The snow this morning looked great — unless you tried to drive or take a bus or cab in Columbia Heights. This morning I was responsible and shoveled my sidewalk and steps, and noticed that Spring Road appeared to be completely unplowed and untreated. Cars were churning through the snow.
Then at about 9:30 am when I walked over to 14th Street, I noticed the same thing — all lanes of 14th did not seem to have been touched by plows or pre-treatment.
Now Spring Road, I sort of understand — it’s not that long of a street. However, 14th Street is one of the city’s major thoroughfares. It’s crazy that nothing was done. Cars were inching up and down the hills and after waiting for a bus for some time I decided to take a cab. The guy didn’t know how to drive in the snow, spinning out multiple times — but then again, there shouldn’t be inches of snow on the street. I bailed out after a few blocks to take the Metro.
On 14th from Spring until Park (and north of Spring, I just didn’t see how far) it seemed that nothing had been done. Once we got to Park, the northbound side was slushy, so either something had been done or there was just more traffic on it, getting rid of the snow. The southbound side was still untouched. (Above is 14th at Park.)
And that’s not to mention any side streets — none of them seemed to have had anything done to them. I also heard of a car on fire at Georgia and Irving, but people seemed to get out of the care safely. Those kinds of fires sometimes happen if cars get stuck in snow — another reason why plowing is important (though I can’t confirm that is why the fire happened.)
I tweeted and emailed as much as I can and got email responses from new Ward 1 councilmember Brianne Nadeau and Ben Case, the Ward 1 outreach person in the Mayor’s office (whose email I got from another person on Twitter), but not from Muriel Bowser’s office when I emailed her. To Nadeau and Case’s credit, they responded almost immediately and said they would contact the right people to get plows out to 14th Street and Spring Road. Of course, it’s still kind of crazy that wasn’t already done.
How about your street? Was it plowed?
This wasn’t a major storm, but it sure seems like the city completely dropped the ball in our area.
