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Victim of Inept Snow Removal
I was trapped for two hours!
Like so many Providence residents, I was trapped on the icy streets of the city Dec. 9 after the "fast-moving storm" raced through Rhode Island. I-95 and I-195 were clear, even with the bumpa-to-bumpa traffic typical of a Providence commute. So were the state roads, like Rt. 1 (North Main Street). But city streets? Fagedaboudit!
I was trapped for two hours after making the wrong bet. I figured Cypress Street, being a major artery between the I-95 Branch Avenue exit and the upper East Side, would have top priority on plowing and sanding. So I started driving up the steep hill from North Main. Bad move! I got stuck half way up. You see, the street had been plowed, but not sanded. It was a solid sheet of ice. I, along with dozens of other stranded commuters, sat for 2 hours waiting to be rescued, to no avail. Even the city's brave firefighters did not negotiate the hill, as they usually do making practice runs in the middle of the day to the annoyance of everyone living at The Crossroads. As I sat there stewing, I watched the fire engines and ambulances in my rear view mirror zooming down North Main toward Doyle Avenue.
I called 911 twice. The first PPD dispatcher I talked to said she would tell the highway dept. to send a sander to Cypress ASAP. After an hour passed with no sign of said vehicle, I phoned 911 again. This time, a male dispatcher said "The truck is on the way" without even checking to make sure that was correct. Do you think, perhaps, he LIED? No, our police do not lie. At this point, I had to urinate so badly, I dismounted my vehicle and did some yellow traces in the snow. Now that I've confessed, will I be arrested for indecent exposure?
Another half hour passes. Finally a sander! But I am still stuck, because despite blasting my horn until the neighbors on Cypress started yelling expletives at me, the sander ignored my pleas and continued on his merry way.
Now, I'm not the brightest bulb on the tree, but it suddenly dawned on me that perhaps I should coast down the hill to get out of this morass. I backed into the KFC parking lot, which was in better shape than a public street, and made the left turn onto North Main, then hung another left at Doyle. Another left on Camp and I was home in 5 minutes.
What does this say about the state of our city? Plenty. It says that the unions are in cahoots to make Mayor David Cicilline look bad. They have it out for him because he refuses to bend to the firefighters union. So the police and the highway dept. unions have entered a devil's pact to support each other despite the impact on our citizens. They figure, "Okay, if the mayor wants to play rough, we'll play rough. It is he, as the city's chief executive, who will look bad in the eyes of the public, not us."
Peter Cassels
Posted at December 10, 2005 12:13 AM