Patterico's Pontifications

2/15/2010

“We Can’t Always Rely on the Government”

Filed under: Government — DRJ @ 1:57 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

A Maryland bar owner has become a “vigilante plower” after record snows that apparently left the local government unable to cope:

“The owner of Max’s Taphouse in Fells Point was walking in the neighborhood when he said he slipped and fell on ice at Lancaster Street and Broadway.

“I almost broke my neck,” Furman said. “I just said that was it and went up and got the tractor.”

The Upperco resident said he plowed out side streets and parking spaces through the weekend as well as Monday morning, starting at 5 a.m.

He said he decided to take matters into his own hands, rather than complaining that it’s someone else’s responsibility to get the job done.

“Sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do to get things done,” said Furman, owner of Max’s for 23 years. “We can’t always rely on the government to take care of it.”

Patrick Russell, owner of Kooper’s Tavern on Thames Street, did the same thing. His restaurant was soon “filled up with everyone who had parked in the spaces he just cleared.” Russell knew what might happen if he didn’t act:

“The bottom line is that the city was overwhelmed with snow,” Russell said. He’s worked in Fells Point since 1991 and knew how snow could affect sales, having lost a lot of business during two previous snowstorms.

This time, “we had an awesome week,” Russell said.”

Transportation officials were grateful for the help but cautioned citizens not to “cause any problems that may hinder our snow removal efforts,” like putting snow on someone else’s property or in the street. Meanwhile, their focus is on snow removal around schools so they can open Tuesday.

— DRJ

18 Responses to ““We Can’t Always Rely on the Government””

  1. Transportation officials were grateful for the help.

    Well, that’s comforting at least. I thought the punchline to this story was going to be them getting cited for unauthorized plowing or something.

    the wolf (0dce92)

  2. They’re probably still “plowing” through the law books to find a cite!

    AD - RtR/OS! (89e14c)

  3. Terry Pratchett pointed out that it’s very difficult to get from “Somebody should do something about this” to the proper conclusion, “And that somebody is me”.

    Kudos to Mr. Furman!

    Dianna (f12db5)

  4. There seems to be a lot of either-or thinking with the snow removal business. It seems to me to make sense that government plow the city streets in general, and yet we could still have an obligation to self-help our communities with extra effort when the snow reaches unprecedented levels.

    I would think it would be fiscally irresponsible of government to stockpile enough plows and so forth to remove the daily levels of snow the northern U.S. has received the past month. It just happens so rarely that it doesn’t make sense to have that much capacity, which would be wasted most years. But locals with tractors and subdivisions who wish to pay extra should certainly be permitted to do so on their own.

    PatHMV (c0c73a)

  5. Most govt programs that are an “occassional” thing are better done if privatized; and a lot of “on going” ones too.

    AD - RtR/OS! (89e14c)

  6. AD, I think most of the snow removal is done by private contractors, not permanent government employees. Am I wrong? From what I’ve been reading, the problem is that the entire region is just suffering from a significant lack of capacity in the private sector, so the costs are quite high.

    Do you think it inappropriate for government to provide the plowing services through contractors? If so, how do you propose that it be done, in order to keep me from paying while my cheapskate neighbors get a free ride on the street I paid to plow?

    PatHMV (c0c73a)

  7. Reminds me of a big snow storm in North Carolina about 10 years ago – people living in small cul-de- sacs in affluent areas spent a great deal of time and effort whining about the “failure” of their towns to clear the streets.

    If they had all gotten together with snow shovels they could have cleared their streets in an hour or two. Self-help apparently did not occur to them.

    These are the same people who fail to plan for hurricanes, earthquakes, ice storms, mudslides, etc and are “surprised” when the government takes 3 or 6 days to get to them.

    With a little more self help, we would rebuild our relations with our neighbors and a small chunk of the American spirit.

    Hard to believe that attitude is one of gratitude that the government didn’t punish this bar owner for taking action. That seems to be a reversal of what made this country great.

    Eagle1 (292c84)

  8. Comment by PatHMV — 2/15/2010 @ 2:48 pm

    No! I’m perfectly content to have this function privatized where it isn’t on on-going job.
    I was remarking to a friend after driving through a blizzard in Nevada that the NV Highway Dept did a pretty good job of keeping the major road (US-95) clear of snow, and wondered if they were the same crews who, in the summer, repaired the gouges in the asphalt left by the snow-plows?
    He assured me they were.
    The problem seems to be in areas like DC where extreme snowfalls are an aberation and the local govt scrimps on maintanance of their snowplow fleet so much that when they are needed, they don’t work – like Ray Nagins buses left in the yard to the floodwaters of Katrina.

    AD - RtR/OS! (89e14c)

  9. Do you really expect city employees in a democrat controlled state/city to do anything other than sit on their a**?
    Good thing your neighbors have enough hard working boys to bring a few hundred end loaders up or you would be knee deep in snow come July. I quite often see 7-8 state employees standing around while one man works. Good job if you can get it.

    Scrapiron (4e0dda)

  10. “I would think it would be fiscally irresponsible of government to stockpile enough plows and so forth to remove the daily levels of snow the northern U.S. has received the past month. It just happens so rarely that it doesn’t make sense to have that much capacity, which would be wasted most years.”

    It doesn’t even make sense to budget this. In parts of the storm they set records which had been unbroken for over 100 years.

    imdw (de7003)

  11. I don’t say a word to my neighbors, just hop on the 4 wheeler and plow 3/4 mile of road (and if you aren’t a pr*** some driveways) out to the main road.

    Scrapiron (4e0dda)

  12. Those of you in California have heard this one before.

    Q: What’s orange and sleeps six? A: A Cal-Trans truck.

    Old Coot (ddf8be)

  13. Driving around PG County today I was quite amazed at how many sidewalks are not shoveled. Fairfax County put out a call on Sunday to ask anyone available to come help shovel out the sidewalks in the school and surrounding area, to shovel out bus stops. They did.

    PG County? Not so much. Soon the citations will start.

    Vivian Louise (643333)

  14. Furman, owner of Max’s for 23 years. “We can’t always rely on the government to take care of it.”

    In Baltimore?

    Surely you jest.

    /But good on Furman and Russell.

    EW1(SG) (edc268)

  15. When I was a kid in Chicago in the 1940s, there was a guy who came around every year and charged a fee to plow everybody’s sidewalk after each snowstorm. It wasn’t that much and he had a jeep with a small plow just the right size for sidewalks. I was just a kid but I know that, if somebody refused to pay, he just lifted the plow as he drove by their house. It didn’t take long to get 100% participation. It was like 10 bucks a month. Of course, in 1947, that was like $100 now. He probably made pretty decent living every fall from that. It took him about a half hour a block and he did it about 5 AM.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  16. In the UK, he’d be fined. Seriously.

    KateC (c7c0c6)

  17. I live near the border between Baltimore City and Baltimore County. You can see the city county line as the snow stopped and the streets were plowed in the county. You could even see that in the middle of the block if that was where the border was.

    It appeared to be how prepared the jurisdiction was, and the County had more streets to plow.

    My block never saw a city plow and had to hire private contractors through the local Charity Fund (we all chipped in to reimburse the person who actually hired them). The Charity fund got the private contractors and made the arrangements.

    One person told me that he did see some city plows, but each time they came through, they just pushed the snow to block in all the cars that were in driveways or along the the street so the residents had to do the work all over again.

    The only side street in our area that was plowed had a politician (city councilman?) living on it.

    Sabba Hillel (153338)

  18. I expect the EPA will fine him for piling snow in a unauthorized location.

    Vivictius (1720ac)


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