Snow Rant

One of the things that has happened to the city, and not me, since I've been here is what has come to be called "The Snowpacalypse," "Snowmaggedon," or "The Snowtorious B.I.G." In short, over the course of one week, about 30 inches of snow accumulated in Washington, DC and the surrounding areas. Being a northeast native (go Connecticut), I took a step back at the projections for large amounts of snow and thought "That's a lot of snow, but it shouldn't be that hard to clean up." Oh, how I was wrong.

After the first snowfall of 20 inches, the city was a wreck. Streets, sidewalks, everything remained unplowed, unshoveled, and completely snowed in. The one plow that DC has at its disposal got stuck outside the Cornell Center and had to be towed out. Sidewalks are a mess as no one wants to/knows how to shovel and put salt down. The entire city was handicapped for a week.

Staggering fact: Every day the US government is closed, there is $100 million ca$h dollarz in lost productivity. Because of the storm, the entire Federal Government was closed for 5 days. Do that math.

So now that roads have been pseudo-plowed, there are massive piles of snow and ice all over the city. On the sidewalks, in the middle of the road, everywhere. They literally have no idea what to do. Cars are blocked in by 7 foot high ice-hills and inept drivers (I'll get to them soon) attempt to shovel themselves out half-assedly.

Oh, and I live in a dog neighborhood, so every 3 feet there's a patch of yellow snow spitefully looking back at me reinforcing my hatred of the handling of the frozen water.

But it does make everything look stunningly beautiful.... not the yellow snow, just the snow in general.

You can't help but stop for a couple seconds and gaze at this city' amazing views covered in white fluff and reflect on the beauty that the snow has brought along with the destruction. On Friday, when I walked up to the Supreme Court to enter the then-snowy gates of Justice, I looked across the street at the Capital. I knew I made the right choice to spend a semester here.