for the PR and Plattsburgh City: a sincere "Screw you!"