Life in a Northern Town

I went for a walk around my block yesterday (Wednesday) morning--we live in a section of Norwich across from the Chelsea Parade which is, in turn, across from Norwich Free Academy. It's a quiet residential area with houses of all sizes, neatly-trimmed lawns in the summer and mostly shoveled sidewalks in the winter. 

Last Sunday into Monday, just in time for Christmas, as happened across most of the Eastern Seaboard, we got smacked with snow. I've heard for years that size doesn't matter so I'm not sure how much snow we had, and while 'it needs to be shoveled' isn't technically a measurement, it's what I used. 

Our Public Works Department logged many hours plowing and sanding major and minor roadways to eventually subdue the white stuff, though not without (I'm sure) unhappy murmurings from residents in some areas on the manner and method. 

Happens every year--the foot of my driveway, which I've just cleared by pushing the snow into the street is reburied by the city's driver as he plows the street and returns the favor. 

It's nice when everything can be reduced to 'us vs. them' and become a part of that 'You Can't Fight City Hall' mantra. Imagine my unhappy chagrin when I hiked around the block to buy a newspaper I don't get delivered to the house, from a vending box. I wasn't dismayed because of the walk--it's not much of a walk. Did I mention we have an ordinance, as do many towns, which mandates clearing sidewalks of snowfall X number of hours, NOT days after the snow has stopped falling? Bet you know where this is going, right? 

Do I believe that some portion of those complaining about the city's snow removal efforts are among the houses within one square block of my house whose sidewalks haven't been cleared at all? You betcha. Many of us are the same people who don't even bother to vote anymore, because 'it doesn't make a difference.- We are not so coincidentally the same people whose World of Them is vast and dark, and against which we feel ourselves to be nearly powerless because we choose to believe we are. 

But given an opportunity to do something for ourselves and our neighbors we see every day, clear our walks and paths, we choose inaction over action. I'm not talking about feeding the hungry or housing the homeless--this is the baby stuff that no one ever talks about in a civics class because it's a given. 

Except when it's not, or just not convenient. But if this were to become the responsibility of the city or state, we'd be howling to, instead of barking at, the moon when it was done as poorly as we do it for, and to, ourselves.
-bill kenny