We have to drive, and they have to plow – Twin Cities

We’ve had a time of it this winter, oh boy, our fits and starts with snow plowing compelling in all of us serious grousing and wailing laments of frustration and anger. Driving side streets is like holding on in an airplane suffering jarring turbulence, to the point of prayer. There is almost enough debris on the streets to make a complete car.

Short of an engine, I’ve seen wheels and exhaust systems and a couple of fenders.

A theory has developed. They want us out of our cars, they being the political class distracted by loftier goals than a clean-shaven street. It’s tempting to go there. Our leaders are uniformly trying to save the Earth and they believe, often hysterically, that internal combustion is the mechanism of planetary doom.

We are admonished by our betters to walk, ride bicycles or use public transportation. Walk? I can’t get the recycling bin to the end of the driveway without attaching spikes to my shoes, much less walk to work. Bicycling? Hardly.

Public transportation? Well, if you have a permit to carry, I suppose.

But I don’t buy the theory. St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and his people know perfectly well we have to drive. It’s more likely that we are short of plows and drivers compared to years past and probably just as true that even though plowing doesn’t have the virtuous glamor of creating another Cabinet position concerning equity and inclusion, they know they have to plow.

And it isn’t the snowplow driver’s fault. When they are turned loose, they do the job. They just aren’t turned loose often enough. If I’m not mistaken, the rutted nature of the side streets is the result of not taking advantage of the warm few days following the last significant snow when it all turned to plowable slush. They should have been ordered out to make another pass. That order was tardy. By the time they made a second pass, they were just shoving ice around. That would have been the decision of the Public Works director, Sean Kershaw.

Now, I don’t know why Carter hired Kershaw in 2020 and I doubt if Carter would tell me. To his credit, Kershaw was up front with every newsgatherer who stuck a microphone in his face. You might even argue that Kershaw was thrown under the bus to do the apologizing that just as typically should have been the role of the mayor.

According to the city’s literature, Kershaw most recently was vice president at the Wilder’s Foundation’s Center for Communities. He also worked for the city’s Department of Planning and Economic Development and spent years with the Citizens League.

“I’m excited to be part of an incredible team,” Kershaw said at his hiring. “The future of Public Works embodies all of the city’s values of equity, resilience and innovation.”

Great, but there isn’t a shovel in this guy’s history, much less a plow.

I’m often confronted by people who say, “Well, smart guy, what would you do?” I’d get rid of all the jobs created that cannot be measured for success and I would buy more plows, hire more drivers and make St. Paul the best-plowed city in the country. We should be. Winter is nothing new.

There is a second theory out there, that we’ll be forced out of our cars because they can’t handle the damaged streets. I don’t buy that one, either. We just keep buying bigger and bigger vehicles. We’ll drive tanks if we have to, much to the chagrin of those who foolishly try to save us from ourselves.

Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com. Soucheray’s “Garage Logic” podcast can be heard at garagelogic.com.