Frustrated residents tired of slushy streets

More than a day after the snow stopped falling, some Philadelphia community leaders are frustrated with the slushy snow and slippery ice still clogging residential streets.

More than a day after the snow stopped falling, some Philadelphia community leaders are frustrated with the slushy snow and slippery ice still clogging residential streets. [audio:100212LFCOMM.mp3]

Some neighborhood leaders are angry, others say the city’s doing it’s best given the record-breaking snowfall.

Sandy Salzman runs the New Kensington Community Development Corporation.

Salzman: Our streets are terrible but I will say yesterday a plow came down and made an attempt on my block.  But that’s the first time we’ve seen somebody in the last week.

Salzman says most of the major arteries are open.

Salzman: Frankford Avenue was fairly clean today. It’s a little bit slushy, but you can certainly drive on it.  Aramingo Avenue is clean, Girard Avenue has a lane open in both directions but all of the side streets are barely passable.

Salzman says given how much snow fell, the city has done a remarkable job.

Mininall: could see us not getting out this till April cause a lot of streets doesn’t get sunlight.”

That’s Diona Mininall, the Community Coordinator at the Nicetown CDC Community Center.  She says the little blocks in her neighborhood still need a lot of work.

Mininall: I don’t want to say the city’s doing a bad job.  They’re doing what they can do but when the snow started they should have did a massive city shutdown then and tried to get to as many little blocks as they could then.  And it’s quite obvious they didn’t do that.

It’s no picnic south of Market Street either, even though Mayor Nutter closed city offices and urged citizens to stay home during the storm

Brown: He kept people home for two days so he could clean up.  I don’t know where he cleaned up — it wasn’t down here.

That’s Karen Brown, the President of the Southwark Civic Association.

Here’s her take on the streets in her neighborhood.

Brown: They’re just like the day it snowed. This is the part of South Philly many politicians forget. We’re not the upper crust.  We’re not on the nice stretch of East Passyunk with nice homes.  We’re just the row homes where people work everyday, they raise their kids.

Brown says if crews don’t come to clear her neighborhood’s streets soon, she’s going to do what she’s done in the past: collect a few bucks from each of her neighbors and hire a private plow.