Unplowed Sidewalks! Shock! Horror!

One thing Shawville does very well is plow its streets, usually within hours of snow falling and often while the snow is falling. The same goes for its sidewalks, which are invariably plowed within a day or so. Which is why the scene above is so perplexing. The new sidewalks along Route 148, which took most of the summer to build, remain resolutely unplowed today. This is not normal for Shawville.

I can think of two possible reasons why it’s not being plowed. (Though really, they’re guesses.) One is turf: the highway is plowed by the province; its sidewalks may not fall within the town’s jurisdiction. The other is habit: the new sidewalks haven’t been added to the routine, and no one has yet complained. I suppose we should call up the town and nudge them on this. Because the highway doesn’t have a shoulder to walk along any more, leaving the sidewalks unplowed is actually worse — and by worse I mean less safe — than the way things were before they were built.

(On an unrelated note: no, the iPod touch’s camera does not seem to yield very good results.)