Winnipeg Iceberg Pavements and Strollers
The City of Winnipeg must think outside the box with this year’s snow removal, especially pavements. Non-profit organizations can volunteer to shovel them with either Bobcats or hand held snow shovels, if it has exhausted the snow removal budget.
Iceberg pavements are a danger to parents with strollers and senior citizens using walking sticks or walkers, and those are just the brave ones.
Many other city-dwellers with limited mobility decide to stay indoors, rather than navigate uneven pavements, with deadly bottle smooth ice underneath.
Winnipeg, like any major city has a maintenance budget and snow removal plans. The city centre is the priority, because of the economic activity that generates revenue. Pavements in urban residential areas are behind, in the queue.
It will be easy for the City to identify areas with a high concentration of seniors and small families because of zoning. It’s all there in the computer, who lives where and what age. The City could direct volunteer crews to affected areas.
Goulet Road in St. Boniface for example. It has some blocks with high rise old age homes and apartment buildings. Volunteers can scrape the snow so that residents can do their grocery shopping or take walks.
This unprecedented snow is also bad for parents because kids get cranky without fresh air. The area around Central Park has many apartment buildings with young families. Volunteers could come from the buildings themselves. Most of them are unemployed.
Winnipeg has its own way of cleaning up the City, but it must think outside the box. Using volunteers is one way of clearing pavements for parents, seniors and everyone with motorized mobility devices like scooters.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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