Dan Mihalopoulos’s story about how often Ald. Edward Burke’s dead-end stretch of 51st Street gets plowed, relative to the snow-clogged streets of his constituents, misses one key point. It’s not about political clout, but about public safety, or at least the safety of one “public servant.”
Ald. Burke’s street needs to be repeatedly plowed so his squad of Chicago Police Department bodyguards can drive safely and swiftly to his home to keep him safe (and to chauffeur him around, hold his coat, bring him coffee). The CPD exists to serve and protect, and Ald. Burke was subject to death threats back, let’s see, in the 1980s! The city would be utterly wasting the money it pays these police officers if they were spinning their wheels through unplowed snow on the way to the Honorable Alderman’s humble abode.
As for why 51st Street is designated an “arterial” road even though it goes nowhere, the answer is also simple: it’s an artery from which power flows.
Bill Savage, Rogers Park
SEND LETTERS TO: letters@suntimes.com (Please include what neighborhood or town you live in.)
Newspaper carrier, 4, mail carrier, 0
The snow began falling in Chicago on Saturday night, and by Sunday morning it filled the main streets and side streets. Monday morning was no different, with the exception that by then the main streets were accessible to traffic.
I live on North Harding in the Irving Park neighborhood. During this time of hazardous roadways, a petite young woman with a small vehicle was able to deliver my newspaper without delay. I prayed for her, especially on Sunday morning when the plows were still trying to get the main streets cleared. I am amazed at how she managed to drive her car down our side street. On Monday, she again delivered my paper without a problem. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the same thing.
Yet the U.S. Postal Service, with numerous employees and state-of-the-art vehicles and equipment, has not delivered our mail since Saturday.
Wonder what the petite young woman delivering my paper gets paid as opposed to the employees of the post office. Work ethic?
Beverly Birch, Irving Park
