Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) They’ve heard Mayor Muriel Bowser say it ad nauseam.
“Business owners, you are required by law to remove snow from your sidewalks. We will begin to enforce the commercial sidewalk snow clearing provisions of the law, so you must get out and remove snow from your sidewalks immediately,” she said at a Tuesday press conference at the Reeves Center.
Local business owners just a few blocks from the Reeves Center on 14th Street NW said that was one of the first things they did, but they’re still waiting on the city to clear snow from local roads and parking areas before they can get everything back to normal.
“It’s just crippling us,” said Flowers on 14th owner Jeff Fritz. “90% of our business is delivery.” He said local roads are in such poor condition, their usual 80 deliveries a day have been reduced to five as of Tuesday afternoon.
“And there’s no parking,” he said. “As you can see, the meters out front are nothing but a snow bank.”
“We don’t have any parking spaces,” said Batch 13 liquor store owner George Grigolia. Asked when he thinks he’ll get them back, “Who knows. Maybe in a week if it melts. I don’t know…this didn’t happen last time. I think they should prepare much better.”
“People can’t park. Trash can’t get picked up. We can’t get deliveries,” said Logan Hardware manager Tony Miles. “This is where the shovels used to be. We were supposed to get more tomorrow, but we may not because the alley’s still not plowed. There’s still two feet out back.” He said they’ve started selling garden shovels and those are just about gone.
Mayor Bowser has indicated the city does not plow alleys. “We are really dependent on Mother Nature to help those melt, and neighbors who band together to clear an entrance to the alleys,” she said at that press conference.
“If push comes to shove, we’ll double park our truck in front of the street and carry it in,” Miles said. “But we’re going to get our stuff.”
Copyright 2016 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: Steve Burns/WMAL)
