How could my city sink so low ?

How could my city sink so low ?

I’m not exactly sure what the annual ice and snow removal budget is for my city and I’m not sure that I want to know?

The Wednesday December 19 2007 issue of my local circular featured an advertisement bought and paid for by the tax payer of our fair region. The advertisement encourage citizens to take up arms in the fight against ice and unsafe walkways.

The advertisement encouraged everyday citizen like you, and me to carry reseal-able bags filled with kitty litter in our purses or pockets every time we left the house.

I couldn’t imagine the mess, the discomfort the shame and the down right embarrassment of it all.

Imagine the nice ladies that lives alone at the end of the street, hiking through the snow with a bag of kitty litter slung over her shoulder slowly pouring out through a tiny hole. Like sand through an hour glass. Harsh, to say the very least.

The menace of thousands of city residence clouding the street with untold pound of kitty litter however is not what I take offence to. The true menace to the safety of our city lyes in the very idea that a private citizen should be excepted to de-ice anything other then the side walk in front of their home.

Home owners in my region are suffering some of the highest property tax increases in the country. One would assume that the increased taxes would amount to an increase in services. We all know that’s just not how thing work, despite sky rocketing property taxes in my city private citizen are expected to do their part in "preventing falls".

There are hundred of things such as summer street sweeping and the lack of any agencies to monitor the dumping of chemicals by private citizen that I would love to go into great detail on in an attempt to bolster my position, however I was trying to keep this rant brief. And I’ve greatly surpassed that mark.

Z. Black