Postview: Inept cleanup is annual

On press day, the snow was back, and it is likely to still be there no matter when you are reading this.

It has become an annual routine to decry the quality of the city's response to inclement winter weather, but it remains one of the strongest signs of incompetence at Prague City Hall past and present. In fact, the new mayor doesn't think it's even the city's responsibility.

After more than 20 years of democratic rule, the capital city remains unable to properly shovel its sidewalks - a job entrusted to 10-year-olds by families across much of the world.

Here's a suggestion. Pass a city-wide ordinance requiring business and homeowners to clean the sidewalks in front of their property. Fine anybody who fails to do so 5,000 Kč. Use the same police who walk the streets writing parking tickets to enforce the sidewalk ordinance. Use proceeds from fines to pay city workers to clear snow from elsewhere - places where there aren't shops, from public property and so on.

One wonders if there is anybody interested in shoveling sidewalks for a few hours per day after a storm for an hourly wage. Perhaps one of the 14 homeless people who died (with 66 more who were hospitalized) of hypothermia during recent months? Maybe a part of the 50 percent of the Roma minority who are now entirely outside the potential work force? Or how about the existing public workers whose salaries will be slashed 10 percent next year?

If these problems were limited to a remote part of town, it might be understandable, but as late as Dec. 10, even the area in front of the main train station resembled the post-apocalyptic 1995 film Waterworld. Most of the snow that created the Hlavní nádraží mess had fallen a full-week earlier.

Since Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda does not think that is City Hall's responsibility, perhaps the shady tender deal that gave a single contractor responsibility for cleaning the entire city is?

While the scenes of heroic old women lifting suitcases over their heads to traverse the slushy mix of water, ice, grime and cigarette butts en route to train platforms were inspiring, one wonders how inspiring it was for visitors whose first image of the city was that abomination. Old Town Square is a little less beautiful soaked to the bone by a subzero slurry.

This isn't Athens or Barcelona. It snows every year, and yet there is still no plan for dealing with snowfall, nor even an annual portion of the city budget dedicated to coping with snow and ice cleanup.

Budget cuts and austerity measures are a ready-made excuse for City Hall not to take on long-neglected responsibilities, but we wonder what the cost is in terms of the number of injuries, hospitalizations and increased insurance.

In the end, there is only one explanation for the life and limb Praguers must continously and needlessly risk on the streets each winter: continued incompetence at the top in City Hall.