It seems to me that over the last year or so, Boston has started freaking out about snow. I’m not talking about last year’s Snowmaddegon, which truly was too much snow for too long (there’s no place to put it all). But Thursday and Friday, we received around a foot of snow.
Regular readers might remember that I grew up in the DC area, where for budgetary reasons, the local governments pretend that they are in Deep South and it does not snow. There, a foot of snow is a calamity because there’s too much road and far too little snow removal capacity (though it has become better recently). But Boston can handle a foot, though you would never know it, given the abject panic our local and state officials, along with their enablers in the local media, are displaying. This really does seem to be a recent phenomenon–I don’t remember private businesses closing for a foot of snow before. I’m not the only one:
Anyway, the only way to decide this is with a poll, followed by some pictures. Poll:
Pictures:
Snow and Steam on Newbury:
Commonwealth Mall:
Exeter St. and Commonwealth Ave.:
Commonwealth Ave.:
Commonwealth Mall, at night:
There is nothing there. The north and northwest of Boston got 18-24 inches.
My Boston-area employer closes the office after a storm, so that workers don’t have to drive. It seems to be about liability.
Snow clearing has really sucked in my city of Winnipeg as of late. Part of it is cold weather and a lot more snowfalls than expected (instead of occasional “dumps”, there’s been more common snowfall in December), but the city seems to have responded really badly. Observed four wreckage from six accidents on a 1.5 km stretch of road New Year’s Day.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-motorists-stuck-with-icy-bumpy-roads-after-storm-1.2479564
There was a blizzard warning posted for Boston. How often does that happen?
Pingback: Links 1/16/14 | Mike the Mad Biologist