SNOW REMOVAL

Minneapolis should plow curb-to-curb

Minnesota Public Radio interviewed the respective chiefs of Minneapolis' and St. Paul's snow removal efforts, and an extraordinary fact was disclosed: St. Paul plows curb-to-curb, but the Minneapolis chief said, "We don't do that because we don't want to get snow on sidewalks."

We've lost eight feet of street in front of my home in the Whittier neighborhood because of this failed approach. That is a lane of roadway we cannot spare.

The next time I hear that emergency equipment cannot get through because the snow has made the roads too narrow, or two-lane streets like Hennepin, Lake and Lyndale are reduced to single lanes and are jammed, I'll remember that it is not caused by winter but by Minneapolis policy.

The city has the equipment (a loader with blade and three dump trucks for each pass on my street), the budget, and a skilled, dedicated workforce.

Sadly, we lack leaders who respect the very hardworking, high-tax-paying, heavy-snow-shoveling Minneapolitans who expect their streets plowed curb-to-curb.

We will remove the snow on our sidewalks no matter how it got there, yesterday, now and always.

CLIFFORD GRULKE, MINNEAPOLIS

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I think owning corner property in northern cities is akin to sitting in the exit row on a passenger airliner: You assume certain responsibilities in facilitating the safe evacuation of other passengers.

As a corner property owner, we assume the responsibility of facilitating safe passage of pedestrians from one side of the street to another.

Please, go clear a path through the snowbank. It could be your mother trying to scale the dangerous slope.

MARY ELLEN KALUZA, MINNEAPOLIS

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I find it very ironic that the money was found, workers were hired and it took less than a week to remove the snow from TCF Bank Stadium, but there are big problems plowing out the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Why not put the people who were turned away from the shoveling effort at the stadium on duty clearing bus stops and other areas in the two cities? We really don't understand priorities.

CHAR ZARICH, COLUMBIA HEIGHTS

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I use Metro Transit on a regular basis due to being legally blind. It is the only mode of transportation I have.

Because I wait for the bus at shelters or stops, I'm aware that the city, businesses and even Metro Transit have done little to clear the huge messes of snow left by plows on sidewalks and corner curbs.

I've had to walk on and wait for buses on the sides of the streets instead of on the sidewalk.

Officials need to think about the safety of bus riders and wheelchair users who need to use sidewalks to safely take the bus.

If you live near bus shelters, please shovel the bus stops and corner curbs that have not been cleared by the city or Metro Transit. Bus riders would appreciate your help.

RACHEL EGGERT, ST. PAUL

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In James Lileks' Dec. 17 column "Get the shovel and the bragging rights," he asks: "When was the last time we had a huge blizzard followed by a huge blizzard?"

The Star Tribune itself had answered the question on Dec. 13 when it listed the top six snowstorms. Since our blizzard on Dec. 11, I have heard over and over again references to the huge Halloween snowstorm in 1991, which was huge, I admit.

However, I have not heard one comment about the Jan. 20-21, 1982, storm that dropped 17.4 inches, followed in less that 24 hours by the Jan. 22-23 storm that dumped 20 inches.

Though there was a pause, that is a total of more than 37 inches.

We lived in Bloomington at the time, and I remember not being shoveled out from the first when the second hit.

After seeing the mess in Minneapolis days after the 17.1 inches this time, I can only imagine what would have happened had there been another 20 inches on Monday.

TERRI MEAGHER, BURNSVILLE

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My sister had a great idea: If cities don't have any room for the snow that needs to be cleaned from the streets, the lake level for White Bear Lake is extremely low. Let's truck the snow over there, and maybe the water level will come up after the snow melts in the spring.

BONNIE BUNKOWSKE, CIRCLE PINES

Public employees

Pay and benefits don't reflect the free market

AFSCME Council 5's executive director, Eliot Seide, opines in his Dec. 16 commentary "Let's bust the myths about public unions" about the valuable role of public employees and the need to "stand together to fix the mess created by corporate greed."

Corporate greed is countered by public-sector greed. Both exist in the extreme and have contributed to "the mess."

Fortunately, neither represents the norm.

That public-sector services are essential and valuable is not in question. But, the real value of all goods and services is best determined by the free market.

Because of union dues as a source of campaign contributions and their collective voter turnout, public-sector employees and their union bosses disproportionately affect our legislators' perspectives and priorities.

Thus, an actual "myth" is that the compensation and benefits of our public-sector employees reflect free-market realities.

GENE DELAUNE, NEW BRIGHTON

Bob feller

Hall of Fame pitcher inspires baseball poetry

There was a young lad from Van Meter,

They called him the Iowa heater;

He was the strikeout king

At age seventeen

And they say there was nobody fleeter.

Bobby Feller was his name,

Throwing fire was his game;

With all that heat and all that flame

He pitched his way to the Hall of Fame.

The last of the legends just passed away,

He was the best back in his day;

Bet he's pitching with that same old steam

For the Heavenly All Stars baseball team.

BOB HUGE, EDINA