24 Hours After Snowstorm, Residents On Buried Side Streets Feel Forgotten
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Department of Streets and Sanitation snow plows moved to the side streets Tuesday evening, but many Chicagoans were still dealing with a struggle.
Twenty-four hours after the storm hit, people in some buried neighborhoods told us they feel forgotten.
As CBS 2's Jermont Terry reported, getting out of a parking space on a side street was a challenge with all the snow on the ground no matter where you live. Many around the city had not yet even attempted to deal with their parked cars – and digging them out was bound to be a challenge at minimum.
And while plowing on side streets was in progress Tuesday night, many streets had yet to be touched as of 10 p.m.
Pamela Moore was out once again late Tuesday shoveling her walk. It was about all she could clear – with her sport-utility vehicle buried under snow on the street.
"We're stuck," Moore said. "So we would appreciate it if someone comes out and plow our street too."
Moore lives in South Shore, off 75th Street and Baldwin Avenue. Her street is often mistaken for an alley, but it is not one.
"The main roads are number one - we know," she said. "But the side streets are too, because we can't get to the main roads if we don't get the side streets as well."
We spotted crews in Bronzeville trying to offer a little relief. Outside Dunbar Vocational Career Academy, 3000 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., city crews were scooping up and dumping snow into trucks to haul away all the mounds.
Meanwhile back in South Shore, Alraynita Coleman spotted the first plow going down her street since the snow stopped.
"And what is it, after 7 p.m.? Just came tonight," Coleman said.
Coleman knows it was a big storm, but she considers it no excuse.
"We should be prepared to take care of this already, and being that we're in COVID, it's like things should be up and prepared and ready," she said. "So it should not have been a lackluster effort."
And it's not just the South Side. Even side streets in the South Loop were covered Tuesday afternoon. On Dearborn Street, only one lane was clear and vehicles were also stuck.
As for Moore, she knows crews are working. But she is not ready to give a final grade to them just yet.
"To be determined," Moore said. "I'm not going to say nothing bad because I need y'all. We need them."
Department of Streets and Sanitation crews were set to work throughout the night and plow the side streets. They said they should get to them in the coming days, if not all on Wednesday.
