Residents upset with icy roads days after snow: 'do something about it. Damn, this is Denver'
Denver will need sun and warmer temperatures if they're ever going to clear off ice and snow from the roads.
Warming up may be the only way it gets done. Some of the side streets and sidewalks in the city are just completely iced over, leaving many people asking why.
"I get stuck a lot," said one city resident who uses a motorized wheelchair. "You got to stay home all the time because you can't go out."
Drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and others navigating city roads and sidewalks are seeing and feeling it too.
"You're [essentially] offroading to drive on my street right now," said another resident. "It's a mess everywhere."
His experience mirrors those in neighborhood after neighborhood across the city.
Calls for service with 311 show snow removal is a major concern. In just one day - the last day of 2022 - nearly 300 calls came in regarding snow and ice on roads and sidewalks.
In a statement, a city spokesperson says they are responding to those 311 calls and responded to the concerns about how the roads got to be this way.
"This was a particularly challenging storm event in that it was a wet, heavy, spring-like snow that fell at a very fast rate overnight during our coldest time of year," the spokesperson said, in part. "The ice created by this snow event is going to linger for a bit."
Longtime Denverites aren't so accepting of that idea, however. Instead, they're demanding more be done.
"Do something about it, don't just talk about it," said the resident in the motorized wheelchair. "Don't just wait until the snow is gone, do something about it. Damn, this is Denver. It's not a little town, it's a big city."
The city says that when you do call 311, be as specific as possible. Right now, the city says crews are trying to address it with a spot treatment, sending out a big plow to put some dry deicer down to provide some traction or work on removing the ice using a bigger piece of equipment called a blade.
