[Airboy]

I was down on the east side yesterday. 98 and and 50st were not plowed but the buss routes in that rea were. I figured 98ave was a priority route. Also 156st today from St Albert trail to 118ave was just getting plows this morning

 

[johnnyboy]

I was down on the east side yesterday. 98 and and 50st were not plowed but the buss routes in that rea were. I figured 98ave was a priority route. Also 156st today from St Albert trail to 118ave was just getting plows this morning

50 St being plowed as we speak. What's odd is that the bus routes in Ottewell and Kenilworth were plowed yesterday before 50 St, 118 Ave, 90 and 98 Ave. 98 Ave was particularly bad yesterday.

 

[Airboy]

Yah priority, I would think the major commuter roads would get done first.
I have noticed St Albert runs the speed plows out first and keeps the roads open. Then the graders come out to clean them down to the pavement. But one difference this snow fall. they have plowed the bus route and put it in windrows right away instead of the usual off to the sides. So maybe everyone is changing strategies.

 

[IanO]

Funny enough, 99ave is one way for the first half of the Avenue east and west of 105st, but they plowed both as two-way streets and so now you have no parking or loading space.

Again, curious about windrow removal timelines in the CBD.

 

[IanO]

I've mentioned this more than a few times on here and had more than a few 1on1 meetings with the City about this in the past... but how can we not remove all snow from places such as Rice Howard Way, the core of the core of the CBD? It's an area that is a front facing space for hotel guests, the corporate crowd, investors and visitors alike.

Last night it was a mushy mess of slush, dirt, snow and ice; there's little reason to not have City crews go in there overnight post snowfall and clear it completely.

It would really say to those using that area that it welcomes you and hopes that you enjoy our fair city, despite winter.

 

[ADob]

Out of curiosity, what sort of response do you get in those 1-on-1 meetings?

 

[northlands]

I've mentioned this more than a few times on here and had more than a few 1on1 meetings with the City about this in the past... but how can we not remove all snow from places such as Rice Howard Way, the core of the core of the CBD? It's an area that is a front facing space for hotel guests, the corporate crowd, investors and visitors alike.

Last night it was a mushy mess of slush, dirt, snow and ice; there's little reason to not have City crews go in there overnight post snowfall and clear it completely.

It would really say to those using that area that it welcomes you and hopes that you enjoy our fair city, despite winter.

If it's a service equity issue, the City already maintains and services their parks/greenspaces on a rating system where higher profile, more used parks (i.e. Ezio Faraone) receive higher service levels and frequency. Why not just extend the same system to CBD, entertainment districts, etc.?

 

[IanO]

Out of curiosity, what sort of response do you get in those 1-on-1 meetings?

Those were held a few years ago now, but I met with heads of snow removal and they simply did not seem to get the importance of areas such as this.

Now, that may or may not have changed, but the fact that RHW requires you to step into and over slushy messes in the pedestrian core of our CBD says A LOT about the lack of priorities and care of special areas.

 

[thommyjo]

Those were held a few years ago now, but I met with heads of snow removal and they simply did not seem to get the importance of areas such as this.

Now, that may or may not have changed, but the fact that RHW requires you to step into and over slushy messes in the pedestrian core of our CBD says A LOT about the lack of priorities and care of special areas.

Too many city staff live in the deep burbs and never move around without a car. It’s telling.

 

[David A]

Too many city staff live in the deep burbs and never move around without a car. It’s telling.

Mostly visitors and tourists seem to be an afterthought for those who run our city, although I am beginning to wonder if some actually hate them for some unknown reason.

 

[kcantor]

Those were held a few years ago now, but I met with heads of snow removal and they simply did not seem to get the importance of areas such as this.

Now, that may or may not have changed, but the fact that RHW requires you to step into and over slushy messes in the pedestrian core of our CBD says A LOT about the lack of priorities and care of special areas.

