The Gulag Archipelago
While driving down 23 yesterday, we saw three cars lying in ditches along the snow-covered road, well after the snow had fallen. We’ve never seen anything like this in any other city we’ve lived in, but we see it every year around this time in A2. As soon as you cross out of A2, the roads seem to become noticeably better.
And A2 inspectors actually did something about a landlord who violated city regulations. The offending landlord was running a virtual Tree Town gulag, packing tenants into spaces approved for half as many people, forcing them to pretend to be her relatives, making them switch rooms randomly, not allowing the inside temperature to top 60 degrees and not allowing residents to use water for cooking.
I will confirm the “first snow” phenomena. Everyone forgets how to drive on snow for a couple of weeks every year. It’s either that or those are the new people.
posted by Steven B. Cherry on December 21st, 2003 at 2:21 amthe poor driving in snowy conditions happens everywhere. i moved from the snow belt of cleveland to ann arbor, so i hope i retained my abilty to drive in the snow, but even back home there are people caught by surprise every year, and i have to wonder how many are first time drivers or transplants from the south where they have major cardiac responses to a 1/4″ of snow because of lack of city plows (no offense! i wouldn’t mind a snow day for 1/4″!)
ann arbor isn’t the greatest city i’ve ever been in with respect to plowing the roads, but some of the outlying cities aren’t that great either. you should have seen the area around dexter high school thursday morning, i’ve never seen so many bewildered 16 year olds standing on the road while they wait for their car to be pulled out of a ditch with help from the one county sherriff and a friend with a jeep.
posted by Beth on December 21st, 2003 at 10:54 amI remember driving to Florida one year for Christmas, and crossing through Atlanta on the 23rd or so. Atlanta had gotten one inch of snow, and the city shut down. There were news reports of runs on canned food, and they started calling it a “blizzard.” The nice part was that there weren’t any other cars on the road when we kept going…
posted by js on December 21st, 2003 at 11:27 amjs
well, I was about to blast the ann arbor bashing about snow removal, but I see people beat me to it.
It’s not ann arbor thats bad, its the people who drive like idiots. I live on Pleasant Lake Rd, a major road between manchester and ann arbor, It will often be on maps of michigan (not local, the whole state). There was an accident friday night that was insane, when I showed up there where two cars on the side of the road, and 3 real big firetrucks!! a few cop cars, and as I drove up an ambulance was on its way out. A telephone pole was hanging off the ground held up by the wires it is suppose to support. All this on a road that is a top priority for that area (second only to AnnArbor/Saline I belive). So its aint just ann arbor! it idiots who dont know how to drive
posted by Just a Voice on December 21st, 2003 at 12:30 pmI’ve lived in snowy places all my life, and I guess I’ve never “learned” how to drive in the snow if it means being sure I’ll never get into a skid I can’t get out of (and being able to dodge SUV drivers who think they’re invincible.) Hitting something at 30 miles an hour can kill you. I usually drive in second or first gear if the roads are in Ann Arbor condition, or just stay home altogether. You’re right, it’s not just A2 - it’s the entire state of Michigan, which is known for the country’s worst roads.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on December 21st, 2003 at 1:16 pmOh yeah, and in Chicago, the snow is usually off the roads within 15-30 minutes.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on December 21st, 2003 at 1:18 pmin Chicago, it’s the important roads that are plowed… Daly wants a city that works, but only in the areas that are visible to tourists and business. Michigan has bad roads, not bad snow plowing. It’s hard to pick and choose the most important roads to keep plowed. Also, it depends on what the area does to the snow - salt is bad for the environment but melts the snow, sand is neutral but is only good for traction. If you want a cleaner environment, you’ll have to deal with less navigable roads.
posted by paul on December 21st, 2003 at 4:51 pmYeah that’s just great that we’ll sacrifice the lives of people to make the environment better.
posted by gyc on December 21st, 2003 at 6:05 pmWhat a bunch of WHINERS! Ok, It snows here, It rains and freezes. There is ice. Your car gets plowed in. It’s inconvenient, slow and you’re a fool if you drive at the speed limit. Adapt, change or leave. Whining and bitching is sport in A2.
posted by mucho gusto on December 21st, 2003 at 8:45 pmIt’s not that Daley only wants to plow and salt major thoroughfares, it’s just that they are the first to get done and then the lowly side streets as well as the alleys get done. And yes, it does sometimes take way too long, but hey that’s life in the big city.
posted by ino on December 21st, 2003 at 9:25 pmI’m an avid noontime runner, and actually, I’ve taken to running on side streets this year, because for once, the streets are getting clear faster than the sidewalks.
