Editorial: Snow gives cities tougher challenge

Star Tribune Editorial

The storm that plopped half a meter of snow on the Twin Cities Friday night and Saturday was the worst in nearly 20 years.

Yet it interrupted vehicular mobility for barely more than a day in burgs such as Plymouth, Golden Valley, Edina and Cottage Grove. Residents there and in other metro suburbs reported that their neighborhood streets had been plowed curb-to-curb by midday Sunday.

Meanwhile, residents of Minneapolis and St. Paul were singing the noplow blues. One reason schools in both central cities closed Monday and Tuesday was a fear that school buses would get stuck on unplowed streets.

By midday Monday, as their first snow emergency declaration was about to expire, Minneapolis officials announced that snow emergency 2.0 would commence overnight into this morning.

St. Paul had announced a second emergency on Sunday. One plowing cycle was not adequate to the challenge posed by the fifth-deepest snowfall in Twin Cities annals, officials in both cities admitted.

Why were city crews flummoxed by a storm that suburban street-keepers handled with comparative ease? That's not a new question in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

But it's a question being asked this week with fresh urgency and frustration -- especially in Minneapolis, where a surprisingly large property tax increase in 2011 already has many residents in a mood to find fault with City Hall.

Elected officials in both big cities ought to reexamine their plowing policies in the wake of nature's latest test. They'll also be well-served by stepping up communication with citizens during snow emergencies -- something both mayors R.T. Rybak and Chris Coleman provided somewhat belatedly Monday afternoon with back-to-back news conferences.

City dwellers who envy the cleaner streets across municipal lines should know that plowing is tougher on the city side. Minneapolis Public Works Director Steve Kotke explained: Streets are narrower. Traffic is heavier. Pedestrians and bicyclists are more numerous. So are stop signs and traffic lights. "You can't barrel along at 30 mph," he said.

The biggest difference is the presence of cars parked on city streets. In major portions of Minneapolis and St. Paul, off-street parking is not available to all residents.

Many suburbs ban on-street parking during winter months; others ban it after snowfalls. That's simply not possible in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

What made the weekend's storm so daunting was that many city dwellers found they could not move their cars to comply with emergency parking restrictions. The snow was too deep.

In recognition of that problem, Rybak quietly decided Sunday that towing fees would be waived on cars removed from Minneapolis streets during the first snow emergency -- a move he waited to announce until Monday, to avoid deterring citizens' efforts on Sunday to dig out their cars if possible.

In St. Paul, Coleman directed tow trucks to show restraint but wasn't waiving fees.

Neither mayor complained that their snow management efforts were hampered by inadequate funding, staffing or equipment. Both cities put plow operators to work around the clock, and took advantage of plows loaned from other jurisdictions as well as their own.

Still, after years of cuts to city budgets, the adequacy of central city snow management ought to be reviewed soon after the plowing finally ceases.

Among the questions the latest storm raised is whether the cities have the right mix of equipment. Smaller, more nimble machines might be better suited than large trucks for more densely populated precincts.

As both mayors said, municipal governments and their citizens share responsibility for a city's well-being. In the central cities, that cooperative spirit was put to the test by the weekend storm, and likely will be again before this still-young winter is over.

Elected officials will help their cities pass that test if they take seriously the feedback they receive about how the latest storm was handled, make adjustments as needed, and convey the information citizens need to keep doing their part.