Sometimes the squeaky wheel does get the grease. In the case of Buffalo’s abominable snow removal tactics (or lack thereof), a lot of people are fed up. They’re tired of being trapped at street corners, while attempting to navigate piles of ice and snow left behind, in the wake of the City’s snowplows. They’re tired of lazy, frugal, and absentee landlords (and businesses) that don’t shovel after snowfalls. And they’re tired of the lack of response from the people at the top, who should be leading the charge to solve this nagging problem. After all, this is a quality of life issue that everyone must deal with, year after year.
John T., from North Park Avenue recently wrote, in response to this article, “I hope it leads to some serious improvements in municipal snow removal. My personal problem is that I’m elderly. My landlord does get a plow service to do my driveway (I have a small Honda Civic that hates snow). Then the City plow comes by my side street and delivers a foot and a half of icy snow rocks to the foot of the driveway making it almost impassable. Impossible to shovel, it only yields to thawing, of which we’ve had precious little this winter.”
John is by no means alone in his sentiments. People from all across the city have been up in arms per the City’s laissez faire attitude towards snow clearing on city sidewalks (and streets). We’ve seen that other cities such as Rochester (read this) and Syracuse have figured out a way to enact municipal snow clearing… so why not Buffalo?
Well, here’s your chance to speak up, finally.
The Buffalo Common Council will be holding a special Finance Committee meeting to hear resident concerns, ideas, and feedback for the recent snow removal efforts at the following date and time:
Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2021
5:30 PM
Virtual on Zoom
This virtual meeting is open to the public and City residents are encouraged to join and speak on the topic of snow removal. If a City resident would like to join the meeting via Zoom, please email councilstaff@buffalony.gov.