From the March 7, 2015 Buffalo News: Buffalo and area municipalities must commit to doing a better job of clearing sidewalks of snow Buffalo News Editorial Board March 7, 2015 page A6 http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/buffalo-news-editorials/buffalo-and-area-municipalities-must-commit-to-doing-a-better-job-of-clearing-sidewalks-of-snow-20150307 Buffalo was first settled by Europeans in the late 1700s. Ever since then and, presumably, for millennia before, it has been subject to ferocious winter storms. Can it really be that more than 200 years later, the city and its suburban neighbors still haven’t figured out how to keep sidewalks open? It’s challenging, to be sure, but it’s also necessary and a predictable need. People have died in recent years because the sidewalks were choked with snow. In 2001, three teenagers will killed walking on Niagara Falls Boulevard. In 2010, a 29-year-old man was killed walking on Transit Road in West Seneca. And, in fairness, municipal leaders appear to understand the need and are looking for ways to meet it. It’s just that the region has more then enough winters under its snowbelt to have come up with workable solutions. Some leaders observe that this winter has been especially difficult for cities, businesses and property-owners to keep up with the onslaught of snow, especially given the bitterly cold temperatures that have accompanied it. It’s a fair point, but it only helps to answer this year’s difficulties. It does nothing to explain why, year after year, there are problems, sometimes lethal ones, in keeping the sidewalks clear. One idea gaining useful traction is for Buffalo to adopt Rochester’s system of clearing sidewalks. The idea, broached two years ago in an online petition, is gaining new traction, with more than 550 signatures on the petition. Read more: http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/buffalo-news-editorials/buffalo-and-area-municipalities-must-commit-to-doing-a-better-job-of-clearing-sidewalks-of-snow-20150307