Don’t get me started on people and their inability to clear their own sidewalks. Especially fraternity and sorority houses, who seem to go out of their way to NOT clean their walks.
posted by Jeremy on December 21st, 2003 at 10:14 pmperhaps i’m just imagining this, but i swear someone once told me that there is a certain legal precedent for plowing sidewalks and it goes something like this: if you shovel your walk and for some reason it ices over because there is no snow you can be sued if someone walks on it and slips. however, if you don’t touch your sidewalk at all, and the snow is high and treacherous, and someone slips, you cannot be sued because they should have known better than to tread on virgin wilderness.
i think this was just an excuse made by a housemate so he didn’t have to shovel the walk, but who knows. i just recently got a condo in “the village” so i will soon know what it’s like to be at the mercy of whether or not your neighbors shovel…or shovel your car in.
that is if we ever *really* get dumped on (doesn’t it seem lighter this year than last?)
posted by beth on December 21st, 2003 at 11:13 pmI think it’s interesting that A2 doesn’t encourage us not to salt, if it’s so bad for the environment and all. I guess as long as they don’t have to do anything…
posted by ann arbor is overrated on December 21st, 2003 at 11:18 pmwhere do they encorage you not to salt? Is that common in other places? I’ve never heard of that.
posted by just a voice on December 21st, 2003 at 11:38 pmNo, they do encourage us to salt the sidewalks, I think, which makes their non-salted streets more a function of laziness than environmental principle.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on December 22nd, 2003 at 1:01 amWhile I’m glad the city cracked down on a bad landlord, it’s worthy of noting she only owned one property. Now let’s see them go after one of the big ones - like CMB Management - which certainly have their share of violations and unfair screwing of security deposits out of students.
Rob
posted by Rob on December 22nd, 2003 at 2:41 amPeople are probably still in hurry-up mode, even by the time the 1st snow hits here… Used to think that it was transplants too, until I realized that every person who I regularly have to pull from a ditch at work is a native Michigander. And, as Southern transplants, my wife and I have never spun out in 7 years. Maybe the locals are more used to spinning out and take it in stride that they can get bailed?
Also, you know when you’ve left AA after a snow, because the roads are clearer. The Ypsi/AA line is easily found on Washtenaw Av. in the Winter. Ann Arbor has more important things to spend salt $$ on, like making sure you own approved pets.
posted by Leighton on December 22nd, 2003 at 9:03 amYeah, but any side street in Ypsi is a total wilderness when it comes to plowing. When I lived on Summit, I don’t think they plowed once all winter and it turned into a brown, soupy mess by spring.
posted by js on December 22nd, 2003 at 9:39 amStreets like East U. still get plowed in Ann Arbor.
js
That may have been then, but streets like Wallace now get plowed sometimes before Washetenaw. Might have to do with which streets are newly paved. We’ll see how long that lasts. We live on the township line and have to wait a couple extra days!
Supposedly every street in the city of Ypsi has been or will be repaved withing a 3 year period.
posted by Leighton on December 22nd, 2003 at 9:44 amWell, AA is clearly overrated, but I don’t think the snow removal is that bad. It is waaaaay worse here and even fewer people know how to drive in snow. Plus they all drive like total lunatics. I always thought midwestern drivers were awful, but at least they just lack skill and aren’t road-raging, aggressive, cut-that-guy-off-for-sport maniacs.
Drivers here act like there is nothing different about the roads and are actually surprised when, after screaming down the equivalent of S. Division at 65 MPH in blizzard conditions, they find themselves wrapped around a telphone pole. It’s even worse on the highways, since all the BMWs and Lexuses (Lexi?) from the wealthier towns don’t have four-wheel drive or even snow tires, yet, undeterred, the lawyers and investment bankers carry on inevitably sliding backward on the hills, skidding into the people behind them.
And, every year since I’ve gotten here the state has said, “Wow, lots more snow than usual. We are over-budget on snow removal by $xM.” One has to wonder what they mean by “usual.”
posted by Anna on December 22nd, 2003 at 9:49 amJust for the record, I think the state is responsible for plowing all of 23 - not A2.
PMSI is another place the city should crack down on. The city could also crack down on all of these shitty landlords by putting in place more effective ordinances. Like if your apartment has a violation on the books for more than a month or two without being fixed, then you don’t have to pay rent. That would almost definitely cause landlords to scramble to get all repairs done. I mean, does the housing code really matter to landlords in A2 right now? I think about 99.9% of rentals in the city have some sort of code violations in the books.
posted by James on December 22nd, 2003 at 10:07 amYou’re right, James. PMSI has got to be THE worst rental company in all of Annarbour — and that’s saying something.
posted by Boris on December 22nd, 2003 at 10:25 amPeople should consider rating landlords/management companies on epinions.com….
posted by Anna on December 22nd, 2003 at 12:33 pmHow to do doughnuts in a front-wheel drive car: Find a big icy/snowy parking lot, turn off your lights, put the car in reverse. Drive in reverse 10 feet getting your rpms up, them turn the wheel as far as you can in either diection and at the same time stomp on the gas. Watch out for light posts, police, and security guards.
