Max argues semantics.

I myself would like to see the word “Snow Emergency” banished and replaces with the more accurate “car ticketing and towing emergency.”

Carfree in Minneapolis has a grander plan.

[I]t took me a while to figure out that the aggressive snowplowing here, the snow emergencies, had less to do with safety and almost everything to do with parking.

…I say that we should just save all those hundreds and thousands of dollars and just get rid of the snow emergencies. We should let the snow pile up on the edges of streets to make it harder for people to find a place to park. Everything we do that makes it a little less easy to drive makes it easier to walk, and makes our city a better place for people.

I’ve never before lived in a place where plowing has been an issue or had such an impact on my life. Honestly, now that I’m living out in the ‘burbs, I don’t worry too much about it. I’m sure whenever I move back into the city that my fervor over the issue will directly correlate to whether or not I have offstreet parking. I also like to think that whenever I move back into the city that I’ll be more inclined to use public transportation (hopefully while my car is parked offstreet).

As a resident, though, I think I’d be just as worried about leaving my car behind (in the event that I don’t have off-street parking) as I would be about where to put it when I get somewhere. Because I will need to get to work, which will probably still be out in the ‘burbs, which means I can’t just leave my car under all the snow that falls on it. And we all know what happens to “abandoned” cars.

Related posts:

1. Snow emergency. Again.
2. 348-SNOW works. But this is a definite improvement.
3. Snow Emergency
4. Snow = tow
5. St. Paul Cops, Eventually