About to embark on an icy journey toward Broad Street, Elaine, who declined to share her last name, shook her head in disgust.
“Look at this,” said Elaine, an elderly woman dressed in a green trench coat that extended to just above her ankles, revealing only a hint of her grey socks, as she pointed toward mounds of snow pushed unevenly to the sides of Susquehanna Avenue. “This is atrocious.”
While many of the main streets in North Philadelphia have been plowed, some side streets remain half covered, and sidewalks, especially those in front of abandoned buildings or empty lots, are barely visible. Only small brown shapes, revealed in areas where snow and ice have melted, can be seen of the walkways.
Jason Adams, who lives on the corner of 16th Street and Susquehanna Avenue, said it’s usually up to “the block members and neighbors to clear the [side streets and sidewalks] themselves.”
“The main streets are done really well, so it’s basically the little streets that are dangerous,” Adams said. “But the little streets are hard to get to in the snow.”
But Elaine, who said she hates staying cooped up in her apartment building when it snows, has a solution to get rid of the remnants of the slushy wintry mix.
“They need to get a great big crematory and when the snow piles up like this, [they need to] take this snow and burn it,” she explained.
And while she isn’t a fan of the leftover snow, Elaine said one other thing bothered her about the storm.
“These people act like they don’t have any food when it snows,” Elaine said with a laugh. “The shelves are empty. I went a couple of days later to get me a little something, and the shelves were bare.”
Ashley Nguyen can be reached at ashley.nguyen@temple.edu.
Be the first to comment