Denver's Weather is Changing; Is City Hall Keeping Up with the Snow?

Denver's weather has been changing, and the city has had to learn new ways of dealing with it.. Last year the city of Denver's residential streets became worse than wagon tracks in the Old West. Broadsided by unusually snowy and cold weather, the city's usual strategy of "let it melt" turned into a disaster. Storm after storm deposited snow on top of unplowed and rutted snow which turned icy and nearly impassable. Residents were walking to supermarkets where shelves were empty because of delayed shipments of milk and bread, something more seen in a Nor'Easter than a couple of good days of snow. In an election year, the mayor had a lot of questions to answer, which he did, but this year's return of heavy snowfall put his team to the test. Newly reelected, did the mayor and the city learn from their mistakes?

At first, it didn't seem so. Side streets waited a long time after the Christmas storm, and with another storm due to follow two days later, the ruts were already forming. The Public Works department was quoted in the Denver Daily News as saying that their priority during the first storm was to keep the main streets plowed while snow was still falling quickly.

Sure enough, into the second storm an army of pickup trucks fitted with plows has been swarming the side streets, catching up from storm number one and cleaning up from storm number two. Though the recovery was far from ideal, residents without rugged transportation have been able to negotiate what's left with minimum hazard in most places, while commuters are able to enter and exit the city on virtually dry pavement.

In other parts of the country such as Buffalo and Boston which experience more persistent winter weather, snow budgets are higher (and still are frequently exceeded) and the governments know that a laissez-faire attitude will haunt them until the spring thaw. Budgets are sometimes crippled by the expenses, and plowing contractors in Massachusetts in the past have waited until summer before being paid for their work.

But everyone knows that plowing is essential in cities, and that they are at the mercy of the winter weather. Denver is ambitiously pursuing a host of major projects throughout the city, and even with voter approval of new funding last election, funding an effective response to significantly increased snowfall might jeopardize some city plans.

Even though it will eventually disappear, snow is a major factor in daily life in winter in much of North America. In the city of Québec in Canada and even in Boston, tight streets mean that substantial snowfalls require fleets of dump trucks to carry the snow out of the city. Sometimes the "snow dump" in Québec is still melting as summer approaches. Bostonians in some parts of the city have had a controversial "chair system" where spots dug out by locals are reserved for their return by a kitchen chair. Occasionally, a state of emergency is declared to keep cars off the roads so that plowing can be accomplished without traffic and hundreds of stuck vehicles blocking the roadways.

As weather patterns cycle or change long term, governments are facing the need to adapt and create new strategies. The city of Denver has faced a scaled-down version of "Old Man Winter" and appears to have changed with the times. In Denver, though, the really snowy weather often comes towards spring and if budgets stretch, residents will learn if their safe travel is a city priority.

Source:

"Snow Snarls City Streets", Peter Marcus, Denver Daily News, December 26, 2007