December 20, 2007
Councilor Turner Won't Shovel His Sidewalk
Some City Councilors have complained about the mayor's blame game regarding the snowstorm, but one city councilor might be contributing to the problem. WBZ sent cameras to Chuck Turner's house in Roxbury, where his sidewalk wasn't shoveled.
It gets better. Turner said that he's not going to shovel it and "claims people in his neighborhood don't use sidewalks." Well, where do they walk, then? Do they float? If a sidewalk is on the street, it's safe to assume that someone is using it.
He even said it was a "cultural practice" that the sidewalks weren't used. Turner's 72-year-old neighbor, Rodney Brown, called that bull. Brown has been shoveling. Rodney Brown rules.
With two possible cases of people getting hit by snowplows when they were forced to walk in the road, Turner might want to use that shovel.
Bostonist has an idea. Now that it is the holiday season, we suggest sending snow shovels to City Hall. Just drop 'em off over there or take them to Turner's home. Given his distinctive facial hair, he can't be hard to miss in his neighborhood. Snow shovels aren't pricey. If you're the Internet-shopping type, you can get a nifty one for $10 at Amazon.
His City Hall address is 5th Floor, 1 City Hall Plaza, Boston, 02201. Remember, it's the holiday season, and perhaps a few shovels will remind him of his duty to his neighbors.
If you've already maxed out the credit card and cannot donate a snow shovel to Councilor Turner, e-mail him via the City Council website.
Image of Chuck Turner from his City Council page.
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Citing "cultural practice" has to be one of the lamest excuses I've ever heard from an elected official. He should have just admitted he was being lazy and left it at that. I generally think that accusations of "playing the race card" are overdone, but it definitely applies in this instance. I love the response to Turner quoted by WBZ from a Jamal Crawford, who said, "I'm a 20 year student of African Culture both all through the Diaspora and particularly here in America. I've never heard of any kind of cultural significance that I know of myself. If the inference is that somehow black people, if that's what he meant by it, don't use the sidewalk, that's definitely not true in my experience."
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This is sad. His neighbors might want to get some of our "Thank you for shoveling" cards at thankyouforshoveling.org. We're a non-profit, and this is all free. And designed to ease tensions among neighbors about this very issue -- unshoveled sidewalks.