Just because the result doesn't fully align with your expectations doesn't mean those you were talking to "didn't get it".

Those you were talking to are constrained by city directions and policies set by council and that's the job they're paid to do.

What you're talking about is a change in city policy that applies to the entire city that says that the city clears sidewalks adjacent to municipally owned sited and private sector owners are responsible for sidewalks adjacent to their sites. As you know from your own recent experience, the owners of private sites don't always get the job done, sometimes through outright neglect but sometimes simply through things falling between the cracks and/or getting overlooked.

The best way to tackle something the private sector isn't doing is to work with the private sector, not to blame the public sector.

Call out the private sector owners (which as you know does actually does work sometimes).

Or, like the Alberta Avenue Business Association, have the DBA and/or DECA take on the task. Those owners who are doing it already could turn it over to DBA and reallocate those dollars if DBA undertook it (or they could choose to supplement it) and those owners that aren't doing it would simply pay an increased Business Improvement Area levy that the city actually collects on behalf of DBA and which is compulsory, not optional. It would likely also be possible to pursue sponsorship and other funding opportunities.

Maybe we could even do annual "name the equipment" contests where the techies could vote for things like "CTRL/Salt/Delete" or the protesters amongst us could vote for things like "ICE Out"...

 

[IanO]

RHW in the middle of our CBD - see private sector to the left.

 

[ntt1]

Still sidewalks/crossings regularly blocked by windrows and missed sections of clearing around my neighbourhood... as a daily runner and occasional bike commuter (these days, at least), the snow clearing work around my zone has been sure frustrating to deal with to say the least.

And that's not even including windrows totally blocking catch basins/flooding sidewalks and the skating rink ice we're regularly subjected to. Of course, it feels like every single 311 request I make is almost closed immediately without a thing done. Unfortunately, my councillor (Morgan) hasn't responded to or acknowledged any of my e-mails either.

 

[ChazYEG]

So, I wanted to provide a little bit of a comparison. Unfortunately I do not have photos, but I was in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago for work, about a week or so after what was considered a major snowfall (the merits of calling 6-10 inches of snow a major snowfall are up for debate), at the tail end of the polar vortex that hit Eastern Canada last month. To my surprise, the streets were absolutely unwalkable, and I mean, worse than any of these pictures I've seen for Edmonton n this thread, though the years. And This was staying Downtown, close to Parliament Hill, in some of the trendiest areas in the nation's Capital City. I was there for 3 days and the only reason roads improved was because by the 3rd day the weather had turned around and snow had mostly melted, but according to some locals I asked around, it had been that bad, or worse, for weeks before the warm up.
This is not to say we shouldn't be complaining and expecting better from Edmonton, but if that is what Ottawa is getting, I say we're WAY better off with the Edmonton standard.

 

[thommyjo]

So, I wanted to provide a little bit of a comparison. Unfortunately I do not have photos, but I was in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago for work, about a week or so after what was considered a major snowfall (the merits of calling 6-10 inches of snow a major snowfall are up for debate), at the tail end of the polar vortex that hit Eastern Canada last month. To my surprise, the streets were absolutely unwalkable, and I mean, worse than any of these pictures I've seen for Edmonton n this thread, though the years. And This was staying Downtown, close to Parliament Hill, in some of the trendiest areas in the nation's Capital City. I was there for 3 days and the only reason roads improved was because by the 3rd day the weather had turned around and snow had mostly melted, but according to some locals I asked around, it had been that bad, or worse, for weeks before the warm up.
This is not to say we shouldn't be complaining and expecting better from Edmonton, but if that is what Ottawa is getting, I say we're WAY better off with the Edmonton standard.

That’s confusing to hear because Ottawa is often touted as one of the best for snow clearing, has WAY faster clearing by policy (24-48hrs vs 5-10 days for us), and anecdotally I have 2 friends that grew up in ottawa and they always complain how much worse it is here vs Ottawa.

I wonder why it was so bad for your trip.