There is no excuse, people should be ashamed.

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KnowItAll
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For those in metro vancouver, or any other "city".

There is no excuse for any homeowner not clearing off front sidewalk.
There is no excuse for any business not clearing off sidewalks
There is no excuse for leaving snow covered cars on the street and not clearing the snow around them.
There is no excuse for leaving cars parked on main streets to interfere with snow removal.
For those on sidestreets, there is no excuse for not clearing off a portion of the road.

We cleared our driveway, sidewalk, and one half the width of the street in front of our property each day it snowed, sometimes twice. People use our clearing to turn around, and pass each other on other wise one way traffic. IF everyone did the same, we would have no issues on sidestreets. Most people have no excuse for not doing the same. ALMOST everyone can, either themselves, or get friends\family\neighboors to do it, or pay someone. Very few have no means of getting it done. Most just cannot be bothered.

People should be ashamed.
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sj-roc
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KnowItAll wrote:For those in metro vancouver, or any other "city".

There is no excuse for any homeowner not clearing off front sidewalk.
There is no excuse for any business not clearing off sidewalks
There is no excuse for leaving snow covered cars on the street and not clearing the snow around them.
There is no excuse for leaving cars parked on main streets to interfere with snow removal.
For those on sidestreets, there is no excuse for not clearing off a portion of the road.

We cleared our driveway, sidewalk, and one half the width of the street in front of our property each day it snowed, sometimes twice. People use our clearing to turn around, and pass each other on other wise one way traffic. IF everyone did the same, we would have no issues on sidestreets. Most people have no excuse for not doing the same. ALMOST everyone can, either themselves, or get friends\family\neighboors to do it, or pay someone. Very few have no means of getting it done. Most just cannot be bothered.

People should be ashamed.
Nothing more than a manifestation of the diffusion of responsibility phenomenon. Not all that unusual.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
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Soundy
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Good link, Scott :thup:

Agree with all of the above - we cleared our walk sometimes three times a day during the snowfalls - it's just easier than letting it build up and then trying to move it all at once. And all those people who didn't bother to do it while it was light and fluffy, well, they're finding it 10 times harder now that it's wet and slushy and frozen.

We're in a townhouse facing the street, so we cleared out front stairs, the walk down to the sidewalk, and the sidewalk in front of our own unit (and over to the neighbor's unit a bit. I think out of 18-20 units facing the street, maybe three or four cleared their sidewalks regularly... one did his steps and walkway, but stopped at the sidewalk. Most remain snow-covered to this day - I dunno if people think if they just leave it it'll all melt overnight, or what.

Meantime, with nobody shoveling their cars out, the streets are basically one passable lane... and that's clogged up with pedestrians who can't use the sidewalks because nobody's bothered to clear them.

The good news is that the plow did get to our street fairly quickly... the downside, of course, is that it only helps to block in the cars. It's nice having a Jeep so I can just power right through it! Only twice (that we noticed) did someone else park in our nice cleared parking space (well, sort of cleared). The one left again before I got home (wife called and told me to hurry home so we could dig ourselves a new parking spot in front and bury the guy), and one she stood there on the porch and give him the evil eye until he decided he should move on... he got stuck though (since he was in a really low Audi and I hadn't really shoveled out the space beyond where the bottom of the Jeep scraped it down) and was digging himself out when I came home... rolled down the window and thanked him for clearing out MY parking space. He high-tailed it after that :)

The one that really annoyed me was after I shoveled out a path along the curb to the sewer drain just up the street (water was really starting to collect as it was warming up), and some jerk - in a 4WD X-Trail, no less - decided that would be a nice place for him to park. Facing the wrong way on the wrong side of the street, too (driver's door to the curb). I took a moment to knock some snow back down over the drain and then cleared a bunch of other slush that was holding back the water, so he had to step through a nice lake to get to his door. After he was gone, I re-shoveled the drain clear, and then scooped as much slush and snow as possible into a huge pile to block anyone from parking there again :)
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Bleddyn
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KnowItAll wrote:There is no excuse for any homeowner not clearing off front sidewalk.
My parents are 72 and 77. They have nobody to help them do these things while I am away in San Diego. I will be back on Monday and clear any for them that happens to be left. Do they have no excuse? Should they spend part of their limited budget removing snow that traditionally lasts 2 days in the Vancouver area? My dad tried to do some and ended up falling bruising his ribs on Christmas Day...

Should they be ashamed?
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jim604
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While I can understand challenges occur, bribe your neighbor with a beer for their help. There are so many solutions that I tend to agree with the above posters and beleive there is no good excuse.

