Can we be heard here?
Snow Span
I must admit, I’ve been firmly on the side that thought things ran pretty smoothly during our snowstorm. Hospitals remained open, police and fire personal were able to make the rounds, and many people had days of sledding on closed (or not closed) streets. What could better define a fairly successful response to the series of snow days we had recently?
Then I read Joel Connelly’s column in the Seattle PI a few minutes ago. It somehow gave me a glimpse of perspective that numerous blog posts didn’t give me. See, I was home bound anyway during the entire situation, both at my apartment at the top of Capitol Hill and at my mother-in-law’s on Whidbey Island. I had knee surgery on December 12th, less than a week before the snow fell, and I had pretty much planned on being home during this time anyway. So to me, it didn’t seem that bad that Metro couldn’t handle it’s routes or that Seattle wouldn’t salt and properly plow the roads.
Well, anyway, Connelly describes the process that the City, services, and government offices will undergo to upgrade preparation for the next storm. During this process, there are only two opportunities for members of the public to give feedback. I had thought, especially after reading CHS’s post about a Capitol Hill Snowstorm Impact Forum, that the public would get more of a say in the matter. Apparently, again, I was wrong. It seems that the public is only an afterthought in this process. As Connelly states in his article: “It (city council) should face a basic question: Has city government become so beholden to bossy ideologues, and so smitten with mayoral “vision” projects, that it has lost sight of basic services?” If this is how the situation will be dealt with, it’s time we exercised our right to be heard. This is the contact info for the Seattle City Council. If you feel that the city handled the recent snow situation badly, contact them via email or phone and demand a more open public forum process.
Edit to add: Andrew Taylor posts to CHS with the dates/times for the two forums that include public comments:
Tuesday, January 6 at 9:30 a.m. – Joint Meeting of the Transportation and Environment, Emergency Management, and Utilities Committees: Briefing and Discussion with Seattle Department of Transportation, Human Services Department, Seattle Public Utilities, Seattle City Light, Office of Emergency Management and King County Metro Transit. Time will be available for public comment.
Friday, February 20 at 9:30 a.m. – Joint Meeting of the Transportation and Environment, Emergency Management, and Utilities Committees: Establish a detailed Action Plan for improved response. Time will be available for public comment.
I agree with your original assessment and found Connelly’s opinion piece as unconvincing as usual.
Yes, it was a bad storm and it was unfortunate that the city came to a halt for a few days. Still, I don’t really see how a lengthy public commentary with complaints and horror stories from the public are going to change the fact that the city’s time, efforts, and funds could be better spent dealing with things that occur more than a few days per couple decades. If there are reasonable changes to be made to the city’s preparedness plans, I’d much prefer that they make them swiftly and move on to other business.
I’m still leaning on a similar opinion, but what if the city council doesn’t implement any changes? Nickels himself gave the city a B. I’ve seen other stories where Metro and Council members gave themselves a pat on the back. Maybe by listening to some of those who were trapped during the storms, say the elderly, disabled, those without cars, those stuck in areas w/out any sign of bus service and too far from grocery stores…I dunno.
The city’s policy of minimal and inept snow clearing will eventually result in a major accident with substantial loss of life. We were very lucky that those two charter buses didn’t go off the embankment and down onto I-5.
Will many people have to die in a spectacular accident before the city realizes its response to severe weather is inadequate?
One other note – I grew up in NYC. When it snows, all of the garbage trucks stop picking up garbage and are fitted with snowplows. I wonder why that wouldn’t work here.
If the city does nothing, then sometime in the next decade we will have a few snow days again. If that’s the worst case scenario I think I can live with it.
I guess my preference would be for the city to collect quantitative data about the consequences of the partial city shutdown during the snowstorm and see how it applies to other more likely situations rather than devote more sessions than they’re already planning to listening to endless (and subjective) tales of woe.