Cars and Snow Removal
Nearly all of the apartment rentals I looked at downtown had the same response to the question "Is there covered parking?", which was "No. You won't find a place with covered parking downtown." This was about 95% true -- I found only a few such places downtown.

Having lived in Cambridge for 6 years, on my way into MIT in the morning, I would pass people digging out their cars from under a foot of wet snow, using the seemingly inadequate stick stowed for the purpose to alternately brush accumulation from the roof and crack ice off the windshield and windows. This would be followed by frantic shifting reverse/drive, rocking the vehicle back and forth to get it out from compacted snowfall beneath the tires. Never a once did I hear these people absently singing as they pleasantly went about their work. Car diggers were surly -- resigned, but surly -- and more so than the usual Boston surly.
And the dubious prize for the unpleasant task of digging your car out after a snow storm is driving a car which is freezing cold.

Oh, but that's half. Snow in Montreal is 84 inches, compared with 44 inches in Boston. The snow removal technology in Montreal is more developed in Boston, which was entirely snow-plow and bulldozing into trucks. After major snowfall in Montreal, the city sends out groups of about 7 trucks -- usually 2-3 tiny bulldozers to clear the sidewalks, a large bulldozer which pushes street snow to the side and then there is a huge truck with a chopping unit in front, about 6 feet tall. The chopper runs through the piles made by the large bull dozer, and the snow is pushed into a tub and out a chute on top; meanwhile, a large freight truck runs along side, and the chute shoots the snow into the freight truck, which carts it all away. Usually, the group has 2-3 freight trucks to keep the chopper fully employed.

Oh, but how do they get all this done with cars on the street? Prior to the snow cleaning, a truck drives through the neighborhood with a piercing, undulating horn. When you hear that horn, you have 12 hours to move your car before the snow team comes by (they also post signs so that the affected areas are clear). You have to move your car to an unaffected street, and just as everyone else is doing so too. Otherwise, they tow your car and leave it someplace on a nearby street (and you get to go find it). Oh, and they cite you. I've heard one in my neighborhood as late as 11pm.

So, all this bears with Gail Samuel's advice to me when I said that I was looking for an apartment with indoor parking, but that I was bending on that point because it seemed hard to find. Gail, who had lived in Minnesota, replied "Oh, you want to place a strong premium on that." So, I did, and was glad when the apartment I most liked downtown also had attached indoor heated parking.

Even so, I still get to wake up when I hear the undulating horn. Of course, I get to forget about it, turn over, and go back to sleep.

- posted by Unknown @ 12/28/2003 07:39:00 AM