Last week snow
arrived in the city of Seattle. With it came another eye
opening dose of Emerald City silliness.
Where most major cities are prepared
for inclement weather, Seattle prefers the laissez faire
approach. Like a toddler standing with a load in its pants,
the city first remains motionless with an embarrassed
look on its face and then closes its eyes and pretends
the whole thing never happened. Pathetic.
Sure, snow
in Seattle is a rare occurrence but does that mean the
best way to deal with the situation is to completely cut
50 or so busy bus routes, remove all articulated buses
from service, plow practically no streets save a very
few major thoroughfares, and otherwise do nothing that
remotely involves keeping the city moving? Of course not.
But this is Seattle, so that is precisely what happened.
Anyone ever hear of salt? Or how about
shoveling a few sidewalks? Or maybe we could get some
general contractors to pick up the slack for the few snowplows
the city owns? Nah. Let’s just do nothing instead.
As for our self-determined citizenry,
they chose a similar bit of inaction: they stayed home
entirely. Downtown corporate offices were vacant on Thursday
as commuters claimed they had no way of arriving safely
to work. For those who did arrive on Thursday, they departed
early and then called out on Friday, rightly disgruntled
at their co-workers who stayed home the day before. Those
who went to work on Friday but missed Thursday were surprised
to find their offices near empty when they arrived and
of course, decided they needed to leave early, too. Meanwhile,
service industry jobs remained business as usual with
nary an employee even considering calling out for the
day. Ridiculous.
This isn’t my story, this is
the story I’ve heard over and over again from everyone
I’ve spoken with on the subject. But honestly, I’m
not insinuating that all this Seattle snow business needs
to be remedied and right quick. On the contrary, I find
the whole situation astoundingly amusing.
Way to go, Seattle. You’re all
right in my book.
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