Weather Wimps
The Post’s Steven Pearlstein has an editorial in today’s paper about our snow-phobic region:
Can someone explain to me why the capital of the richest and most powerful country in the world needs to be shut down by the mere threat of an eight-inch snowstorm? Are people in Buffalo or Providence so much smarter or tougher that a routine event that barely causes them to miss a step brings Washington to its knees?
While I am no fan of snow, I’m certainly amazed at how quickly we do close the schools and cripple the businesses instead of providing adequate training for bus drivers and other school personnel in case of snow.
You can read the rest of Pearlstein’s commentary at WashingtonPost.com
Tell me about it. When I first moved here the city was crippled for 7 days by the big blizzard of 93 because the District only owned 2 (count em 2!) operating snow-plows. Thankfully they’ve been building up snow battling resources ever since, but it still gets a little silly around here at the first glimpse of powder.
It’s pathetic. I moved here and was amazed of how the city reacted. They had people rushing to supermarkets buying food and supplies. But the real issue here is that a lot of people don’t know how to drive in the snow which results in a traffic nightmare. I would really hate to see what would happen if it we had a ‘Boston-winter’.