Editorial #1- Lessons in the snow

Summary- This editorial discusses the effects the recent blizzard had on the Washington area. For the most part the blizzard was not to catastrophic, the were only a few deaths, and the homeless and the sick were given special attention. There were certain areas in which D.C. could have been better prepared however. One of these areas was the metro system. The author argues that when the metro closes the federal government also has to close, and although the amount of snow we got poses major problems for metro, we should have some kind of plan of how to solve the problem. Also the author argued that the federal government should do more to help the metro in this situation seeing as how tens of millions of dollars in forgone productivity are lost everyday the federal government is closed. Another issue addressed in the article was whether or not jurisdictions should impose alternate parking areas and sidewalks so that there is somewhere we can put the snow when we get as much as we did in this last blizzard.

My opinion- I would have to agree that our area did a pretty good job of controlling the situation during the blizzard of 2010. Sure there were some roads that were in pretty bad shape for a few days, but in the large scheme of things it was made sure that people in special situations such as the homeless were safe, and roads were cleared enough for emergency vehicles to get around pretty quickly considering how much snow we got. I also agree with what the author said about the metro. Poor metro has had quite a bad rap lately, but I think their controlling their snow conditions is just one more aspect they need to improve. As for the talk about imposing new side walks, parking areas, etc., I think it is a good idea in theory, but I;m just not sure it's where our money should be going right now. As we all know the economy isn't exactly in the greatest shape ever, and I think there are more pressing issues that deserve attention and funding over this jurisdiction.