I love the snow. Absolutely love it. Grew up in Southern California, so I went camping in the snow but never LIVED with snow.

My first experience with LIVING with snow was, ironically, a White Christmas in Kyoto Japan. GORGEOUS! Japanese architecture seems designed to look gorgeous in the snow. Walked all over snow covered Kyoto that first snowfall in a place I lived.

Most New Yorkers I know hate it when it snows. They say the snow gets dirty too fast and it becomes impossible to walk and all the people who refuse to clean up their dog's shit leave frozen little presents for pedestrians to step on weeks later when the snow melts. All true, but by and large I love looking up at the snow falling through the light of the street lamps, love hearing the snow hitting the window as I sleep and love seeing the snow on the ground before anyone steps on it.

But today, NYC SUCKED in the snow, culminated in iced over stairs at train stations that no one was willing to deal with despite the fact that it made the stairs almost impassable.

First off, in NYC the corners of intersections get all the snow from the streets piled up, making it hard to cross the street. Fine, the road is clear, but the drains are now covered, so the street floods, and pedestrians can't cross without great effort. I used to see that as a minor irritant, but you try pushing a stroller through NYC city streets after a snow. It is terrible! I can only imagine what it is like for someone in a wheelchair or an elderly person. What's with NYC? Can't they figure out how to clear the corners? It's not like no one walks here. I understand that after one day you can't expect them to be cleared. But there are times they don't get cleared away for weeks, except for that tiny path hordes of people have to squeeze past that are formed by the pedestrians wading through themselves.

Every time I have to push a stroller through NYC streets after a snow it infuriates me. It all seems so half assed. Sections of streets cleared, others not. Piles of snow in the least convenient spots. Handicapped and elderly people must be nearly home-bound for days after a snow. But fine...there is something emblematic of NYC in this: rapidly and effectively clearing the main streets but making the corners almost impassible in the process. Fine.

But then we came to the train station at Union St. and 4th Ave. in Brooklyn. I first worried when I noticed that there was snow right up to the stairs with no path cleared. Okay...maybe they cleared the stairs but no path to them. No...people were tottering dangerously as they hit the iced up stairs. Solid ice. Okay, I have encountered partly iced stairs before and know the technique. But these stairs were solidly iced AND I had the stroller. But I tried. Lifted the stroller, gently set foot on the first step. Fine. Felt good. Took another step...and almost slipped and fell, barely catching myself without letting go of the stroller. No way I was risking this. Checked the other stairs, just as bad. People could barely make it down while hanging on with both hands, let alone get a stroller down.

Joy watched the stroller as I went into the station to complain. I realize it isn't the guy in the booth who does this, so I wasn't going to yell at HIM. But I did want to mention it. So I told him the stairs were iced up and dangerous and almost lost my son in a stroller trying to get down. He shrugged. Fine, I know the standard "What do you want me to do about it" look. Though I think he might just want to make sure someone higher up knows about this before he has to call an ambulence for someone who falls. So I reiterated that I realized it isn't his job but who could I call. He shrugged again and gestured up on the wall where the station master's number was. Okay, I took note of the number.

When I got back up to my wife she suggested trying 311 instead. 311 is one of the best ideas Bloomberg had (and one of the few I agree with) and let me tell you those operators usually figure out a way to help you. Well, after being on hold a bit, I got one of those great 311 operators. She found me the proper number for MTA complaints...but she, sounding a bit disappointed in having to tell me this, said that they are closed until Monday. I emphasized that this was really a major safety issue and EVERYONE who went down those stairs had trouble hanging on. She said she'd have to put me on hold again. Fine. She came back sounding even more disappointed saying the only other possibility was calling the station master, but they won't be available until Monday either.

So, if there are iced over stairs making a station unsafe (and hence the city liable for a lawsuit, I might add) you are shit out of luck if it's a weekend. Sounds like a HUGE liabilty risk for the city, not to mention irresponsible. For us it meant we had to walk to the Atlantic St. Station some distance away where there was an elevator (with no path to it through the snow I might add). So we had to trudge through more flooded intersections with piles of snow bloking the crosswalks because our local station had iced up stairs on the weekend.

If anyone fell on those stairs I just want them to know I am more than willing to state that someone tried to get the problem taken care of and the city had no process to deal with it. It might help your lawsuit.

And thank you to the 311 operator. You did try!

And for the record, as we came home (using a different subway line) it had started snowing again...and I still enjoyed watching it fall through the light of the street lamps.

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