Let It Snow

It’s bad enough that the school across the street hasn’t thrown in one dime towards the new sidewalk and parkway that they’re legally responsible for.

What's worse is that my fantastic alderman used some of her menu money to make the new sidewalk happen.

So let’s recap, we have a private institution that has slowly but surely expanded it’s campus by shutting down city streets and purchasing buildings for the land.

Nothing wrong with that, right?

The issue is that when the school across the street expanded its campus they also expanded their responsibility for the parkways and the sidewalks of the buildings it purchased.

In short, the school is responsible for the parkway and sidewalk on my street roughly from Stony Island to Dorchester.

If you’ve been a long time reader of this blog, you know that the maintenance of the sidewalk and parkway on the south side of their campus and across the street from my home hasn’t exactly been high on the list of priorities.

It fell somewhere between screw and you.

It shouldn’t take concerned neighbors to point out that the trash and the weeds that come up to their hips might need to be tended to.

Okay, I give---it was me. I was (and am) the concerned neighbor(s).

Nonetheless, it’s not rocket science right?

But that’s all water under the bridge right?

The trash is being picked up (sporadically) and the grass is cut during the warmer months.

To quote Neville Chamberlain, “There is peace is our time.”

Not so much.

Unlike Neville, I’m going to hold you to the spirit if not the letter of your agreement.

Doesn’t common sense dictate that if you cut the grass and pick up the trash that you should also shovel the snow during the winter months?

We have this nice new sidewalk and it was encased in ice and snow during our first winter storm.

I shouldn’t have to even call over to say, “Hey, don’t you think it would be a good idea to shovel the snow and throw down a little salt?”

But I did. And in doing so I broke a promise I made to myself.

I told myself not too long ago that asking the nice school across the street to perform the functions on the south end of their property that they so willingly perform on other parts of their campus didn’t seem to be an effective way of getting things done.

On the other hand placing a call to my alderman’s office is.

So I’m not asking anyone over there to do anything anymore.

They should have the sidewalk and parkway just as pristine and landscaped as they do at their school’s entrance.

If not, I’m getting on the phone.

There are city ordinances regulating and fining owners for not looking after the sidewalk and parkway abutting their property.

If we’ve got to keep our little patch of Woodlawn trimmed, clean and clear so should everyone else.

Apparently there has been a change in the maintenance and groundskeeping department over there so I'm interested in seeing if there's more of a proactive attitude about the south side of the campus.

Being nice has gotten me nowhere with them, time for talking is done.

I was once told that the school was concerned about being a good neighbor. Yeah, and tomorrow I'm going to wake up and fit my high school cheerleading uniform. My ass.

I don’t think they’re going to like me very much by the time it’s all over.