Piling On.
By Jim Conley • Dec 14th, 2007 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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So, how did “Massachusetts’ best run community” (the Brookline town hall slogan) handle yesterday’s snowstorm. Not so well.
A $200 million municipal budget (of which 35% goes to schools) and not a snowplow in sight during a rush hour storm - though cars were being towed (by private contractors) with great efficiency.
No wonder town government needs an $8 million bailout.
Update: And let’s not forget last May’s town meeting when it was proposed that Brookline DPW reinstate its practice of plowing and sanding sidewalks in residential areas. You know, out of interest to the elderly and infirmed. It looked as if town meeting was ready to pass the proposal when Brookline PAX stalwarts Martin Rosenthal and Stanley Spiegel sprung into action and convinced their flunkies to send the question off to a study committee.
See, paying for snowplowing means less salary and pension for town administrators (the class that PAX is committed to defend). Little did we know that the town’s DPW can’t even plow the streets, never mind the sidewalks.
Update (2): For those railing against School Superintendent Bill Lupini for holding classes today - wrong target. As a practical matter, it’s not Lupini’s call; the decision rests with DPW Commissioner A. Thomas DeMaio. See, by not holding school the morning after a snowstorm that was finished by 9:00 PM would suggest that DPW was not up for the job (and all that overtime we’ll pay is not warranted).
Better to have kids walk in the middle of snow covered streets (we don’t plow sidewalks) than admit failure on the part of town government.
Update (3): Some readers suggest that this is a bit unfair to the DPW - the snow fell fast and heavy during rush hour and Brookline is not responsible for clearing Route 9 (which was a catastrophe).
I get it.
But you can’t call yourself “Massachusetts’ best run community” and then deliver a two hour travel time from Brookline Village to Coolidge Corner. Where were the plows? Where were the police? Accounts from people stuck in the mess say they were nowhere to be found.
Heckuva job, I’d say.
Update (4): Does Deval Patrick attend the Nancy Daly School of Public Management and Communication, or what? Says Patrick of yesterday’s traffic catastrophe:
“People were asked to leave early, and they didn’t,” Patrick said at a press conference. “The decisions made, particularly by private employers, was to not release as soon as we would have liked. It’s not to lay the fault at private employers, but it’s very hard in a practical manner to plow the roads when everybody is on them.”
Uhm Deval, I believe that the job of public safety officials is to figure out how to move a lot of people out of the urban center when they all leave at the same time and/or in less than ideal conditions. Now a “new kind of leader” would stand up and say “we blew it.”
Instead, Patrick channels Michael Bilandic. Let’s hope the effect is the same.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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If civil rights groups had the equivalent of a Pat Robertson spokesperson, s/he might suggest a causal relationship between this snowstorm and the inaction of the Selectman Tuesday evening. Or a skeptic might say that the snowstorm provides cover for the Selectmen for putting the (second) lid on the Town Hall Brawl. After all, who could be expected to think of what happened to just one individual when so many of us havet to dig our way out of this snowstorm - and civil rights can just wait. All this whiteness does look pretty in Brookline, doesn’t it?
A little leadership would have gone a long way.
Ten inches of snow should not bring the town to its knees.
Imagine a town government, police force, and public works department that plans for such an event(uality).
Imagine leadership that helps keep the roads moving and helps people get home.
Imagine a town government not distracted by wine store sting operations, harassing private citizens, blowing the budget to gold-brick town hall, and shilling for developers.
Imagine.
Do snowflakes bring out the flakes? With all of the real troubles in the world and even here in MA (and Brookline), consider how the weather dominates the local news. I blame George Carlin’s Hippy-Dippy Weatherman Schtick of decades ago that the current breed of weather-readers have adopted, minus the clown suits. Yesterday and today, and perhaps because of a second storm expected this weekend, our local TV stations have morphed into the Weather Channel. Perhaps for comic relief we can go to our Town’s cable channel for reruns of last Tuesday’s Bored meeting. Or we can listen to the silence of PAX members.
what other towns plow sidewalks? Its not Brooklines responsibility….If everyone stopped complaining and cleared the sidewalk in front of their home it wouldnt be an issue…..also what about the response times for the fire dept. I saw them trying to get through the village and they had to get out and direct traffic…where was the police force? at T anthonys keeping warm?