If one can afford to own their own property/business, they can afford to have snow removed if they do not want, or cannot do it themselves. $10-20 to have snow cleared is cheaper than home/business insurance rate hike, or thousands in damages because of a lawsuit which could come as a result of a personal injury. Or depending on your area the city may give you a fine as seen in Downtown.
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KnowItAll
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Bleddyn wrote:
KnowItAll wrote:There is no excuse for any homeowner not clearing off front sidewalk.
My parents are 72 and 77. They have nobody to help them do these things while I am away in San Diego. I will be back on Monday and clear any for them that happens to be left. Do they have no excuse? Should they spend part of their limited budget removing snow that traditionally lasts 2 days in the Vancouver area? My dad tried to do some and ended up falling bruising his ribs on Christmas Day...

Should they be ashamed?
Understand first that I allowed for exceptions when I said "most people" and "ALMOST everyone".

Second, if they can afford to slip someone a 20 to get it done, yes they should.

Third, pretty rare that no neighbours or friends will be willing to help out. My friend does for 3 of his elderly neighbors, driveways and sidewalks.
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TheLionKing
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A good neighbour would shovel the sidewalk of the elderly without being asked.
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KnowItAll
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TheLionKing wrote:A good neighbour would shovel the sidewalk of the elderly without being asked.
yes
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Soundy
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Bleddyn wrote:... removing snow that traditionally lasts 2 days in the Vancouver area?
Nobody can use that excuse - the snow was forecasted for a week in advance, and through that week the snow warnings kept getting extended. The first snowfall was the Wednesday a week before Christmas... and it hadn't gone anywhere when the next big one started a few days later.

Looks like a lot of people on my street never even touched the first dump... and it's still here almost three weeks later, never mind the foot and a half that fell on top of it. I'm sorry, but when the forecasters are predicting DAYS of snow and below-freezing temperatures, expecting you can just ignore it and wait for it to melt because "it's never that cold here" is a BS cop-out.
My dad tried to do some and ended up falling bruising his ribs on Christmas Day...

Should they be ashamed?
As others have noted, perhaps he should have paid someone to clear it for him. Get a neighbor kid to do it for $10 or something. If HE slipped and hurt himself, someone else could as well... someone who could sue him, and the homeowner as well (if that's not him).
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Sir Purrcival
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What I always find perplexing is.

1. The limited amount of snow shovels and and salt available for sale in the lower mainland. When it snows, stocks are usually sold out in a few hours and you won't see any more for ages if at all. Will all the warnings we had this time around you might think some vendors might actually overstock knowing that they are going to be needed? Hell you might think that some vendors would just keep stock around all year and order mega batches. They don't go stale, invariably they will be needed. Just seems like a lost business opportunity every freakin year. Just keep them in the warehouse until they are needed and keep restocking your stores eh Canadian Tire!!! (who incidentally was advertising them in their recent flyer but of course had none and hadn't for a couple of weeks).

2. What happens to all the snow shovels that were bought in previous years? I mean, why is that there never seem to be enough. They don't have a time limit on them so why is there always a big crush every year to get snow shovels any ways?
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I've got to agree, how can everyone need a new snow shovel every year? If thats the case, a guy should be making snow shovels to meet a never ending demand! I suspect snow shovels are like socks in a drier, they just(one at least) disappear:lol:
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KnowItAll
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every immigrant should be handed out snow shovel with their papers, at their cost of course, retail plus. Along with info telling them their resposibilities during snow season.
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West Coast Blue Fan
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KnowItAll wrote:every immigrant should be handed out snow shovel with their papers, at their cost of course, retail plus. Along with info telling them their resposibilities during snow season.
Nominated for most ignorant comment of the year......I believe you have won this award 3 years in a row now.
I'd love you to say it to my face because you'd only say it once...if you ever had the courage to say it at all!! Blitz, 05/24/2008
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KnowItAll
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West Coast Blue Fan wrote:
KnowItAll wrote:every immigrant should be handed out snow shovel with their papers, at their cost of course, retail plus. Along with info telling them their resposibilities during snow season.
Nominated for most ignorant comment of the year......I believe you have won this award 3 years in a row now.
whats so ignorant about it???
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TheLionKing
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Sir Purrcival wrote:What I always find perplexing is.

1. The limited amount of snow shovels and and salt available for sale in the lower mainland. When it snows, stocks are usually sold out in a few hours and you won't see any more for ages if at all. Will all the warnings we had this time around you might think some vendors might actually overstock knowing that they are going to be needed? Hell you might think that some vendors would just keep stock around all year and order mega batches. They don't go stale, invariably they will be needed. Just seems like a lost business opportunity every freakin year. Just keep them in the warehouse until they are needed and keep restocking your stores eh Canadian Tire!!! (who incidentally was advertising them in their recent flyer but of course had none and hadn't for a couple of weeks).

2. What happens to all the snow shovels that were bought in previous years? I mean, why is that there never seem to be enough. They don't have a time limit on them so why is there always a big crush every year to get snow shovels any ways?
I wonder about the same thing. Do people throw their snow shovel away every spring ? Same thing with fans ? Do they throw them out after every summer ?
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