Chicago Weather Alert: Chicago's Side Streets Wait For Their Turn To Get Plowed During Persistent Snow
CHICAGO (CBS) -- While Chicago's snow plows have spent all day clearing the city's main streets and DuSable Lake Shore Drive, the long-persistent snowfall Wednesday left the city's side streets caked with snow.
CBS 2's Chris Tye spent the day in Hyde Park, where about 8 inches of snow had fallen as of the late afternoon. Located along the lakefront, a checklist starts to form for local residents when it snows, as winds kick up and create a snow-globe effect as snow is blown off rooftops, and side streets go unplowed for hours.
Ambulances, pizza trucks, and school buses tried their hand at navigating unplowed streets at 50th Street and Blackstone Avenue. While the street has been passable, it's dicey. It's also home to Kenwood Academy High School.
Even with that prominent institution in the neighborhood, there was no special attention to clearing the side streets it sits upon.
One student who drives to school said the hardest part of this school day is the commute home. The big question was: would she show up tomorrow?
"I don't want to drive, but I don't know. We'll see," Kenwood junior Daymoni Holmes said. "I would say about 40 percent out of 100 of kids was not here today. A lot of people won't be here tomorrow, as they were not today."
Only about half the student body at Kenwood Academy made it to school because of the snowstorm.
Residents in Hyde Park and Kenwood said the snowy side streets are a nuisance, but far from the worst they've seen. And indeed, this snowstorm has not been on or near the level of the blizzards Chicago experienced in 1967, 1979, 1999, 2011, or 2015 - and actually is not even a blizzard at all.
Still, given how wet and heavy the snow was, some people were not comfortable shoveling it.
Compounding the issue is that in Hyde Park, winds off the lake move big snow mounds and undermine everyone's progress after they have shoveled and plowed.
"Usually, I would do this whole stretch for my neighbors – we'd kind of take turns. But today, it's just too tiring," said Diane Cory. I'm only going to do my little session."
Still, Cory also said she personally likes snow – and took time to stop and look at the beauty of it all.
Lots of neighbors have helping neighbors dig out, with no sign of any "dibs" going on to protect prime parking spots.
Often a staple of snowstorms in the city, dibs are a rarity in Hyde Park and Kenwood.