There's Snow Place Like Home

This picture was taken in Hudson during the Great Blizzard of 1888. That blizzard occurred in March, so it's unlikely that any more snow accumulated on top of this snow before spring arrived that year. This winter, though, we've had snow on the ground since a day after Christmas, and new snow keeps coming, piling onto the snow already there, and the city is struggling under the burden of it.  

A snowstorm is a time when people should--and usually do--pull together. It's always a nice neighborhood-bonding ritual when folks head out with their shovels to dig their cars out of the snow and repark them on the cleared side of the street. Most people understand instinctively the logic of parking on the side that the snowplows have already cleared to allow the plows to clear the side where the cars had been parked, but somehow the rules of officially declared snow emergencies seem to confound everything and make citizens feel confused, angry, and even victimized by their own city government. This winter, just about everyone who parks a car on the street has a story about being ticketed or towed--or being rousted in the middle of the night to save a car from being towed.

So, for everyone feeling confused, angry, or victimized, the Communications Specialist for the Hudson Police Department explains the rules once again in today's Register-Star: "Snow know-how." 

We can all breathe a sigh of relief that the current snow emergency is supposed to be over at 8 p.m. tonight--at which time cars should be parked on the even side of the street.