If your parking break only stops your rear wheels you can pull that baby too for added effect.
posted by Steven B. Cherry on December 22nd, 2003 at 2:10 pmAt the beginning of every winter, it is customary to comment that all the other drivers have “forgotten” how to drive in snow. This is only faux agreement. Some people mean that other drivers are going way too slow and getting in their way; others mean that the drivers behind them want to go way too fast. Kudos to AAIO for referencing actual accidents.
Ann Arbor’s city government is very well funded, and salt is very cheap. The low use of salt in the city is environmental policy, not cheapness or laziness. The city of Ypsilanti (which is comparatively poor) uses something like 20 times as much salt per mile of road as Ann Arbor does.
But low use of salt does not mean “no” salt. Intersections in Ann Arbor are salted rather quickly when it gets slippery.
I used to live in Detroit, where the city could only AFFORD to plow major streets. None of the Detroit streets I lived on EVER saw a snowplow or a salt truck during those years; sometimes they were impassable for weeks.
Michigan state highways used to be second to none. We in Michigan used to look down our noses at all those downscale states that had to charge tolls for use of the highways. But road maintenance in Michigan deteriorated in the fiscal crises of the 1980s. Among many other things, the state quit insisting on its own high-strength concrete recipes, and quit sending its own inspectors to concrete plants to test samples and make sure that vendors were doing it right.
That persnickityness was necessary because Michigan has DOUBLE the truck load limits of ANY other state. Go to any truck stop and pick up one of those free mags with ads for used semis, and you’ll see lots of units labeled MICHIGAN SPECIAL — a truck for hauling huge loads which wouldn’t be legal in any other state.
Now, the longevity of paved roads has plunged from about 20 years to 8 years; major freeways are studded with bumps and potholes; road signs that long ago lost their reflectivity are still in service. It has actually gotten to the point that Ohio’s highways are in better shape than Michigan’s.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on December 22nd, 2003 at 3:48 pmI have a friend whose father used to work as an accountant for the state; he blames the road condition on roads being treated like a big slush fund. When a project goes over budget, road funds tend to be where the money is made up.
posted by js on December 22nd, 2003 at 4:36 pmjs
Gravel Trains are a frightneing sight to any bed of concrete. The trucking industry and specilized licensing probably insure these locomotives will not die soon.
Ann Arbor has to filter and drink as tapwater the road / salt runoff flowing into the Huron. Somehow I think their fear of salting has a little more to do with the extra $$ than the environment.
posted by Leighton on December 22nd, 2003 at 5:01 pmLeighton, sometimes I wish that the city were that money conscious.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on December 22nd, 2003 at 5:22 pmAA could make up the road salt water filtering costs by taxing pet-chinchilla owners a sur-tax of $10,000 per rodent?
posted by Leighton on December 22nd, 2003 at 6:59 pmI always thought the city was in charge of plowing sidewalks, not homeowners. It’s city property, isn’t it? They have those little sidewalk plow vehicles for a reason…
posted by Brandon on December 22nd, 2003 at 7:03 pmAlmost everywhere I’ve lived, the homeowner/property owner has been responsible for clearing walkways. This is sometimes not true in commercial districts, but almost always true in residential districts.
posted by Anna on December 22nd, 2003 at 8:21 pmOwners are responsible for clearing walkways (not renters) pretty much everywhere, even though I used to clear my own walkway whereever I lived.
posted by jeremy on December 22nd, 2003 at 9:30 pmMost cities have passed ordinances making the property owner responsible for clearing snow from the sidewalk along the front of each property.
Enforcement varies, of course, but the existence of this law does mean that if someone is hurt slipping on an icy or snowy sidewalk, the property owner is in violation of the law, and thus especially vulnerable to a lawsuit.
Of course the owner can have the tenant do the shoveling, but the owner is the one who is ultimately on the hook for any consequences.
In areas with significant foot traffic, like the sidewalk in front of our house, the snow quickly gets tamped down and very slippery; neglecting snow shoveling only makes the situation worse, and certainly does not avoid any liability.
East Lansing used to plow sidewalks as a city service, but it was not regarded as a success, since the plows only came out when four or more inches of snow fell, and never left a bare surface.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on December 23rd, 2003 at 1:18 amMy parents never bothered with our sidewalk in Holland as far as I remember, but maybe they were supposed to. In any case the city sidewalk plows always got to it within a day or two.
posted by Brandon on December 23rd, 2003 at 5:32 pmIt’s safer to play with a man’s wife than with his cliches.
posted by Seltzer Dan on January 21st, 2004 at 12:00 am