I'm reminded of a massive snow year in Calgary. The City blew through its...

Jefferey Cave - 2017-07-09 13:19:11-0400 - Updated: 2017-07-09 13:19:11-0400

I'm reminded of a massive snow year in Calgary. The City blew through its budget, then its reserve fund, ... it simply ran out of ploughing money. Two months into a 5 month season, they announced that they were stopping.

The thing about Calgary, is a lot of guys have outdoor machinery (quads, trucks, and bobcats). Certain streets started getting cleared by the local guy with a bobcat. My father went out and bought a quad, just so he could join the local suburban snow ploughing gang (they had t-shirts made up).

Then The City starting cracking down... it's illegal to clear The City owned streets. Tickets started to get handed out. Equipment got seized, and the car accidents started happening again.

Originally shared by

Nila Jones - 2017-07-09 13:36:58-0400

The city was, of course, afraid of getting sued if a vigilante snowplower screwed up. That could cost millions. It's hard to find where to start sometimes, when changing complex interconnected systems. But we can figure it out.

Jefferey Cave - 2017-07-09 13:53:55-0400

Precisely!

It demonstrate how people will work co-operatively in the abscence of formal government; and further demonstrates why governments often fail to acheive their stated purpose and end up causing further issues.

Jefferey Cave - 2017-07-09 13:56:25-0400

I always had a healthy respect for Mayor Nenshi's comments during The Floods (I paraphrase): "I'll probably get in trouble for this, but go help your neighbour if he needs help. Don't wait, go help."

Caroline Lobban - 2017-07-09 21:25:35-0400

But.. Crosswalks are Letty obviously placed...

I LOVE Nenshi. I wish we could have that kind of common sense and encouraged sense of nom-denominational community here.

Jefferey Cave - 2017-07-10 06:11:31-0400

+Caroline Lobban I left Calgary before Nenshi got in, but my impression (from the 3 times I've seen anything about him) has been much the same as yours: he's just a sensible guy.