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December 23, 2008 3:00 PM

Too green for our own good

Seattle is one of the greenest cities in the U.S. But you can go too far with some of our anti-car, pro-fish-over-humans policy as evidenced by the off-base city policy against the use of salt on the roadways.
See Susan Kelleher's fine story explaining this over-the-top green policy.
There should be a clause somewhere in this nutty policy that says if the city is frozen under for more than a day or two, salt indeed should be applied to major streets. The city does not use salt because it is not good for Puget Sound. That's fine most years.
But as the days wear on, the city's use of sand over packed snow creates a chunky, hard-to-maneuver surface.
This is the kind of overbearing government action that turns ordinary, green-friendly yet practical people against environmental ideas.

Current conditions are a once-in-a-decade event. So here we sit, sit being the operative word, trying to get around at the peak of the Christmas shopping season. Businesses that were already struggling are getting pounded by a lack of access. Mayors are remembered fondly - or otherwise - for the way in which they handle a crisis. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a crisis.
Many major arterials have had sanding trucks put sand atop snow and ice. The effect is icy snow with sand on top. Very little of it melts. How absurd. And here comes more of it.
Persistent snowy conditions should have compelled the city to revise the policy and put some salt on the streets to melt the ice. Seattle has been locked up too long. The loss of productivity is mind-boggling.

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