Street Cleaning

Do you think we get our moneys worth after all this last one was 6 millions worth. And should parked cars be towed.

Tow the parked cars and you'd have a lot less complaining by all the whiners who cry about the windrows left by the graders when they have to go around the dummies who don't understand that there's a parking ban. What good is a ban, if it's not enforced? A ticket is not enforcement, a ticket is a means of generating revenue. It does nothing to allow the graders to perform their function properly.

Tow the moron's who are still on the street, and you'd get a lot more bang for your buck. And before someone say's it, no I don't give a crap where they have to move their cars to. If you have no where to park it but city property, maybe you should have thought about that before you bought the car.

My feelings exactly if you are too dense to not be able to park somewhere else , then how do you manage to drive . The people who are running business's from the garage should truly be towed as there are shops for rent .
The moron who has two much stuff in his garage get a life and clean it . When are people gonna realize the worlds not here to kiss your ass.

So here is a fine example of how well our streets are cleaned. I sent an email to the PWD last week letting them know that my street still had yet to be plowed and hadn't been all winter. Low and behold, I come home from work and the plows had been down my block. But what is pathetic about this is there are 3 blocks of my street between 2 major roads and only my block was done. The other 2 blocks west of me are still rutted logging roads and the water main break is still untouched. The PWD's email reply was that I should let them know if the plowing had not been completed. I emailed them on Friday and the reply was no one on the other 2 blocks have written in to complain so we didn't feel the need to do those 2 blocks as well.
Sent that off to council and mayor's office, wonder what or if I will get a response. And there were no cars parked on my street at the time, miracle that it was.

PWD = Public Works Department?

Post the letter (c/w names) here as well. Might as well let the whole world know what kind of knobs work for PWD...

Yea well I sent one to hydro as they now fix city lights in back lanes , and this was 3 months ago the lights need still to be fixed. Cept now there are two stead of one to do . The paper work is mind numbing for the city and goverment to do anything , this is because unions had built in promotions. So we have more pencil pushers then workers.

We are not well served by our contractors and our city employees imo.

If it were me, I wouldn't accept the finished product that we are given.
If a kid shovelled my walk the way the city clears the streets, I'd kick his ass and tell him to do it again.

I'm starting to think that some city employees are getting kick-backs from the contractors...why else would they accept shoddy work such as they do now??

grumpyrom wrote:If you have no where to park it but city property, maybe you should have thought about that before you bought the car.

...or the house, as my new neighbour across the street found out. Two cars, single car garage, no carport... a situation he knew of when he and the missus bought the house. Guess who complained the loudest when he was boxed in by the street cleaning crew?

No sympathy from me.

The road in front of my house is plowed immediately after almost any amount of snow. Considering I live in the middle of nowhere, rural Manitoba that's pretty impressive.

This week the RM sanded the slippery intersections and bends in the road. Not bad service especially considering the road is already gravel...

My neighbours have a single garage...they had the driveway widened in the summer, he parks his mobile home in the driveway plus his SUV and his wifes van is parked behind. Her van blocks the sidewalk which si against the law I believe???. I am surprised the bobcat used for sidewalk clearing hasn't hit her van.

Then when she does get nailed by the bobcat, I'm assuming MPIC will be going after the City or contractor for damages to her van.....(grumpyrom does face/palm). LOL. Always dummies like them that end up calling EVERYBODY to complain that it was not their fault their vehicle was damaged. Apparently the snowclearing equipment is supposed to be able to run right through their car without scrathcing the paint.

Yes the contractor is bonded for such accidents but it handled through the city, so expect it to take awhile . Used to clear snow with a friend who did city streets few years back.

holly golightly wrote:So here is a fine example of how well our streets are cleaned. I sent an email to the PWD last week letting them know that my street still had yet to be plowed and hadn't been all winter. Low and behold, I come home from work and the plows had been down my block. But what is pathetic about this is there are 3 blocks of my street between 2 major roads and only my block was done. The other 2 blocks west of me are still rutted logging roads and the water main break is still untouched. The PWD's email reply was that I should let them know if the plowing had not been completed. I emailed them on Friday and the reply was no one on the other 2 blocks have written in to complain so we didn't feel the need to do those 2 blocks as well.
Sent that off to council and mayor's office, wonder what or if I will get a response. And there were no cars parked on my street at the time, miracle that it was.

I can understand the logic behind the city's response. Apparently the purpose of plowing major streets is to get them bare. The purpose of plowing residential streets is to make them even and flat ( not necessarily bare). If no body complained about the other two blocks, then they would assume they were level and flat enough.

**** Note that I said I could understand the logic. I didn't say I agreed with it.

They did a pretty decent job on my street...it is almost bare.

Here in Edmonton, the city doesn't clean the side street, back alleys or public sidewalks; that is up to the owners of the property they border. However, people are clammering quite a bit, saying they are willing to pay taxes for these services. I think they are worth it.

I would fiqure so after a blizzard even if the city is slow about it .

I think that sow clearing is a no win proposition. No one will be happy with the results v cost. From my perspective, I'm generally happy with the results. While $6 million is a big number, it seems reasonable to me considering the amount of snow we have and the how well the job is done.

I don't get how people haven't figured out the parking ban. Its Winnipeg, you know we get snow, you know theres a parking ban, so make sure you have made arrangements to park you car off the street. We had to "landscape" our back yard to make provision for parking a third car. Are all these offenders driving new cars? I know if we left our 93 Buick unplugged for some of these nights, it wouldn't be going anywhere the next day.

"I know if we left our 93 Buick unplugged for some of these nights, it wouldn't be going anywhere the next day."

uggh that brings up the people who park on the street and run extension cords over the sidewalks in all sorts of manner to their cars

Theres one guy around the corner from me who has created his own "front drive". Parks his truck on his front lawn. Right over the curb and public walk. NOw thats bullshit.

heh thats at least 3 tickets.

Not sure if we discussed this yet... But last week I believe this same writer wrote into Winnipeg Sun. Now its in the freep...
the president of CUPE Local 500 says the solution for better cleaned streets is for the city to purchase more of its own snow plows and a better job will be done because

"The city's obligation to its citizens should be to maintain clean and safe roads. This is not necessarily the private sector's mandate, nor should it be. "


right because the private sector that makes crazy money off the city and a whole company can be fired immediatly if they do an unsatisfactory job.... is less competent that a unionized employee who knows that no matter what he does there will be some job available for him and his company (union) will almost never be fired.....


yup makes total sense.. glad that Mr Davidson pointed it out for us.

That does not surprise me. That is what unions do: protect their members no matter who is hurt.

I'm all for private enterprise in these matters. The city simply cannot afford the equipment it might need for the major snowfalls. Nor should it afford that. When there is no snow to remove what happens to the equipment? The operators?

Private industry will find other uses for its equipment and people. Too bad Davidson can't see this.

The problem, imho, is that when the city got rid of their snowplow equipment, they became prey at the hands of the private operators.

There are only a given number of operators/pieces of equipment available, so if the city fires an operator, they cannmot replace them easily....and the operators know this.

The city is between a rock and a hard place.

Hey all....long time reader, first time poster...

My street was cleaned the first night of the operation, no real complaints about the service. They started around 7pm that night, so there were a fair number of cars on the street that they had to go around.

One vehicle has been on the street and hasn't moved since the snow fell...I don't know how it hasn't been towed. It's been ticketed a number of times, they even stopped putting the tickets under the wiper blades as there is more than a foot of snow on the top of the thing! So, they put the ticket on the side mirror and hold it on with an elastic band.