As I've ambled round the streets of the Twin Cities the last week the stark differences between different streets in how much shoveling has gone on is really quite amazing. On some blocks it's clearly a social disgrace to not have a clear sidewalk, on others it seems no-one can be bothered, and in yet other places there are some delinquent apartment owners who haven't ridden herd on the maintenance man to earn his wages.
One of the bad neighborhoods is the area round Otis Avenue and Riverwood Place in St. Paul. It's the area just back of Eastcliff, where the esteemed President of this institution lives. The houses there are big, and they mostly have two cars in the driveway. So, they're rich. And they don't shovel. Most of the sidewalks, even today, after a week of thawing, were still covered in sheets of ice. Here's a thought if any residents of that area are reading this -- if you can afford the big house and the big car, you can afford to pay the teenage kid to shovel if you can't be arsed doing it yourself. There were some houses where the owners had clearly shoveled the driveway, but not done the sidewalk. Those people truly deserve to slip on the ice someday.
In that same neighborhood is the Living Word Church and Outreach Ministries, who have collected enough money to have their own parking lot. They also don't shovel. In a just world they'll go to hell for their sins.
Posted by robe0419 at January 30, 2005 08:53 PM | TrackBackFunny, just yesterday I noted that the residents of my South Minneapolis block have shoveled their walks - well, most of them have anyway. But just a block or two to the north, which is not a "bad" neighborhood in terms of crime or poverty, almost nobody has shoveled. After walking a couple perilous blocks on the slippery sidewalks there, I opted for the middle of the street instead. Once I got back to my block, I was able to get back on the sidewalk. I'm not sure what divides the shovelers from the non-shovelers on such neat geographic lines.
The millionaires not shoveling, now, there's no excuse for that. I wonder how much you'd get from their insurers if you slipped and hurt yourself on your next jog. Forget the tedious fellowship applications my man!
As for the church not shoveling, in my experience, church folks are pretty good at praying that things will get done, but actually doing those things is another matter.
Posted by: Jim at January 30, 2005 09:16 PM