CLEARING THE SNOW: Denver has never before had so much snow sitting on the ground for so long (not in my lifetime, anyway). Snow here usually melts and goes away in a few days. I hope we will learn lessons from this snowstorm. We still have neighborhood streets everywhere that are piled with snow causing nearly impossible driving. After no plowing, the streets have become thick rutted ice. Only the highways and main streets are in good condition, and even the main streets still have too much snow to get to the sidewalks and bus stops. The individual cities are responsible for clearing the streets around bus stops, individual property owners are responsible for the sidewalks to the bus stops.

My proposal is to have contractors (as the city does now), but have little contractors with little plows and snow blowers to do the neighborhoods; have them on call to start plowing whenever the snow hits 3 or 4 inches or so. It might have to go through the Department of Transportation rather than through the local governments. Use the big equipment to haul away the snow if necessary.

Give these contractors (and any big equipment doing major streets) instructions to:

1. Do not block any cars.
2. Do not block any bus stops (50 feet clearance would be nice).
3. Do not block any driveways.
4. Do not block any sidewalks.
5. Do not block any sewer grates.

Of course if lots of cars are parked along a street it may not be possible to keep clear of everything, but even the act of moving the snow when only a few inches have fallen will help to keep the piles down. If these contractors have time within their contract, they could also clear sidewalks, especially for the elderly and disabled.

Colorado's Labor Peace Act has made the state a strange place within the labor movement/anti-labor movement. Our newly Democratic Legislature and Governor may move our state closer to either a Right to Work state or a Right to Union state. But I think that it will not really change much at all. It would make it easier to require Union Membership, but the truth is that when a given company has reached the point where a Union is necessary (evil management), they will have no problem getting MORE than 75% of the employees wanting a union anyway.

Some are saying that repeal of the Labor Peace Act will be "unfriendly to business," but that is not true. The Right to Work states are the states that businesses do NOT want to move to (states like Oklahoma and Arizona as opposed to states like Missouri and California, for instance). The Right to Union States have higher quality of life, as well as MUCH higher income.

WHAT IS FAIR Holiday Pay.
On December 22 and December 29, Denver was devastated by snow storms that made it impossible for most people to get to work. State and local officials recommended that people not travel except for an emergency. Because these days were on Fridays, RTD made sure that we would miss our Holiday Pay because we had "an unexcused absence" the day before Christmas and the day before New Years. We missed pay for one day, why take away the holiday as well? That is just mean spirited.

Okay, we are in the Transportation Business, we need to go and help the traveling public. MAYBE we could have gotten to work if RTD had provided a way to get there and get home again. The buses really weren't running very well, the 46 bus where I live did not go down Dahlia very well at all. Why don't we REALLY encourage employees to take public transportation with a guaranteed ride home program of our own, and pay for missed time if it is the bus's fault that we get there late. We could be your ears and eyes to the REAL bus and light rail service, you could make some of the money back with fines given to the sub-contractors (they really are the ones who miss the most!)

Okay, I have really been putting a bunch of things aside, soon I will talk about the elections, the snow storms, and anything else I can think of.