Published February 1, 2011

Our experiment taught us one thing is for sure: Shoveling is a very sensitive issue.

On Friday afternoon, 24 hours after last week’s storm had passed, I asked you to report unshoveled sidewalks, hydrants and bus stops. By 6 p.m. Monday, exactly 200 pins were on the map.

Almost as soon as the project started, the response was polarized.

“People want to sit here and rat out their neighbors for everything that they do, and it makes certain people feel good about themselves,” said Steven, who did not give us his last name. “I mean, if you have a real problem with it, and they’re breaking the law, then call the police and let the police do their job.”

Was our shovel map a success? Depends how you define success.

This view was shared by other readers and journalists.

But hundreds of people participated, many of them expressing appreciation for this new tool. I read detailed descriptions of repeat offenders, errant businesses and unresponsive cities and towns. We had created an outlet for the people’s rage.

Once it was obvious this thing was taking off, we asked ourselves: What should we do with all this data? How can this project yield something positive? We discussed the idea of gathering “citizen patrols” to help out — but decided not to “get into the Robin Hood business,” not this time.

I am reaching out to cities and towns to see if our map could help aid the big dig-out.  The city of Boston already has a robust system for reporting and responding code violations. Data from the Mayor’s Hotline and the Citizens Connect app is made public.

Other municipalties aren’t so accessible. Citizen reporter Saul Tannenbaum had to file a public records request to build a map of Cambridge snow violations.

At first brush, the response from officials is tepid. Great idea, but we have enough complaints to deal with.

This project is only worth doing again — people are already asking to submit new reports — if it contributes to a greater good. Does it, can it? What do you think?

Maybe, at the end of the day, we gave people a place to vent. And maybe that’s OK.

Published February 1, 2011

Waiting for the mailman (Submitted to WBUR's Flickr group by Paul Keleher)

By the end of this week, Boston will have received almost a full Shaq of snow — more snow last month alone than all of last year. Where are we supposed to do with it?

WBUR’s Monica Brady-Myerov is working on a piece for Thursday that gets at that very issue. WBUR’s David Boeri is preparing a story about the towering salt mountains in Chelsea. Here are some of the options we’re looking into:

Dump it in the harbor. Environmentalists don’t like this, because a lot of chemicals get trapped in there. Ex-Beth Israel CEO Paul Levy (who seemed to get the idea while listening to WBUR), said the environmental hazards of trucking snow outweigh the hazards of dumping chemicals.

Dump it at Logan airport. This is what Mayor Tom Menino wants to do. The airport is one of the last places in the city with (vast) open space. The airport says no. WBUR’s Fred Thys, who attended a news conference today at Logan, said airport officials don’t want to invest the resources to escort city dump trucks all day. (It’s a security issue.)

Use flamethrowers to melt it. This was first proposed in 1948 by Boston Mayor James Michael Curley:

I am very desirous that the Institute of Technology have a competent group of engineers make an immediate study as to ways and means of removing the huge accumulation not only in Boston, but throughout the entire state, whether it be by the use of flame throwers or chemicals or otherwise, so that we may have a gradual disposal when it starts to melt rather than having disastrous floods as a consequence of its melting with great property damage and with injury to the public.

MIT responded: Um, no. “The use of any heating equipment assumes an ample supply of liquid fuels which is certainly not the case this winter,” said MIT President Karl Compton. That was 63 years ago. Should we revisit the idea?

Use snow dragons to melt it. Ah, now this is high-tech! What looks like a giant vacuum cleaner on skis, powered by biodiesel, sucks up the snow and gives it a hot bath. But it’s really, really expensive, and the city isn’t interested yet.

Use Snowzilla to blast it away. Snowzilla is a laughably monstrous snow blower used to clear the white stuff from the MBTA’s high-speed Mattapan line. It plows through snow like nobody’s business. But it guzzles 900 gallons of diesel every trip — more than a commercial jet, the Globe notes — and isn’t sustainable.

Build igloos. This is personally rewarding but time-consuming.

Truck it to a snow farm. I saved the least for last. This is what the city does now — push it around to six snow farms throughout Boston. It’s expensive, time-consuming and air-polluting. But it works. WBUR’s Adam Ragusea visited one of these awe-inspiring places last week on Radio Boston. “It’s like a big, frothy wave, like the wave at the head of a tsunami that’s just kind of frozen in time.”

