I grew up in Chicago, and though I now love DC dearly, I - like some other more famous public officials - sometimes chuckle at how our city tends to over-react to snow, ice, and other winter weather. Still, though I may be a bit more tolerant of snow and ice, even I know that its really no fun to slip and slide your way up and down the sidewalk.

During our most recent ice storm, we all re-learned the importance of clearing your walk, as well as who is supposed to clear the walks. The law says that residents and businesses are responsible for clearing the sidewalks in front of their property, and that DDOT is responsible for clearing public property. I was disappointed, however, that the eastern outer sidewalk of Thomas Circle was never cleared by any city agency.



I snapped that photo several days after the ice storm - several forty-degree days! You can imagine how icy and dangerous this oft-traveled slice of sidewalk was the day after the storm. I will be contacting DDOT to make sure this gets on their list of high-priority areas to clear after a storm. If you know of any other dangerous, icy areas that should be cleared by DDOT, please let me know!

Labels: ddot, ice, sidewalk, snow, thomas circle