I might also suggest dumping it at the old Filene’s site.

I’m sure there are ideas I missed. What are yours?

Published January 28, 2011

[googlemap title=”User-Submitted Snow Reports” height=”500″]http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&num=200&start=200&msa=0&msid=212115722427213421944.00049aead19e1845cbd8b&ll=42.354992,-71.082916&spn=0.311556,0.727158&z=11[/googlemap]

This map is in beta! Please report errors in the comments. Update, 1/31: We stopped accepting submissions at 6 p.m. There are 200 pins on the map. Update, 1/30: I’m working hard to update this map with all of your submissions. It is a technical challenge because the data comes from multiple sources. Thanks for your patience with our experiment. Update, 1/29: Added Mayor’s Hotline data.

The city of Boston is inundated with reports of un-shoveled sidewalks and other snow violations, less than 24 hours after the snow emergency ended.

“We’ve had about 2,400 complaints come in just in the month of January, which is 1,100 more complaints than we’ve ever received in our highest month in the history of code enforcement,” said Michael Mackan, the city’s chief of code enforcement.

This is where you come in. We’re mapping the problem spots, block by block. If you see an unshoveled sidewalk, inaccessible bus stop, blocked hydrant or other problem, report it.

There are four ways to report:

• Mobile: Text the word WALK to 698-66 and follow the instructions
• iPhone: Tap “Assignments” in our iPhone app.
• Twitter: Use the hash tag #BigDigOut. Include the location and a photo.
• Web: Fill out this form.

We’re looking for reports in Greater Boston where snow removal is required under local law.

Related Links:

• File a snow report
• Boston’s 2007 snow-removal ordinance (PDF)

Published January 28, 2011

Spotted on Cambridge Common while walking to work this morning. Perhaps it is a model snowme, or a snowmeless shelter?

Igloo on Cambridge Common (Andrew Phelps/WBUR)

What do you see on your morning commute? E-mail your photos to aphelps@wbur.org or tweet them and mention @andrewphelps.

Update: The power of Twitter never ceases to amaze me. Not more than an hour after I snapped the photo, the igloo builder’s wife (@sweetamandine) replied to thank me. The igloo builder is Eli Schleifer of Cambridge.

Published January 27, 2011

Used to be kids would sit around the radio, listening, praying for snow days. Then the Internet came along and took all the charm out of it.

Snow day (Colin Purrington/Flickr)

And then 16-year-old David Sukhin came along and took all the waiting out of it. He invented a way to predict snow days with wicked accuracy.

One day in sixth grade, Sukhin said, he dreamed up an algorithm that would predict the likelihood of his school district cancelling classes.

He built Snow Day Calculator, a website that lets users plug in data about their location and school district. The rest is magic.

Now Sukhin (SOO-kin) is in 11th grade, in Watchung, N.J., and he uses his own website every time a storm is coming.

“I’m always nervous, every time I read the prediction and I look at the weather myself. I’m always nervous if it’s going to be right,” he told me on the phone today.

But Sukhin said it has never been wrong for him. Ever.

Sukhin is smart, so he won’t reveal his secret formula, but he offered some insight in an e-mail:

The calculator digests hour by hour information from weather.gov and extracts what time the storm will start, the time it will end, the probability of precipitation, and the average strength (inches per hour) of the storm.

Using that information it calculates the amount of inches expected to give a raw prediction. Then, accounting for things like snow removal, salting and when schools usually begin, it adds or subtracts from the chance. The amount it subtracts is based on the value from a mathematical curve for each factor. I tried to make curves that correctly simulate how the roads are and how schools react based on these factors. After averaging all the information together, out comes the prediction.

The user is also asked enter subjective data, such as a school district’s leniency and a numerical rating for the storm’s “hype.” But those numbers are really meant to nudge a borderline result, he said.

Sukhin said he spends a lot of his free time during winter reading user feedback and tweaking the interface. But the formula hasn’t changed since sixth grade.

Oh, and I was able to reach Sukhin at home because it’s a snow day for him, too. Central New Jersey got a foot of snow last night. And yes, his calculator was right.

Related Links:

• Sukhin’s Snow Day Calculator